From Isaac Clarke, to the Knight of the Dark, and Dead Space Remake comments.

This is just some snippets of my successful Dead Space 2 Plasma Cutter only run on Zealot, an early part of Batman Arkham Knight on Hard where I'm trying to stop the dreaded Scarecrow, and my take so far on the Dead Space Remake based on several reviews I've seen.

Dead Space 2

I played this in 4K equivalent DSR, and though it's not quite as graphically stunning as Dead Space 3, it still manages to look pretty good. To make this challenge work, I picked up as many power nodes as I could find, and eventually fully upgraded the Plasma Cutter and Kinesis. My Rig ended up lacking two HP upgrades, but it sufficed. There's always that tough decision once you get to the corridor to go to the centrifuge, whether to go down to the far end of it afterward and get the power node there, or leave it be and hope you have enough. Just turning right in the corridor, being the way to the centrifuge, is daunting enough, as there are several monsters to deal with. As it turned out, I was wise to deal with the even heavier spawns down the long corridor trek, as otherwise I might have missed out on the Special upgrade on the Plasma Cutter, which adds an incendiary effect to each shot.

It's helpful as well to approach each battle with the "how do I get through this with the least ammo and health" mindset. Aside from the usual sever a leg, an arm, then finish by tossing the severed arm back at them, it often means taking out one leg of a Pregnant, then an arm after it falls when it puts it's elbows high as it tries to crawl toward you. This means less risk of bursting it's sack of swarm, which can take a LOT of your health if you don't shoot them all. Another trick I loved was using a Stasis shot or stasis canister to slow fast moving Necroes, then get in position to manage a shot at an Exploder's sack as they both started converging on my position, taking both out in one shot. Sometimes it would only take ducking back through a door I'd just come out of after running to the spot that triggered a couple Necroes, then peek back out after the Exploder ran over where an Enhanced Necro was, and quickly ending their little posse plans with a quick shot to the Exploder's sack.

In Chapter 12, the ride atop the mine drilling rig gets really heated up, but shooting the Enhanced Necroes in the arms as they're trying to crawl onto it, using kinesis to grab fuel canisters up high on the ridges, and tossing them at Lurkers that appear there, are some key necessities. It got even uglier on the LONG elevator ride up way before in Chapter 7 though, where you're only hope is staying in the center and keeping your head on a swivel and hoping to God you brought enough ammo and health. I ended up nearly drained on both. By Chapter 13 things start heating up even more, as Enhanced Slashers and Leapers are the norm, and the regenerating Ubermorph keeps coming at you. You also find a Divider here and there in the late chapters, which can often just be evaded by running past with no stasis. The Creepers that pop out of them once killed can be dangerous if near other Necroes they can reanimate, so they are best left alone. For everything else in these chapters, it's wise to just use stasis a lot, and run like hell past them, cuz you know, I've got legs, and I'd like to keep them.

This is the final battle and end game. The destroying of the Marker is a LOT easier if you just max out a Contact Beam and Force Gun, but the Plasma Cutter can suffice too if maxed. You just have to deal with the tons of kids that come.


By the way, I also made a valiant effort afterward to get to the first save of a Hardcore run, where you're only given 3 saves the whole game. I normally save just before the fight with the Tormentor at the end of Chapter 5, but made a bad decision to try bashing a slasher with a heavy crate repeatedly using Kinesis midway through Chapter 2. The rule of thumb I'd forgotten was, if it looks like in their past life they'd been liar liar and their pants are all sooty looking like they'd caught fire, they are too Enhanced to be slowed down by tossing even large metal crates at them. So I got rushed and died.

Aaand that is why I decided to take a break from Dead Space 2 for a while and play some Batman Arkham Knight. I'm playing on Hard, but despite feeling a bit awkward refamiliarizing myself with the controls after a LONG time since I played it last, my combat has been better than I remember from before. In fact I'm finding myself letting my XP build to where I have as many as 13 upgrade points before I bother spending them, whereas before I was immediately dumping them into melee and firearm armor. I'm also not clinging to intentionally using environmental devices whenever I can, though at times end up using them inadvertently. The main difference is I'm just being more conscious of the blue attack prompts above approaching enemies heads, then tapping the WASD key that direction and using RMB to counter. This means it's LOT less wasted button mashing, and quicker and more fluent combat.

Batman Arkham Knight

This is the last half of the Ace Chemicals mission, where you have to battle tanks, break through the wall to the access tunnel to the mixing chamber, deal with some goons overtly and covertly, then thwart Scarecrow's plans to toxify the city.


Now, regarding the Dead Space Remake, after watching several lengthy video reviews of the game, I have to say, my skepticism that Motive would wind up with numerous bugs and performance problems using the harder to code with Frostbite Engine appears to have been errant pessimism, which I'm fully willing and happy to eat crow about.

