Assassinating the Summer with gaming

With Summer almost at an end I find myself looking forward to several upcoming titles.  Uncharted 3, Skyrim, Rage, Resistance 3, Batman Arkham City, Assassin's Creed Revelation and holy crap this list just keeps getting longer and longer the more I think about upcoming games.  I'm a bit of a gaming completionist.  Yes I love gaming to collect trophies (although my hobby looks like a tiny pebble compared to some folks), but I'm a completionist more in the sense that once I've started a game for a story I want to continue playing new games that continue a storyline.

In 2009 Ubisoft published Assassin's Creed 2 to much acclaim and accolade.  It was certain well deserved.  The game play was refined from the first title, the story was rich and intriguing, and it was a game that I absolutely couldn't put down once I opened it on Christmas morning that year.  In the summer of 2010, Ubisoft announced that they would be releasing the followup to AC2 that fall with Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.  In the announcement, the only thing in announcement, hell in all of the announcements up until almost a week before the game was released, was how ACB had a fantastic multiplayer mode.  Very little was said about the continuing saga of Ezio.  The end of AC2 was such a dramatic cliffhanger that all the talk of multiplayer and no mention of the single player story frankly turned my own excitement into a meager flicker, relegated to the column of well I'll either get the game at Christmas from someone outside my immediate family or wait for the price to drop.

Replay value?

I finished Batman: Arkham Asylum last week.  Rather I finished the Normal Story mode.  But the game is not complete without getting the Platinum trophy, which requires replaying the game on Hard, plus earning medals in the challenge rooms.  Half of the challenge rooms are pure brawler the other half are stalking rooms.  I love the stalking aspect of the game, but the brawling....meh.  Plus there are Riddler Challenges yet to complete.  The Riddler Challenges are probably one of the coolest parts to the game because you can get so much backstory on Batman and the various enemies he has faced over the years.  The problem I'm facing right now is I have completed 238 out of 240 Riddler challenges.  The last two I need to complete are elusive.  You need to destroy 20 chattering teeth in the different zones of Arkham to complete the Riddler challenges.  In one section I have 19 of 20 and in another I have 17 of 20.  I have slummed through the incomplete sections twice and can't seem to find the last 4 chattering teeth.  Ugh. So for the sake of "replay" value I find myself hunting for trophies in sections of the game that I have completed, basically wondering the halls of Arkham, now empty, and find it boring.

I'm not sure that I want to replay the game on Hard and I can honestly say that the challenge rooms aren't my cup of tea (except for the stalker rooms--that was the best part of the actual game).  I may go back to Batman at some point in the future.  But I still need to actually finish Star Wars Force Unleased, something I'm not sure I really want to go back to.  Sam beat the stinking game in one day.  This is the second time that he has finished the game.  I have yet to beat it.  I have been playing it on Normal.  I think he has been playing on Easy.  Curse my need to collect trophies.  I find myself going back to Batman because it is fun, even though it is challenging.  Force Unleashed is not fun and annoying.  If there was a way to set the game on auto pilot simply to be able to see the story unfold I would put the game in and play through for sure.  I suppose there are other games that I could go back and re-play or finish.  All for the sake of trophies....so do they add replay value or just a big headache?

I'm not sure.  Maybe both depending on the game.

More Batman last night

The problem with Batman Arkham Asylum is that it is a good game.  It reminds me of the Civilization games where you'd start playing and then 2 hours later realize that you've been playing for 2 hours.  You need sleep but you keep telling yourself, "Just one more turn.  I'll stop after the next turn."

Now granted last night I was ready to throw my controller through the TV and give up for the night in one particular section toward the end of the game; however, the game is so good that you just want to finish playing to see how it all ends.  I admit that I was probably playing the section too cautiously but up to that point, the game had taught me to be a cautious detective.  The section in particular leads you back to a kill box from the beginning of the game.  This time however there are 7 guards all with guns and the gargoyles that you previously would hunt the thugs from have been strapped with proximity bombs.  If you spend any great amount of time on them they blow up, hurting you and removing one of your perches to hunt from. 

Fortunately the game has a very quick reload if/when you die, but I have to say that after the 5th or 6th death I was seriously getting tired of hearing the Joker's death taunts.  Once I finally got past the kill box I was sucked back into the story.  I really enjoy the fact that Rocksteady has created levels within the game that allow have you play through more than once but each time you play the area it feels different.  A lot has to do with the fact that the Bat toys have been upgraded so now you can get to items that previously were inaccessible.

I may be able to finish the story tonight, but given last night's late night session, sleep may come first.

More later folks.