Batman: Arkham Asylum Catch-All

No controller plugged in. By consiously never pressing shift and instead relying on CTRL (toggle crouch) I've seemed to avoid the problem. Strange thing but I've found a way to work around it.

I am running it on a laptop with a keyboard and mouse plugged in. I'd have to disable the trackpad and built-in keyboard.

Is there a trick to moving save games between computers with this game? Just reinstalled on the new box, and the old save game file is in the folder it's supposed to be in, but the only options in game are for new games.

I've got a hard run through 71% done. Don't want to lose it.

MannishBoy wrote:

Is there a trick to moving save games between computers with this game? Just reinstalled on the new box, and the old save game file is in the folder it's supposed to be in, but the only options in game are for new games.

Copy both the Eidos folder in My Documents, and C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Xlive (Win7 path, xp will be slightly different)

Scratched wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

Is there a trick to moving save games between computers with this game? Just reinstalled on the new box, and the old save game file is in the folder it's supposed to be in, but the only options in game are for new games.

Copy both the Eidos folder in My Documents, and C:UsersusernameAppDataLocalMicrosoftXlive (Win7 path, xp will be slightly different)

Just found that on the Eidos forum (the XLive folder stuff). It's 3.03GB large, mostly due to the DLC sub folder. Wonder if that folder should be moved or not.

I'll mess with it later. Thanks.

EDIT: Didn't work.

There's a trick to it. You need to start up the game first, have the game create a fresh folder and the move the individual save file into this new folder.

I thiiiiink.

Hyetal wrote:

There's a trick to it. You need to start up the game first, have the game create a fresh folder and the move the individual save file into this new folder.

I thiiiiink.

I had just done the Windows Easy Transfer to move most of my personal stuff over, including the My Documents folder with the saves. That worked for all the rest of my installed GFWL games that I've checked so far (Bioshock 2, Dirt 2, DoW2).

Kind of annoying these don't all work the same.

Anyone have any tips for dealing with the Titans in the combat challenges? I've made it into the extreme challenges, and I'm certain they're going to start throwing more Titans at me. The one at the end of Rumble in the Jungle was a pain, and I don't know how well I'll handle more.

Basically, my strategy for the combat challenges has been to build long critical strike chains broken up with instant takedowns, then end the challenge with the bat-claw and batarang to get high scoring ground takedowns while the combo meter is high. The problem I'm running into with the Titans is that their charge can damage you during the long animation for an instant takedown, which takes out part of my pattern. Even without that, though, I've had a hard time snapping off a batarang when they charge and then getting out of the way so as to not get hit while they stumble forward. (Yes, I'm using the quick batarang.)

For those of you that completed all the combat challenges, what was your strategy for dealing with the Titans?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Anyone have any tips for dealing with the Titans in the combat challenges? I've made it into the extreme challenges, and I'm certain they're going to start throwing more Titans at me. The one at the end of Rumble in the Jungle was a pain, and I don't know how well I'll handle more.

Basically, my strategy for the combat challenges has been to build long critical strike chains broken up with instant takedowns, then end the challenge with the bat-claw and batarang to get high scoring ground takedowns while the combo meter is high. The problem I'm running into with the Titans is that their charge can damage you during the long animation for an instant takedown, which takes out part of my pattern. Even without that, though, I've had a hard time snapping off a batarang when they charge and then getting out of the way so as to not get hit while they stumble forward. (Yes, I'm using the quick batarang.)

For those of you that completed all the combat challenges, what was your strategy for dealing with the Titans?

As Batman, I'd recommend you build your score in the rounds without Titan(s). With the Titan(s), you're not going to be able to work up a very big combo without a lot of practice. Just focus on throwing a few punches/counters, and constantly leaping over the grunts, making sure to keep them away from the gun locker at least. Keep the camera rotated so you can always see the Titan, and when he starts his charging pose (one foot forward, arms cocked back), get ready to throw the batarang and vault over the grunts (or the Titan if you get the timing right).

