[The video game thread]

Post by **Warcry** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 4:34 am

Toys'R'Us had a big sale on everything Batman and happened to have Arkham City in stock in their video game department, so I picked it up. It's just as much fun as the first one, but the main story seems a bit shorter because I think I'm about half-way done already. I'm not sure if the different side-quests make up for that or not, yet.

I do think the same suffers a bit from villain overload, though. The first one featured the Joker, the Riddler, Harley, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow and Killer Croc a lot, with cameos from Bane, Zsasz and...uh, Scarface, if he counts. Arkham City features most of those (if not all...I haven't seen Scarecrow or Scarface yet) and also adds Two-Face, Calendar Man, Deadshot, Hugo Strange, the Penguin, Mr. Freeze and apparently Solomon Grundy, Clayface and a few others later on? It reminds me a bit of the 80s and 90s Batman films, where the producers kept trying to one-up each other by adding more and more villains and supporting characters to the cast and giving less and less face-time to each one. So far it just about works, but I'm worried that a lot of these guys are going to have their stories rushed through a bit in the end.

Also, "realistic" or not I still think the progressive damage to Batman's costume as the game goes on is a stupid idea. He's the freaking Batman, he's not going to wear easily-damaged clothing that serves to alert the bad guys to how much of a beating he's taken in any given night. It takes away from the character's mystique if he can't carry himself with an outward air of seeming invulnerability.

But bitching aside it's a fun game.

angloconvoy · Post by **angloconvoy** » Wed Aug 01, 2012 7:25 am

Warcry wrote: Also, "realistic" or not I still think the progressive damage to Batman's costume as the game goes on is a stupid idea. He's the freaking Batman, he's not going to wear easily-damaged clothing that serves to alert the bad guys to how much of a beating he's taken in any given night. It takes away from the character's mystique if he can't carry himself with an outward air of seeming invulnerability.

Got to disagree with this one. Haven't played City Yet but Asylum had the same, as do many Batman comics. It's a fairly common device that serves the duel purpose of highlighting that Batman is up against a really tough foe or foes (in Knightfall Bane ripped his Batsuit to shreds) and of reminding the reader/player that underneath all the seemingly invunerability, he's really just a batshit crazy bloke in fetish gear.

Notabot · Post by **Notabot** » Wed Aug 01, 2012 3:14 pm

I picked up Need for Speed: The Run for $5 the other day, and turns out it's a pretty fun game. It's my first "realistic" racing game. I liked the Gran Turismo games I had for the PS2, but it got to be a little bit of an overload for me with all the cars they had available. This one has real world cars, pretty realistic racing action, and a good selection of cars without having to scroll through 500 different models to find one with a 3 MPH better top speed. And, for five bucks, you can't go wrong.

Post by **Warcry** » Wed Aug 01, 2012 4:01 pm

angloconvoy wrote:Got to disagree with this one. Haven't played City Yet but Asylum had the same, as do many Batman comics. It's a fairly common device that serves the duel purpose of highlighting that Batman is up against a really tough foe or foes (in Knightfall Bane ripped his Batsuit to shreds) and of reminding the reader/player that underneath all the seemingly invunerability, he's really just a batshit crazy bloke in fetish gear.

Oh, I understand the rationale behind it. That doesn't change the fact that it's overdone, or that (IMO, obviously) it's a bad idea that undermines the whole point of him dressing up like a bat to start with. It's hard to be a force of nature that strikes fear into the heart of criminals everywhere when you're running around half-naked because your costume tears so easily, or to be a long-term professional crime-fighter when your costume seemingly provides less protection than a t-shirt and jeans would. The whole thing is especially weird when you consider that with all the suit upgrades you can install over the course of the game, the batsuit in the Arkham games is evidently a high-tech suit of armour that should be very, very resistant to the sort of damage it's showing. He's not just wearing spandex tights like Batman did in the 60s.

But like you say, it's an artistic choice. Honestly, this game and Arkham Asylum try way too hard to be gritty and adult and it shows the most in the character designs. The female characters are ridiculously slutty, other characters (the Penguin and the circus-freak twins) are gruesome for the sake of being gruesome, Batman is a perfect man's man whose suit gets damaged just to show off how tough and manly he is, etc, etc. It gives the whole thing a Frank Miller-esque air of unintentional self-parody, and juxtaposed with voice acting that could (and in some cases did) come straight out of TAS it's more than a little bit weird.

I actually find the whole thing really funny, and more than once I've burst out laughing whenever the next display of over-the-top grimdark seriousness pops up. I'm pretty sure the game designers wanted me to take it a lot more seriously than that, but I just can't. Oh, well...fun is fun even if I'm not enjoying the game the way I'm "supposed" to.

Clogs · Post by **Clogs** » Wed Aug 01, 2012 8:43 pm

Money put down for:

Fall of Cybertron PS3
Halo 4
Assassins Revenge 4 PS3

I got a cheap Sudoku for my PSP; the Scraplets got all of the above.

