Hashbrowns

In contrast to most, Catwoman's traversal is one of my favorite aspects of the character. There's something very safe feeling about Batman gracefully gliding from building to building, and that's great. But every time Catwoman leaps off a building, I get that little flutter in my gut and hold my breath. I don't know, it just feels so much more dangerous and daring.

The ascending time-based mechanic isn't really a hindrance or a fantastic addition either, but it's nice to have such a stark contrast to Batman. In combat, I find her to be incredibly satisfying as well, and that's saying something when Batman plays so well. I might actually prefer Catwoman when in the combat challenges, but it's a close call.

I'm still amazed by just how good this game is from top to bottom. Rocksteady really poured a lot of love and effort into this property and it shows. After the... let's just say disappointing experience of Uncharted 3, I'm even more enamored with Arkham City. I know Skyrim is still yet to arrive, but right now Arkham City is already a front-runner for my favorite game this year.

Just going by the walk through Howard narrated, I'm still very impressed with how this game is looking.

In every Bethesda game I've played, there is always one achievement that doesn't unlock for me. It was a Fighter's Guild quest in Oblivion and the virtual reality quest in Fallout 3. And it always happens when I haven't kept a workable backup save. Hopefully, third time's the charm and I at least stay prepared.

Pick one at random, you really can't go wrong with those three.

The nice thing about movies and video games based on comics is that they don't have to suffer from what plagues the source material: perpetual character stagnation and irrelevant-yet-crippling continuity. One one hand, you want to feel like anything could happen, but on the other, nothing can change so dramatically that future stories would be unrecognizable to the casual reader. So character deaths always become temporary, and therefore death itself becomes a non-event that people immediately assume to be temporary. Like one of the random thugs said after the game "How many times has Joker died?" It's one of the fundamental problems with never-ending continuity: All events are ultimately irrelevant.

Rocksteady should just make their Arkham games a self-contained story arc, and that means they should keep the Joker dead. I'd love for a comic-based story to actually have events that matter and are truly permanent.

Oh, and how awesome was the whole blatantLostreference the Joker made, talking about how explanations can be unsatisfying? The fact that Paul Dini was one of the writers on Lost really sealed the deal on that joke.

@oblique_ said:

@Daneian said:

The Long Halloween costume is really gross.

I'm a big fan of Time Sale's work with Batman but yeah, a lot of his stuff shouldn't join the third dimension.

It certainly is... form fitting.

When I first saw this episode, I had no idea who Frank Miller was or the faintest knowledge of "The Dark Knight Returns", all I knew was that Michael Ironside makes for one awesome old-man Batman.

@crusader8463: I appreciate the elucidation. I'm eagerly anticipating both UC3 and Arkham City, but, to be honest, if I had to choose between Arkham City, UC3 and Skyrim... well Skyrim would probably win out. That said, I would encourage you to give both of these games a try.

@crusader8463 said:

Can I choose to pick neither because neither one appeals to me in the slightest bit?

To provide a little context, would you offer an example of a game that would appeal to you? Is it a genre thing, or something else?

I was really impressed by Medal of Honor: Allied Assault back when it came out, particularly the iconic Normandy landing level. Knowing that some of the guys who made that game were making another shooter, I hopped right into CoD and had a great time. No one does FPS set-pieces like Infinity Ward.

Since then, I've played CoD2, CoD4, and MW2 and they've all been fantastic games. They're not perfect, but the group-think hatred that often gets heaped on the series is absurd. How many shooter series as successful as CoD go from having virtually zero narrative (CoD 1, 2, 3) to having a decent techno-military thriller plot with continuity (CoD 4 & MW2)?

Most developers that hang their hat on single player story-telling often spend most of their time trying to tread water, just hoping to live up to their past accomplishments, but Infinity Ward has risen above their gameplay-only beginnings to make fun, exciting stories in games that would arguably be just as financially successful without them.