{"id":1318,"date":"2012-10-12T11:10:54","date_gmt":"2012-10-12T11:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=1318"},"modified":"2012-10-12T11:10:54","modified_gmt":"2012-10-12T11:10:54","slug":"my-top-100-69-batman-arkham-asylum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=1318","title":{"rendered":"My Top 100: #69 &#8211; Batman: Arkham Asylum"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1341\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/952337_160988_front.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1341\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1341\" title=\"952337_160988_front\" src=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/952337_160988_front.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"894\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/952337_160988_front.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/952337_160988_front-214x300.jpg 214w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1341\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2009 &#8211; Warner Bros Interactive (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I feel somewhat odd including more recent titles on my list, since I haven&#8217;t really been on-the-spot with playing new releases.\u00a0 If a game is critically praised, or if friends urge me to try\u00a0it out, I *might* get around to trying it a\u00a0year or two\u00a0after it&#8217;s released.\u00a0 I&#8217;m never in any rush to do so, however.<\/p>\n<p>With <em>Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/em>, I was in the\u00a0process of getting psyched for <em>The Dark Knight Rises<\/em> when I got the Game of the Year Edition for Christmas last year.\u00a0 If there was ever a time for me to be in the mood to play a dark and gritty superhero game, then this was it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zjrszD19gzQ\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The only &#8220;problem&#8221; I can see with having the Game of the Year Edition, is that I&#8217;m\u00a0not aware of what was DLC and what was included on the disc itself.\u00a0 All I know is this; at its core, the single player story mode\u00a0from this game is one of the most fun experiences to come around gaming for quite\u00a0some time.<\/p>\n<p>Right off the bat,\u00a0Batman is\u00a0lured\u00a0into a fist fight with\u00a0four inmates at\u00a0once.\u00a0 It&#8217;s only a tutorial, but you immediately get\u00a0a feel of\u00a0how well the combat system flows.\u00a0 I wouldn&#8217;t say you can button-mash your way through the game, since doing so will probably get you killed later on, but stringing together nice &#8220;flow-ey&#8221; combos isn&#8217;t terribly difficult.\u00a0 Seeing Batman effortlessly pull off so many moves\u00a0made me vocalize a few times\u00a0with my own\u00a0Kung Fu noises&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;\u00a0 don&#8217;t pretend like you don&#8217;t know what I mean!!\u00a0 You&#8217;ve done it, too.\u00a0 Admit it!<\/p>\n<p>Stealth is also one of Batman&#8217;s more useful tools.\u00a0 If a few guards in an area happen to have guns on them, it&#8217;s up to Bats to dispose of them in a much quieter fashion.\u00a0 Hang them from a gargoyle, or perhaps sneak through an air vent to do a silent takedown from behind.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s like <em>Splinter Cell<\/em> &#8211; just infinitely more badass.<\/p>\n<p>Arkham is\u00a0made up of\u00a0caves and\u00a0dwellings that are all inter-connected in really cool ways, and it kinda gives you that feeling that you&#8217;re part of a living, breathing environment.\u00a0 There&#8217;s even a &#8220;backup&#8221; Bat Cave in the middle of it, and it&#8217;s tucked away quite nicely; to get bonuses I had missed the first time through there, I had to Google how to get back into it!<\/p>\n<p>The story is your somewhat typical Dark Knight fare; Joker takes control of Arkham, setting its denizens free to make life a living nightmare for Batman (or, at least that&#8217;s Scarecrow&#8217;s job).\u00a0 You get to throw down in fisticuffs with the likes of Bane, Zsasz, Killer Croc and one of Poison Ivy&#8217;s agricultural abominations, before the epic confrontation with Luke Skywalker &#8211; er, I mean, the Joker &#8211; at the end of the game.<\/p>\n<p>Little additions like the Riddler Challenges,\u00a0Joker Teeth (gotta find &#8217;em all!)\u00a0and\u00a0Chronicles of Arkham&#8230;\u00a0 they all added up to\u00a0an addictive experience I enjoyed tremendously.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1344\" style=\"width: 444px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/bane.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1344\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1344\" title=\"bane\" src=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/bane.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"434\" height=\"243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/bane.jpg 434w, https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/bane-300x167.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 434px) 100vw, 434px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1344\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bane-talking is much more fun\u00a0than Batman-talking. MUAAHHH.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; I feel somewhat odd including more recent titles on my list, since I haven&#8217;t really been on-the-spot with playing new releases.\u00a0 If a game is critically praised, or if friends urge me to try\u00a0it out, I *might*&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=1318\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,32,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-batman","category-top-100","category-xbox-360"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1318"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1359,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318\/revisions\/1359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}