Next time, I'll be sure to read your entire post history!

Gaining new devices like explosive gel, enhanced grappling hooks, and such gets you into areas that couldn't be reached before, like Metroid. Planting explosives and luring armed guard towards them with noise emitting Batarangs? Solving the Riddler's cryptic puzzles and finding his hidden trophies? The Scarecrow and his halucinations? Fighting ten guys on a electrified floor? Yanking bad guys off of scaffolding with a grappling hook? Hanging a badguy upside down, and then cutting them loose with a Batarang when his friends come to help (and scaring the shit out of them!)? There are several other things that I want to mention, but I don't want to spoil the experience for anyone. I have every single Splinter Cell and Metal Gear (check the collection!) and while Batman AA isn't as polished as those games, it definitely offers a lot that those two don't offer and is worthy of being mentioned amongst those two top tier series.

There's no way I can change your mind about the game, bimmy, but I don't want anybody to dismiss what is (in my opinion) an amazing experience. The game is worthy of the praise it's getting.

After playing it, I would most definitely say it's a contender. Certainly one of the best games I've played this year thus far.

I completely respect your opinion. And I see where you are coming from. Game does a lot of gamplay things and has great production.

Its still way too scripted for my tastes.

For exmaple, you walk in to a room and the game s screaming "puzzle, solve puzzle!" So you switch to your night/heat view and as soon as you switch to that batman automatically sees something and solves the puzzle for you. Story kicks in...everyone is happy...

"A flask...he was drinking...sloppy! Lets follow his alcohol trail" and then trail appears for you to follow.

What fucking flask? I didn't see shit till you pointed it out Batso...

That aspect of the game leaves me feeling quite distant and ruins the puzzle solving experience. Makes Condemned's point and scan puzzles look like CSI.

you have to search around the area for the flask so I really don't understand what you're talking about. Each of those detective things gives you an area and you have to find something that you can use to track the person within that area and then scan it in. It is not as simple as pressing the night vision button and then Batman finds it on his own as you make it sound.

also, how large of groups have you fought, because it isn't that easy when you have a group of thirty thugs, some with knives, cattle prods, and a gun locker they can open up to get assault rifles.

That flask puzzle in perticular was switch to heat view, look to ground, puzzle solved. No scanning...

Riddler puzzles required scanning but those were like...where is waldo.

game of the year will most likely go to cod: MW2 or NSMBWii

I don't want to sound weird...but is it just me or is that Boxxie chick in need of some serious pounding from behind?

haha...now that would be a batman game I could...get behind.

Haha...I like what you did there.