Batman Arkham Knight

……… remember when developers actually tried to optimize their games?

Is it just me or have Unreal Engine 4 games not looked a whole lot better than Unreal Engine 3?

It might just be that when developers used UE3 they still had decent arti directions, but all the new games just look so bland and the graphics look blurry.

Did they every get the PC port playable? I have an AMD graphics card and heard they had some issues with those.

Scarecrow was really disappointing as an antagonist, he's not the most memorable of Batman villains to begin with, but his take in Arkham Knight was pretty damn dull.

Conroy was alright for most of the game, but he fucked up the 'I am BATMAN' line and that really sucks because it's otherwise an amazing moment.

The Joker stuff was good, though I was sad to see him return since it pretty much completely invalidates Arkham City's ending.

Melee combat was alright, wasn't really any better or worse than City as far as I noticed. But you nailed it with the predator sections, which have been dumbed down to such a degree that they might as well not exist.

Oh my friend you better get that refund now. The PC version is fucked seven days to sunday.

How hard is it to do a cool Scarecrow section? You could introduce all kinds of interface glitches as the fear toxin takes hold, like The Undying or Rise Of The Triad or Survival Crisis Z.

I checked around and supposedly it's better now with people actually being able to finish the game with a more or less consistent 60 fps… if that's not true then I'm out 13 bucks for the definitive edition seeing as I got it on G2A. Guess we'll see what happens. Also

I'm a little disappointed

wait, scratch that.
now I really hope it works.

But anons they need all that space for riddler challenges… all those goddam fucking
riddler challenges

arkham asylum is still the best of the bunch imo, with the most tightly told story. having all the random side missions constantly pop up around the city just takes away from the main story urgency - a problem of all open world games. I feel like the side missions should be available only after the main story is finished, as a way to cleanup gotham or something like that. also, fuck riddler's trophies

the worse part about arkham knight is the batmobile itself, as the game over relies on it, for "puzzle" solving and the freaking tank battles is probably the less batman-esk thing I can think.

I also found it weird that batman is stiffer than ever while talking to other characters in this last game.

the story is pretty meh, with characters appearing checklist-style, sometimes with little logic, and there is no actual reason for this game to exist, other than €€€, but the game play is nice and fun minus the battank

also, FUCK THOSE FIRST GAME HOURS, with the control being constantly taken of the player, to have some lame exposition or the constantly hand-holding during puzzles and battle sequences

he only voiced the joker in arkham origins, hamill returned for knight

OP here, I agreee completely. Fuck the riddler missions and fuck the batmobile bat tank. I get why the batmobile is there. I get the need for a tank but it just seems un-Batman like and controls like shit. I like side missions but sometimes they do detract too much from the main story. Some of them work in Arkham Knight but others probably should've been in Arkham City.

I don't know what was up with Batman's voice actor because he felt really bland for most of the game. Like blander than he should be.

Only reason this game exists is to tie up SOME loose ends while leaving a bunch still open. While attempting to give a "final" farewell to Batman. The real game only existing for cash is Arkham VR which seems to not even be canon anyway.

I also noticed this, he probably didn't like that batman talked down/violently to everyone and acted generally as a jerk - case in point, the "interrogation" via face being quasi squashed by the friggin tank

You run over dudes the whole time in the game and they seem to be fine. Don't know why the guy was freaking out so much. Drama queens, man.

oh that's right, my bad…
they get shocked or something, right? I don't quite remember

I also like the complete deus ex-machina bat-tank upgrades lucious fox is always preparing when they are more needed

I trully believe the tank was the absolute worse thing about the whole game, and it comes out as an ill-thought out gimmick in an already established game series

Yep. They get harmlessly shocked away.

I get why they did it. Arkham Knight has to establish control completely with ground and mobile forces. So that makes sense for the drones to be there. So Batman would need a way to combat them. So the Battankmobile is born. But at the same time it controls like shit and gets used too much in the game itself. Riddler races? Sure. Use the tank for a chunk of the Riddler puzzles? Fuck you, Rocksteady.

