Batman: Arkham Asylum

*boing*

*SCHWING*

you win

So, it turns out there's a brief demo of this on PS3 store kiosks. I had no idea until it was actually there in front of me; how has this not been mentioned on the blogs and such? Anyway, I had an... interesting experience with it, and proceeded to write an emo-tastic LJ entry about it. You can see my wallow in self-pity here if you like, but for the rest of you, here's the relevant part:

Quote:

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At the electronics section, I checked out the video game demo kiosk systems. To my delighted surprise, the PS3 had a demo of Batman: Arkham Asylum. I hadn't seen anything about a demo online, so I was rather excited by this turn of events. It turned out to be a challenge room demonstrating the game's melee combat system, completely failing to represent the stealth predator aspect of the game, but still, what was there was pretty nice. The combat was smooth and well-animated, with a simple but satisfying combo scoring system - for each consecutive hit, your score multiplyer goes up. Whiff a punch, get hit, or wait too long between attacks, and it resets to zero. Not to worry though, whenever an enemy's about to attack you, there's ample warning to hit the triangle/Y button and thus cancel into a counterattack. It was particularly cool how, when the game realizes you're about to land the final blow on the last enemy in a group, it zooms in and slows down for a dramatic finish to the fight.

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And after typing ["arkham asylum" wal-mart] into google, I found some, I'll be honest, better impressions here and here.

Yes I realize I just opened myself up for some epic trolling.

There's nothing to troll. Nothing you said surprises anyone, which is the most damning thing I can possibly say.

Yeah, while on a snack run for my branch at Target yesterday I saw some mouth breathers playin Arkham Asylum and they would not relent the controls. I'll try to get some time in with it today.

Got the demo at work a few days ago. I didn't try it very long but came away with less excitement for the game,

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/ba...&mode=previews

Interview with Paul Dini about Arkham.

I pre-ordered the standard edition from Amazon (you save $7) no tax and free 2day shipping with Prime.

Everything I've read here lines up with my expectations for the game, so I'll keep my reserve live for now. I'm sure the demo will be available well before the game actually hits, so I'll make my final decision then. Seeing as the demo is all action, zero stealth, it's too early to say how everything fits together.

Kind of weird that they'd release an action-only demo for a game billed as stealth/action. It's definitely easier to understand at a kiosk, though, so I'll cut them a little slack.

James