K&AJones

hey

i'm looking for a game to tie me over in August and honestly Batman :AA was never on my list to try let alone buy. But after reading all the reviews I decided to try the demo last night. I came away far more impressed than I anticipated.

I see over on Amazon they have the "Game of the Year" addition with 4 maps and 3D glasses. I cannot find much on this version and much on if the 3D Glasses actually work or suck. I've got a $27 credit on Amazon and like I said the demo was actually fun. I also played the demo of The Force Unleased II and I liked it to. Not saying I'll get the upcoming Arkham City right away but does this tie in storyline wise? Thanks for the input.

SteelgearX

It's a great game, and I do believe the story continues into the sequel. Go for it. You won't regret it.

TheKing

If you're trying to choose between Arkham Asylum and Force Unleashed II, that decision is really a no-brainer. Arkham Asylum blows Force Unleashed II out of the water. FUII was too short, too repetitive, and was not a great follow-up to the original Force Unleashed. If you want to play that series, play the original first.

As for Arkham Asylum, what more can be said about it? It's just a great, fun, involving game. The 3D is a gimmick in the GOTY, and I wouldn't really bother with it. But the rest of the game is well worth it. The game directly ties into the sequel, even to the point there's an Easter Egg in the Asylum that gives you a small glimpse at Arkham City. Not a preview or anything, more the idea that they had an idea where the series was going even before the first game was done.

DthRdrX

AA is one of the best games I've ever played. The 3d version for the consoles is better than standard red/blue anaglyph. The PC version can be played with Nvidia 3D equipment which is even better.

mhg83

Isn't GOTY dlc already available free on psn and xbox live? If you're not interested in 3-d i'd go with the regular edition if the dlc is available free already.

K&AJones

Since you mentioned it I went and checked on this. It's showing (3) Map Packs are free while one is 240 Points. But the DL game is still $30.00. I can pick up the GOTY version w/Four Map Pks and 3D off Amazon for $28.00.

Last night I played with a friend (GOW Horde) who is a fanatic of Halo, GOW and Battlefield series. He just finished it not long ago and even said it's worth getting.

Guru Askew

By not tying this into any specific incarnation of "Batman" with the usual deadlines that come along with such a thing (having the game on shelves at the same time as a movie, etc.) they actually managed to make a great game out of this.

That said, I had the single most frustrating video game experience with this game ever. I played it on the hardest difficulty and obtained every secret collectible pretty much as soon as it was available via the walkthrough so I'd actually complete the game with the final boss battle. I do this on any game with collectibles so I can reap the benefits of them in the game as opposed to maxing out my stats/abilities and then having nothing but a bunch of random thugs to use them on.

So I'm at the final boss battle and again, I'm playing on hard, and I give it a few tries and its getting late so I turn the game off for the night. I load it up the next night and? Nothing. No save file. Not a corrupted save file, nothing. Upon investigating the memory I found that the entire Batman:AA folder was just gone from my Xbox. You may think I'm exaggerating but if you look at my gamercard (same as my username here without the space between) you'll see exactly what it was: a list of achievements detailing a very thorough playthrough with an abrupt stop short of actually finishing the main campaign.

Needless to say I was crushed. This was probably 3 or 4 months ago (it was during that Halo: Reach beta, I don't know if that had anything to do with it) and I didn't think I'd ever be ready to play through all that again but I think I'm going to as soon as Microsoft rolls out their cloud-storage option so I have yet another way to obsessively cover my ass. I won't play through it until I can save to my hard drive, my USB drive and cloud storage.

MoviePage

That's really strange, but I will say that it goes much faster on a second playthrough once you know what you're doing, even with picking up all the collectibles. I recently finished my third playthrough of the game.

glassdragon

Batman AA is an amazing game, FU2 not so much. Get Batman AA, that is my opinion, you won't be sorry. And the 3d is just the 3d red/cyan glasses that they have had for a very long time and I didn't like them, wasn't that impressed and don't like playing the game in a shade of red/blue.