Honestly, Scarecrow was handled like ass. There was almost nothing of his "mad scientist obsessed with the human mind in general and fear in particular" schtick, which is one of the best things about him, nor his extensive knowledge of human psychology, or really anything beyond the most superficial "fear FEAR FEEEEAAAAR" gimmicks. Hell, even that "fear-driven utopia" concept I've seen being tossed around in some fanboy circlejerks would've been better, but noooo giving our villains some depth or reason to care about them beyond game progression is too fucking hard.

The new design is cool though, I wouldn't mind if they kept it for the comics or whatever.

Him and Arkham Knight were very stereotypical villains. Going on and on from afar about "muh evil plan" then cursing the hero everytime they beat the goons. Riddler is probably the most fleshed out villain in this game. That's not a good thing.

Oh God, don't get me fucking started on Riddler. What they did with him is fucking despicable.

Like, it's fine that he's presented as nowhere near as smart as he think he is, even though he is pretty smart, no complaints there. Making him an annoying blowhard works from that angle, because it's amusing, in character, and adds a little motivation for beating his challenges, but it's a fine edge. But then the Rocksteady writing team shat there pants and made him Chris-chan, and it was cringe-inducing.

Wait…maybe?

I think, what looks like a perspective shot, is actually batman's arm being gimped from a completely forward facing view.

It's not a camera trick by any means.

Oh, I see it now.

You have to really ask why they even bothered letting you choose which upgrades to take throughout the game when you're going to get them all anyway by the end.

Can you even classify half the Riddler content in Arkham Knight as riddles? I know they've always skirted the line, but considering how much shit is in the game, it's hard not to think about when you're going through the world, clearing challenges.

Are the side missions in Arkham Knight actually fun? In City they seemed to be there mostly to just Artificially lengthen the game and most were little more than glorified cameos.

seriously I'm surprised they didn't give him a fedora because of his blabbering about "muh superior intellect".

yeah thats what i meant.

What was the point of the Riddler challenges in all the games? I never figured it out despite some in the first two games.

If you thought they were bad in City, then you won't like the ones in Knight.

I personally didn't think they were too bad in City, but in Knight most of them consist of going to a location and doing the same thing at each one. For example, Firefly burns a fire station, so you have to drive around in the Batmobile and catch him. This happens, like, five fucking times.

Similar thing with Manbat - you have to glide around and grab onto his back in 95% of that quest line.

The point?

Some are there to make you think with the tools you have to try and get to them. Others are environmental puzzles, and others are just little riddles so you can see a cute easter egg

In-game, Riddler is clearly doing it because he thinks he's mentally superior to Batman, but by Knight he's clearly gone so mentally insane he's forgotten what actual riddles are and he just builds racetracks underneath Gotham with his secret wealth of funds he's been hiding for the past three games.

shiet… I guess that's fine. I'm liking everything else so far, though I have only just started. At the moment I think I like it better than City, but less than Asylum. Origins was worth playing if only for the Joker's story, but everything else was pretty mediocre to bad in that game.

I honestly figured that the Arkham Knight would end up being some guy from Bruce Wayne's past, like when he traveling the world and training, trying to gain revenge on Batman for some fuck up Bruce did and being Bruce's rival, like a slightly nobler version of Kyodai Ken or something.

I'm also pissed that they completely wasted Dr. Phosphorus on a bunch of lame audio tapes, instead of making him into a proper boss fight.

this screenshot tool is bretty nice.

You can chalk that up to Geoff Johns influence.

Being clever is beyond his capabilities.

No.

Remember these games are written for the lowest common denominator.

...

NO ESCAPE

...

In Asylum/City,they were little more than mcguffins to get you to explore the gameworld, and the riddler challenges in city could be genuinely challenging at times.

Here's a nice thought experiment

Since Warner Bros is money hungry, there's no way Arkham ends at Knight. Maybe the series will be rebranded, but I have no doubt there will be another game in this franchise in a few years.

The question is, what would you want to see from it? Story-wise, returning features, elements of past games you liked, that stuff?

