Topic: Arkham City has finally arrived.

[Shorty McNostril]

Street date was broken 2 days early. As soon as the Missus got home I jumped in the car and picked it up. So far it is awesome. About 3 hours in. If you liked Asylum you will like this one.

For some reason XBox Live wont accept my Robin code. Says its invalid. Oh well. Worry about that later.

What do you think of this game?

[Chozo Ghost]

I'll wait for the Wii U version.

[Shaymin]

I'll wait for the GOTY edition to be $20.

[broodwars]

I'm really looking forward to playing this tomorrow with my Batman: The Animated Series skin.  This is rapidly looking like it'll probably be my Game of the Year.

And Xbox LIVE says your code is invalid because you got the game early.  Microsoft probably won't have the valid code list up on their servers until the game is actually released.  This same thing happened 2 years ago with the Limited Edition DLC codes for Arkham Asylum as well, where you couldn't use your codes after the Midnight Launch until later in the day during normal business hours.

[Chozo Ghost]

I'll wait for the GOTY edition to be $20.

LOL

That too. I waited on buying Red Dead Redemption because I figured eventually there was going to be a GOTY edition of it, and a few days ago I was right. If you don't mind waiting a year or so on games you can save a lot of money. Since there are so many games out there and more coming out all the time there's really no reason you have to buy every game on day one at $60 unless you are impatient.

[Shorty McNostril]

I'm really looking forward to playing this tomorrow with my Batman: The Animated Series skin.  This is rapidly looking like it'll probably be my Game of the Year.

And Xbox LIVE says your code is invalid because you got the game early.  Microsoft probably won't have the valid code list up on their servers until the game is actually released.  This same thing happened 2 years ago with the Limited Edition DLC codes for Arkham Asylum as well, where you couldn't use your codes after the Midnight Launch until later in the day during normal business hours.

But the Catwoman and other couple of Batman skins worked fine. Just the Robin one that is not working.

[broodwars]

I'm really looking forward to playing this tomorrow with my Batman: The Animated Series skin.  This is rapidly looking like it'll probably be my Game of the Year.

And Xbox LIVE says your code is invalid because you got the game early.  Microsoft probably won't have the valid code list up on their servers until the game is actually released.  This same thing happened 2 years ago with the Limited Edition DLC codes for Arkham Asylum as well, where you couldn't use your codes after the Midnight Launch until later in the day during normal business hours.

But the Catwoman and other couple of Batman skins worked fine. Just the Robin one that is not working.

Once again, you got the game before its official street date.  Some codes were bound to not be up yet.  Worry about that when the game is officially out in your region and the code doesn't work.

[Shorty McNostril]

Fair enough i suppose. More this afternoon!

[Ceric]

I'm really looking forward to playing this tomorrow with my Batman: The Animated Series skin.
...

That's Awesome.

[Morari]

I'll wait for the GOTY edition to be $20.

Seriously. The first game was only about 8 hours long and super easy. No way I'm paying full price for a sequel.

[broodwars]

I'll wait for the GOTY edition to be $20.

Seriously. The first game was only about 8 hours long and super easy. No way I'm paying full price for a sequel.

Arkham Asylum was only that short if you didn't bother to do much exploration for the collectibles.  I probably put a good 12-15 hours into each of my 3 playthroughs of that game (and I'd easily replay it more if I had the time), and you really can't argue with the quality of the game.  I'd say I more than got my money's worth out of the first game having paid full price, and I'm sure that'll be just as true with Arkham City.

[Stogi]

I'm really looking forward to playing this tomorrow with my Batman: The Animated Series skin.  This is rapidly looking like it'll probably be my Game of the Year.

That's a little hasty isn't it? LOZ does finally come out this year.

[Morari]

I'll wait for the GOTY edition to be $20.

Seriously. The first game was only about 8 hours long and super easy. No way I'm paying full price for a sequel.

Arkham Asylum was only that short if you didn't bother to do much exploration for the collectibles.  I probably put a good 12-15 hours into each of my 3 playthroughs of that game (and I'd easily replay it more if I had the time), and you really can't argue with the quality of the game.  I'd say I more than got my money's worth out of the first game having paid full price, and I'm sure that'll be just as true with Arkham City.

As I recall, I had gathered up the majority of the collectibles. Outside of a few of the Riddler's challenges. Then again, there wasn't really a lot of exploration ot be done. The game was fairly linear, despite having the illusion of an open world. Finding the collectibles simply meant staying in Detective Mode.

The game was high quality. It looked good and played well. That said, it was insanely short and ridiculously easy. Multiple playthroughs not withstanding, it wasn't worth $60, at all (what game is?). The sequel very well may be larger and longer, but that's not a risk I'm willing to take. I'll get it on Steam when it's $20.

I'm really looking forward to playing this tomorrow with my Batman: The Animated Series skin.  This is rapidly looking like it'll probably be my Game of the Year.

That's a little hasty isn't it? LOZ does finally come out this year.

Skyrim.

[broodwars]

I'm really looking forward to playing this tomorrow with my Batman: The Animated Series skin.  This is rapidly looking like it'll probably be my Game of the Year.

That's a little hasty isn't it? LOZ does finally come out this year.

I'm ignoring Zelda until probably sometime next year.  NoA's not getting my money for it.  So for the moment, the only game I think that could dethrone Batman when it comes to my interests is Uncharted 3.  But considering that I thought Arkham Asylum was better than Uncharted 2 back in 2009, I don't see the sequels performing any differently.

