I didn't enjoy them when I was doing them, but afterwards, it felt good. To win, you just have to outsmart them!

In the first game, I mostly just stuck to dropping from gargoyles to take them out and the bit at the end with the explosives made me stop breathing for about 15 mins because it was just tense as I was having to sneak around on the floor.

In this game, you just have to be pro-active and use all your tools. First, just go around the gargoyles and work out roughly where the enemies are going and try and isolate one and take him out with a glide kick-beat down. If you can't isolate any, then you can just make a distraction to move them away and get one from behind and so on...

I wouldn't call them fun, but they aren't cheap, they just require patience and thought

As for the melee, I won't have a single word said against that, it is amazing. The later enemies can be a bit annoying, but it would be too easy if they weren't there. But that is like the predator, you basically just have to keep your combo going, jumping over people, countering and waiting for the opportunity to punch or combo kill, it is just great fun, no other melee systems come close

Having said that, I didn't love the game, I am not very good at stealth and I don't really love Batman, the plot lost me somewhat with all the obscure Batman references

I loved the stealth segments, they were hard, but I kicked ass once I got the hang of it. Wait for one of the guys to be far enough away from the group, swoop down, kick his ass, drop smoke, zip back up to a vantage point ("Where'd he go"). This is the essence of 'being' batman. It got easier once I got the disarm feature and could remotely jam some of the guns in the vicinity first. Batclaw and Batarang also help to get the job done.

About halfway through the game you'll see a side quest in the cathedral (The one where Harley was in), Riddler set up a base in there and wants you to solve riddles.  Some riddle/cutscene later you'll get the ability to find Riddler's men in detective mode (They're highlighted green).  When you fight people on the street, leave them for last and you'll get an option to interrogate them (Triangle, Y button).  Riddler stuff will show up on the map after that, the more people you find, the more riddles show up.  There are other side quests, one involves searching for a man and throwing a batarang at him (This is more difficult as he doesn't show up on the map), Bane's side quest (Shows up on map after talking to him), political prisoners (You'll hear them crying for help, look for them in detective mode), Dead shot side quests (Should show up on map during the story), the bandage man side quest (Have to find people who were killed on the street and have had their faces bandaged).

Different problem in this case. My Leeroy Jenkins tendencies.

Funnily enough, i enjoyed the fight against Two-Face as Catwoman, even though that was an entire fight that revolved around that premise. Mostly because it was about pouncing, whittling his health a little, then whisking away, and i didn't actually have to worry about the other guys

Yeah, this would be why you were failing at it.

You're not supposed to be using ground takedowns at all, except maybe on the final enemy on the room. You can see people through walls. You can walk on the floor. You can walk under the floor, and use vents, and knock people out through windows.

You shouldn't be on the gargoyles unless you're escaping.

yep the above suggestions are correct. And also you need to be patient and watch. The guards may take their sweet ass time but they will definitely disperse ..target the loners first