Review: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Ah, Batman. I’ve always been a Batman fan. I enjoyed the first few movies and I really enjoyed the new series that were done by Christopher Nolan. Infact, I still think Health Ledger was absolutely phenomenal in The Dark Knight. I’ve always loved the fact that the character behind Batman wasn’t a superhero due to a step forward in evolution or a spider-bite. Batman – behind it all – is a normal guy, who just happens to be really smart, rich and has a toy for everything.

Having played the demo, I wasn’t terribly impressed. But much like inFamous – I found myself going back to the demo. Eventually, I bought it – since all copies were out at the local Blockbuster. Was it a mistake? Or is this game worth the $60? Here are the high points and the low points. In the end, it’s your call …

• The predator modes of the game worked great. Having a large number of choices for silent takedowns makes you feel like there’s not much you CAN’T do.
• The storyline is actually pretty long and will keep you busy for awhile. The riddler clues and inventory upgrades will cause some backtracking … but the world isn’t too big that it’s a major chore to go from place to place.
• The combat system works okay in storymode, but really excels in the challenge modes – making you keep an eye out for your next move to attempt to get a high score. Personally, no game has ever offered a challenge room that has me hooked as much as this game.
• Voice acting was well done, and many of the voices were the same voices that were in the cartoon series. Kudos to Rockstead/Eidos for making that happen.
• Enemies in Predators mode don’t always follow the same path once you’ve started taking down enemies – which prevents from you from developing a definite, intricate pattern to help you get the quickest time.

• The combat system forces you into a set of rules, but the enemies can bend/break them causing you to screw up and/or get hit when you really shouldn’t have.
• The game has too many combat areas and too little predator areas. Isn’t Batman supposed to take out his enemies quietly one-by-one? So why are there many instances where you just basically fly in and start taking them out? I hope if they create a sequel, we see man more predator rooms and less combat rooms.
• Some riddles are difficult to decipher unless you know what you’re looking for. If you played the game and solved the riddles, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

• This doesn’t count as a negative or positive, just wanted to point out that the third Scarecrow encounter really threw me for a loop.

Postive Points: 5 | Negative Points: 3 | Total Score: +2

Welcome to the world, PS3 Slim …

… we knew about you for months. But despite the fact that Sony can’t seem to hold big secrets to save their lives, Sony threw out a bunch of info that fans really wanted to hear – ultimately making Sony that much more of a competition to Nintendo and Microsoft. And considering this is a blog that is 95% geared towards PS3, I feel the need to comment on them and mention why I think Sony has just made themselves that much more of a formidable opponent.

• Price Cut to $300. It’s what people have been asking for for a long time – damn near a year I’d say at least. At first, I could understand why they stuck to the $400 price tag, but when they announced that production costs were down by around 60-70% that’s when I finally jumped ship and said that they need to do a price cut. And, they did. And they did it for both systems … so it looks like $300 is the common price for a PS3. This should silence everyone saying that they’re holding out on a PS3 because it was too expensive, considering they dropped the price by about 25%.
• PS3 Slim. The PlayStation 3 finally has it’s makeover. Personally, I prefer the bulkier original but lucky for me, I don’t have to buy this one. I am a bit envious of the less power consumption … but no matter, I’m not sure how much it would reduce my electric bill if I bought a Slim. But, people who complained that it was too ugly or bulky can’t complain anymore.
• Rumored 250GB PS3 Slim. Not even a day after it was announced, places like Joystiq PS3 and PlayStation Lifestyle caught glimpse of another PS3 Slim model that was submitted to the FCC(?) which mentioned that it would have a 250GB model. Now, while this will give people another reason to hold off on a PS3, it shows that Sony is slowly catching up to what Microsoft is already offering.
• Firmware 3.0. On top of the PS3 Slim, and price cut, we’re also getting an update to the XMB. The PlayStaton Store is now under the game and videos tab and will link directly to the appropriate sections. The background of the OS gets a little update and we get a new information board, trophy sorting, and a small update to our friends list. We also get a new little mini-bar on the top-right which will let us know how many friends are online (numberwise), the date, time, our avatar and a little blurb of news, like a ticker. Something that I’m looking forward to are Dynamic Themes. Where now you’d have a standard wallpaper – a dynamic theme will have an animated background. A neat update overall, but will probably leave people still complaining about no cross-game voice chat.

And finally, it looks like the PS3 Slim brands a new logo, in what looks like to be a rebranding of the product. Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of this because it’s inconsistent with the model I have, but it’s nice to see them actively working to improve their product in all senses.

Ultimately, this puts Microsoft in a bit of a bind. With the rumored 250 PS3 Slim and the price cut, the PS3 now has almost everything that the 360 offers but also has a BluRay drive on top of that. As for Nintendo, they will have to look into a price cut because, like my friend has said, you can buy a much more powerful system for $100 more.

I have to say, I’m pretty impressed with what Sony pulled off yesterday. Almost everything announced was stuff that people were asking for for a long time – Price Cut, PS3 Slim, Firmware 3.0 – and it really makes it look like Sony actively listens to the input.