[broodwars]

Well, for those wondering when you can use the different character skins, unfortunately it looks like you have to first beat the game on Normal or Hard.  Then on New Game +, you can use your character skins outside of the Challenge Rooms.  Pity...I was really looking forward to tearing through the game as B:TAS Batman and Catwoman.

[Stogi]

Hmmm....I heard Uncharted 3 will only take 8-9 hours to compete. I love the series, but that's pretty weak.

[Ceric]

That reminds me I need to pick up the Uncharted 2 pack that has 1 and 2 for cheap.

[Chozo Ghost]

I'm really looking forward to playing this tomorrow with my Batman: The Animated Series skin.  This is rapidly looking like it'll probably be my Game of the Year.

That's a little hasty isn't it? LOZ does finally come out this year.

I noticed for some reason there are multiple GOTYs in any given year. It doesn't make sense, but there is.

[Stogi]

It should. They're split into genres. Arkham Asylum, Uncharted, and LOZ are all Action/adventure.

[Shorty McNostril]

Well, for those wondering when you can use the different character skins, unfortunately it looks like you have to first beat the game on Normal or Hard.  Then on New Game +, you can use your character skins outside of the Challenge Rooms.  Pity...I was really looking forward to tearing through the game as B:TAS Batman and Catwoman.

I haven't even looked at using the other skins yet so I can't confirm that.   But Catwoman works differently to the other skins.  She has her own playable sections throughout the story. 

[broodwars]

I have beaten the main campaign with 4 of the 6 Riddler hostages rescued and all sidequests completed but the ones for stopping assaults and stopping the face-stealing serial killer.

That ending and final boss sequence...wow.  Rocksteady really threw down the gauntlet to make up for that horrible Titan Joker fight at the end of Arkham Asylum.  I have my doubts that the events of this ending are going to stick because there's just too many "WTF moments", but well done, Rocksteady.

Perhaps on the downside, the sidequest with Azrael seems to heavily indicate there's a 3rd Arkham game coming in the next few years.  C'mon, guys...I can do without the sequel-baiting.

Oddly enough, unlike Arkham Asylum (where the Predator sections got increasingly harder and forced you to be more creative with your knock-outs), the Predator sections in Arkham City never really do get very challenging.  You can use the gargoyles as much as you want, and you have more than enough toys to just decimate the enemy ranks.

Overall, it's definitely a great game, but I think some of the villains and several of the sidequests are very underdeveloped.  It took me a while to warm up to the game as much as I thought I would, but Rocksteady definitely stepped up their game with this one.

[KDR_11k]

I'll probably get it on the PC once that version arrives. I'm kinda opposed to paying more for a game when a cheaper version is available and the PC version is going to be cheaper.

[broodwars]

With the main game done, I've been roaming around collecting all the Riddler trophies and solving the Riddles.  I only have two Riddler collectables left to go: a frustrating Question Mark puzzle (where you have to line up the dot with the stem) over by the casino, and the last Tyger surveillance station needs to be hacked.  I've found the Question Mark's dot on a shed door I can retract across from the Casino, but I can't find the stem it's supposed to go to.  Hmmm...

Catwoman's a frustrating character to explore as if you haven't already cleared the way as Batman, especially because she has no way to blow up walls.  I still have around a dozen or her Riddler trophies to deal with as well.  On the upside, when you select Batman's Animated Series skin, the game automatically sets Catwoman to her Batman: TAS variant, and it looks quite nice.   

In the original Arkham Asylum, there was a trophy that was a real pain in the ass to unlock called "Perfect Freeflow".  It required you to execute a flawless combo that incorporated every move Batman could do, and...somehow...I managed to do it in that game.  When I saw that same trophy pop up in Arkham City's trophy list as "Perfect Freelow 2.0", I didn't think I had it in me to go through that B.S. again and that it would be the trophy that thwart my ambitions to Platinum the game.  I have, however, now obtained that trophy in Arkham City, and I hope if there is an Arkham 3 to never see a "Perfect Freeflow 3.0".  I still can't believe that's only a Bronze trophy, as it's one of the hardest in the game.

Sheesh, I don't know how many more of these ludicrously-tricky trophy challenges I have left in me.

[broodwars]

A fair warning to anyone thinking of messing with their PS3/360 clock to get the Calendar Man trophy/achievement for visiting him on a certain holiday every month of the year: backup your save file before doing this, and ONLY move the clock forwards when you mess with it.  The reason for this is because when you revert your clock back to the actual date, the game will call your save data corrupt upon trying to load it.  I used the PSN Cloud Save feature for this on PS3.

[Sundoulos]

I had purchased Arkham Asylum over Steam during the sale last July, but I hadn't gotten around to playing it because I was busy with other stuff.  All the Batman hype prompted me to drop everything and try it.   

Asylum really surprised me because when I saw it back in 2009, I found the character designs kind of off-putting.  Even though I was a fan of the 90's animated series, the artwork wasn't doing it for me and I couldn't get interested in it even with involvement of Bruce Timm, Mark Hamill, and Kevin Conroy.  Now that I've played the game, I can say that I was totally wrong!  It works, and it does sort of seem like it could take place in the same universe.   I've loved every minute of it.

I'm nearly done with the campaign, and I can't wait to try Arkham Asylum, especially since it's getting such high praise.

I have to wait until the PC version of this comes out to play it, but I'm definitely looking forward to it.  Since they were offering a 20% discount via Steam (for those who had purchased Arkham Asylum in the past)  over the weekend, I decided to preorder.