Wondering how the next Batman game plays, anyone had hands on time with it at any conventions or anything? The other two were pretty much the only games I've finished in years so I was thinking of pre-order for the extras, but don't want to get burned if it turns out to be bad. Plus I don't want to spend much on gaming for a bit and Rocksmith 2014 will be the game I get if I dont get Batman, and they have some pre-order extras there too, so was trying to decide soon.....

thanks, stay spoogey

You could save yourself a bit of cash and wait until the GOTY edition comes out, which will probably be late 2014. You know it's coming! Get Rocksmith 2014 now and then just wait for Batman.

I played the multiplayer beta. It had Batman in it and he can punch dudes.

Played it at PAX. It's a Batman game. You'll probably end up enjoying it.

I think that (one of?) the pre-order exclusive is the ability to play challenge mode with Deathstroke. There is a video out there of what that is like, and let me warn you that it appears that deadpool uses neither his swords nor his guns. It's pretty much the biggest bummer there is.

I saw it at E3... it's just more of the same kinda like AC: Brotherhood to Revelations.

@veektarius: Deathstroke. Deadpool is a Marvel character created to lampoon Deathstroke.

played it at a expo..... yep its batman, i dont even mean that in a bad way really, just that its very similar gameplay wise to the previous games.

the grappling hook stuff felt a bit weird to use,

that game is gonna come down to the story for me.

@historyinrust: I knew that...

Think of it like the early Treyarch Call of Duty games. It probably won't be quite as good but it'll be close enough to scratch the itch.

Bad example. I prefer Treyarch's take.

Ah, so many replies and notifications don't seem to work anymore for GB forums! I played the last two because I liked the story, usually super hero stories can keep me going in a game till I finish. But Rocksmith looks like what I had wanted out of the first. But Amazons doing the $10 credit for Batman so I could pre-order both and get Batman for $39 then $10 off Rocksmith??? But still more money than I want to spend

I just watched it. He really doesn't look all that impressive, unfortunately.

The multiplayer beta was a lot of fun, but fairly laggy (I'm sure they'll have better netcode by launch, though). I expected it to devolve into a rush for Batman privileges, but I actually had a lot more fun playing as the henchmen - I think I lacked the strategic ability to Batman properly. The balance was very even, too - while the first night I played didn't result in any Batman wins, it evened out over the course of the beta.

No idea what the campaign's going to be like, but I expect it to be basically more of the same. Hopefully they've not changed the melee combat much; it's about the best hand-to-hand action I've ever played.

@aniki21: I could have sworn I heard that in MP, the thugs are played in FPS, while batman and robin are played in the traditional 3rd person. Was that the case for the beta you played?

you press X/Square to punch dudes and occasionally press Y/Triangle to counter dudes.

@klei: He said early Treyarch CoDs like CoD 3 and WaW. Those games were basically just enough that you were like"eh, it'll do". Treyarch didn't really forge its own identity until Black Ops

I just got done watching a 15 minute demo from E3 on Youtube. It definitely looked pretty competent, but I feel like I'm starting to get a bit of a "bit there, done that" vibe.

Like others have said, if the story is pretty solid I'll probably end up picking it up. I'm also sort of intrigued by the multiplayer.

@sarahsdad said:

That's how Spies vs. Mercs works in Splinter Cell Blacklist, but no idea if that is also true of this new Batman.

The thugs were played in third-person, same as Batman.

So this is coming next week already? I even have my vacation going on at that point still, so I'd have plenty of time to dig into this, but...I'm just not excited at all. Bit of a bummer, what with riding the hypetrain like crazy back with Arkham City's release. Hopefully some reviews will pop up before the release, so I'll have an excuse to get myself (hopefully) excited.

It could be Arkham City with a new story and nothing else and I'd be sold. Seriously among my all-time favorite games, those first two.

@glottery: Now that you mention it... isn't it weird that there is no review on metacritic, and very little information out there, for a game that comes out tomorrow.

Review embargo isn't over till its released. It's got me the tiniest bit worried about the quality of the game to be honest.

I dont think the game will be bad. I just think it'll be unnecessary.

Just giving it a try now, to be honest it seems very similar to the other games. So far I'm most confused by the decision to ban any reviews until after release, nothing seems so abhorrent that it would justify that decision.

Oh and Alfred's mouth still looks like it's on upside down, that is some odd, odd facial animation

Agreed here. I just started it after installing the first disc, but so far it seems like more Batman... which is exactly what I wanted so I'm happy. Clearly I can't speak for everyone, but for me it was certainly necessary.

I don't get all the people who think embargos are a new thing.

http://www.videogamer.com/reviews/batman_arkham_origins_review.html

Played it a bit and seemed perfectly fine so far.

I don't think anyone is suggesting an embargo is a new thing, rather that the lack of reviews this close to a game being released is typically a bad sign. Perhaps this is misinformation, but it's even been discussed on the Bombcast as well as several other video game reviewing podcasts that I listen to.

Supposedly a developer or publisher who isn't very optimistic about their game will ship out review copies later so that the negative reviews will have less time and opportunity to affect sales. I'm not saying that's what happened, but that's why people are making the assumption about the lack of reviews being a potentially bad sign. A quick search shows that GTA V for example had a review up the day before release, it was a five star review. NBA2k14 had a review up several days in advance, also a good review. Beyond: Two Souls wasn't reviewed until it was released and it had a 3 star review. It's probably especially worth noting that the last Batman Arkham game Arkham City had a five star review on this site up four days prior to release.

Last I knew it was fairly common knowledge, but based on your comment I'm guessing there's something obvious the rest of us have missed? It's likely, I'm not a person who waits for reviews or keeps up on them outside of occasionally checking Metacritic after a games been out a while.

here is the start of the game... it is the weakest start of the 3 games... but still looks fun :)

All I can say is... Muy Bien