GotG Round 2: Batman: Arkham Asylum vs. Braid

I'm Batman.

I loved Braid a whole lot, but Batman gets my vote.

I'm Braid.

Didn't like either really but I much prefer what braid was doing, very smart, unlike batman which has terrible combat.

Arkham Asylum gets my vote.

Always Braid.

A vote for Batman is a vote for justice.

I would like to Braid Batman's hair.

Arkham Asylum easily, Braid was pretty alright but Batman? Fuck, it pretty much changed third person melee combat alone (and for the better of course).

Few things win against The Batman in my book.

If you get a lot of satisfaction from smacking your head against a wall until you figure out a solution to a very clever puzzle, then Braid's the game for you. But as somebody who likes to be able to move forward in their games, Batman just takes it for me.

This is horseshit.

what

WHAT

WHAT

@geraltitude: think I just got burnt out by quicktime events after a 15 hour shenmue 2 session.

@sarcasticmudcrab: It's not a QTE if you can succeed by pressing various buttons. My god, I hate this editor.

This choice was super easy, by the way.

I know Batman is obviously way more approachable and populist and everything, but wow, I didn't expect it to be winning by that much.

Braid was really good, you guys. Well, I'm gonna pour one out for Braid the only way I know how:

@sarcasticmudcrab: How much of the game did you really play? It's really not a QTE at all. Yes there is a dodge button, but that's the tip of the iceberg. ARGF why does it always bold like that

I didn't like braid, and I like Batman. So ez pz

@geraltitude: got about 5 hours in shortly after release but gave up, wasn't having much fun, then after hearing so much positivity gave it another shot, gave up after a couple of hours. I'm kinda joking but it just doesn't really feel very involved, just pressing a button to watch a shiney, especially if you compare it to something like dark souls combat or a multiplayer fps, which is what I play the most. Maybe I just didn't get far enough for it to gain some depth. I know its an unpopular opinion and most people think its the way forward, I think its the way to a more watered down, commercial place. Which is fine there is plenty of other stuff out there. The gadgets were cool, I'll give it that.

so I have like 3 copies of Batman Arkham Asylum, and even though I got all the achievements I'm compelled to try it again and again and again. And I'm shocked that the Scarecrow scenes STILL WORK. Like just the little nuances of the refracted light from the smoke vents to notice when you get poisoned, and then you eventually get that monitor lock up. It's an amazing little trick that works again and again and again. AND THEN ON TOP OF THAT, This is 10 times better then Chris Nolan's "W Bush is a super hero" movies.

I know this sounds like a cliche, but maybe play it on hard? It's brutal. I don't have great reflexes so even normal was tough for me. The later fights (hours 5-6+) get hard in my opinion, and the gadgets become both cool and necessary in a fight. I would also recommend you play Arkham City instead. It's not a better/worse kind of thing, but it picks up the pace faster, is more open, and has awesome gliding, which is a really unique mechanic. It helps when you're a huge Batman fan I guess...

Demon's Souls is one of my Top 10 of all time, but I would never compare it to Batman. It's amazing but it's super different. Calling the Batman games watered down or just commercial is pretty uncool. And wait, isn't your opinion the more popular one? Multiplayer FPS is the biggest genre in the world outside mobas. And Dark Souls is about as infamous as games get today so I don't see how preferring those games is contrarian to the popular trend.. no offense!

I voted for Batman thinking Braid said Bastion for some reason. Wish I didn't vote at all just like with Xcom vs Red Dead

@geraltitude: heh non taken, sounds like good advice tbh although I can imagine it to get frustrating. I have been thinking about trying the 2nd one as it does look more interesting to me, kinda had my open world fill this year tho, with saints row, GTA, sleepy dogs and also making my way slowly through omikron: the nomad soul. The combat in that...is something else. I don't think the game is watered down but I do think that style of combat is a step in that direction, same as assassins creed, I mean why are all these dudes just standing there waiting to get punched while I beat up their mate, it just seems silly to me.

@sarcasticmudcrab: I've always justified it as "maybe they're afraid to miss batman and hit their fellow criminal", but, yeah... I'm jealous though. I want to play Omikron.

Batman's okay, but Braid has some of the best puzzles of the generation.

Hard choice. Batman stoked a revolution of brawling mechanics, and a lot of games are still ripping off its systems to this day.

The other one, Braid, seems much more generic. But only because it also sparked its own revolution, one that has seen more of a heavy flow than Batman's. Braid is unremarkable now because indie puzzle platformers are already getting old, but it deserves a lot of credit for its inventive design, its ambition, and what it has done for indie gaming as a whole. The gaming landscape would look a lot different today if we never had a Braid, and so my vote must go to it.

Braid is a very smart, well made puzzle game that is also entirely up its own ass.

Batman is a licensed game that not only manages to be good, but be outstanding, and that is a rare achievement indeed.

Hahaha Braid... good one.

Batman all the way.

Batman AA, awesome game that I like to play every year or two, holds up extremely well.

Man.

