Batman: Arkham Origins (PS3)

I loved Arkham Origins every bit as much as the two previous games. I'm a big Batman fan, and although I despise the films, I always look forward to the game releases. As is now tradition, I took the week off work so I didn't have to speak to bothersome human beings while I was busy fighting crime. It was a good week. Yes, I did find a bug, but I re-started and everything was magically fixed. Yes, there were a few moments when all I seemed to be doing was mashing buttons, but as a certified and habitual button-masher, that was nothing out of the ordinary. Weirdly, though, despite the criticism of the game's constant need to block, I seemed to get to grips with the fighting much better than the first two games. Perhaps I'm just a double `ard pro at this now.The main story was excellent, and the bosses challenging but not impossible. The only character I struggled with was Deadshot, and I nearly sent my controller spinning into the sink. The city is huge, a massive area to explore, and again I got to grips with the Batman's flight far better than the previous game. There were, however, a few moments here and there when it felt like my Playstation was struggling to keep up. Some minimal lagging occurred - not enough to spoil the game, but enough for me to make a frowny face. The Enigma challenge is huge, much like the previous Riddler challenge, and unfortunately I had to leave that as the only side mission not completed. I just couldn't get a couple of the data packs. Too hard! So annoying! Oh well, I consoled myself with a bucket of chicken and got over it.I loved the new evidence scanning sequences and I hope very much to see it used more in the next game. The investigation side of Batman's job is somewhat important. He is the world's greatest detective, after all. I think Origins severely underused the new feature, but perhaps they were just testing the waters with it, seeing how we would react to its addition.Summary: Yes, there are/were some bugs. It does occasionally lag. Button-maiming is encouraged. The game isn't perfect and that is a shame. But I still loved it. I still had a fantastic week drinking tea, eating cake and hanging bad guys upside down from gargoyles. The way I see it is this: all the problems? Better they're made now and learned from so we can one day have the ultimate version on the PS4.

I pre-ordered Batman: Arkham Origins and got it on the day of release. Initially the game was plagued with glitches, poor frame rate and slowdown. I could barely traverse through Gotham City, so I put the game down. At the time I was disappointed to say the least, especially after playing through Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. However subsequent patches and bugfixes made the game playable again, and I spent most of November 2013 playing through this game, and my verdict at the my first playthrough was that I really enjoyed the experience.Upon returning to this game a few years later, with all the extra DLC now avaliable to us, my opinion has scarcely changed: Arkham Origins is still a great game in my opinion. Despite not expanding much at all on what Arkham City brought to the franchise - and in my opinion this game is inferior to Arkham City - I still believe that Arkham Origins is a very fun game and a welcome edition to the lineup of Batman: Arkham games. Even though now Batman: Arkham Knight is avaliable to us, I say that if you can, don't skip over this game. It is arguably the worst game in the Arkham series (notwithstanding the handheld games which I have no experience with), but that doesn't negate and reason to play it. I mean the story itself has little connection to the other games, so you don't need to play this game in order to understand the other three. So if you can't afford, or don't have time, to play every Arkham Game, I;d suggest you skip this one and stick to the others.Gameplay and Content:Despite the game is very similar to Arkham City, it's not a complete carbon copy, as there are some unique features in gameplay, such as the Remote Claw and the Shock Gloves. There are also some new locations to explore, so you will be able to tell when you're playing Arkham City or Arkham Origins. There is also some great DLC including extra skins for Batman, campaign modes like the Initiation Pack, and even an extra story add on 'Cold Cold Heart', which I absolutely love and in my opinion is much better than Harley Quinn's Revenge in the previous game.Story (no spoilers):I think it's more action packed and dymanic than the previous games, and I also think that the characters are portrayed very well. Some of the newly introduced, lesser known villains are brought into the spotlight - such as Firefly - and ones that were present in the previous games arguably have a far more fleshed out portrayal: especially Bane. Even Batman has some genuinely good character development. He's much more brash, short tempered and inconsiderate of those around him, but he slowly adapts and becomes more like how he is the future games in the timeline.I guess the only problem I have with the story though is that the Assassins aren't used to their greatest potential, despite the fact that there was a major emphasis on them and Black Mask when this game was being advertised. There isn't as much of a focus on them as I expected. Virtually all the assassins themselves are well written and memorable, but they're just kinda shoehorned into the story. I also think that this game has very little actual connection to the next games in the timeline. I mean it there is an establishment of some of the villains for future games, as well as Batman's relationship with his allies, but the story hardly ties in to Arkham Asylum, which was what I expected from a game thats name is 'Arkham Origins'. As I stated above, you could easily skip over this game whilst still being able to follow the story in the followup games, because there weren't really any holes in the story that are filled in by Origins.Overall though, I would definitely recommend playing Batman: Arkham Origins. It may be very similar to Arkham City and the story might seem quite irrelevant, but it's a great game nonetheless.