Arkham City: aftergame thoughts

[JRD]

There's this little void between finishing the main story and starting a NG+.... and that's pretty much 50% of the whole game!!  ???

I finished the main story after playing through in no hurry, balancing main missions, side missions and challenges in 30 hours with the overall percentage of exactly 50% complete. You can play it straight on through the main story in about 15 hours or less but I wanted to have my experience on my own pace so it took me that time.

So I finished the last level, last boss and watched the credits... where you can listen to a... say... disturbing version of Only You by no one else than the Joker himself!!!  Next thing I know is I'm back to the role of Catwoman for another couple missions and a boss fight - Two Face at the museum... and that's right after rolling the credits!!!  ;) Once finished that,  Catwoman goes to a rooftop, meeting the bat and from that point on you have an icon on a few places in Arkham City where you can swap characters... Catwoman still have a bunch of riddles to solve and a sidemission to retrieve her loot spreaded over 16 thugs all over Arkham City, so there's plenty of fun to have with her!

Back to the bat... I had three big side missions: finding Nora Freeze, finding all titan conteiners to do Bane's side quests and finding and rescuing the Riddler's hostages... there are six and I only got two of them free. It means I have to solve enough puzzles to get a hint I can decipher to get the location of the next hostage.

By doing that I unlocked another nine (!!!) challenge maps... NINE!!! There are another ten or so challenge maps to unlock and then the medals to get with both the Bat and the Cat!!

Want more? So there's the phone calls from Szasz to take me around Gothan in a hurry before he kills another victim, stopping all assaults in Arkham City, a misterious character I have to find and the Augumented Reaality training missions...

And that's all between the end of the main story and the NG+ , to be done whenever I want to and bringing any upgrade to the NG+ mode unlocked!!!

Talk about replay value, mate!!!  :-X

[spaceboy]

yeah the amount of content (and good content) is truly impressive.  I have put City on the side for now playing some other games, but I will definitely go back to it again and again.

[JRD]

I'm trying to put it on the side and resume Brotherhood but I just can't do it  ;D

Gliding through Arkham City never gets old and when I want a change I hit the challenge maps and if I start missing the story to tie things together, I have my NG+ with a real challenge to go through!!  >:D >:D >:D

[Fiach]

Sounds great mate! :)

I'm a little annoyed over one thing, I got DLC with the 360 version and the PC version uses my 360 Gamertag on GFWL, but I cant access the DLC for the 360, which is OK, but what annoys me is I got no DLC codes free with the PC version, but got 2 codes with the 360 version (play as Catwoman and Play as Robin on challenge maps), a bit unfair for PC users.

[JRD]

As far as I know the Catwoman DLC comes with the PC version so there should be no codes to enter.  ???? 
Have you started a playthrough on the PC yet? The very first time you get to play a character should be as Catwoman stealing Two Face's safe and beating his thugs! Missing Robin or Nightwing is no big deal as they are available only on challenge maps but Catwoman is something you definitely have to play!  8)

[Fiach]

Yes but only a bit, went into some building then out on top to make a call or something as part of a tutorial, was a few days back and I was had a teensy bit too much to drink, I was just checking the PC could run it OK, but yeah iirc I rescued Catwoman from Two Face...still a bit hazy lol :)

[JRD]

What I mean is even before the tutorial... something as an introduction to the game where you play as Catwoman, beat some thugs and open a safe. Two Face shows up and make her prisioner hence the rescue in the beginning as Batman. If you had this part then her levels should show up when the story goes on in parallel... you play as CW while Bman is stuck with something else, it's a complimentary story behind the scenes of what happens with Batman. Very nice indeed.  :-X

[Fiach]

Ah, OK, yes I have that bit at the start, cheers for letting me know :)

[JRD]

So you have the standard PC version with Catwoman enabled, the same I have. You'll play as her eventually in the main story and, after beating the game, anytime you want to free roam. She'll be available for all challenge maps you unlock since the beginning as well.

