I know I know I know. This game isn’t nearly old enough to be retro, but it’s… like… totally old man. That’s true and irrelevant.
This is a good game. Everyone likes this game.
So as I often do, I bought it during a Steam sale and didn’t get around to playing it for quite a long time. Now, a bit about me and new (ish) games these days: I tend to dislike new games right off the hop. In the last, oh, decade it almost always takes me at least a few hours to get into any game. I combat this by waiting until a Steam and targeting GOTY editions… basically I let the gaming community pick the best games for me, I buy them, and don’t play them for a year.
It’s a great system
Eventually I’m sitting around thinking: “which of these billion games do I try?” I fire up Arkham Asylum and get about 5 minutes in. “THIS GAME IS HORRIBLE!”
I know, right? Literally everyone I know who has played this game went/goes on and on about how smooth the controls were/are. It’s a great story. Blah blah blah.
One night over (many) beers I’m chatting about this with a friend and he gets really offended and starts interrogating me, wondering what was so bad about the game. “The controls are horrific” I says (you see, after many drinks I adopt a this-is-what-I-assume-people-in-the-20’s-sounded-like accent.
“WHAT?!?” says he. “That doesn’t make any sense. Are you using a controller?”
Me: “no, controllers on PC’s are for n00bs… right???”
Turns out they’re not for n00bs
So, dear readers, I picked up an xBox PC controller a few weeks ago and SWEET ZOMBIE JESUS ARKHAM ASYLUM IS AN AMAZING GAME. The controls ARE freakin’ smooth.
Controversial declaration: controls are important for maximum enjoyment of a game. And it turns out, the keyboard isn’t always the best way to handle input. Seems like they could’ve mapped the controls better… but I digress.
Turns out I should go back to Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood again.
PS – that game is damn near unplayable on PC without a controller. Seriously, try it out.
forsoothed, you filthy animals 
Glad to hear that Batman has won you over. A lot of games these days are designed with consoles in mind, which may explain why they handle well with a controller but are clunky with a keyboard.
Makes sense and I bet the 3rd person-ness of it doesn’t help. When the mouse isn’t overly useful you lose the benefits of the PC interface.