Batman: Arkham Origins

[The Laughing Fish]

I finished playing story mode on PC a few days ago.

I personally enjoyed playing this game as much as I enjoyed playing the other two, and even go far as saying gameplay-wise it is up there with Arkham City. Of course, it helps if the gameplay does borrow heavily from City too. Although Origins does invent new ideas i.e. replaying crime scene footage to work out key evidence and electric shock gloves, which might have been inspired by the Wii U's Armored Edition.

That being said, the game's glitches does hurt it. For example, I'm nearly finished with this side-mission, yet the map insists that I have one more item to collect in order for me to complete the whole mission. The problem? I have already collected that item, but the game doesn't remember it. So unless a patch comes soon and fixes that problem, I can't complete that side-mission. That's nothing compared to most complaints I heard on the internet; some people couldn't even complete the game at all because of unfinished levels that hadn't loaded properly, and in some unfortunate cases people couldn't even play the game at all. It wouldn't surprise me that these glitches may have contributed to the less-than-glowing reviews. Apart from that problem with the side-mission, I haven't had too many glitches thankfully.

I have the Deathstroke DLC, which came with my PC copy for free. It's okay, but the character's movements and mechanisms are a little too identical to Arkham City's Robin for my liking.

Despite this, none of this takes away my enjoyment from the game. Favourite moments would be (mild spoilers below):

• Investigating all the crime scene investigations using instant replay.
• Playing as the Joker as you fight a stand-up comedy audience, albeit for a short period of time.
• Fighting Bane as a boss - a complete pain in the ass and totally complicated unlike the way he was in Arkham Asylum.
• In fact, I thought the improving boss fights in Arkham City continue on here as well. Deathstroke was fun but is in the game a lot less than I thought.
• Infiltrating the GCPD, from interrogating that crook to fighting corrupt cops lead by Branden.
• Flying around Gotham City - it felt more complete and satisfying than in Arkham City.
• Alfred fearing for Bruce's life in the Batcave, but Bruce stands his ground.

The only negatives I have are the glitches that I mentioned, the dialogue isn't as memorable as the first two games (except for Alfred's), and that there aren't any civilians in the streets. It does feel like that Gotham is still a police state. Nonetheless, if most people enjoyed City, I'd say they would enjoy this one too, bugs-free of course. Game developers should really delay the release of their products and get rid of these problems the first time though.

[Azrael]

Old news (like that Kevin Conroy quote), but something to look forward to. The real Arkham 3.

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/525062/20131126/batman-arkham-origins-sequel-game-thrones-mass.htm

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/527895/20131206/batman-arkham-origins-injustice-gods-ios.htm

[The Laughing Fish]

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the break.

It looks like a new story mode will be released as a DLC - hinting Mr. Freeze.



Source: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/01/everything-freezes-in-batman-arkham-origins-story-dlc/

[The Dark Knight]

Seen this before but it's still hilarious:

[The Laughing Fish]

Seen this before but it's still hilarious:

This is Christopher Nolan's legacy he left behind to the Batman franchise...makes Clooney look great in comparison. 

[The Laughing Fish]

So, did anyone else get to play the Cold, Cold Heart DLC for Arkham Origins?

It's heavily inspired by the BTAS Heart of Ice of course, since we're introduced to Mr. Freeze for the first time. Bruce Wayne holds a ceremony for Ferris Boyle at his mansion, until Freeze ambushes the place and kidnaps Boyle. There's a cool moment where you need to make Bruce fight Freeze's henchmen before entering the Batcave and change into Batman, and you must rescue Alfred, Vicki Vale and other hostages before returning to Gotham.

Penguin is revealed to be working with Freeze, but he ends up trying to double cross him instead - until Freeze gets a hold of him. Batman investigates the connection between Freeze and Boyle further and found out that Boyle had betrayed a promise he made to Freeze to help cure his wife from his coma which lead to Freeze becoming what he is today.