Personally, I think the series needs to reduce scope and go back to an Arkham City/Origins sized location. I understand the desire for a tightly paced story, but I feel that it's also ideal to try and make the player feel like Batman, out on patrol and do stuff like that. Gotham in Arkham Knight, however, was far too large and while each location felt distinct, you never got a feel for the locations just going through the story. In side missions you saw Founders Island was the rich people district, for example, but the story was pretty poor at letting you soak in the location, imo.

To that end, they need to drastically cut down on the Batmobile. I don't think it should be removed, but I think it was used as a crutch in Knight to supplement for well constructed gameplay situations. The Batmobile works best as a vehicle to escort Batman quickly across the map.

Combat could be virtually unchanged, it's fine for me, more or less.

Stealth NEEDS to have that risk/reward element, and Arkham Knight fell so flat in that case. Fear Takedown should either be one use or removed entirely, as it really takes a lot of tension out of stealth. Bring back heartbeat monitors, and in general just make stealth about on the same level as City/Asylum.

...

I know about that, but I already forgot about it

Well ya remember now. I don't think it's actually canon, given the synopsis, but it does bare the Arkham name.

...

…Aw dammit, why'd you have to do that? Now my fantasies will be filled with flying in cyberpunk Gotham.

What they did with Hugo Strange alone is a fucking disgrace that eclipses the Arkham Knight reveal.

What they need is to make more fucking buildings and interiors accessible.

Arkham City was the beginning of this shitty trend where you had these buildings all over the place, yet only about 4 were actually accessible. Even the climb to Wonder Tower was a goddamn disappointment. They need to go back to Asylum's style of open world, where pretty much everything could be explored by the end.

I had a good time with City, beat it twice. Honestly if we got a game with a free-roam cyberpunk Gotham City and the beyond suit, I'd have a good time even if they took a dump on the story.

What happened?

why not just do a game based on another DC Hero like Superman? Think about it you can have insane challenges for him to face and we can finally get a good Superman game.

Presented as genius mastermind Big Bad in tie-in comics, trailer and promotional material, in the actual game he does fuck all with knowing Batman's identity, his plan is a stupid "let's shoot missiles to kill all the criminals" idea, and his character is bastardized into being a cowardly lackey for Ra's al Ghul (whom Ra's then murders in a cheap cutscene death) for a crappy plot twist that Batman acts shocked about for all of five min…actually he doesn't really care either, since the Joker has his fuckbuddy held hostage, and moreover doesn't make any sense according to the Arkham universe's own prior-established lore.

WB Montreal is supposedly working on a Superman game, where Darkseid will be the big bad. Which is stupid, because Darkseid shouldn't be a Superman villain, he's supposed to be a threat too big for any individual hero to take on, hence why the Justice League usually all need to dogpile him simultaneously to stand any chance of beating the guy.

Superman has just had so much trouble getting off the ground in games, it's hard to consider what they could do to make it fun to play.

Superman Returns tried to circumvent the fact Superman is more or less invulnerable, but it was also a boring slog of a game. Superman's combat couldn't be tight and refined like Batman, as you'd have to account for fighting both on the ground and in the sky, and you have to then make that as fun and 'powerful' as Arkham's gameplay.

I dunno, if I put my brain to it, I'm sure there's ways you could make a 3D Superman game fun, but it's just not coming to me in any way.

Ironically, Arkham City focused mostly on side-villains and such instead of on the main plot, and Arkham Knight has the opposite problem. Too much focus on Crane, who isn't even really like Crane, and too little on the side-villains, which was essentially what they were selling the game as: Batman's villains come together to kick his ass all at once.

That's probably what disappointed me most in post-release buzz, that all the villains were stupid side missions that were all repetitive.

As for Darkseid, he's kinda been associated most with Superman recently thanks to the animated series, so I can't blame them if this were the case, but I think the typical Luthor/Braniac combo would be much better suited for a potential first game franchise starter.

...

They could try looking to the Infamous series for inspiration. With current vidya tech, it'd be easy as shit to create "realistic, epic destruction", rather than just the arcadey shit that was Superma Returns. As for invulnerability, just make it "durability" (Superman isn't really "invulnerable", anyway), where Superman has an "durability" meter which goes down as he gets damaged (very, VERY slowly from bullets, none from human punches, more from missiles, and even MORE from god punches), and when it gets to zero, he starts hurting, and you can have the COD mechanic where you get into "critically wounded" mode, and have to hide in order to regenerate. And unlike COD, this mechanic would actually make sense.

