[Mentalist]

put loasds of hours into Arkhm night. now I'm about a third of the content done. Cleaned up 2 islands, did a few Most Wanteds to completion,

Spoiler

Mad Hatter- Meh. typical mad hatter stuff, though that last hacking QTE was hard.

Killer Croc- hell yeah that was a cool fight, tag-teaming with Nightwing! daymn, gottta feel sorry for Croc though. In Arkham Origins he looks almost human. Now... he's got a tail.

once I got introduced to 2 kidnappings, the story kinda lost urgency. Not sure why, but all of a sudden I felt more comfortable hoovering up Riddler trophies and blowing up shields.

Getting annoyed at some of the riddles on the second island though.

[Aptorian]

I'd say some of the riddles are just straight up impossibly infuriating. Especially some of the driving puzzles. Just not fun. I'll give you a tip. There is a story related reward for doing all 300 or so riddler puzzles. But doing so, if you watch the youtube footage of it is sooo not worth it.

[Mentalist]

took some REAL careful spotting, but I found all 3 That annoyed me so much yesterday.

Now biggest challenge is finding new informants.

I Actually don't mind solving them, as long as there's rewards like the interview tapes, that feed into the backstory

Edit because HOLY SHIT

Spoiler

Oracle RIP

that was crazy.

Also, I

Spoiler

let Ras al' Gul kill his other daughter. I am a bad hero

with this much bad shit happening, I'm kinda thinking this has to be the last Arkham game.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 05 December 2016 - 05:24 AM

[Mentalist]

AoK HD update: finished second go-round on Alaric campaign from The Forgotten. Moved onto Attila 1, since that's chronologically before the last "Barbarian Invasions" mission, which covers the Visigoth conquest of Hispania and is quasi-ahistorical (by that point the Visigoths were liberating it for the Romans from other Germanic tribes).

AI on Moderate is either no challenge, or just broken in interesting ways (building walls makes a group strong enough to wipe said wall out in seconds walk halfway around the map to find an unwalled approach) when it's otherwise OP.

Attila 1, in particular, gives an option to ally with the Scythians , take out the Persians. So you get waves of scythian ranged units wiping out Persian base (as long as you break the walls for them), but Persian AI keeps itself allied to Scythia, and not even trying to attack them. Makes the whole thing a tad too easy.

I picked up some new Workshop cosmetic mods one to make Byzantine Monastery not look like a mosque (since as the Huns there gonna be much Byzantine-pillaging) + also a new Slavic Architecture mod making Slav civ buildings look... well, Slavic. Unfortunately, it also affects the Magyars, for whom the dark, massive red-brick style actually seemed fitting for the remote Carpathian/Balkan remote mountain fastnesses look. It appears that earlier it was possible to modify individual civs, but some changes in the Workshop broke that. Sigh. There's another mod for Spanish civ but that requires manual file-fiddling, so I may get to it later.

[Aptorian]

Mentalist, on 05 December 2016 - 02:03 AM, said:

took some REAL careful spotting, but I found all 3 That annoyed me so much yesterday.

Now biggest challenge is finding new informants.

I Actually don't mind solving them, as long as there's rewards like the interview tapes, that feed into the backstory

Edit because HOLY SHIT

Spoiler

Oracle RIP

that was crazy.

Also, I

Spoiler

let Ras al' Gul kill his other daughter. I am a bad hero

with this much bad shit happening, I'm kinda thinking this has to be the last Arkham game.

Holy shit moments indeed:

Spoiler

When the Oracle scene happened, I think I know which one you mean, I was completely floored. Did not expect them to go that direction.

I remember letting Ras die.

Generally there quite a few of the side stories that had very "final" endings that makes Arkham Knight feel like a wrap up.

[Mentalist]

Apt, on 08 December 2016 - 08:02 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 05 December 2016 - 02:03 AM, said:

took some REAL careful spotting, but I found all 3 That annoyed me so much yesterday.

Now biggest challenge is finding new informants.

I Actually don't mind solving them, as long as there's rewards like the interview tapes, that feed into the backstory

Edit because HOLY SHIT

Spoiler

Oracle RIP

that was crazy.

Also, I

Spoiler

let Ras al' Gul kill his other daughter. I am a bad hero

with this much bad shit happening, I'm kinda thinking this has to be the last Arkham game.

Holy shit moments indeed:

Spoiler

When the Oracle scene happened, I think I know which one you mean, I was completely floored. Did not expect them to go that direction.

I remember letting Ras die.

Generally there quite a few of the side stories that had very "final" endings that makes Arkham Knight feel like a wrap up.

Yeah, those were the first 2, but the whole set-up to the Azrael encounters also makes it seem like it's the series finale.

Spoiler

I let Ras' live because well, "bats never kills".

But I think that if I had seen gassed-up Oracle shoot herself first, i'd have been totally cool with letting him die.

[Aptorian]

Have you done the Manbat side mission yet?

[Mentalist]

Apt, on 08 December 2016 - 08:30 PM, said:

Have you done the Manbat side mission yet?

Started it, but continuation is currently unavailable. Which is funny, b/c loads of thugs keep talking about him/it. I think I actually swore out loud when it first showed up, it was such a surprise.


Is it possible to fail the Firefly one? I messed up one of the chase sequences due to combination of the bat-tank being awkward + my own increased clumsiness due to the cast.

Next marker is in the 3rd island which is still a no-drive zone.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 08 December 2016 - 09:53 PM

[Aptorian]

First time I played through Arkham Knight I played it with a friend on his PS4. First time Manbat appeared we both screamed in a very unmanly way. It was such a great jump scare.