The boss battle with Freeze in the end is similar to the Arkham City fight at the abandoned GCPD HQ...except it's crawling with henchmen too. Not to mention that you have to throw batarangs at this cryo-generators before you get to confront Freeze head on. It's tricky, but not impossible.

It's only forty five minutes long to finish, but it's worth it if you've got spare time to waste.

[The Dark Knight]

Yes, it's probably the best DLC of the Arkham series. Although the Ras Al Ghul and Mr Freeze DLCs for Arkham Knight are also high quality. But I find myself preferring Cold, Cold Heart because we get to play inside Wayne Manor, the Batcave and greater Gotham. Plus, we get the ice suit. It's a solid little episode.

Honestly, Arkham Origins is my favourite Arkham game.

[The Laughing Fish]

Yes, it's probably the best DLC of the Arkham series. Although the Ras Al Ghul and Mr Freeze DLCs for Arkham Knight are also high quality. But I find myself preferring Cold, Cold Heart because we get to play inside Wayne Manor, the Batcave and greater Gotham. Plus, we get the ice suit. It's a solid little episode.

Honestly, Arkham Origins is my favourite Arkham game.

I still haven't played Arkham Knight yet.

But I have played Arkham Origins: Blackgate.

I value AO and AC as my joint-favourite Arkham game. I understand the complaints about AO is a cut and paste game from City because it has near identical gameplay and background environment, but AO has minor differences that makes it equally enjoyable for me.

AO has this double/triple counter move which requires you to block on time and with precision, which makes the Deathstroke boss fight even more challenging.

The sidequest missions are more interesting to me because we're given more to do, e.g. solving the Cyrus Pinkney case, investigating Anarky's agenda, entering deeper into Mad Hatter's twisted Alice in Wonderland world on the way to saving a hostage, retrieving data packs as we see the Riddler's origin story and so on.

And of course, you get to play as Joker for a brief period of time as he beats up the entire audience at a comedy club! Not to mention that you get play the Killing Joke/chemical waste origin.

My only complaints are that I would've preferred that AC's extra-accelerating grapple gun didn't appear as it would've maintained continuity better. And that flash grenade would've been useful instead of making it a waste of time to collect before entering CCPD HQ.

As much as people get tired of seeing the Joker in these games, I think this game is better written for introducing him for the first time as he deceives everyone in trying take over Gotham territory. You could see how Batman was disturbed by meeting the Joker the first time, and that ominous feeling would often repeat for the rest of his life. And the tension between Batman and Alfred during the latter stages of the game made for great drama. Alfred fearing for Bruce's life and initially believes that his crusade is foolish, but he knows that he can guide Bruce carefully during dire situations, i.e. convincing Bruce that he must serve Gotham's best interests in stopping Protocol 10 ahead of Talia's rescue during AC.

I enjoyed playing Cold, Cold Heart, but I think Harley Quinn's Revenge is better. Mainly because playing Robin is a novelty.

[The Laughing Fish]

Looking back at the post-credit scene of Amanda Waller meeting Deathstroke at Blackgate Penitentiary makes me lament over the alternative Suicide Squad game that never came to fruition. It couldn't have been any worse than Kill the Justice League.

Maybe the team roster could've consisted Deathstroke, Deadshot, Killer Croc, Black Tiger (who appeared as a boss in the Arkham Origins: Blackgate game), and maybe Copperhead, Captain Boomerang and Rick Flag. I'd include Harley Quinn, but if the planned game was going to take place sometime after Origins then maybe it wouldn't have made sense in the timeline because she hadn't been victimised and transformed by the Joker yet. Nonetheless, the characters I mentioned served as a decent team.

Instead of having the team fight superpowered targets, just have it as a straightforward espionage type of game, in the style of Splinter Cell. If the scope of an open world is too hard for these characters, then why not have it as a linear game with four chapters each for every Squad member? Whatever ideas one can come up with, surely they're much better than whatever that hideous cash grab came out this month.