That would be fine actually, they just needed to have all of Batman's villains be involved in the main plot. I don't think anyone actually liked the side missions in Rocksteady's games, they're all mostly lame anyway. Hell, Arkham Origins did the Mad Hatter better than either City or Knight.

Yeah, I really dislike STAS for doing that. They should just go with Brainiac, Luthor is overplayed, and Brainiac keeps getting shafted by DC (Man of Steel should have had Brainiac, not effing Zod AGAIN).

He's overplayed, but he's also name recognition. Realistically they probably wouldn't do a Superman game without him. All you can really hope for is he's paired with someone else to at least make things more interesting.

Brainiac as the main threat would work, or maybe even as overplayed as he's getting as well Zod.

They're fun for the easter eggs, but some of them become tedious on repeat playthroughs, like Hush.

Y'know, I think Origins would've been really cool if it didn't become another Joker story. If it had just been Batman progressing through a night of fighting against a bunch of bad guys, that would've been sooo much more interesting. Arkham Asylum is very satisfying from start to finish, imo, because it didn't try to do any sort of on-going plot that was meant to tie into later games. It just felt like an extended series of Paul Dini episodes of TAS. If Origins, or even Knight, had done that, I wouldn't have been as disappointed as I was in them.

Which is another thing I should add:

If they do another Batman game, just have the game take place over a few nights instead of one. It got more and more unbelievable with each entry that everything happened in one night.

Why? It makes sense for him to show up in a Superman series, since Darkseid first showed his face in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olson.

Yeah I wish they had Black Mask as the big bad for Origins and if they were going to do Joker maybe keep him as a side villain or something?

We got like one panel hinting at bigger things in Jimmy Olsen's comic, and only because Kirby was writing the comic at the time, and wanted to find somewhere to showcase his new creations.

For example, Black Canary is technically a Batman character since she has the strongest ties to him, yet she still get bundled together with Green Arrow for some reason.

I think its because they used to be married. Now days it'd be a bit weird to put her with Batman instead of Green Arrow.

You can blame Justice League and the shitty cheap ass Arrow show for that. It's just drilled into everyone's head now. Who cares. Black Canary's been turned into a gurl power sjw punk rocker after Convergence. While Green Arrow is a literal SJW. Just lump em together and forget about them both till the next reboot.

But Green Arrow has been an obnoxious liberal for a while that and haven't Black Canary and Green Arrow been together since the 70's? I remember a Joker comic from the 70's that showed the two together.

Yeah, I remember that. Canary got seriously shat on during that period, that alone should have killed any future attempts to have a relationship between the two, but the writers still insist on hammering it in.

Either way it makes no sense. Like I said, Canary originated in Gotham, lives there, fights mainly Bat-Villains, is tied to Batman's mythos, is part of a Bat-related team, thematically she shares zero connection with Green Arrow…while with Batman she at least has the bat/bird motif going for them.

Also, Oliver Queen is an obnoxious liberal hippie faggot, Batman just needs to beat his ass in front of Black Canary and then bang her afterwards.

Point is those shows are really what drove people nowadays to associate Canary and Arrow together.

I think Timm and the gang wanted to experiment with character pairings for Justice. Bruce Timm, if nothing else, is a hardcore shipper.

explains why he keeps shipping Barbara Gordon with Bruce Wayne.

Yeah, that's where the Batman/Wonder Woman thing really took off.

It also introduced the cancer that was Nigger Lantern/Hawkgirl, so there's that.

Also this.

Bitch, please. Best soldier couple coming through.

Still counts, though. Plus, Supes fought a bunch of Apokaliptan goons after, didn't he?

God, Hawkgirl is such a shit at the end of Season 2.

I dunno why they even had to convene to kick her out, because she was such a bitch, to Jon and the whole JL.

Come on now, what did poor John ever do to you?

