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Yeah, my first impressions were that they'd gone a bit overboard with the new shaders but they included a few alternatives in the RAR file so I'm gonna try those out later. The new car textures look lovely though.

I tried a car-replacer years ago when I had VC for PC (it was eBay'd the minute I got the PS2 game - even back then it was a bit shoddy as a port but came in great packaging) and they were a bit incongruous looking. The better native game textures for GTA4 mean that HQ vehicles don't stand out as much.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

I promise this is my last BF rumination for now. (I'm stopping, if only for my own health ). But...



I've finally figured out why BF seems to have captured my imagination over other online shooters...
It's got a sandbox feel to it. That's what it is. Large playing fields, and a large array of tools to use within 'em.

Altho there are aims and guidelines, the conquest matches can still be played pretty much at your discretion. It's not just that you can tackle the flags in whatever order you fancy, or even that there's so many ways to go about it. You can ignore everything and just have fun trying to backflip a buggy off a dune if you feel like it. Or you can embrace the team ethic to the max. All in one game normally. There just seem to be loads of distractions and self-created goals possible within the maps. (I'm thinking of BF2, but I'm guessing BF3 will feature this kinda blend too).

Anyways, yeah, I think I can lay this to rest now. That's what makes it a blast. You can invent your own forms of fun within it. And what makes it twice as cool, is that everyone around you is normally being creative with it too

(This doesn't mean I won't swear ballistically the first time someone kills me in an inventive manner tho )

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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

Arkham City is a bit frustratingly clunky at the moment, sure just need to get in swing of buttons and mechanics but keep walking of edges and falling and generally have difficulty getting Batters to go where I want. Plus the camera doesn't always do me any favours. Managed to work out one Riddler puzzle, don't really get the hang of them, don't think. Game still looks great and has moulded the Universe into a game pretty well, just need to get the hang of it with some menu searching as the tutorials don't tend to help too much. The AR Training or whatever is main example, keep telling me to dive bomb doesn't help for whole course nor does having the points to get to so far away!

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Not what I expected to hear! I was just popping in to rave about how smooth the control was in the game. Not kidding! So slick, especially the combat. It does take practice to get the timing down, but then you can stack up 20+ hit combos no problem.

The Riddler puzzles are different depending on the type you are working on. There's the cages with the trophies and the actual riddles which always have a visual solution you need to "scan" to solve.

The game should have told you how to dive before that AR opened up. (Hold RT btw)

I take it you didn't play Asylum? I was wondering if this game threw too much at the player all at once, expecting Asylum vets to just know all the old abilities but leaving folks new top the series a bit lost when they don't cover the basic stuff again...

Seems to be the case!

Have you done a mission or two yet? After just a couple of missions the Riddler will appear and give you some more direction as to how to best handle his parts of the game, and there are a TON. Whatever you do, do NOT spend a ton of time on a cage puzzle if it isn't coming together right away. You most likely (and I mean it) do not have the gadget you need to crack it yet. I am thinking only 5% of the trophies can be reached at first.

My friend Seth is adamant about finishing up the entire main story and getting all the gadgets before he spends much time on Riddler Trophies (still doing the visual puzzles on the main play-through, though). There are still PLENTY of side missions to do even if you ignore the trophies for the most part at first. You still have Joker Balloons, Demon Heads, Ceramic Penguins, Security Cams, Riddler Visual Puzzles and of course, all the story-driven side missions...

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I only played the Asylum demo. I'm definitely putting it more down to me being a rookie than the game itself. Cheers for heads up on Riddler puzzles, did one which was throwing Batarang at lights to correspond with the order they lit up, which was reasonably straight forward to spot the challenge. Others i've just stood on buttons and nothings happened so assumed hadn't activated that part of the game yet. In terms of story, i've chased the Joker's radio signal to the steel Mill (?), just overcome first lot of armed guards, which was quite an initial challenge. I didn't even intend to start that mission, mind, was looking for the thing for Bane's side quest. Which was another frustrating moment, I worked out how to deploy explosive gel with prompts but wasn't one for how to detonate it!

The dive bomb prompt always pops up at the start of the training but doesn't always relate to the training, though I worked out I just needed to stop diving at the right time and glide through the rest of the hoops. Though the one into the tunnel is HARD. Started noticing balloons, had no idea about rest of the little easter eggs. Try and focus on things that will unlock PS Trophies tbh.

The combat does, sadly, seem pretty much a case of button bashing, then hitting counter in the big window they give. It's a shame he doesn't always lock onto targets as often tangent off and start punching air. Not much skill involved, not sure how you recognise combos? Is that just hitting without being hit back?

I played Alpha Protocol recently. Decent rent but the game must have been rushed. It had some cool ideas that aren't implemented very well. Started out good, got better, then fell apart at the end. I really liked the conversation system and branching story based on earlier decisions, such as how you treated people, who you killed, which order you did missions in.

My first playthrough, I tried to be a sorta Bond/Sam Fisher hybrid. I took a very stealthy approach, upgrading sneaking & martial arts mainly, mostly ignoring gun skills, and wearing very light armor. I advise against this; Sneaking's unreliable at times, partly due to a glitchy cover mechanic, partly because of spotty A.I.

I enjoyed the storyline though. On 2nd play, I went more merc warrior style, still built up stealth skill a bit too, but the game's much more fun when you run & gun. The story went different enough to keep it interesting, and I might buy if I saw it for sale cheap to see how else it could go.

Worth a rent for sure.

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#31 on SC's Top 100 Mofos list!!

It's incredibly cheap to buy.

Alpha Protocol is a great idea (a stealth rpg) but Obsidian just don't have the resources to pull off something cinematic like that on their own. Shame.

