Batman: Arkham Origins

Post-Launch Review

Batman: Arkham Origins (PC)

Developer: Warner Bros. Games Montréal
Released: October 2013

Played: story and almost all side quests complete in 21h

About

Two years after he began his mission to save Gotham and five years before Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman is tracking crime lord Black Mask after a Christmas Eve prison break. Black Mask hires eight assassins with a $50 million bounty on the Bat. While fending off the assassins, Batman learns that Black Mask is setting bombs all over the city. And as if that weren't enough to deal with, there's a mysterious new criminal in town calling himself the Joker...

Top Ten Games, 2012 Edition

Another year of video game blogging has come and gone - actually, my first full January-to-December year doing this. Fifty-two weeks in a year and one review per week (skipping last week) means I've played 50 games to completion this year. But wait, that's not quite true - January was indie month at 3 games per week, and I played some games I didn't review, so that puts me well over 60 this year.

Anyway, if you remember my list from last year, the purpose is not to talk about the best games that came out this year. I don't play games soon enough after launch to do that kind of a list. No, this is simply my 10 favourite games I played this year.

And so, with no more ado, and in alphabetical order, here we go!

Harley Quinn's Revenge

About

Harley Quinn's Revenge is a downloadable content pack for Batman: Arkham City (which I've reviewed here). After the events of the main story have wrapped up, Harley Quinn is out for revenge (surprise!) and targeting Batman for his takedown of the Joker.

Warning: spoilers for the main story below.

Arkham City: Robin story DLC?

According to IGN, someone's found listings of ten new trophies for the PS3 version of the game, practically confirming a story-based DLC mission where you can play as Robin. Some of them clearly require you to be playing as Robin, as they use Robin's unique gear, and one explicitly says "as Robin".

Here are the trophies in question. 

Lost Property

No crimefighter should be without this 

Breaking and Entering
Find a way into the secret base

How's It Hanging?
Clean up the Dry Docks

The Last Laugh
The joke's on who?

Frequent Flyer
Zip Kick 3 different thugs

Battering Ram
Shield Bash 5 different thugs

Snap To It 
Snap Flash an unarmed thug, an armed thug, an environmental object and a Titan

Bomb Squad 
Defuse all bombs in 3 minutes or less

A Few New Tricks
Use 5 different Quickfire gadgets in one fight as Robin in Harley Quinn's Revenge

Party's Over
Destroy all Harley Balloons

Batman: Arkham City

Post-Launch Review

Batman: Arkham City (PC)

Developer: Rocksteady Studios

Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Released: October 18 2011 (console), November 22 2011 (PC)

About

Batman: Arkham City is a third-person action-adventure game and sequel to Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham Asylum. Following the opening of a massive city-scale prison called Arkham City, Batman hurls himself into the wretched hive of scum and villainy, determined to discover the true goals of newly-appointed prison director Hugo Strange, a psychologist who has deduced Batman's true identity.

Previous PLR Arkham City coverage:

Combat challenge tips

Top of the World Extreme tip
Ra's Al Ghul comic

Comic: Arkham City -- Ra's Al Ghul

Click for full size

Anyone who's read a Batman comic or two could have seen this coming.

Tip: Arkham City's Top of the World Extreme

If you're having trouble clearing Arkham City's Top of the World Extreme challenge map, here's a set of instructions on a fast, easy way to not only grab two of the three medals right off the bat, but also to get rid of the Detective Mode Jammer.

Tip: Arkham City Combat Challenge Maps

First-ever tip article! Woo! Check back tomorrow for a map-specific tip for Arkham City's Top of the World Extreme challenge map.

This is actually not one tip, but small collection of tips for combat challenge maps. Some of these are from my gameplay, and others are from friends' observations.