Batman: Arkham Knight (PS4)
The newest game in the Arkham series, Arkham Knight, is one long night of crime-fighting filled with exciting car chases, challenging puzzles and ass-kicking combat.
The game itself builds and improves upon previous games in the series. Therefore many of the gadgets, fight moves and even villains are familiar. The addition of the batmobile, however, brings a new dimension to the gameplay and is used for better or for worse in battles, car chases and even puzzles. It is also very useful to get around the city which is now bigger than before.
Being the first next gen game in the Arkham series it looks better than previous installments, though I would not go so far to say that it looks as good as other games I played on the PS4. The voice acting by Mark Hamill as the joker is superb as always and tends to overshadow the performances of the other voice acting cast which consist of great actors such as Nolan North (Uncharted, Assassin´s Creed), Troy Baker (Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us) and Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul).
What Arkham Knight really manages to capture is the feeling of what it's like being a crimefighter. The whole game is basically just one long night of catching bad guys, rescuing good guys and ultimately saving the city. This is not an easy task even for Batman, who is now on top of it all struggling with serious psychological problems as a result of his exposure to Scarecrow's fear toxin. So when the game is finally beaten after countless fistfights, puzzles and drone battles, Batman's suit and armor is a worn out mess and so are you. A tired mess that actually feel as if it's been up all night saving the city of Gotham.
As I have probably stated a few times before, I have a love-hate relationship with stealth games. The thrill you get from sneaking around and taking out enemies one by one without being seen is incredible, but sometimes you can also get a bit frustrated. When thing aren't going your way and you get so angry you just want to choke a baby panda bear until it squeals. Well, I am obviously kidding. I would never harm an animal. For survival maybe, otherwise never. Except wasps and mosquitos, they can suck it.
Anyway, in Arkham Knight stealth as well as kicking ass is a big part of the gameplay but now with the batmobile there are also chases, races and tank battles. When I come to think about it, it's not necessarily the stealth that I found most frustrating in the game, but the hand-to-hand combat. Don't get me wrong, I often find it very enjoyable but sometimes just sometimes... I hate it. In the beginning it seemed easy as I was well acquainted with it from previous games but towards the end I had real problems getting everyone to just stay down.
I finished the game finally and now I have a love-hate relationship with beat-em-up games. Because the button mashing can be really hard sometimes. If you're not focused enough. If you're not pressing the right button at the very right moment and several enemies are breathing up your neck. It's frustrating when you fail and you have to do it all over again.
And so you try and try, over and over again. You maybe get a bit angry you have maybe thought about tossing that controller against a solid surface. But then you remember that you're a grown man now and you don't do that stuff anymore. So instead you just suck it up and play on. Then finally on the fifteenth or twentieth try you seem to get the hang of it and you're down to a few guys and... some idiot comes at you with a knife and you fail. Again. But it doesn't end there. You get more angry and you still get up, you're more focused than ever now and then finally. You fucking nail it. And that there is the reason you continue playing these games. For that feeling alone is worth the multiple times you failed.
My point is that anger as well as other emotions can be very powerful motivators to get stuff done if channeled wisely and if you don't let them consume you. These kinds of games can therefore teach us valuable life lessons if we pay attention. They can teach us to control our anger or frustration and to keep trying and not give up when things get hard and instead continue until we finish the job, no matter how many tries it takes.
There is a quote by J. F. Kennedy that I really like that he said during a speech about going to the moon and I'm just going to leave with that.
" We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win"
The game itself builds and improves upon previous games in the series. Therefore many of the gadgets, fight moves and even villains are familiar. The addition of the batmobile, however, brings a new dimension to the gameplay and is used for better or for worse in battles, car chases and even puzzles. It is also very useful to get around the city which is now bigger than before.
Being the first next gen game in the Arkham series it looks better than previous installments, though I would not go so far to say that it looks as good as other games I played on the PS4. The voice acting by Mark Hamill as the joker is superb as always and tends to overshadow the performances of the other voice acting cast which consist of great actors such as Nolan North (Uncharted, Assassin´s Creed), Troy Baker (Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us) and Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul).
What Arkham Knight really manages to capture is the feeling of what it's like being a crimefighter. The whole game is basically just one long night of catching bad guys, rescuing good guys and ultimately saving the city. This is not an easy task even for Batman, who is now on top of it all struggling with serious psychological problems as a result of his exposure to Scarecrow's fear toxin. So when the game is finally beaten after countless fistfights, puzzles and drone battles, Batman's suit and armor is a worn out mess and so are you. A tired mess that actually feel as if it's been up all night saving the city of Gotham.
As I have probably stated a few times before, I have a love-hate relationship with stealth games. The thrill you get from sneaking around and taking out enemies one by one without being seen is incredible, but sometimes you can also get a bit frustrated. When thing aren't going your way and you get so angry you just want to choke a baby panda bear until it squeals. Well, I am obviously kidding. I would never harm an animal. For survival maybe, otherwise never. Except wasps and mosquitos, they can suck it.
Anyway, in Arkham Knight stealth as well as kicking ass is a big part of the gameplay but now with the batmobile there are also chases, races and tank battles. When I come to think about it, it's not necessarily the stealth that I found most frustrating in the game, but the hand-to-hand combat. Don't get me wrong, I often find it very enjoyable but sometimes just sometimes... I hate it. In the beginning it seemed easy as I was well acquainted with it from previous games but towards the end I had real problems getting everyone to just stay down.
I finished the game finally and now I have a love-hate relationship with beat-em-up games. Because the button mashing can be really hard sometimes. If you're not focused enough. If you're not pressing the right button at the very right moment and several enemies are breathing up your neck. It's frustrating when you fail and you have to do it all over again.
And so you try and try, over and over again. You maybe get a bit angry you have maybe thought about tossing that controller against a solid surface. But then you remember that you're a grown man now and you don't do that stuff anymore. So instead you just suck it up and play on. Then finally on the fifteenth or twentieth try you seem to get the hang of it and you're down to a few guys and... some idiot comes at you with a knife and you fail. Again. But it doesn't end there. You get more angry and you still get up, you're more focused than ever now and then finally. You fucking nail it. And that there is the reason you continue playing these games. For that feeling alone is worth the multiple times you failed.
My point is that anger as well as other emotions can be very powerful motivators to get stuff done if channeled wisely and if you don't let them consume you. These kinds of games can therefore teach us valuable life lessons if we pay attention. They can teach us to control our anger or frustration and to keep trying and not give up when things get hard and instead continue until we finish the job, no matter how many tries it takes.
There is a quote by J. F. Kennedy that I really like that he said during a speech about going to the moon and I'm just going to leave with that.
" We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win"
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