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

Arguably Braid is more important, but I don't think the majority of people voting still care about that, if they did at all. I'll still vote for it, since it changed the landscape of indie games quite significantly, but this is reasonable.

And Batman is pretty amazing. Important as well, but that game was so much damn fun.

I voted incorrectly because I thought it said Arkham City. Not too upset about throwing a little love Braid's way though, it was a fantastic game with a really satisfying payoff, although pretty much all the rest of the story stuff was totally unnecessary to it.

Arkham Asylum is a game that it's very difficult to find a fault with, in my opinion. As a comic book action game it manages to walk a good line between dark and serious and totally insane and stupid and silly. Super-satisfying combat and the joy of stealthily taking dudes out is a really nice combo. I also had a lot of fun completing the challenge levels. Incidentally, I can sort of see what the guy above who calls the combat too simplistic is saying, but it does become a little deeper, when you unlock some of the special moves. I think playing through all the challenge missions gives you a bit of an opportunity to see how deep you can go with it, because of having to balance the need for points with the need for survival. Also the "rhythm" elements of it can become a bit more fluid in situations with larger groups of enemies. The "B" button comes into its own a bit more...

(I voted for Braid because I thought it said Arkham City. I did like Arkham City but where Braid is unique and revelatory, Arkham City is kind of a weaker brother to Arkham Asylum. The need to add more, always more, overcomplicated the combat at a certain point for me, and the open world got a bit boring after a while. Also the story is way worse and more abrupt.)

Braid was great, I really enjoyed it, very intelligently put together, but the main reason I play games is to have fun, and how can you get more fun than being Batman?

@yinstarrunner said:

I know you ultimately decided on Braid in the end, so nice, but your hesitance seems crazy to me. Even with the indie puzzle platformers that have come after it, Braid doesn't seem generic or unremarkable to me. I feel like most of the followers in its wake are platforming games first where you can still die and there are hazards and enemies and the games happen to contain puzzles regularly. Braid is purely a fantastically made game of time manipulation puzzles, and you happen to move through it using platformer controls, but completely eschews the idea of player lives, checkpoints, upgrades, and most of the other aspects of platformer games.

Even in the wake of all the other indie 2D platformers that followed, I think Braid stands on its own, because I really can't think of many other indie puzzle games that I thought were as brilliantly mindbending, aside from perhaps something like Fez or Antichamber (even Portal and Portal 2 get kind of rote and predictable after a while, as they keep getting you to use portals in the same way, room after room).

Arkham Asylum is a hell of a well-crafted game. Braid was great, but I think Arkham Asylum is going have a more profound impact on future video games than Braid, and it already has to some extent.
Plus, I just had so much fun kicking dudes in the face as the god damn Batman. Gotta give it to AA.

I have lost all faith in this community after seeing the results of some of these polls.

To be fair, a lot of these games are seemingly incomparable in why they're good games. So, you're bound to get crazy results. It's not just people personally picking from a big pool. It's random titles being pitted against each other with no apparent logic. It's likely the tip-top most popular will reach the top, but everything else will be a muddled mess of differing opinions on what matters most to them as a gamer.

So, don't feel too bad. This was never designed to make any sense or lead to any satisfactory result. It's just something to do.

How can you even compare these games? I have lost all respect for this poll now. Its like saying which is better - Chess or American Football? People will like both of these games for entirely different reasons so it seems barmy to compare them - they have nothing in common, something which seems a pre-requisite for comparison.

I appreciate the idea of this bracket but when you get a match up like this you have to feel sorry for Braid, classifying just one game of the generation means Indie games don't stand a chance, Super Meat Boy lost to Super Mario Galaxy, and subsequently was slaughtered.

American Football.

Also Oranges > Apples.

It's going to get worse as the brackets move on. Strange things are afoot.

Went with Batman: AA. Didn't like Braid.

I don't like to judge but if you -really- didn't like either, your taste in games is shit.

@grixxel: lol. You're opinion is wrong.

After seeing Braid cover art I had to go with Batman

@leebmx said:

The poll isn't about comparing, it's asking which one you enjoyed more. Maybe you enjoyed them both an equal amount so it's difficult for you to choose, but that's not the case for everyone. I'm well aware there are different types of enjoyment to be had from games, but at the end of the day you can still compare those feelings, even if they are different. At least I can.

Batman is not as great as people remember. I think it has serious pacing issues throughout.

Braid was one of the earliest times I remember thinking these little downloadable games could be somethin else.

Braid did nothing for me, tried multiple times to get into it and just couldn't. Batman AA on the other hand is pretty fucking great. And between the Batman games and the trilogy being out around the same time. One could argue that Batman had the best run of the past five years culturally.

But still AA all the way.

Would you care to elaborate on what they are or are we all, collectively, meant to suddenly just remember that yes, we do think it has pacing issues?

Edit: Whoa I sound really shitty here, I apologise. It's partly because I didn't notice the "I think" in your post and that made it read worse than it does now that I look back on it. Carry on with your lives!

It should've been Arkham City instead of Arkham Asylum. Better story, combat, gadgets. But as it is my vote goes to AA.