Batman: Arkham Asylum creator focused on quality over quantity, hasn't played BioShock

Das Boot @ Oct 18th 2009 11:02PM

YO BALLOON BOY, IM REALLY HAPPY FO YOU AND IMMA LET YOU FINISH, BUT ANNE FRANK HAD ONE OF THE BEST ATTIC HIDING SPOTS OF ALL TIME.


OF ALL TIME.

I never got around to playing Bioshock either. I might give it a whirl sometime.

to be honest, i havent played bio shock yet either

"You don't want to overstretch. You want to do less, but do amazingly well, rather than do more and have a load of average stuff at the end of the day. There are too many games out there that deliver lots of average content."

Exactly. Great interview.

Thank you, glad I'm not the only one who feels that way.

The game was too short and with little replay value. It is worth purchasing and trying out, but not for full price, no way.

Yeah Batman doesnt kill, but the way he mercilessly beat those guys in the game would probably put them in a wheelchair eating out of a straw for the rest of their days.

I am not gonna downvote you, but I think it's fine if a game delivers a great singular experience. Not every game needs to be played over and over again.

I loved Metroid Prime, beat it once moved on, same thing with Mario Galaxy and a few other excellent games.

Some games are just that way, and I think it's fine.

"I am not gonna downvote you, but I think it's fine if a game delivers a great singular experience. Not every game needs to be played over and over again."

You are right, but I don't want to pay $50+ for that. If I pay $50+, the game either has to have a long single-player mode like Oblivion and Fallout 3, or have lots of replay value, like Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance.

Completely disagree. Won't downvote you though. Some games are based off replay value, mostly online games, and that's great. They are fantastic at what they do. But there's a place for shorter quality packed games that should never be abandoned. I could spend thousands of hours playing WoW or Oblivion or whatever, but I'd still treasure the 6 hours I played Batman Arkham Asylum much more dearly. There's a lot more to gaming than how many hours you can piss away on each game.

Must... go... back... and .... play Batman AA challenge levels. AHHH TO MANY GOOD GAMES!!!!!

So in other words he played System Shock 2 or any of the other countless games with audio logs then.

I really wish people would stop dropping the Bioshock name every time they want to associate anything good to a game. Bioshock did alot right, sure, but it did alot wrong, too. IMO, it got way more fanfare than it deserved, (Just like GTA 4, which I didn't finish, due to lack of interest.) Not that it didn't deserve any, but it's nowhere near the be-all, end-all of what makes a game remotely good. I couldn't finish the game at first, due to sheer lack of wanting to play it on the first play through, but I willed myself to finish it. I have no intention or desire to play through it again. Not my thing, I guess, and nothing against anyone who loves it, but like I said, the Godfather of good games it most certainly is not.

Batman is an awesome , well-balanced game, and I couldn't put it down when I started playing. It held my attention through both normal and hard difficulty settings and I played every single challenge map, which still gives me incentive to play, even now. I can't say that about Bioshock. If people want to drop names of games that exemplify what is great about gaming today, they should mention the likes of Infamous, Portal, Half-Life 2, Little Big Planet, Gears of War, Ninja Gaiden, and of course classics like Zelda and Mario. Bioshock just wasn't a very rewarding game for me.

I just wish someone would make a good Ninja Turtles game. Ubisoft has proven they are completely incapable, and that's a shame, being that there's so much awesome gameplay potential with the ninja turtles.

Kind of a head-scratcher for me, because as far as I was concerned, Batman: AA tried to do too much and didn't do anything really well. It was fun, but shallow. Like a Saturday morning cartoon.

Agreed. I usually wait and buy games untill I know for sure it has quality. Bought Batman after a week. Worth every penny.

i was afraid i would be downvoted into total transparency. glad to see others agree with me. just to echo what everyone else said, i did think the game was very well made. excellent visuals and story but it just didn't click for me. i feel like it might have worked better as a movie. but then again a ton of other people loved it so i guess you can chalk it all up to a matter of personal taste.

How did anyone play games between 1990 and 1995? Did they only play 20+ hour JRPGs? As far as I remember most games were platformers, fighters, racers or sports games that could be beaten in basically one sitting.

Nowadays if I see a game is OVER 20 hours I start second guessing a desire to play it. Because there is very little chance that any story can be drawn out that long, or action diversified that long, to be memorable.

Batman, Mass Effect, other games at 10-20 hours also allow me to finish it in a working month instead of taking 1/4 a year to finish after I attend to my family, work, chores, etc.

I am a huge Bat-fan and had an absolute blast playing through this game. I wasn't the only one that would stand on a high point with the moon in the background, pose epically, and move the camera around and just stare at the Bat from different angles for long periods of time, right?

They left out a lot of major villains on purpose so that they could use them in the sequel. Lord, please let there be a sequel.

I have tried twice to get into bioshock but it was just too horor for me. I have always been a huge Batman Fan and loved Arkham asylum. I doubt I will ever be able to get into or really play bioshock. I am surprised the two are always so closely compared.

How about simple control issues? They built such an awesome fighting engine and marred it with stupid control choices, the quick taps being the biggest problem. It wouldn't be as infuriating having non-contextual control adjustments if the game didn't know damn well when I was in combat vs. not (as evidenced by the withholding of experience until you are done with all enemies in a battle). The triggers should have just been batarang and batclaw (without quick tap, especially of a large-swing analog button) during combat. Additionally, a slower camera would have been nice (or even fixed, like the Joker battle) because the wild swings mess up your aiming precision. Simple changes that would have made the awesome to watch combat even more realistic.