If you get up to the very end, and you're a few thousand points from a 3-bat score, once you get the Titan down on his knees waiting for the takedown, just repeatedly run off a bit, run at him, jump-kick, then batarang for a 3-hit combo (and 40 points). It's slow, but if you're tired of the same challenge, it'll at least get you the gold.

This video is what I based my RitJ strategy on, part of which I mentioned to you on IRC:

IIRC, you're invincible while you're in the "dodging over a grunt's head" animation even if it looks like the Titan should hit you, aren't you? It might help you to dodge them if you go out of your way to try to dodge over a grunt every time they charge you. Also, if the Titan is too close when it begins its charge, don't bother with the Batarang; just get the hell out of the way and deal with them later.

Other than that, the main thing is to keep your distance from the Titan(s) and beat up grunts to keep your combo up until they charge you and give you an opening to Batarang-stun them and then beat up on them a little, but always keep them on camera so that you can see if they're about to chuck something at you. It helps to use repeated triple Quick Batarangs on the grunts for crowd control so that you don't find your movement hampered by mobs when the Titan starts to make its move.

Also, if you DO find yourself in close quarters with a non-stunned Titan, you can do a dodge move over its head, punch it twice, then do another dodge move back over its head, rinse, repeat. Just make sure you don't ignore the grunts too much and let one of them get a cheap shot in while you're doing it. Also, if a grunt does go after you when you're in close quarters with a non-stunned Titan, do NOT do a counterattack; this will leave you very vulnerable to the Titan's swipe move. Do a dodge over the grunt's head instead.

Unlike in other combat challenges, it doesn't really pay to go too far out of your way to get the variation bonuses, since too many of your moves (particularly the Bat Claw and Instant Takedowns) will leave you vulnerable. Just spam the most effective moves while keeping your multiplier up. You're likely to rack up some major points when in rodeo mode riding around on a Titan smacking around grunts anyway.

Also, this probably goes without saying, but in challenges with multiple Titans, as soon as you get one Titan into rodeo mode, your first priority is to go after the other Titan and do as much damage as possible while you have impunity.

MannishBoy wrote:

I've never figured out exactly what triggers the ride to be over, though. Sometimes you seem to stay on a Titan much longer than other times. Maybe it's the frequency of the hits?

I can actually answer that one. The Titan shrugs you off when you've: delivered three hits to another Titan, delivered a certain number of hits to random thugs (I think it's ten to fifteen, but I might be wrong), or knocked out the last thug or Titan in the room.

You can also build some big combos while riding the titans. I think I got into the 30s mainly on the back of one Titan once I'd stunned him and hoped on. I had a few hits on the Titan on the ground, then the animation to get on his back, then wondering in a circle whacking dudes and the other Titan.

I've never figured out exactly what triggers the ride to be over, though. Sometimes you seem to stay on a Titan much longer than other times. Maybe it's the frequency of the hits?

I've been going back into this one a lot doing combat challenges trying to three batarang all the levels. My problems are the electrified floor levels, and consistently finishing that last round on time above the target. I think I got 29,97$ the other night and about cried (30,000 target).

ClockworkHouse wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

I've never figured out exactly what triggers the ride to be over, though. Sometimes you seem to stay on a Titan much longer than other times. Maybe it's the frequency of the hits?

I can actually answer that one. The Titan shrugs you off when you've: delivered three hits to another Titan, delivered a certain number of hits to random thugs (I think it's ten to fifteen, but I might be wrong), or knocked out the last thug or Titan in the room.

If that's true, I must have had a bigger streak going before I got on his back than I thought.

That's really interesting. I wonder how it works when you combine grunt hits with Titan hits: does it end when you EITHER get three Titan hits or 10/15 grunt hits (whichever comes first), or is there some equation where five grunt hits = one Titan hit or something? Probably not really worth researching considering that I was able to three-star all the combat challenges without knowing, but it's an interesting question.

What's really nice is when you can ride one Titan, stagger the other, and then jump on him and start another ride as soon as your first ride ends.

hbi2k wrote:

What's really nice is when you can ride one Titan, stagger the other, and then jump on him and start another ride as soon as your first ride ends.

That is cool when you can get it to happen.

I really don't enjoy the stealth missions very much compared to the combat.

