Batman: Arkham Asylum

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.

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Decided to not just write about retro games

Dear reader, as you can tell I haven’t written anything on this blog in… oh… 2 months. This hasn’t been because I haven’t been playing any games. I have, though not enough. I just haven’t felt like playing any retro games, which was the original point of this blog.

So, in the interest of expanding my publishing (and seriously, excuses for playing videogames) I’m going to start writing more about my gaming experiences in general.

First off, it seems like Steam sales are addictive in a really insidious way: like, $10 for Arkham Origins when I haven’t played Arkham Asylum or Arkham City (from previous Steam sales)? Definitely! Get in my pocket…

I want to think about that one a bit more.