Hopefully it works out in the end for them – although I guess we’ll have to wait until the reports come in to see if it did or not.

Review: Arkham Asylum Demo

Arkham Asylum was another game that was on my must-rent list. And honestly, I’d probably buy it if our finances hadn’t limited us. I was happy to see a demo of it on the PSN so decided to give it a shot. Not much more to say, so here we go.

• The graphics looked great – even for a 1GB demo. And if this is how it’s going to be in the game … then it’s looking to be a pretty game overall. It goes to show that people are starting to use the PS3 for it’s potential instead of just porting it.
• The fighting mechanics were enjoyable. I can definitely see that this game is going to have stealth elements to it and I’m a sucker for stealth games. (I’m still a big fan of Thief)
• The game looks to play heavily on his tools as well – the Batarang, using a zipline (or whatever it’s called) to go from platform to platform, or to string enemies up, gliding takedowns or silent drops. It gives fighting a non-linear feel to it – you can pick and choose on what you want to do.
• Demo was too short for me. Only about five fighting areas and that was it. I would have liked to have more to play – but ultimately, the point of a demo is to get you wanting more.
• Considering how much you were able to play – a 1GB+ download seemed a bit extreme. You could play more in Call of Duty: World at War and that had about the same file size as this demo.
• Something about Batman’s appearance bugs me. Maybe it’s the blocky face structure, or how the game looks when you’re running – but something just stands off to me.

Positive Points: 3 | Negative Points: 3 | Final Score: 0

Review: Fat Princess

I bought this game off as an impulse buy – but I also bought it because it looked like it had comedy, a medieval theme, as well as a RTS/Upgrade System. Plus, the concept of stuffing a princess with cake to make it harder for your opponents to “steal the flag” just seemed funny to me. So, I bought it hoping that I’d find it to be an addicting multiplayer game. And so I bring up an obvious question: “Does it?”

• Graphic style of the game is very cartoonish, but the blood that is spewed lets us know that this isn’t a kiddy game. And I’m a fan of games that stray from the common “realistic” themes that games churn out these days.
  
• The game is based 95% on mulitplayer gameplay – which is great for those looking for a good multiplayer game.
• The class system allows you to choose whichever class you want to be at any time. There’s no in-depth work on creating your character. You rely on grunts to upgrade various classes and castle items but other than that, you can pick as you choose by picking up the appropriate hats.
• The game developers didn’t take the game too seriously. The creators had fun with this game – and that’s something I really like seeing in games. That’s why when you play the story mode, you don’t play “Story Mode” you “Play with yourself.” And did I mention (if I recall correctly) you can kill the developers during the credits? They’re portrayed as normal in-game characters, but you get the idea. Oh, and it goes along with Sir Mix-A-Lot’s song ‘Baby Got Back.’
• Titan Studios has plans to update the game with new levels and classes. I’m happy to see them continue to expand on the game. No word on whether it will be a free patch or paid DLC.
• The Story mode was entirely too short – could be cleared in an hour if you want to. Granted, this game focuses mainly on multiplayer, but really? One hour?
• Online play has been plagued with connection issues. To their credit, they patched this – but the weird ranking system and lack of a guild/clan system really hurts the idea of teamwork in the game – and you need teamwork to win in this game.
• Classes don’t seem very balanced. I find one class in particular is better than all the others.
• Trophy requirements seem a bit excessive. Winning 100 multiplayer matches will take awhile, as well as over 2,000 kills. Seems a bit extreme for bronze trophies. (although I know they did it so that they could offer future trophies, since PSN games are restricted with trophies to an extent)
  

Positive Points: 5 | Negative Points: 3 | Final Score: +2

Review: X-Men Origins – Wolverine

I’ve always been a sucker for video games involving superheroes. Whether it’s Batman, Spiderman, X-Men, whatever – if it involves the comic book genre, I’m almost always going to give it a shot. In addition to having a stressful week on all sides, I downloaded the demo of this game with the prediction that it was a game that shouldn’t have high expectations and also a game that would probably be a weekend rental.

• Fun to hack-and-slash your enemies into pieces. Slowdown effects and rage make this game very bloody.
• The cut-scene movies looked very good.
• The controls are simple, yet many combos give it depth. The double-jump is frustrating, though.
• The game offered environmental kills – such as chucking your opponent into spikes, fans, electric panels etc. Very fun.
• RPG/Leveling system is pretty fun. I noticed that you didn’t get enough XP to upgrade everything, so it makes you choose your perks. Mutagens also help with character customization. You have numerous ones but only three can be active.
• Once the game is over, that’s it – no real replayability.
• Boss battles are similar. You use the same technique for all of them. Gets kinda’ boring.
• Graphics were alright, although it looks like it was rushed. Graphics and objects up-close would often look blurry and sharpen up when your characters was standing around – as if it’s “catching up” if that makes sense. The issue I had with it is that this happened to objects up-close, instead of being rendered when they were farther away.
  
• Storyline can be confusing if you’re not really tuned in. While this isn’t a big problem, it kinda’ sucks going through the game without a complete understanding of what you’re doing.

Positive points: 5 | Negative points: 4 | Final Score: +1