That said, I DO have one nit pick that feels to me to be a pretty big negative. For some reason they have chosen to use Gunner Wright's likeness for Isaac now. Every time I see his face, it's this random looking guy that isn't believable to me as a seasoned engineer, leaving me detached from seeing him as the real Isaac Clarke.

 
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I have more Bat bits to show you.

Armored And Dangerous

These are some of the side missions where you chase after lieutenants driving APCs, whom are guarded by several smaller armored vehicles. Some of these chases get rather chaotic when the lieutenants take a lot of turns through tight city streets.


Campaign For Disarmament

These are some of the side missions where you upload a virus to bombs that have been embedded in the ground throughout the city, then deal with a lot of tanks that come to defend it, then destroy it with a controlled explosion. You really have to keep your head on a swivel when they use missiles and flying vehicles as well.


Own The Roads

These are some of the side missions where you take down various barricaded checkpoints throughout the city, usually via melee combat, but now and then via finding a way to take down a section of the barricade via a hack or the Batmobile winch. Some have very large turret guns and no way to breach their barricade with the Batmobile, so you need to temporarily disable one turret, and pick a safe spot to take out the guards. The barricades are taken down by destroying a remote that the commander of the checkpoint has.


The Line Of Duty

These are some of the side missions where you find and rescue firefighters that have been kidnapped. The 2nd one shown is a tough fight, and best started via quickly taking out a few of them carrying bats via a built up FEAR meter, then going to town with the bat. There are also 3 brutes in this fight that are best dealt with using environmental objects when you can. There were still two left at the end of the fight, the last of which was very resistant to a beat down when stunned. This fight however garnered me the 2nd most XP I've gotten in one battle so far, over 3600, which helps for upgrades.


Occupy Gotham

These are some of the side missions where you clear watchtowers throughout the city of guards posted at them, then destroy a console which takes out turrets mounted at them. There's a certain amount of strategy required on some, and it can help at times to take out VTOL drones first if they're patrolling nearby.


Gunrunner

These are two of the side missions where you track Penguin's accomplice's to a warehouse where he is stockpiling weapons they sell, based on Nightwing's intel on locations of certain suspect vans throughout the city. So naturally the fights that take place at the warehouses are done with the help of Nightwing.


Assault On Panessa Studios

These are all the fights from the main mission at Panessa Studios where various people have been kidnapped and infected with Joker's blood. This mission also features Harley Quinn.


Destroy The Missile Launcher

This is the main mission where you destroy two radar towers and a missile launcher to make possible a scan by the Batwing to find the Cloudburst device. This mission features an appearance by Arkham Knight and a battle with 5 Cobra tanks, which netted me my highest XP so far, 4000.


Two-Faced Bandit

These are two of the side missions where you stop Two-Faced thugs from robbing banks throughout the city. There's always two phases to these encounters. The first with a blaring alarm, making FEAR takedowns possible without others hearing you, the second after Two-Faced cuts the alarm, requiring more stealth.


Riddler's Revenge Puzzles

These are two of the side missions where you have to solve Riddler's puzzles, one solo, and one with Catwoman.


Heir To The Cowl

These are two of the side missions where you task Azrael to complete certain combat challenges. I find it helps to pick up enemy's bats where possible, and vault over enemies who's attacks can't be blocked to make sure they don't attack when you're dealing with others.


AR Challenges

These are two of the Augmented Reality challenges, one against tanks, the other against, Arkham Knight's foot troops. The one against the foot troops required precise timing and technique to get max score.


Riddler's Revenge Race Against Time

These are three of the side missions where Riddler has coordinates written down by some of his trophies, which are starting points to races to get to the trophy in a short amount of time. The first is done via gliding, the other two via the Batmobile. The hardest by far is the race that starts behind GCPD, and I find it helps to slightly vary the route the GPS marks.

 
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OK, several more Dark Knight clips for you.

Beneath The Surface

This is a special mission from the Season of Infamy DLC that's about a prison airship called Iron Heights having fallen from the sky. You have to go in and save some trapped guards, then Killer Croc makes an appearance.


Heir To The Cowl Finale

This is the final challenge for Azrael, and the details on how he came about and how his story arc ends.


The Line Of Duty Finale

This is the remaining firemen being rescued culminating with the arrest of the person whom aided the arsonist.


Gotham On Fire Finale

This is the final capture of Firely, and his arrest. He really put me to the test this chase.


In From The Cold

This is another special mission from the Season of Infamy DLC where you encounter Mr Freeze, at which point he asks you to rescue his wife Nora and bring her to him.