Arkham City people - Can you play the whole game in Detective Mode like you can in Asylum? That kinda spoiled the game for me because what was the point of playing in Normal-o-Vision?

Re: Arkham, yeah I suppose you can play the full game in that mode, not seen any restrictions on your use of it. I wouldn't want to play it in that mode all through as several times i've tried to reach objectives in that mode without realising there's walls in the way.

Shame that. I think it would be better if its use was restricted to 5 or 10 second bursts.

Loaded up Asylum just now on my PC. Got it in the Steam summer sale but hadn't done much more than check if it worked - Did a benchmark at 1920x1080, 8x AA and everything else at max and got a minimum of 60fps - It looks fantastic. I love my new PC!

And this is still with the old graphics card. I'm swaying more and more towards a GTX 560ti now - It's Ł30 more than a 6870 but seems to have appreciably more oomph. Damn the power consumption! It's not as if we're in a recession...

Talking of good-looking games, I did some tweaking at GTA4 and it now looks lovely (even without the graphics mod pack - there are a few conflicts with the Steam version of the game so I'm going without) and a definite step up from the console game without any performance drop. All I had to do was turn down reflections from High to Medium and the frame rates jumped.

It's still a pig though - The only game I've tried on this rig which makes the CPU fan run at max all the time.

Sort of, but I was never one to play that way.

You realize Detective Vision didn't ruin the first game: The player using it all the time is the culprit there. The first game is aces!

In the second game, they fade the walls out more, so it's pretty hard to navigate in 'tec mode.

The combat starts out simple, but they add more moves as you go along. If you miss and hit air, you break the combo. It's all about timing and getting critical strikes to stack up combos and get to points that activate super moves (usually 8 or 12 hits at first). They also start adding enemies with dpecial defenses so you have to perform certain moves at certain times or they break the combo and hit you.

Combats started picking up, not quite sure how to pull of the special move (is it two buttons together or in sequence) but noticed the combo meter and unlocked critical moves, not that i'm sure how to pull them off on purpose yet. Also got to guys with knives, not sure I quite hang of dodging. Did all the AR challenges though and got a nice silver trophy and picking up Riddler trophies quite frequently now.

Two buttons together for most moves like the Bat Swarm etc. The knife guys are a pain in the ass. You have to dodge multiple strikes pretty fast and then release the dodge and hit the counter again to do the actual counter. I tend to cartwheel over their heads instead and just beat them up after that.

I need more practice with the remote batarang... There is some confusion on one of the switch types I run into from time to time. I normally need to shoot a certain fuse box type with the electric charge gun, but some of them don't have an open line of sight at all. So when I dick around trying to solve it, Batman gives the clue "A remote Batarang should hold enough charge to disable the switch."

Meanwhile, I have hit that switch about 60 times with a remote and the door just will not open!

One more thing... The titan tank in the Steel Mill. I ended up getting that one last for some reason, on a return trip to the Mill that uses a different entrance. I'd wait on that one.

You're right that it doesn't ruin it and I've never played long periods with it on, but you can see the temptation - There's no downside to having it on all the time which I think is a mistake by the devs.

If they've made it harder to see walls while in the mode in the new game, I'd say that the devs figured it needed changing too.

But yeah, it's a minor thing. Still not gonna go anywhere near the game until it drops in price though.

You and me both, son. As much as I really want the game, and as much as I liked Arkham Asylum, I will NEVER pay 40 quid for a game unless it's a Resident Evil collectors set or something.

I've heard nothing but good things about the game so far. Reviewers are saying it is to Arkham Asylum what The Dark Knight was to Batman Begins. I enjoyed Asylum a lot, although it didn't have it's faults, so if this game is a major improvement then I should be on this thing for weeks.

Yeah, the boss fights in Asylum were sort of on the weak side as far as challenge. They are BETTER here, but not stellar. Still fairly easy, if you ask me. If I had to level a complaint against the series, it's that the detective stuff is sort of half-baked, not requiring any thought, for the most part...

I'm not a massive fan of the first game - I can see that it's excellent in what it sets out to do and me nitpicking that the only major gripe I have is with detective mode shows that, but it's just not for me. I gave it another chance when I grabbed it in the Steam sale a few months ago but haven't been compelled to do anything other than mess around for half an hour in it.

Arkham City would interest me at Ł20 but not Ł40.

Funnily, I was talking about game prices years ago with a friend recently - Distinctly remember paying Ł44.99 for Tomb Raider and Ł49.99 for Final Fantasy VII back in the mid-90s. Games have actually gotten cheaper.

Batman: Arkham City
Battlefield 3
MW3
Uncharted 2


I'm going to be really broke soon.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

I'll rent Arkham soon. Does it matter story-wise if I didn't play the 1rst one? That's my only real concern, otherwise I'd sooner just skip to the new one...

There are quite a few games I'd love to try, now that I've got the chance. Never played the Uncharted series, heard it was the bomb. Played through Mass Effect when it released (loved the rpg shooter idea but wasn't thrilled by the execution), now I plan to grab 2 & 3 together and play 'em back-to-back.

I am very interested in the new Battlefield.

Game I'm most looking forward to? SKYRIM.

Read a plot summary, which I think is almost a must, what with all the titan references etc. Read a plot summary of Asylum and then get busy in Arkham City!

Seems it's all Arkham City in this thread. I scored a used copy for $28, thanks to discounts, coupons, and existing store credit I piled onto it. I like it so far, but having not played Arkham Asylum in a year, it's a little disorienting being thrown back into the gameplay with little guidance. Also, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the freeform style and the Riddler puzzles. Feels like I'm in a playground for my own devices, and less an actual city, but I'm still plugging away.