Still, not as much cancer as Batman/Wonder Woman. That one takes the cake for how badly it tried to hammer Batman's character into the "tragic, broody playboy with a heart of gold" mold, and spreading that cancer into comics.

It probably wasn't the greatest, but the Wonder Woman Pig episode pretty much justifies the whole thing existing, I think

To be fair, iirc, It doesn't start hardcore until the Wild Card episodes, well into season 2. The first season is actually pretty hands off with the characters forming relationships.

You best be baiting.

I'll take that over Clark/Diana or Bruce/Barbara nonsense any day. Also, is fuzzy.

What mold? That's what he is, with added obsession.

Now THAT shit was cancer.

srs tho, I spent the entire time wishing they'd cut out the Wonder Woman garbage and just have Batman and Zatanna doing fun, wacky shit all episode

and then hook up

At least you're honest on which ship you go for.

Yeah, but even if it didn't have the Bats/Wondy stuff, it still would've been cancer.

DCAU wasn't allowed to have an odd goofy episode?

To make a Superman game you just need to take it to space. Put the player in the middle of a wartorn Apokalypse or a place where Superman doesn't have to worry about collateral damage and make his enemies aliens who are strong enough to hurt him. Easy.

Planet Superman

maybe we can make a world war hulk game or something. Maybe a Guardians of the Galaxy game to explore all the cosmic stuff in Marvel and can see the Silver Surfer.

I don't know..Hulk Ultimate Destruction is a pretty good game.

True, that is true.

Yeah, but in a post-Arkham world, people probably want to see Superman in Metropolis, dealing with his world and seeing cool Superman easter eggs, at least I think that's what people would want.

An ideal Superman game would be a super-powered sandbox/ problem solving game rather than a combat focused action/adventure game.

Superman is about solving super-problems, which is why Superman has never needed a rogues gallery like Batman to create interesting conflict. Thus, a perfect Superman game would be centered around having solving situations or tasks with as many options as Superman's powers provide. The game should be challenging and should reward the player for being clever.

For example, let's say you're playing as Superman and you encounter a giant man with fire-breath wrecking buildings and cars. You'd have multiple solutions to solve this problem. You could just beat the shit out of him and solve it that way, or you could try using the environment around you to use the creatures power against him. Or you can just fry him with your heat vision. Or, you could observe the creature's rampage, realize that he's only destroying buildings and cars for their glass, try giving him some chunks of ice, and find out that he's an alien from an ice planet that crashed on earth who was stupefied by the intense heat of earth. Then you can use your powers to help him get home.

That would be a perfect Superman game. You are presented with problems with multiple solutions thanks to Superman's powers. However, since this scenario would require the developers to consider every possible way Superman could fix a situation that he's presented, it's a game that would never, ever, be made.

Let's not get too crazy now here. All our budget is going to the graphics to at least look good enough even with the massive clipping issues and mismatched arms. Can't spend actual money on something as silly as actual innovation.

why do you have to keep bringing back the Joker? batman's got other amazing villains that can definitely take up the reigns, so why is it always the Joker in every game?

Because he sells. Especially after the casual audience obsession over Heath Ledger (Hobo Joker).

also, not doing these will lock out the true ending of the game

for Arkham City or Arkham Knight?

for knight.
in knight those side missions are called "most wanted" because the after repeating them x times, the last time you get to capture the villain responsible for them. to active the final protocol (dont recall its name) you have to have captured most of the rogues gallery - not all of them, but almost - thus trully ending the arkham knight storyline

A Batman Beyond iteration would be a dream, tbh.

I was thinking "Batman: Beyond Arkham". Small change in word order, but huge change in subtext.

No you have to capture all villains, solve every "riddle", take out every watch tower, bomb, road thing, and the main story. 100% the game. AR can be ignored.

After the suit in Knight, I don't know if they could do a Beyond game justice.

my mistake then

Yeah, that was a fucking travesty. If anything, I'd think a futuristic Batsuit like the one in Beyond would be a lot less clunky and as good as a second skin thanks to nanotech and liquid armor.

I've always wondered how they'd do the mouth for the Beyond suit outside of animation, though. All-black facial makeup doesn't seem to cut it at all.

