Despite the technical flaws and whatever, I fell in love with this game so much. I'm the type of guy who finishes games on normal difficulty only, ignores collectible trophies/achievements, and gets the minimum score on things just to advance the story. For example, I never bothered collecting anything in MGS4 despite playing it again and again, because collecting the weapons, items, titles, etc were just not part of the story.

That said, I've never met a game where I actually wanted to collect all the secrets, get all the high scores, and finish the game on hard difficulty without feeling like it was a chore or that I was just trying to show off to someone. I felt like.. I had reasons to do all of them:

1.) Riddler secrets/Interview tapes/Character profiles - well, I wanted to find the Riddler. I really really wanted to. I didn't care how hard to find the trophies were. I just wanted to find him, and arrest him. The interview tapes/character profiles were amazingly entertaining to collect, and I found myself lurking around the Asylum over and over again to listen to these tapes in the likely places where they were recorded..

2.) High scores and Hard difficulty - playing as Batman carried a huge responsibility for me. If I get hit, or I miss a combo, I'm doing the Dark Knight injustice. So I really wanted to do my best in every combat or stealth scene to be realistically Batman, in as hard a condition as possible. This required multiple playthroughs but each one seemed like a fresh game to me.

So I dunno. Maybe I'm just an extra large fan of Batman. But all I can say is that this game gave compelling reasons to do things that aren't necessarily part of the story. I think that's what separates Batman: Arkham Asylum from the other games out there.

I would like to agree here. My top three games this year are:

1. Batman: AA (PS3)
2. Infamous (PS3)
3. Modern Warfare 2 (360)

Good for you.

Batman AA is definitely one of my favorite game this year. I cant wait for a sequel.

Mine would be

1.) Modern Warfare 2
2.) Uncharted 2
3.) Killzone 2

As a HUGE batman fan, I would have to disagree. I saw The Dark Knight in theaters 6 times, own the movie on dvd and blueray, own the complete animated series, and have an extensive collection of comic books. The game in the end, felt like a missed opportunity though. It built up a lot of the bad guys boss fights but every single one of them besides poison ivy felt like a big disapointment. Bane was straightforward and easy and then his boss fight was copied into a normal foe which made him feel insignificant. They made the man who broke the bat feel like a normal enemy in the game. The croc fight in paticular was an awful boss fight if you could even call it that. And the final fight with the joker was pitiful. Batman has such a huge list of interesting and amazing rogues that the boss fights should have been as epic as MGS boss encounters.
It would still make my top 5 games list of the year.
1. Uncharted 2
2. MW2/ Killzone 2
4. Batman: AA
5. Infamous
Of course, I've yet to play AC2, Demon's Souls and a few other games that could steal it's spot.

My best game of the year is Splosion Man!

Oh wait...we're talking about graphics and production. Yes Batman, Uncahrted 2, MW2...all winners!

what? no Batsuit??? tsk tsk..and you call yourself a batman fan lol jk

1. UC 2
2. Infamous
3. MW2

Funny you should mention Batman:AA because I just got it today from Lovefilm and absolutely hated it. Played it for an hour, was bored out of my mind and sent the game back today as well. Opinions indeed. An hour was more than enough, it had become a choir at that point to keep playing the game. Perhaps it's due to me having no interest in the Batman franchise but meh rubbish game either way.