I only really got back into trying to complete the challenges lately because I can't seem to figure out transfering a save to my new PC. Moving the data in My Docs + the XLive folder in App Data just gives me a corrupted save error

hbi2k wrote:

What's really nice is when you can ride one Titan, stagger the other, and then jump on him and start another ride as soon as your first ride ends.

Yeah that can be a key to finishing the extreme one with two titans on 3 batarangs. Whatever you do, you should start with rodeo and then when the titan throws you off, use dodge, quick batarang, or something quickly to keep the combo going. Starting off a combo against the thugs at x10 already will definitely help especially when you do a quick takedown or throw. Sometimes it's worth just quick batarang the titan, dodge it, and keep the combo going on regular thugs to make sure you get the variation up before all the thugs are gone.

The other point someone already mentioned above. Max out as much as you can in the non-titan rounds. Make sure you get your 9x variation bonuses and stuff.

2 titan, and extreme electric floor (forget the names) were the two I had the most trouble with, mentioned pages back in this thread somewhere as I was struggling.

Yeah, I found the electric floor missions to be easily the most challenging, since they force you to switch your focus from maxing your variation bonus to spamming Instant Takedowns to take out as many thugs as possible as quickly as possible.

The only reliable way I've found to clear them with three batarangs is to restart the first round until you've managed to get a Flawless Freeflow with max variation-- a perfect round, in other words. That gives you enough breathing room in points to clear the subsequent rounds any way you can and still get three batarangs.

hbi2k wrote:

That's really interesting. I wonder how it works when you combine grunt hits with Titan hits: does it end when you EITHER get three Titan hits or 10/15 grunt hits (whichever comes first), or is there some equation where five grunt hits = one Titan hit or something? Probably not really worth researching considering that I was able to three-star all the combat challenges without knowing, but it's an interesting question.

It's whichever occurs first, so you can take down a number of guys and then hit a Titan three times to really take advantage. The Titan you're riding can also take damage from other Titans without Batman taking damage, so if you're careful you can get them in range of another Titan to try to do some additional damage to the Titan you're riding without actually hitting the other Titan. I like that they setup the Titan rides to end after a certain number of hits have landed rather than simply making it timed; it keeps the fact that the Titans are difficult to control from feeling like an unfair hindrance.

hbi2k wrote:

Yeah, I found the electric floor missions to be easily the most challenging, since they force you to switch your focus from maxing your variation bonus to spamming Instant Takedowns to take out as many thugs as possible as quickly as possible.

The only reliable way I've found to clear them with three batarangs is to restart the first round until you've managed to get a Flawless Freeflow with max variation-- a perfect round, in other words. That gives you enough breathing room in points to clear the subsequent rounds any way you can and still get three batarangs.

I haven't tried Shock and Awe (Extreme) yet, but I thought the first one fit my combat style pretty well. I normally fight every round in more or less the same way: attack someone until it's time to counter, then follow-up the counter with a cape stun, land one or two more attacks to activate a special attack, and then use a throw or instant takedown. While the special animation is running, I pick my next two targets, hit them with critical strikes to reactivate the special attack, then use whichever special attack I didn't use before (usually an instant takedown) on any knife or tazer thugs in range. Repeat that chain of critical strikes and instant takedowns until there are one to three guys remaining, then hit them with the bat-claw followed immediately by the triple batarang and as many ground takedowns as I can. To get the maximum variation bonus, you only need to use each of Batman's skills once in a single combo, so you can use the faster critical attacks to build up a good combo number and then slip in the slower or more difficult moves at the end and still get just as good of a variation score. With Shock and Awe, I just cut the gadgets phase of combat out in favor of a couple more instant takedowns to save time.

I think it's actually that pattern of combat I've settled into that makes the Titans a bit unfun to play against. Their attack patterns actively discourage the kind of combo chaining that I enjoy and leads to a lot of skulking around the edges of the arena waiting to hit them with a batarang when they charge. The knife, tazer, and gun thugs fit well into the flow of combat, but the Titan's are just a disruption. I don't doubt that's what the designers intended them to be, but when they show up in the main game or in one of the challenges I don't get psyched for a difficult fight but instead roll my eyes and prepare for frustration. I don't know that that's the feeling they were going for.