Nanotech future shit. Basically a second skin. It conforms around to your face. Obscuring it enough to hide your identity but also makes you look like a shadowy futuristic bat creature.

Basically make the cowl and costume part cgi and real like they did with Deadpool.

Are you fucking kidding me? I can deal with the repetitive nature of the most wanted missions, but that is just overkill.

Hm. Maybe that's just Bruce's suit leading up to the actual Beyond suit.

No the devs just thought it would be a good idea to armor up and redesign suits that didn't need to be touched.

It's kinda infuriating they didn't bring over TAS costumes. Admittedly, they didn't look good in City, but it seems like a waste to not bring them back

They should just take the suit design and make it into a real life version. Not a cheap 3D model of the animation design. They did it with the Batman Beyond suit in City. They should've done it with the animated series one.

I actually think the default batsuit used in Knight sucks. It's way too armored to the point it almost looks like ironman with a cowl. the Asylum suit was the best one imo, somewhat armored and still leathery looking

I think there was a batman beyond design in Arkham City that one looked better than this.

You clearly got further in the game than me, OP. I commend you for that. Around the time that I had to undertake my fifth or sixth tank battle to advance in the game and couldn't do anything else until resolving the damn tank battles, I made the decision to walk away. It was as if Rockstar was designing an endurance challenge instead of a game. I played through the first two Arkham games in their entirety, but Arkham Knight is just too taxing on my patience for me to consider it fun.

Having gone through 100% of the main game, I don't blame you for giving up.

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks it

The City Beyond suit was basically the look Bruce had when he wore the suit. The wings come out when you glide and it looks pretty good.

The tank battles, as I've said, would've been much more effective if they were used sparingly. I think Rocksteady in general was stretched too thin for this game, because it feels like they ran out of ideas/didn't put enough care into areas of the game where it mattered, like the stealth, which is poorly designed shite.

I saw a walkthrough of the game and the way the tank moved reminded me of Megatron from Transformers War for Cybertron. Yeah, sad how they handled Deathstroke too.

I don't know what the fuck they were thinking with Deathstroke. One of the most fun parts of Origins was the boss fight with him, and if there's one thing Knight needed, it was fucking awesome boss fights.

The only ones that immediately come to mind are Albert King (not sure on the name, but he's the boxer infected with joker blood), Riddler, and Professor Pyg, which was at least visually interesting, but all three of them were incredibly meh

Between the three, hate Riddler's fight the most. Even after doing all his bullshit riddle crap, I had to now fight a laser shooting exo-suit with waves of robots that could only be effected by one character or another. It was so annoying. Then all that for just beating Riddler's face a littler only to put him in the glass box with everyone else. Wanted more payoff. Wanted to beat that psycho till he was bloody. I hate Riddler so damn much.

Except for maaaybe the Riddler, none of those can really count as proper boss fights. Albert King is basically another "big thug", Pyg is just fighting waves of enemies, and even the Riddler falls under this category. Not really proper boss fights like Clayface or Poison Ivy or Mr. Freeze.

I was kind of annoyed at how much of a fedora Riddler is in the game. Seriously he projects his daddy issues onto Batman.

Having just finished the main campaing (and a few scattered most wanted missions) I feel cheated that I cannot properly end the story. In the most wanted screen it tells me to capture 3 or 4 (can't really remember) more villains before activating the knightfall protocol, and I only captured firefly, man-bat, two face and the preacher. Can I just do the riddler's revenge missions and leave the rest of his crap behind and still get proper closure?

I feel rocksteady really droped the ball on this one. This is nowhere near the asylum/city quality levels, with its awful character designs (scarecrow being the only saving grace), lame story and constant repetition - case in point, the fucking most wanted missions all consist in repeat this shit x times. The "boss battle" is not scarecrow, is battling 62 tanks at once!! Whoever thought the batmobile would be anything more than a means of transportation should be shot on sight, same with who design it, who programed it, who thought its handling was fine and who approved of this whole mess.

Yeah, like I said. They pretty much wrote Chris-chan in a green suit.

Hell I think they even threw in a Gamergate reference in one of the side stories that you can see on the menu.