Gotham Knights/Court of Owls (WB Montreal)

Zero-Cool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119716085#Comment_119716085

I was browsing Gotham Knights stuff last night and it's getting very mid reviews from hands on previews, specifically that the combat gets very boring very quickly which isn't good. Then BAM, major story spoiler.

JimBurnley

Haven't been following this too closely, is there much of a SP campaign or is mainly focused on MP?

Zero-Cool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119716447#Comment_119716447

Seems to be an SP campaign with Co-op as an option instead of a full on mp game. Like Dying Light.

EoinMcLovin

definitely going to wait for reviews for this. Customization options look cool but one thing I'm not a fan of is the UI. Like this looks more like a mobile game than a AAA game

Here are some of the suit options

https://youtu.be/RF4a2imb0C0

MOR316

Doesn't look as good as Arkham Knight...

Then again, not many games do

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119739992#Comment_119739992

Yeah I watched SkillUp's preview video and a big point in his review was about how terrible and bland Gotham looks compared to AK, even 7 years and a console generation later. The difference when you see them side by side is stark. Plus the combat feels like it has far less weight/impact behind it, and enemies can take a lot more hits to go down.

They were never going to be able to shake off comparisons to the Arkham games, but it really doesn't sound like this improves on any aspect of those games, and in fact is worse in many cases. It might still be a bit of fun in terms of general gameplay and story etc, but expectations started low and have stayed there for me.

EoinMcLovin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119742685#Comment_119742685

Yeah this is definitely a wait for review type of game. They had a Q&A with the devs on Wednesday and they answered the most useless questions( is Tim Bi? And is Batman real?) and didn't even bother to give an answer whether or not there was 60FPS or performance modes. Also you can play the whole game as one of the characters and the only thing you'd miss is the different dialogs. Shame there isn't unique quests for each hero at least

Zero-Cool

I saw on the ps5 thread someone mentioned this is already on sale in Smyths, 70 down to 60. Veeeery tempted at that price but it will probably be that after Christmas anyway and will know if it's any good or not but then. I'd love to jump back into an Arkham game but this just looks off.

Mr Crispy

The only thing that appeals about this at the moment is the Court of Owls storyline, and that's probably a botch job anyway. Unless reviews surprise us, I'll wait for a steep discount, or an appearance on GamePass or something.

J. Marston

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119717477#Comment_119717477

Eww, that's ugly. As you said, VERY mobile-y.

EoinMcLovin

https://www.gothamknightsgame.com/en-gb/faq?scrollto=HeroicAssaultSection

Free 4 player Coop experience launching November 29th

• Q: Will Gotham Knights have a multiplayer mode?
• A: Yes. Gotham Knights can be played with a friend via the two-player online cooperative (co-op) mode or enjoyed solo at launch. On November 29, 2022, the game will also add Heroic Assault, a standalone mode supporting up to four players in online co-op.
• Q: What is Heroic Assault mode?
• A: Heroic Assault is an upcoming gameplay mode that is separate from the main story campaign. The standalone mode supports up to four players in online co-op and provides a dedicated arena-like environment with specific objectives to complete and enemies to defeat on each floor (30 floors total).
• Q: When will Heroic Assault be available?
• A: Heroic Assault will be available on November 29, 2022, as a free update for all Gotham Knights owners.
• Q: Will Heroic Assault allow a four-player online co-op for the main campaign?
• A: No. Heroic Assault is a separate mode that is not part of the main story campaign.

EoinMcLovin

https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1581093863455719424?t=SGWBtq2oanA8N05sqFCtZg&s=19

___--

Zero-Cool

What in the last gen is this! Also, why is this new gen only? Downgrade of visuals from Arkham and now 30fps, something fishy going on.

DarC_Kn1ght

To drop that news only a week before launch ain't great.

johnny_ultimate

Truly looks like the kind of game that would’ve been a 30 quid, Anarchy Reigns style budget release back in the day rather than an actual full-priced AAA release.

Mr Crispy

DOA.

Penn

Christ... 30fps....

I know Arkham Knight was 30fps, but like I said a few posts ago, that was 7 years and a console generation ago.

It's the unfortunate thing that with almost all games being 60fps these days (or having that option), going back to 30fps is jarring.

Sephiroth_dude

When is the review embargo up?

EoinMcLovin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119748079#Comment_119748079

Ideally Tuesday or Wednesday but wouldn't put it past WB not lifting it until day before release Day

EoinMcLovin

https://youtu.be/ieaRzxVnHmw

Looks like there is only 3 villains and my God UI still awful

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119761653#Comment_119761653

I wouldn't say there's only 3 villains, more likely that's all that were part of the story or revealed up to that point.

EoinMcLovin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119761716#Comment_119761716

Court of Owls are the main villains but there are only 3 side villains, confirmed during Devs Q&A last week

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119761820#Comment_119761820

SERIOUSLY?! F*ck sake....

What's the bets they release a new one with new missions every few months to try keep people playing etc. Such nonsense...

Game just sounds worse and worse the closer to launch it gets.

Homelander

The UI looks like a PS2 game.

Also can't see any justification for why the game is 30fps. Understandable last gen because they had low power CPUs, but the current consoles are the equivalent of a decent mid-range PC, there's no reason any game should need to be locked to 30fps.

Seems like it's just badly optimised or else being rushed and they didn't have time to implement a performance mode.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119761912#Comment_119761912

I saw a tweet last week from a dev (a Rocksteady dev, not WB Montreal) who said the likely issue is the Xbox Series S. As it's the lowest performing console (the GPU in particular), it's the bottleneck and MS won't allow games that are optimised differently between the X and the S.

"The Series S exists, though, and Microsoft won't let you launch on one without the other. An entire generation of games, hamstrung by that potato."

https://wccftech.com/rocksteady-dev-calls-xbox-series-s-a-potato-while-defending-gotham-knights-at-30-fps/

EoinMcLovin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119761912#Comment_119761912

I'd say its mix of both. Sure the game was supposed to come out last year and got delayed to 2022, that studio also hasn't worked on anything major since Arkham Origins in 2013. Minimum pc specs even has 60FPS

https://twitter.com/GothamKnights/status/1582432619370668033?t=GyvsSPKUmMqAH0NmgcfcEg&s=19

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119761959#Comment_119761959

Doesn’t sound right to me: lots of games have had vastly different optimisation and performance modes on Series S compared to XBSX and PS5. If that machine is a bottleneck, they should easily be able to offer 60 FPS on the more powerful consoles if the S can only handle 30.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119762072#Comment_119762072

It's definitely something I'd have little knowledge to say it's either right or wrong. If it was just a randomer on Twitter saying it I'd pay no heed but a named dev from Rocksteady, I figured there might be some truth to it.

Do games recognise if you're playing on Series X or S, and offer different graphics options or anything?

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119762393#Comment_119762393

Yeah games usually run at lower resolutions / frame rates on Series S than its bigger sibling, and will often completely lock out or remove certain graphical options if there’s a menu for it.

Now there’s certainly an argument that having to aim for a lower-specced console may have some consequences… but so far this generation games have indeed scaled down to Series S quality as needed. Perhaps that’ll change with more intensive games, but certainly to date the Series S requirement hasn’t stopped developers delivering much better performing versions on the ‘premium’ consoles.

Zero-Cool

It's so weird, make it new gen only but scale all consoles to last gen. Why not just make it both gens with a performance boost on xbox x and ps5. Smells like bat ****!