Batman Arkham Asylum

I've got the game, and what I've played so far it's very good.

Got the Game today an So far an amazing Game Deffo game of the Year.

Yeah I have nearly completed it (I have got all but 2 of the upgrades so I must be near the end) and it is the best game environment since Rapture, and maybe even surpassing that, first Shadow Complex and now this, after a slow as fuck few months, my faith in gaming is restored.

Got my copy of it friday, went for the special edition of it with the batarang, making of dvd and the arkham doctors journal. I think the ps3 version is a little better as you can download the joker to play on the challenge mode and from what i've heard he plays a lot different to batman. Also if you get the game from play.com you get a code to unlock new armour for batman but i think you only get it if you've pre-ordered. i have the new armour but haven't used it. Am early into the game but from what i've played of it so far i love it. It has to be the best comic to game they have done, the attention to detail with voice acting, story and plot and graphics. This is as close as you get to being being batman, you unlock new items and new moves and can upgraded too. His suit is supposed to get damaged the further on you play in game. Most of batman villains are in the game and you get bio telling the history of each of characters you come across in the game, even telling you when they first appeared in comics and even audio interviews with the villains. There's a lot to unlock in this game so if your a batman fan or love games that have a lot of attention to detail then this game is a must.

I've completed story mode on normal difficulty.

Yeah me too, and I just got off playing through on hard up to the point when I got to Bane (that is not the reason I turned it off, I just thought it would be a good point to leave it for the night) and hard mode is quite a lot harder, on a normal (unupgraded) lifebar it takes about 5 punches to kill you, there is no longer the lightning animation over enemies heads to tell you to counter, you just have to assume you should be countering at that moment.

Also the method to heal you (however much exp in that fight you have received heals you by a set amount) is way less helpful, getting about 350(ish) exp in normal used to heal me completely (even with the 4 life upgrades) but on hard that does not even heal half of the base amount. It is fun and forces me to be a lot more tactical with my gadgets but I can see it being a huge pain later on in the game (the last boss section and a bit near an elevator, without spouling it for anybody, are going to be very difficult).

The Predator challenges are proper fun though, I just wish there were more as I have got the full 3 medals on each of the 8 maps and it took me less than 2 hours. The Combat challenges are a huge fucking pain though.

The armoured batsuit (I got mine from play.com too Kalel, bit disappointed with the SE Batarang) looks really cool but does not actually offer any extra protection, it is there for aesthetic purposes only. Oh and the Joker has his own challenges I believe, he does not do the Batman ones. And the Joker challenges are only a timed PS3 exclusive (like the Fallout 3 DLC on the 360) and should be out later on in the year on the 360. Which is apparantly the better version according to ign because the graphics are sharper, I could not see any difference myself when playing the demos but that is why I am not a game reviewer.

Batmans suit does get damaged as the game progresses, at the end of mine he had two slashes taken out of his cape in about his right shoulder blade area, the bottom right of his cape ripped off, a slash across his cowl across his left eye, two shaving like cuts on his face, his leg and arm gauntlets were muddied, as was his entire suit, he had a slash across his right pectoral, two slashes across his left bicep and a patch of his tights just above his right knee removed. That was just me and I do not know if it is a fixed set of damage that occurs throughout the game or because I got battered in a couple of the fights (half that stuff I described above showed up after I was used as a punching bag by Bane).

This is THE best game I have played this year, which is impressive considering, amongst others, inFamous, Resident Evil 5 and Shadow Complex came out this year. It is easily the best comic book/ superhero game ever and may even push for a place in my top 10 (definately in my top 20), it is that good. I may be prejudiced being a huge comics and Batman fan (I have a framed poster of Batman on my wall, comic Batman too, not film Batman) but this game is absolutely brilliant, try the demo and you will be sold.

Yeah I'm trying on hard, I'm onto the second Scarecrow section.

I defeated Bane, even on hard so far I've found it fairly easy because of the constant saving points, so even when you die on low energy you can start again on full.

The last and second to last boss strike me as being a nightmare, facing 8 henchmen in the early stages is very tough, facing double that is going to be very tough on hard setting.

I really hope they let you get to play as the joker on DLC on the 360, but from what I've heard it's a PS3 only exclusive.

Nooo i pre ordered at Amazon and i jut got some crappy "postcards" of some of the characters. Fantastic game, i'm right at the start as i like to take my time ahaha

Dare I say whoever preordered this game from Play for the armoured batsuit got cheated? You unlock it for completing the game anyway.
I completed the game a couple of days ago on normal and completed all of Riddler's challenges, I'm now going through it on hard, which is a lot harder but the game's still as fun as the start. Definite game of the year, I don't see how even the likes of Modern Warfare 2 is gonna beat this. Just waiting for Mass Effect 2, Lost Planet 2 and Dead Rising 2 next year now.

Is it a bit weird that i found Harley Quinn really sexy?