In other news, how crazy good are some of the people at the top of the leaderboards? I finished the extreme intensive treatment predator challenge in what I thought was a pretty impressive 3:03. That landed me in the mid-20,000s on the leaderboard, and the top spot is someone who finished it in a bit under 30 seconds. I don't even know how you'd do that.

I almost always open with batclaw. Interesting to see you throwing it in the in the middle. I feel like it's best to use it when all the guys are in front of me at the start since it makes you stand still for so long.

I always stood rock steady and let them come to me. Which means I opened with a counter more often than not. Man, gotta look bad.

Keepin' it real, bruddah.

Stele wrote:

I almost always open with batclaw. Interesting to see you throwing it in the in the middle. I feel like it's best to use it when all the guys are in front of me at the start since it makes you stand still for so long.

That's always been my strategy, too. The only time it gets annoying is when there's a stun thug that you have to make sure to avoid.

Bah. On my first attempt at Shock and Awe (Extreme) I got up to 35,000 points but completely collapsed in the last round and ran out of time. The best I managed after that was 22,000. Stupid combo-breaking gun thugs.

Yeah, I find it's best to make a mad dash for the gun locker on the second round and just camp there and let the thugs come to you, because if one of them manages to get a gun out, even after you defeat him it'll be sitting there on the ground waiting for someone to pick it up again through all subsequent rounds.

Stopping thugs from getting guns is one time I do use batclaw mid-battle, or quick batarang, whichever I have time for.

Yeah, if the only thug on that side of the wall is the one going for the gun locker, you'll usually have time to break out the Batclaw before the rest manage to scramble over and get to you, so it's as good a time as any to work it into your combo.

Aside: How awesome is this game that, even with no multiplayer component, we're still talking it about it a year and a half after release? I've beaten it multiple times and have gotten as far on the challenge rooms as I'm ever likely to (those stealth challenges are a Female Doggo), but I still break it out every now and then for the sheer joy of beating the snot out of thugs.

Yep, I've 100% it on PS3, 98% it on PC (need hard mode run), and thinking I'll go for another 100% PC GotY run before right before Arkham City releases to get back in Batman mode.

hbi2k wrote:

Yeah, if the only thug on that side of the wall is the one going for the gun locker, you'll usually have time to break out the Batclaw before the rest manage to scramble over and get to you, so it's as good a time as any to work it into your combo.

Aside: How awesome is this game that, even with no multiplayer component, we're still talking it about it a year and a half after release? I've beaten it multiple times and have gotten as far on the challenge rooms as I'm ever likely to (those stealth challenges are a Female Doggo), but I still break it out every now and then for the sheer joy of beating the snot out of thugs.

I just break out an Instant Takedown on anyone going for a gun. It's the only way they'll learn. Go for a gun, you get broken.

I use instant takedowns on anyone with a gun, too.

I wish there were more stealth challenges. Those are so much fun.

Last night was a good night for achievements. I not only finished the speed run in Braid but wrapped up Rumble in the Jungle (Extreme) to get Perfect Knight.

I went ahead and started a playthrough on hard. I thought I'd have trouble without the counter icon in combat, but it turns out that all the time spent in the challenge modes has me recognizing an attack without them. Any tips for playing on hard? I had planned to take combat and defense-focused upgrades first since the gadget upgrades generally aren't very useful.

Having played this game to completion, is there any reason (other than Bonus_Eruptus-style achievement whoring) to get the Game of the Year edition? The 3D isn't interesting to me, but are any of the DLC packs good?

Hard is not really that difficult after you've gotten used to the tells of your enemies. Some of the boss fights seemed a bit harder, but it may have been that I was rusty when I hit them. I would always have one upgrade in my pocket to save for a tough boss fight, so that I could get an easy health boost mid fight if I couldn't get it after a few attempts.

I had zero problems on hard, but suck at the challenge rooms. I may have to revisit those and practice so I can be in the 1k club(i have all the SP cheevos).