Batman: Arkham City Catch-All

Jeff-66 wrote:

NO MORE GFWL!

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/EjSNzib.jpg)

Got a 92 MB patch, and just tested it. GFWL is gone from both AA & AC.

Oh happy day!

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/mwO12DI.gif)

Goodbye forever, completion percentage. This is Britta.

SallyNasty wrote:

sh*t - can you opt in? I WANT my AA Goty to be GFWL.

Right click the game, go to properties, then Updates, and tell it not to automatically update. Might have to start in offline mode or pull your network cable.

Is this when we discover Sally has some terrible sort of gaming Stockholm syndrome?

Jeff-66 wrote:

Got a 92 MB patch, and just tested it. GFWL is gone from both AA & AC.

Sadly I just tested and the old non-Steam keys for Arkham Asylum aren't accepted by Steam at this point. I'm still holding out hope that will change in time.

Discover? He's all about the cheevos!

DanyBoy wrote:

So I player this a few hours last week but haven't touched it since. GFWL problems, natch.

Couldn't log in to GFWL when i first loaded it up, so I skipped it. So of course this means there's no way to save anything. So depressing.

So is there an easy fix? I don't care at all about cheevos, but if I'm going to have to spend an hour fussing with GFWL just to replay the hours I lost, I may never pick this game up again. :(

So my strategy of doing nothing has paid off! No more messing with firewalls and profiles

SallyNasty wrote:

sh*t - can you opt in? I WANT my AA Goty to be GFWL.

Wait, what?

Wait, what's going on here? I'm confused... I now have both Batman: Arkham City (which I got on sale) andBatman: Arkham City GOTY in my inventory... And there's no "3 days left" attached to the GOTY version...

And hooray for no more WGFL GFWL, it was always more trouble than it was worth. ^_^
(so excited, I got the acronym wrong)

Same here Eleima, I guess it's a freebie? Not complaining though

Yup I looked into it and for those of us who had Batman Arkham City, you now get the GOTY edition for free. Wooot!

That's... actually pretty awesome of them!
Not sure it'll warrant a second playthrough considering the pile (I just started Dishonored, still have Tomb Raider to play, and that's just the tip of a very large iceberg).
We'll see. That's quite a gesture, I have to say...
I might have to replay Arkham Asylum though, because even though it still logs 30 hours, it shows no achievements. And I'm totally a sucker for achievements. XD Anyone have any experience playing these games with a 360 controller on a PC? I played both before I got mine, so I was using a mouse and keyboard.

I think now that they've removed GFWL, there are no achievements (which is what Sally was referring to).

soonerjudd wrote:

I think now that they've removed GFWL, there are no achievements (which is what Sally was referring to).

Yes, I wanted to double dip and max out both the 360 version and the PC version for achievements.

That's odd, Steam is showing me a whole bunch of achievements. That I haven't unlocked if course, it's not like they transferred from GFWL. I'll double check later.

They're talking about the Xbox achievements that left with GFWL. There's Steam achievements now.

Gorcha. Looking back at my post, I don't think I was 100% clear. What I meant was that I might go back to B:AA to go unlock the achievements in Steam, since I had unlocked them in WGFL GFWL (I just can't see to get it right!!! XD ).

I started B:AC again this week, as I have been casting about for a game to get in to after having finished GTAV. This is the third time I've started the game, and the second time I've lost interest. I really liked it back when it first came out, but every time I go to replay it it fails to sink it's teeth into me again. The first time I restarted I lost interest by the first time you go to Joker's steel mill (very early) and this time I lost interest at Wonder City.

It's such a mechanically great game, it bugs me that every other part of the game is so underwhelming. I think it's trying to do way too much, and as a consequence few of the individual things are as good as they could be. There are too many characters, so all of them wind up getting pretty short shrift. The city is way too sprawling, as a consequence it lacks the kind of specificity that made Arkham Asylum so interesting. The city is kind of a visual jumble with way too much stuff clogging up the imagery. Mostly you just coast above it all once you get the grapnel boost. There are WAY too many Riddler trophies, to the point that they lose the ability to draw me in.

Arkham Asylum was so tightly constructed and well paced. I 100 percented that game and played it all the way through three times. I don't think I'll ever manage to finish this one a second time.

BlackSabre wrote:

Yup I looked into it and for those of us who had Batman Arkham City, you now get the GOTY edition for free. Wooot! :)

Nice! Never did get around to the Harley's Revenge DLC, may have to play through that.

MojoBox wrote:

Arkham Asylum was so tightly constructed and well paced. I 100 percented that game and played it all the way through three times. I don't think I'll ever manage to finish this one a second time.

It's funny. I didn't like this game much when it came out and railed against it a bit in this thread, and I adored Arkham Asylum, but when I get the urge to replay one of them, it's always Arkham City. I have no idea why.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
MojoBox wrote:

Arkham Asylum was so tightly constructed and well paced. I 100 percented that game and played it all the way through three times. I don't think I'll ever manage to finish this one a second time.

It's funny. I didn't like this game much when it came out and railed against it a bit in this thread, and I adored Arkham Asylum, but when I get the urge to replay one of them, it's always Arkham City. I have no idea why.

You can admit you enjoy my bat-nipples. This is a judgment-free zone. Except for Q-Stone.

That's right, I'm still free to judge.

