Topic: Batman: Arkham Origins

[Xessive]

Already off to a rocky start... Warner Bros. changes developers for Batman: Arkham Origins, due Oct. 25. Rocksteady is out, Warner Bros. Montreal is in to develop console, PC prequel.

After reviving the idea of the Batman video games with two titles that were both critical and commercial successes, you'd think Warner Bros. wouldn't want to rock the boat too much for its third Arkham game. That's apparently not the case, as the publisher announced that the next title in the series, Batman: Arkham Origins, will be developed by WB Games Montreal. That's the internal studio behind the recent "Armored Edition" update to Arkham City on the Wii U.

Details are still scant on the new title beyond its planned release on the PC, Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii U worldwide on October 25. However, today's announcement does confirm that the game will be a prequel to the existing Arkham games and "showcases a young and unrefined Batman as he faces a defining moment in his early career as a crime fighter that sets his path to becoming the Dark Knight." The game will also be featured in next month's Game Informer, whose back cover reveals that Deathstroke will be a major antagonist in the game.

[MysterD]

So, what's up w/ this?

Is Rocksteady working on a different future Batman game...? Or something else entirely?

[Xessive]

No idea, although I recall hearing a rumour that they really wanted to tackle a Superman themed title.

GameInformer has a Batman Arkham Origins hub with some good info and some screenshots too!

[gpw11]

No idea, although I recall hearing a rumour that they really wanted to tackle a Superman themed title.

UGH.  Worst Superhero ever. Although it could be totally awesome in space or something. 

The shitty thing about a Superman game for me is that I can only see it being appealing if it's absolutely ridiculous.  Like, you can't sell Superman to me as Superman if the regular crooks are gang members and it takes anything more than looking at them to defeat them.

[Xessive]

UGH.  Worst Superhero ever. Although it could be totally awesome in space or something. 

The shitty thing about a Superman game for me is that I can only see it being appealing if it's absolutely ridiculous.  Like, you can't sell Superman to me as Superman if the regular crooks are gang members and it takes anything more than looking at them to defeat them.

I never really understood why Superman struggles given his abilities. Unless he's up against a truly formidable foe or someone using Kryptonite he really has no excuse! haha

I am looking forward to Arkham Origins despite Rocksteady not being involved with it.

I would love to see what Rocksteady are up to.

[K-man]

Wait, wasn't it understood that there were two Arkham games in development:  One that Rocksteady was involved in and another that was being farmed out?

Or did I dream that?

[sirean_syan]

I thought the rumor was that Rocksteady was working on a Ninja Turtles game.

[Xessive]

There are a lot of rumour floating around. Superman, Ninja Turtles, G.I. Joe, but the most pervasive rumour right now is a Batman prequel set in the Silver Age. Not my cup of tea but given what we've already seen from Rocksteady I'd love to see what they can make of it.

What we know so far is that there are in fact two Batman Arkham games in development: Batman Arkham Origins for the major platforms and Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate for PS Vita, which is still secondary but supposedly more substantial than the last portable Batman Arkham game and it's gonna be Metroidvania style. It might get ported to other portables but no official word on that yet.

[MysterD]

Batman: Arkham Origins - REVIEWS

Scored out of 10:
OXM -> 9.0
NZGamer -> 8.8
GameTrailers -> 8.7
GameInformer -> 8.50
VideoGamer -> 8
National Post -> 8
Official PlayStation Magazine UK -> 8
IGN -> 7.8
AusGamer -> 7.8
NowGamer -> 7.5
Polygon -> 7
Eurogamer -> 7
GamesTM UK -> 7.
EGMNow -> 6.5
GameSpot -> 6.
Destructoid -> 3.5

Scored out of 100:
XBox360 Achievements -> 92
GameFront -> 85.

Scored out of 5:
TorontoSun -> 4 stars.
GamesRadar -> 4 stars.
Rev3 Games -> 4 stars.

No Scoring System:
Kotaku.

[Xessive]

I'm enjoying the game so far but I just ran into a very disconcerting problem. While playing, the game suddenly popped up a message saying "The Steam service is temporarily unavailable" and booted me back to the title screen! WTF?! Is WB now doing what Ubi did with Assassin's Creed 2?! I'm going to test if and how well the game works in offline mode.

[idolminds]

Here is something fun! Notice anything interesting on the Wii U version?




Do you see it?

[Xessive]

Woah! I thought Humanhead Studios closed up shop years ago!

Btw, game works fine in offline mode.

[MysterD]

Shacknews -> B:AO patch coming next week to address major issues & bugs.

[gpw11]

I don't know about anyone else but I found this game really really stale for some reason.  Like two years after I played Arkham City as well.

[Xessive]

I don't know about anyone else but I found this game really really stale for some reason.  Like two years after I played Arkham City as well.

Yeah, that sounds about right. They didn't do much to innovate on the original formula. They pretty much just played it safe. Although they did miss some of the finer details e.g. combat flow, grappling cursor, etc.

[gpw11]

Yeah, honestly, I uninstalled it - just wasn't fun.  The story seemed pretty cool and the new detective mode feature was alright (but might need to be refined) but the combat seemed off and it just felt like an expansion of the last game.   That's not entirely a bad thing, and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants more of Arkham City, but I just didn't want to plow through it without having fun at the end.  I'd rather go into Arkham Knight fresh.