Robin and Nightwing are paid DLC, you got a code to unlock one of them on the 360 for free iirc which should be a bonus for you. No biggie as they'll be available only at challenge maps but since you have Batman and Catwoman to play with there's plenty for you to enjoy!

[Fiach]

yeah, I cba to play challenge maps, I tend to just play games for their storyline. :)

[JRD]

Try to see it this way: the core of this game is beating the living crap out of people.  ;)  Had they created a game where hitting a button nonstop would do the trick and all challenge maps would be just a waste of time. But they actually pulled off a game where you have to master the art of combat to fully enjoy it and if you want to master it you have to practice... no better place than a challenge map to practice  >:D

Hell, thats a lot of fun  >:D >:D >:D >:D >:D >:D >:D

[Fiach]

Good idea mate, hadnt thought of it that way, never did it in BAA :)

[JRD]

To be honest, challenge maps didn't appeal to me at all, but eventually I gave it a try... as I went on with the game the need to be better in fighting became more important so I came back to the challenge maps to get the hang of fighting and chaining punches and kicks to eliminate enemies faster. Soon it became so funny I found myself coming back to the game just for the challenge maps!  8)

[Binnatics]

Try to see it this way: the core of this game is beating the living crap out of people.  ;)  Had they created a game where hitting a button nonstop would do the trick and all challenge maps would be just a waste of time. But they actually pulled off a game where you have to master the art of combat to fully enjoy it and if you want to master it you have to practice... no better place than a challenge map to practice  >:D

Hell, thats a lot of fun  >:D >:D >:D >:D >:D >:D >:D

Totally agreed!!! Tomorrow my new system is coming (Sandy bridge i7) so I will soon be able to test and enjoy this game finally!!!! Looking forward to it, since you guys seem to have a lot of fun there!!! :-X ^-^

[JRD]

Cool... make sure you capture as many images as you can and post here... I'm really curious to see whay DX11 is capable of!!  8)

[Binnatics]

I will, trust me I will 8)

As soon as I got everything up and running ;)

[Fiach]

Having problems with the PC version and my 360 controller, the A Button has the same function as Spacebar, but its not working smoothly, when I want to run batman throws a punch before he starts running which seems like a mild annoyance, but its EVERY feckin time. I cant open doors with A I have to use the spacebar, He wont dodge A,A.
I think I'll have to shelve this game for the time being, very disappointed after buying two versions of it  :D

[JRD]

That's bad, mate... sorry for that!

Have you checked if the same key (A) is assigned to two different moves (punch and run)? You probably have already...  ::)

[Fiach]

It doesnt give an option to assign controller buttons mate its a default layout unfortunately, others have had the same problem and then again most others havent, I guess there is a driver conflict somewhere, I think Ill just bin the PC version and wait for the save patch on 360.

[Art Blade]

which seems like a mild annoyance, but its EVERY feckin time.

The way you like "shite" I like "feck/ing" -- what a great word to spice up anything worth it. I do like to use it occasionally myself  :-D

[Fiach]

Its gone from the sublime to the ridiculous at this stage, I redownloaded the game and reinstalled it, no go. I configured Xpadder to substitute the A Button for Spacebar...now he jumps before running instead of punches.

Christ I have spent most of today and alot of last night trying to sort this out, I'm never buying a PC game again, definately not a WB game on console or PC, I'm getting to know how Binnatics felt with Rage...a more aptly named game 

[Art Blade]

sad story :-D

[Fiach]

 >:((

[JRD]

And playing with mouse/KB is not an option, I assume?

If you are used with controllers and feel mouse/KB a bit wonky then you really are in need of support from davs...  :-\\

[Binnatics]

I was a bit shocked too, when I found out Batman has no ability of customizing controls. That was when I started playing Batman AA. I decided to stop bothering and to get used to the keys. I do use keyboard/mouse config.
After a bit I got used to it and found it quite accurate, because of the huge amount of different buttons in use.

I do agree that when buttons are double bounded using controllers, there should definitely come a solution for it. I asume you're not the only one using controllers like that :-\\