Bat-nipples are bad and you should feel bad.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
MojoBox wrote:

Arkham Asylum was so tightly constructed and well paced. I 100 percented that game and played it all the way through three times. I don't think I'll ever manage to finish this one a second time.

It's funny. I didn't like this game much when it came out and railed against it a bit in this thread, and I adored Arkham Asylum, but when I get the urge to replay one of them, it's always Arkham City. I have no idea why.

I'm actually excited for the open world of Origins myself after watching my roommate play Arkham City. I agree, Asylum was tightly constructed, had less feature creep with the sheer number of gadgets, and my roommate is trying to get all the Riddler trophies even though he feels there are simply too many. In some ways, I agree, the Riddler trophies and puzzles go over board.

But when you get right down to it, it's a well done open world. In order to be a fan of open world games the time either needs to fly by or an hour needs to feel productive, and in Arkham City an hour can feel VERY productive.

It also feels like the story does a lot more with the material than Asylum did. Asylum was simply a Batman game done really, REALLY well. City was a Batman game that had an open world and built on the previous game's story with excellent use of continuity.

I'm hoping Rocksteady is making a really good follow up to Arkham City for next-gen while Warner Montreal is doing the "we want money" Arkham Origins (that I'm now psyched up for hot damn I want to play it).

Quintin_Stone wrote:

That's right, I'm still free to judge.

Bat-nipples are bad and you should feel bad.

You don't get to see my "Only Q-Stone Can Judge Me" tattoo.

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

That's right, I'm still free to judge.

Bat-nipples are bad and you should feel bad.

You don't get to see my "Only Q-Stone Can Judge Me" tattoo.

You see that vent over there?

I'm in it!

It also feels like the story does a lot more with the material than Asylum did. Asylum was simply a Batman game done really, REALLY well. City was a Batman game that had an open world and built on the previous game's story with excellent use of continuity.

In City, I never really had a sense of immersion, like I did in Asylum. My biggest objection was probably the Riddler trophies: they were obvious, and they were everywhere. The much subtler riddles in Asylum were far more believable.

The best way I've been able to sum it up: in Asylum, I felt like Batman. In City, I was playing a game about Batman.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Bonus_Eruptus wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

That's right, I'm still free to judge.

Bat-nipples are bad and you should feel bad.

You don't get to see my "Only Q-Stone Can Judge Me" tattoo.

You see that vent over there?

I'm in it!

You are a noxious gas on its way out.

Malor wrote:
It also feels like the story does a lot more with the material than Asylum did. Asylum was simply a Batman game done really, REALLY well. City was a Batman game that had an open world and built on the previous game's story with excellent use of continuity.

In City, I never really had a sense of immersion, like I did in Asylum. My biggest objection was probably the Riddler trophies: they were obvious, and they were everywhere. The much subtler riddles in Asylum were far more believable.

The best way I've been able to sum it up: in Asylum, I felt like Batman. In City, I was playing a game about Batman.

I actually just started replaying Asylum tonight (don't want to burn myself out on an open-world aspect), and I also think part of it is the beginning. It feels more like you're right in the thick of things with Asylum, and from then on you just keep going from one scene to the next being introduced to new features, new elements of exploration, and then the Riddler stuff opening it up even further.

The problem with the Riddler stuff wasn't just that it was more obvious in City, it was also how long it took until it unlocked. They're also a much greater distraction. Each one is a puzzle, some of them a real pain in the ass requiring a mastering of certain mechanics that just becomes frustrating. Again, they're also everywhere. Roughly 400 trophies and puzzles (and challenges) compared to Asylum's 240, which itself is quite the number.

In fact, Arkham City takes a while until you get into the big open, and even then your options are limited until you follow the story. It's easier with Asylum leading you through a linear path before finally letting you onto the open grounds, where you have to get to the Batmobile but are still capable of snagging trophies and scanning objects.

There's also something to be said for the presence of other guards. In City, everyone is hostile. In Asylum, you lose friendlies over time. It's one of the things I'm worried about in Origins, where you're in Gotham proper around Christmas season. I'm hoping to see civilians walking about as well instead of just thugs and goons everywhere, but somehow I doubt it.

Hey, gang, did you notice... They took GFWL out and put *Steam trading cards* in.

Nice to get your impressions, Ccesarano. It's pretty much in line with my memories of both games. Might dip back in one of them...

Well, while I said I wouldn't start on Arkham City so I wouldn't burn out before Origins, I'm going to start City and pray I don't burn out before Origins. When I think about playing games right now, that's just what I wanna do.

It's kind of a weird comparison but I look at Asylum as a Nintendo game and City as a Ubisoft game.

Aslyum is very tightly designed and the player is given new tools at a good pace similar to Zelda/Metroid where upon they get used to the mechanics and put them to use. And there are segmented sections in the open world similar to dungeons. The only thing they didn't go Nintendo enough on were the poor boss fights. They should have had boss fights that test your mastery of the gadget you acquired.

And while all the mechanics are far superior in City, it's filled with the bar filling that plagues Ubisoft games; pop these balloons, take out all the cameras, solve these riddles that are everywhere you look, oh some guy needs your help, side mission over here, radio picked something up, the phone is ringing and UI popups all the time. You never get a chance to just walk around and be Batman without the game constantly reminding you of all the bar filling it wants you to do.

It's not to say that City is a bad game since I enjoyed it but I don't think it's as tightly designed as Asylum.