I remember failing the Firefly chase sequence a couple of times. He just keeps appearing and fighting you, no problem there. Just keep listening for firefighter chatter over the radio or look for plumes of smoke.

[Mentalist]

50 hours in. The silly main menu is telling me I've completed 100% of story already (it lies).

Definitely feels like the subtitle ought to be "Arkham Closure"

Spoiler

RIP, Ivy

RIP, Nora Fries.

Ever since the trouble in the studios I've had a pretty good idea of who the Knight is. Game's really not that good @ foreshadowing stuff and balancing it with keeping suspense.

I'm almost done with side-stuff at this point. Still need to finish up with Azrael though.

I got annoyed, looked some riddle-related stuff up last night to discover that there's a gadget required to finish a bunch of troph that's actually optional, and no part of the story. That annoyed me slightly. I'm enjoying collecting those not due to some OCD, but because just like in City collecting a full "sub-set" unlocks tapes with background lore. Same reason with "arkham stories" - only need 4 more

Impressions on side content:

Spoiler

really dissapointed with Mr freeze. After all the coolness in both City and Origins DLC, this was hopelessly bland.

Same thing with 2-face- it was too easy. But there should be better closure in DLC.

Penguin's thing was ok, since it was more about Nightwing than anything else.

Really hating the checkpoint missions. The towers are ok but checkpoints, with loads of drones especially, are just tedious.

In terms of performance, I get occasional 5 second freezes during APC chase scenes. And a similar bug to Origins- occasionally the game just stops recognizing the input of my crouch button, and and need to exit the game and then re-start it.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 12 December 2016 - 03:25 PM

[Aptorian]

Mentalist, on 12 December 2016 - 03:24 PM, said:

I got annoyed, looked some riddle-related stuff up last night to discover that there's a gadget required to finish a bunch of troph that's actually optional, and no part of the story. That annoyed me slightly.

Is that:

Spoiler

The one that is just hanging in the Police Station?

Hope this wasn't a spoiler

I think I remember just bumping into the thing with out knowing whether it was story related or what.

[Mentalist]

Apt, on 12 December 2016 - 03:31 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 12 December 2016 - 03:24 PM, said:

I got annoyed, looked some riddle-related stuff up last night to discover that there's a gadget required to finish a bunch of troph that's actually optional, and no part of the story. That annoyed me slightly.

Is that:

Spoiler

The one that is just hanging in the Police Station?

Hope this wasn't a spoiler

I think I remember just bumping into the thing with out knowing whether it was story related or what.

No, that one is required for on of the extra villains' stories- that's how I found out about it, b/c I got the objective to go collect it. And recently in the mai story when gearing up for one of the big bads I had Bats say that "I already collected it, so i'm ready to go"

No, the one I mean is the

Spoiler

freeze blast in the movie studio base

. So now I gotta go back there and do another sweep with the last gadget.

[Aptorian]

Shit I am not even sure I ever picked that up.

[Mentalist]

Picking it up triggers a bunch of new riddles in the movie studios that aren't there otherwise.

Over 80% into main story, (105% complete according to main menu). Only the militia-related Most Wanteds are unfinshed, b/c they haven't all respawned yet. Most tapes unlocked (I looked up solutions to 3 riddles so far)- basically just need to do a thorough sweep of the AK HQ and still waiting for the last question riddle on Bleake island to become available.

Story thoughts:

Spoiler

things really fall apart with the AK reveal. It was all going great, Bats is down, and out of his league, allies dead or scattered, tank destroyed. And then the expected reveal, followed by the need to make him redeemable.

Bringing Oracle back, b/c "it was all an illusion" was... not totally unexpected. It took me a while to initially accept they were gonna go that far. But then they didn't really. And now I feel robbed of the emotional impact. Ivy's death can't carry it. And i'm not expecting Gordon to die, since he's the narrator.

It feels like they ruined their own tone by trying to end the way Batman usually ends.

[Cause]

Arkham Knight

Spoiler

Is freeze and Ras al ghul DLC? I dont remember that

[Aptorian]

Cause, on 13 December 2016 - 04:15 PM, said:

Arkham Knight

Spoiler

Is freeze and Ras al ghul DLC? I dont remember that

Freeze definitely is.

[Mentalist]

Cause, on 13 December 2016 - 04:15 PM, said:

Arkham Knight

Spoiler

Is freeze and Ras al ghul DLC? I dont remember that

There's a "villains pack" DLC

It includes

Spoiler

Ras al Gul, Mad hatter, Killer Croc and Mr. Freeze

It's not bad, but nothing super-substantial either.

[Kruppe of Darujhistan]

Arkham Knight came bundled with my ps4 and it's still unopened and collecting dust on my shelf.

[Aptorian]

Play the damn thing already! Akham Knight is one of the three best games that came out in 2015. Hell I might argue that it 's one of the best games ever made, in my oh so humble opinion.

[Mentalist]

It's entertaining, and competently made (since they worked out most of the PC kinks).

Bat-hummer is still annoying (those sections where you gotta drive sideways in pipes were annoying as hell). And sameissue as City- there's serious pacing issues reconciling main story and side-content (though the game kinda lampshades this, whereas City mostly l you to figure it out on your own over time).

I'm not sure if this is the best of the Arkham games yet, but it's definitely not bad. But thenn again, the Arkham games are a one of few modern game series I really enjoy.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 13 December 2016 - 07:11 PM