Tag: WB Montreal

WB Games Acknowledges Problems With Batman: Arkham Origins, Vows Fixes Are Coming

Photo courtesy thegamingpixelshow.com

Batman: Arkham Origins has had its share of problems since its release on October 25th, including save data losses which is why I will not be reviewing the game. Now WB Games has issued a statement resolving to fix the multiple issues that have plagued the title.

Here is the official statement explaining the glitches found so far:

“Some players have been stuck in an endless loop of falling, making it impossible to complete certain missions and progress through the single-player campaign. We believe we have identified the issue and are currently testing the software update, which will push most players back to their previous save so that they will not be stuck in an infinite loop.”

“Some players can see their story progress in the main menu, but once they choose the story slot they don’t see an option to ‘Continue’ and only ‘New Game’ shows up. This issue should be resolved and the ‘Continue’ option will once again be available.”

“FreeFlow Focus mode not unlocking upon reaching Shadow Vigilante rank 3.”

“Players have reported recurring crashing and freezing while playing the game. We have been working hard to track down and resolve the problem as quickly as possible. We believe we know what is causing these issues and need a few more days to validate before pushing this patch through. In the meantime, some players have managed to avoid the freezing by disconnecting their console from the Internet while playing.”

And the biggest of the bunch it the data on 360 versions of the game being corrupted (like mine).

“Players have reported losing their saved game to data corruption. Specifically, when you try to choose a story slot to continue, it says ‘Corrupted’ and if you select it, an error message appears which says, ‘The save is corrupt. Please delete it.’ We believe we know what is causing this and need a few more days to validate before pushing a patch through.”

When you see just how many problems have been found with this game it is amazing that it got through QA testing. It screams of a studio that had to make a release date no matter what even if that meant shipping a game that was not ready. I feel bad for Rocksteady who has built the Arkham franchise into a gaming giant and entrusted it to another studio just to have this happen.

November 1, 2013
Where Is Our Batman: Arkham Origins Review? Yeah, About That…

Photo courtesy devianart.com

Long story short; there won’t be a Batman: Arkham Origins review. At least not anytime soon. This is due to the fact that I was twelve hours into the latest game in the series when I got a corrupted data message. The only solution? Delete my save and start anew.

I went online and read story after story of 360 owners who had experienced the same issue. Some had restarted the game two, three and even four times and at certain points their data became corrupted again. As of this writing the 360 version is the only one that seems to have this problem although the PS3 version is having frame rate issues. It looks like the Wii U and PC versions are the best of the bunch.

The only news from WB Montreal is that they are “investigating the issue” which is company speak for “oh shit, we missed something. Find it and patch it”. Now if you know me personally you know how much this hurts me. As the tattoos on my body and shelves of Batman action figures (not toys dammit) and statues can attest I am a bit of a Dark Knight freak. So the fact that this happened stings worse.

Why not just start over and play through the game? I can hear some of you saying. This is a multi-part answer. It will lead into my early impressions of the game which were…meh. The game looked beautiful and the voice acting was top notch. Roger Craig Smith was a good place holder for Kevin Conroy and Troy Baker sounds so much like Mark Hamill it is uncanny. There was something just a bit off about it. While keeping the same combat and control scheme of the previous two Arkham games, the timing seemed different and led to a lot of frustrating fights.

I have played through Asylum five time and City three. I even played through both of them before Origins came out to make sure I had my timing down correctly and to acclimate myself with the controls again. In both previous games, I had no problem with big groups of thugs even while playing on hard. Playing Origins on normal difficulty (for the sake of review) I regularly found myself almost dying in groups of six or seven guys. The counter system, while technically the same as Rocksteady’s games was not reading all the counters I was doing. With a game that requires multiple counters in a row to keep combat flowing you need the game to be able to react to them. I was regularly getting annoyed at the combat in a series where combat is the best thing.

Also, while this is our first opportunity in the series to play in an actual open version of Gotham City, it feels decidedly vacant. I understand the story permits this with it being Christmas Eve and people are asked to stay in there homes because of the danger. So it is just you and thugs galore to occupy the city. I know Gotham City is a dangerous place but damn. If my apartment building had two snipers, two knife-wielding psychos and a guy with a baseball bat I would be calling Two Men and Truck…now. I am still looking for that first true Gotham City experience. I want Spider-Man 2 except with Batman. Bustling streets and patrons. Random robberies to stop. Driving the Batmobile around Gotham.

The second part of my reasoning for not starting the game again is I do not have the time to. Besides this site I have a full-time job and, despite what some people think, do not want to spend every waking moment in front of a television or computer screen. Maybe one day I will give Arkham Origins another chance or I may just wait for Rocksteady’s next installment that will be free of these problems. For now I have to get ready for the next-gen launches and even though I juuust said I can’t spend all my time with video games…I have to review WWE 2K14.

I am hypocrite, hear me roar.

NERD RATING- Rating Not Found. Corrupted Data

October 31, 2013
Review Roundup- Batman: Arkham Origins

Photo courtesy thegamingpixelshow.com

Today is the release of [amazon_link id=”B00C7103DO” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Batman: Arkham Origins[/amazon_link], the first Arkham game not developed by Rocksteady Studios. WB Montreal had the task of carrying on the Arkham legacy while Rocksteady works on their next-gen game (maybe another Batman, maybe not). The first reviews are mostly agreeing that while this is certainly a valiant attempt at capturing the essence of Rocksteady’s previous two games, there are some missteps.

