Batman: Arkham City

[ToonFaithful]

New Riddler trailer out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF_QPP41kos 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The first game was a great portrayal of how good the exploration, action, and stealth gameplay elements could blend together to make a great Batman game. The game does get more praise than it deserves, though, as it only really skimmed its true potential by having a relatively small area that you were confined to and gameplay mechanics that were fairly limited once you played through most of the game. It also has poor replay value, but that said the experience of playing through it even once is undeniably a great one.

Arkham City looks to fully explore the potential that the first game hadn't quite fulfilled, with a much bigger city area to explore and seemingly improved combat and stealth mechanics that allow for some added depth. I also hope that the game supports greater replay value than the first game, and then it really will be one of the best games of this generation. Either way, though, I'm definitely picking up this game and playing it, so I greatly look forward to its release.

[ToonFaithful]

BRING ON THE TRAILERS!!!!!!!! Batman: Arkham City Penguin trailer is a go! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g39nrY7Dks

With a surprise appearance!!!

@Ensatsu-ken Yeah, I beat the game on regular mode when I had it for the 360 and then wanted to challenge myself so I attempted hard mode. Replaying it was a bore, not to mention the enemies kept beating me up. More riddler clues and easter eggs for the next game, but it was a bit boring. I'll admit that.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Now I'm waiting for them to troll us and make a skin of the Schumacher-era Batman.

[Avaitor]

Whoa, TAS and Beyond skin? Gotta try those out.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Beyond skin doesn't look right, IMO. It should be a reskin of the TAS one.

I'd kill for an unlockable New Game+ featuring TB&TB Batman. Changed dialogue and all.

[Foggle]

TAS skin is freakin' sweet!

[ToonFaithful]

Heh, when I look at Beyond Batman's face, it reminds me of Black Panther a bit. Skins look great, just want to see the challenge maps. BTW, the BTAS skin doesn't look to fit in with the game's atmosphere.

Batman Earth-One looks awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WANTS THIS GAME NOW.   

As much as I like Riddler, I hope he's not the "Scarecrow" of this game. The use of Mr. Crane in the last game was phenomenal and surprising. When I opened up those two body bags, shivers went up my spine so I hope Rocksteady uses a villain to their fullest potential. Give us Mr. Freeze, please!

ALL OF THE SKINS CURRENTLY:


The Dark Knight:

[ToonFaithful]

If you've ever played Arkham Asylum, you would hear this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yccUv9X1rbo

Gives me goosebumps. And it didn't help when you finish a Scarecrow mission and the chime plays. Really freaky.

[ToonFaithful]

Yes! Yes! Yes!!! My favorite villain is in Arkham City! Mr. Freeze! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXqj0rpyD2c

[Foggle]

Awesome! All the trailers I've seen are making me doubt that any Batman game will ever be able to top this one!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just got Arkham City as a birthday gift today!

The shitty thing is that I probably won't even get to start playing it until next weekend, but at least I will get to play it, so that certainly counts for something.

[Foggle]

Nice, dude! And happy birthday!

Can't wait to hear your opinion on it, especially since you love Arkham Asylum as much as I do. Really curious as to how Catwoman's gameplay segments feel. Some reviewers apparently thought they were a brilliant change of pace and tons of fun while others thought they were the equivalent of Ninja Gaiden Sigma's Rachel missions. Really hoping it's the former.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, I decided to play the beginning of the game since I won't get another chance to try it out until maybe next weekend, but so far I've only played through one segment as Catwoman and it wasn't nearly enough to really experiment with her differences from Batman (her core combat works the same way and all I played was a combat section for her, so far). What'll be interesting is to see how her stealth skills work, since she seems like the type of character who would primarily use stealth, anyways.

I've spent over 2 hours playing the game so far and barely made any progress in the main story, since I've spent most of that time wandering around the city beating the shit out of thugs and collecting riddler trophies. The game basically plays pretty much the same as as Arkham Asylum but on a MUCH bigger game map, so there's a ton of room for exploration and a shit-ton of easter-eggs strewn about the game. I can easily see this game lasting me more than twice as long as the first game (though, the first game was kind of on the short time) if I pursue more than just the main story-line stuff.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I got a bit more time to play as Catwoman in the story mode, now. Surprisingly I find stealth to be a bit harder with her, but that may be because I'm not used to her use of gadgets, as she doesn't have as many as Batman does, and her version of detective mode is less over-powered than Batman's. She also traverses the evironment a bit differently than Batman and doesn't have the glide feature, so she travels a bit slower. Still, I haven't experimented with her enough to see the full extent of her abilities, so I can't properly judge her overall quality as a character just yet.