Hot Heart

There is definitely something off about the combat. I mean, in some instances my brain is still confusing controls with the ninja turtles game, while others I wasn't sure if my pad was playing up, but I saw Jim Sterling's review mention a problem with ground takedowns, which reminded me I recall issues there as well. I don't mind that the enemies are a little more aggressive and give you less breathing room, but I'd like it if the controls were responsive. And it's no longer related to framerate issues either.

I remember one side mission involved sneaking into some guy's place or that it'd be tricky to get in without him noticing you. Only, I'd already been inside the apartment and left the door open, so he was just sat there at the desk, easy to hit with a tranq dart.

Anyone else finding occasions where they cape stun a guy to start a knockdown but Batman doesn't direct his next hit at them (or anything, really)? Along with that and some of the other tweaks, I'm starting to think they've fucked up the combat.

I would've thought Midnight Club: LA would be the closest thing to GTA V racing.

Well, in terms of major, I'm a little concerned that it doesn't have basic functionality like DVD/BD playback out of the box...

Sounds like a firmware update, so probably not.

Fuuuuuck. This guy is insane. Skip to 8:45 and then watch the predator challenge at 22:45

Yeah, got that same bug myself. This is the 'fight fire with fire' solution Weeeeeeeee On the plus side, I used that fix you mentioned regarding cutscene stuttering and it actually seems to have sorted out everything else (even though it lagged really bad when I tried it without the DX11 stuff yesterday...) so I'm enjoying things a lot more. The buttons respond properly (most of the time) in combat now! Still, I'm liking the story, but it all feels a little too familiar. Really hoping Rocksteady pull off some No Man's Land type game or something for next-gen.

I'm with Strangelove. The batclaw lets you get a few extra hits in, but other than that you're left going through the same few sequences over and over. Batclaw slam > few punches > he attacks, you do the three counter thing > repeat until he does the flash-grenade-to-counter-to-beatdown sequence > repeat the whole batclaw routine until he does the flash grenade thing or the remote claw-canister thing > repeat until the health bar finally depletes enough. For developers who were inspired by the Mr. Freeze fight from Arkham City, they sure don't show it. The first boss fight is a perfect example of the old 'do this thing three times' school of boss fights. Not that I'm saying Rocksteady's games bossfights were all amazing, just that I've not seen anything special here. Oh, also, I dislike that skills are now on a tree and the grading thing is starting to bug me but not quite as much as the medal stuff in GTAV.

Gotta agree with Strangelove. The fight looked flashy and all, but it was just a protracted QTE. Turns out I do need to reinstall the graphics drivers every time so as to get the 'DX11 Enhanced' options and stand a chance at a decent framerate (still a little crappy in the open world). Even then, the stuttering's enough to ruin the experience, so I'm going to have to look at some sort of fix. Shame really, because Arkham City ran perfectly fine except for whenever you entered that one room in the courthouse (or did combat challenges there). The game's been OK so far. I prefer the design for Batman and some of the other characters, and I think the new guy does a decent, gruff, Bale-inspired Batman, which is obviously what they were going for. Plus, the story's been good. Having said that, I think they have a habit of throwing too many bodies at you in both combat and predator missions. In predator stuff, it means that if they discover an unconscious thug, you could wind up with five nervous, armed guys all patrolling close together for a bit. While, in combat, things just get way too crowded and those armoured guys kill the flow because they become hard to spot or necessitate detective vision too often. They definitely don't have the 'Rocksteady touch'.

Managed to play the first bit last night and things were running OK except for massive framerate drop during the QTE in the boss fight. which meant I failed it every time even though all I had to do was hammer one button. Today, it starts running like shit (cutscenes are fine though) and the 'DX11 Enchanced' graphics options that were there are now gone. I'm hoping I don't have to reinstall the graphics drivers every single time like I did with AC3, because now that takes 15 minutes for some reason, but that could be the case...

I can see what you mean but I was never in a rush to track down Saren and stop the Reapers from invading to wipe out all life in the galaxy, nor solve the mystery of my father in Fallout 3, or stop Sephiroth from bringing a meteor down on the whole planet, etc. Obviously, the stakes are different for each game (even higher in most cases), but it's the same principle. I'm happy to 'paper over the cracks' for the sake of freedom and enjoyable gameplay. I think City's variety is its real strength. If it were just that same path as Asylum, I definitely wouldn't love it that much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izTbur3YYiY Good casts, based on real events.

What are you on about, vague? There are explosions and srs dialogues!

But that's (open-world) games/RPGs for you. I wouldn't say it's a design 'fault', it's just that 'options' are what games do best (been meaning to write an article about that at some point). As long as you're willing to reconcile those things, which we do in varying degrees and for different things in all games, then I don't think it's really a problem. Plus, I think Rocksteady have a lot of respect for players' time so that a player can blast through the story and still feel satisfied as well as devoting a whole session to only side stuff and never become bored. They know how to keep things fresh and varied, and even those Riddler trophies (i.e. a game's collectibles) didn't really repeat the same solutions. On the subject of story, AA is fairly straightforward but has that execrable ending. AC's concept is a little too silly, it pushes the 'in a single night' thing a bit too far and really wastes Hugo Strange, but it kept things moving at least...

I don't understand people who think Asylum is better than City. I mean, the only argument you could make is that the story is 'tighter' and sure, yeah, that'd be more significant if it were a film (and neither story is outstanding anyway). City is just better at everything and there is more. I wouldn't even say Asylum's better paced because City is impeccably so, and would only lag if you strayed from the main path (which is all that Asylum has really).

Seriously, dragons aren't 'tight'. They are dope!

Thank god.

Reminds me of when my old played used to play a reggae, ska to punk medley with bits from all sorts of songs. Let me see if I can remember the order...Message To You Rudy, Monkey Man, Rocket Man, Summer Lovin', 54-46, Tetris (i.e. Korobeiniki), Soul Limbo, Sailor's Hornpipe. The 54-46 bit was always good fun; such a great riddim. I believe it's used in one of the tracks in GTA V as well.

I think he's decent in certain films, but many are just 'be Will Smith'. I mean he's charming and all, but it can get grating. He's not exactly Cary Grant.

Heh, I remember you mentioning that on Twitter. I love the harmonies at the end, even though it sounds a little like "the nazis singing"

Don't listen to him, TFG! Luftwaffles hasn't been young, hip or 'with it' for at least five years! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPbNBkAYY7M New album is awesomesauce