Our review will be coming when we are finished seeing all of what Gotham has to offer, but until then, let’s see what other sites are saying.

IGN-7.8/10

“Batman games are like pizza: even when they’re not very good, they’re still pretty good. Next to Arkham City, Arkham Origins is a bit of a disappointment in its lack of new ideas and use of win buttons, making it the least interesting of the trilogy. But as excuses to dive back into the excellent free-flowing combat and predator takedowns go, this story isn’t bad.”

Videogamer– 8/10

“Such issues do nothing to take away from Origins’ strengths, though, giving you another chance to revisit a franchise that is surely now one of the generation’s best. Ultimately, this is like a cover song done by a band you’re quite fond of. It may never be better than the original, but it’s a great addition.”

Kotaku– YES

“Origins is an incremental installment, not a transformative one. It doesn’t have the massive leaps forward that differentiated City from Asylum. It’s almost understandable since WB Montreal have been tasked with harmonizing along to someone else’s lead vocals. Right here, right now, the result is good enough.”

Gamespot– 6/10

“The most noteworthy difference between Arkham Origins and its predecessors is a significantly larger open world. But that larger world has little meaning when the things you’re doing in it are the same things the smaller world of the previous game accommodated perfectly well.”

Polygon– 7/10

“While Arkham Origins misses a huge opportunity with its assassins, it handles Batman’s biggest antagonist impeccably. Origins recounts the first meeting between Batman and the Joker and digs deep into the warped psychology of the villain.”

Game Informer– 8.5/10

“Batman: Arkham Origins delivers more of what made Rocksteady’s games great, but doesn’t break new ground. Like a youthful Bruce Wayne, it isn’t as crafty, and it takes its dings during combat, but still puts on a hell of a show when it needs to. Once Joker steps into the spotlight, it becomes a hard game to put down.”

October 25, 2013
Batman: Arkham Origins Not Bringing Back Kevin Conroy?

Photo courtesy gamerant.com

Reports are swirling that veteran voice actor Kevin Conroy will not be brought in to do the voice of The Dark Knight in WB Montreal’s prequel [amazon_link id=”B00C7103DO” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Batman: Arkham Origins[/amazon_link]. Conroy has been the voice of Batman for over 20 years beginning in 1992 with Batman: The Animated Series.

The studio’a reasoning from reports appears to be they want a younger sounding actor since the game takes place in the hero’s early days. Because Kevin Conroy is not a professional voice actor and could not attempt to do a younger voice I guess.

Sorry for the sour grapes. Conroy has been the voice of Batman for the better part of my lifetime and is the voice I imagine in my head when I read comics. Add to this the fact that Ubisoft is ditching Michael Ironside in favor of a generic sounding every man in the new Splinter Cell and it has not been a fun time.

April 29, 2013
First Screens For Batman: Arkham Origins Surface, New Info Given

All photos courtesy gameinformer.com

Hot off the heels of yesterday’s announcement of Batman: Arkham Origins a host of screenshots have been released by Game Informer. There are shots of Deathstroke, a younger looking Penguin, Black Mask and Gotham adorned in Christmas decorations as Batman looms over some thugs.

In Batman: Arkham Origins, you will control a younger Batman as Black Mask hires the world’s greatest assassin’s to take down The Dark Knight. WB Montreal is handling development of the game instead of Rocksteady this go round, but they have full access to the engine that ran Arkham Asylum and Arkham City.

It was also announced that for the first time in the Arkham series there will be a fast travel option for Batman now that he is patrolling the streets of Gotham. When you pick a point on the map you will get to take a trip in the Batwing to your desired location, although the Batwing is not able to be controlled (bummer).

For the next-gen I would like a fully realized open world Gotham. If I want to spend 45 minutes driving around the city doing nothing but mourning the death of my parents, I should be able to.

Batman: Arkham Origins releases on October 25th.

The first screens for Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate have also been released. The game will be released on October 25th for the 3DS and Vita.

April 10, 2013
Batman: Arkham Origins Revealed. Releases On October 25th

Photo courtesy gameinformer.com

The May issue of Game Informer has broken HUGE news on the next Batman game.

Batman: Arkham Origins will see Batman in his early days take on eight of the world’s best assassins (including Deathstroke) as they make their way to Gotham on Christmas Eve to try and eliminate Batman.

The game is being developed by WB Montreal, not Rocksteady, so I understand if that gets some fans worried about if this will be as good as Arkham Asylum or City. I think we don’t have too much to worry about. WB Montreal handled the port of Batman: Arkham City on the Wii U which was received well and the creative director, Eric Holmes, was the lead designer on one of the most fun and addictive open world games ever, [amazon_link id=”B0007OSLAA” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction[/amazon_link].

This will be the first of the Arkham series that takes Batman out into the city of Gotham. And since it will be on Christmas Eve I am hoping that we can get a Max Shrek cameo or at least a picture of Christopher Walken somewhere in the game. I think all games would do good to have one piece of Walken in them.

The game will be coming to PS3, 360, Wii U and PC. A handheld version called Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate will also be releasing for the 3DS and Vita.

Batman: Arkham Origins releases on October 25th. Take a look at the reveal video below thanks to Game Informer.

April 9, 2013