I think I might be doing something wrong here...

Notabot · Post by **Notabot** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 3:53 pm

It looks like Best Buy has a coupon to get $35 off Skyward Sword, bringing it down to $15! I'm definitely getting that this week if it's still available. I'm also eyeballing Rayman Origins. Looks fun, and most of the reviews I've read said it's a great game that somehow got overlooked by almost everyone. We'll see about that...

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Aug 11, 2012 8:07 am

I recently had a PS Vita and Uncharted: Golden Abyss come in the mail.

The PS3 KILLeR · Post by **The PS3 KILLeR** » Sat Aug 11, 2012 10:34 am

Preordered Fall of Cybertron 360 at gamestop to get that sweet G1 Prime skin. What sold me was it wasnt just for his robot mode its his truck mode as well. And the trailer that shows it off where they re-created that scene from the orginal movie, just EPIC!!! Cant wait, ill be playing the demo with my buds till its time to go pick up my copy.

borg72 · Post by **borg72** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 8:49 pm

been perusing some demos on steam to discover that both Painkiller and Quake 2 will run on windows 7, so I'm weighing up which of the 'total bundles' to get. I still find it irritating that most of the old games I loved (sacred, simcity 4, plenty more besides) won't work on my 'new' laptop, so it's good to find some that do.

ganon578 · Post by **ganon578** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 3:18 pm

Winding down on trade-in credit, I picked up Gears of War for the 360. This game is violent (which I'm usually not interested in) and crazy fun!

borg72 · Post by **borg72** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 8:39 pm

sacred gold on steam, in a last-ditch effort to get around the sacred-gold-wont-install-on-win7 bug. jolly my actual timbers, it worked! I can now play my fave game again, although i'm still a bit miffed at having to rebuy it.

ganon578 · Post by **ganon578** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 3:24 am

Using the last bit of trade-in credit to a local store, and rounding out my Halo collection before Halo 4 makes its way to my 360, I picked up Halo: Reach today. I'm midway through Gears of War and it might get shelved while I play Reach!

Heinrad · Post by **Heinrad** » Mon Aug 20, 2012 12:18 am

Put money down to pre-order Fall of Cybertron and picked up what I thought was a used copy but turns out to be new copy of Wolfenstein for the PS3. Great way to burn off stress by gunning down Nazi hordes.

What I can't figure out is why the game bombed. Who doesn't like blowing away Nazis?

Cyberstrike nTo · Post by **Cyberstrike nTo** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 4:19 pm

I plan on buying Mass Effect 3: Leviathan DLC for the Xbox 360 and PS3 when it comes next week.

ganon578 · Post by **ganon578** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 8:12 pm

Got a case (w/ original art & instructions) for my previously disc-only Halo 3: ODST, ordered a used XBox 360 hard drive so I can play some original XBox titles I missed out on (only owned a GameCube at the time), and last night I picked up Halo 2 to finish off my collection of Halo games and simultaneously try out my new hard drive when it arrives.

The PS3 KILLeR · Post by **The PS3 KILLeR** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 8:58 pm

Ive completed Foc twice now and have played a ton of multiplayer and i have to say it is by far the best $60 ive spent in a long time. The story is so grand and the levels are so varied, each one couldve been its own game. But i suggest playing multiplayer with a buddy or two if you plan to play objective based gametypes like conquest and ctf, or at least have a mic cause communication is critical! All the achievements are pretty easy to get in a few days expect a few multillayer ones like turning in 5 heads at once in headhunter mode, and reaching max rank. There are so many things only tf fans like us would notice many of which are from the 86 movie. Theres no coop in story this time around but its so darn good it doesnt matter.

Read at your own risk its about the ending!

SPOILER! (select to read)
naturally the final bos fight had to be prive vs. Megatron but you get to pick who wins and you throwdown mortal kombat style. The ending itself is a let down. The ark and the nemisis get sucked into the portal and thats it! I was hoping for a coda after the credits that said Earth 1984 and showed the ark crashed and teletraan 1 waking up, but sadly theres nothing just a techno remix of the touch that i hate with a passion, they really screwed it up in my opinion.

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Aug 25, 2012 9:16 am

Picked up my copy of Darksiders 2 Collectors Edition and have just downloaded the soundtrack for it, I'm also about to order X-Men: Destiny and will probably buy Sleepng Dogs next week.

Heinrad · Post by **Heinrad** » Sat Aug 25, 2012 4:40 pm

Picked up Fall of Cybertron for the PS3 last night, enjoying it greatly. Found an odd glitch in it, though. Wound up driving under the map at one point.

Sunstreaker2 · Post by **Sunstreaker2** » Sat Aug 25, 2012 4:49 pm

I got a SNES and Donkey Kong Country in a trade.

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 3:48 pm

Grabbed Sleeping Dogs on PS3. Man I need to knock through my pile of games.