K&AJones

Well it's a done deal. Just placed the order on Amazon for the GOTY edition. As much as I like the Star Wars games ( or at least the demos) from all the input and reviews this is a good choice.

Just what are the four map packs? Are they part of the storyline or seperate challenges and do you need to do them in a certain order?

TheKing

The challenge maps are part of the second portion of the Arkham Asylum game. There's a main storyline, and then there are the predator and freeflow challenges. They're designed to help you work on your fighting skills and using stealth methods. I'd say they help you in the main game, but the truth is that some of the challenges are so hard that you need to play the rest of the game to beat them. To get 100% completion in the game, as well as get all the trophies/achievements, you have to complete them all.

The DLC maps are just extra challenges, not really needed for anything, but if you have fun with the others, they might be of some interest.

K&AJones

Well thanks to all for the input and time answering qestions. If I get hooked on this game it's one more added to the already large list for this year...

GOW3, Dead Island, Battlefield 3, Rage, COD:MW3

K&AJones

I've got a question about some parts I'm seeing in the game. Some areas have some shield in the doorway but there maybe some item in there. Same with some vents where they're unreachable but a trophy maybe in there.

Without giving away too much I'm returning back in some of these levels with the ability to go thru the doorway or access the vent? I'm just at the 10% level right now

OldBoy

as you progress through the game you get the weapons/gadgets to access those "unreachable" areas so that by the end you are able to get all the ? and trophies.

that got a little frustrating when you think you can reach something, but just can't because you don't have the unique gadget to get there. but, once you get it and do the backtracking, by the end it is SO worth it, especially getting the last ? and figuring out the final puzzle.

just be patient and all will reveal itself.

K&AJones

Thank you there Mr Scott for the insight.

K&AJones

I forgot to ask this question. In the main menu it's showing my progress per %. Is this the overall game including the other modes or just the main storyline?

OldBoy

it includes the other modes (predator and combat challenges). i think most you get with just story line (including riddler challenges and trophies) is like 80-85%, though i may be slightly off.

DthRdrX

I think I got 84% with the storyline. It's somewhere in that range.

K&AJones

i'm about 37%. So far really liking it. Good a mix of detective, combat, stealth and moving around. Didn't care for the 'Scarecrow' part since I'm not good in that side-to-side moving. Nice visual part though. Some of the Medical areas remind me of Bioshock or has that look. haven't tried or done any of theextras or challenges yet.

K&AJones

Ok another question ...can I go back "after" finishing the storyline of the game and look for the "riddles" or do I have to do that while in the story of the game?

Obi-Wanma

Yes, you can go back and finish the riddler challenges after you finish the storyline.

Solid Snake

yeah, just boot up the same save file.

K&AJones

Ok...I'm sort of stuck on something and not sure what to do. It's the Riddler's Challenge on some areas where in Detective Mode I see a "?" but no matter what I do I'm not solving a thing. Some are on walls and some even on the ground outside. Sometimes it'll say...Not aligned right or slighlty obscure or partially detected or something like that. How do you solve these....stand in a certain place or at a certain distance?

The Dude

Yup. Some of those are literal question marks that are in the background. You've got to be in a certain spot, line the top and bottom up and then snap a picture of it. Others are pictures of bad guys that you need to get, or riddler trophies, or some are the little scarab 'Chronicle of Arkham' chronicles.

If you go to your map screen, one of the tabs is 'Riddler Challenges' and you can at least read what the Riddler says to you about the challenge. You won't be able to do all of them until you have most of the equipment, unfortunately.

DJLinus

I got this from today since it's finally in my price range (just under $20 new from Amazon) and I noticed it didn't include the 3D glasses. Looking at the cover, under the big "3D" is says "compatible glasses not included", which is different than the cover shown on Amazon. Weird. I actually didn't really care about playing in 3D, so it's no big loss and not worth returning. Did I get sold a rental copy or something?

I played for a couple of hours tonight and am really enjoying it. Batman being on the left side of the screen when walking took a little getting used to, though. I'll be immersing myself in the game for the next month. Look out, Arkham City, if all goes according to schedule, I'll be playing you in 2013!