Shadow War

This is yet another special mission from the Season of Infamy DLC where you track down an assassin, then discover a war between the League of Assassins, and a rebel group fighting against their cause.


Gunrunner Finale

These are the final battles against Penguin's foes, culminating in his arrest.


Two-Faced Bandit Finale

The final encounter with the heist crew of Two-Faced, ending with a much harder encounter with an elite group and the capture of Two-Faced himself.


The Perfect Crime Parlor

This is the ending of The Perfect Crime mission, culminating with the capture of Professor Pyg.


Armored And Dangerous Final APC

This is the last chase to stop Arkham Knight's lieutenants driving APCs. This one went pretty quick.

 
Continuing on with more highlights from Batman Arkham Knight, and I'm also nearly finished with it now. This is the only game I recall playing that actually shows your percentage of progress to be well over 100% before you've even finished the story if you do most of the side stuff. Since this game literally has a TON of side stuff, especially that which is Riddler related, I am now at 108%.

Condamned

This is the final Riddler circuit race, and the one I find to be the hardest. It's so hard I have to use a view more responsive than the 3rd person follow cam.


Protecting Ivy's Plants

The first and easiest phase of your assisting a gal Joker calls a "Titillating Tree Hugger".


Own The Roads Part 2

These checkpoints are now getting into situations with big turret drones, surveillance drones, and more armed gunmen. Fortunately Gadgman has a tool and a trick for every one of those situations.


Campaign For Disarmament Part 2

These are now getting to feel like the bombs you're trying to disarm come with a whole lotta tanks, especially when in a place that has confined space and you're being swarmed by them.


Race Against Time Part 2

Some more of Riddler's point to point races. The first one is done via gliding.


The Cloudburst

OK, now Scarecrow's gettin really nasty, and you ain't gonna clean up his mess with a Swiffer! When he ticks me off I like to make fun of him for wearing a gas mask that has a gaping hole over his mouth, saying "Hey ugly, you missed a spot!". If you're starting to think this game has too many tank battles for it's own good, trust me, I know the feeling.


Defending Ivy's Plants

OK, I know it seems like we already DID this one, but here we are searching for the stronger OLD FART plant. So I'm like, YAY, that's right up my alley! More tank battles ensue though, it's like Rockstar couldn't get over that we can actually drive something now!


Destroy The Cloudburst

I always dread this one. I don't have much trouble with the Cobra tanks, but the Cloudburst tank Arkham Knight drives, no matter whether you are obscured from his view or not when you damage it, has an annoyingly long overcharge mode it automatically goes into where he can easily track you. It wouldn't be so bad but the Batmobile as well at those times goes into a dysfunctional feeling mode where the handling is particularly sluggish. I'm thinking it's probably WAY worse on the KB/M setup I use vs Gamepad.


Tracking Down Gordon

More ingenious bat tricks employed here, this time to track down the missing Jim Gordon. Actually it's just because Bats has his radio's ID number. So I'm thinking, and why doesn't GCPD? Is it not a police issue radio? OK, the comms guy DID say it was on an encrypted SWAT channel, so I suppose he could have gotten hold of a SWAT radio, if nothing else to keep Batman from raging over the MAJOR secret he's holding from him, while falsely blaming him for the situation!


Excavator Fight

I didn't actually want to call this rig an "excavator", as it's more a rock grinding vehicle used for mining, but most call it an excavator. This is another one I dread because the enemy vehicle and the Batmobile exhibit the exact same tendencies as in the fight with the Cloudburst tank. I don't think I've EVER managed to do this on Hard without the Batmobile getting destroyed at least once, hence the edits.


Showdown with the Arkham Knight

Somehow I accidentally deleted the first phase of this fight, so apologies for that. The whole thing is fairly quick and easy though.


Confronting Scarecrow

I know, again, it seems like we've done this before when Scarecrow ended up escaping with the Cloudburst, but this time we end up finding just what our friend Jim Gordon has been hiding from us.


Lamb to the Slaughter

This is the side mission to rescue the news journalist Jack Ryder from a cultist preacher.


Own The Roads Part 3

The first one shown here drove me nuts and took several tries. It felt like I was running for my life most of the time just to get some breathing room and separate the regulars from the big guys. Then I remembered I had a particularly nice stun gun, some very cold snowballs, and a stunning cape.


The Siege of GCPD

This is a really tough battle with a difficult segment against tanks, followed by a nasty rooftop segment. I finally managed the tanks via some well timed EMP blasts, and was doing pretty well on the roof for the most part, getting in some good "batting" practice, but my health got so low before the final phase I couldn't last non stop. Fortunately there's a checkpoint when that final phase starts, and I don't think I've ever been able to avoid having to reload it on Hard.

 

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