I've Been Roped Into Playing Arkham City Yet Again

Become the Bat all over again. Let's do this!

I don't mean this to sound like a brag — because being proud of it would be silly — but I have a Platinum trophy for Batman: Arkham City. I played through the game once on "normal difficulty" and then again on "hard," and I pulled off 100 percent completion both times. You'd think I would have had enough by now. There's a lot to do in this game, and working my way through all of it twice took the better part of a week. I did enjoy myself, but the experience left me feeling absolutely spent. I never would have guessed I'd be playing it again, but a barrage of advertising turned that around pretty quickly.

Oh free games, why you gotta be so alluring?

In April, 2014, Arkham City was one of the free games available to Playstation Plus members. Despite owning the disc already, seeing it advertised every single time I turned on my PS3 wore me down. I thought about it and thought about it some more, and soon enough, I found myself with a serious urge to give the game another go. This morning, I finally gave in. I've been grapnel boosting around the city, punching sharks, and taking down wave after wave of thugs with reckless abandon. Again.

Of course, it certainly helps that I love me some Batman (so much that I even attempted a daily Batman drawing blog last year,) but I'd be playing something else right now if "City" hadn't been shoved in my face every day last month. Not even the early hype for the upcoming Batman: Arkham Knight left me this interested in another playthrough. I've always felt as if I'm fairly resistant to advertising, but it appears I may have been mistaken.

I never thought I'd make a "Batman timesink" Photoshop either. I'm surprising myself all the time~

Even though there are other games I should be giving my time to (especially after purchases from recent discount-fests like the Tokyo Jungle-centric April Flash Sale), I can't say I really mind. I'm feeling very impressed by how easy and enjoyable it's been to slip back into the gameplay. I was able to relearn all of the fancy gliding maneuvers and engage in 30-hit beatdown sessions within minutes. When combined with the engrossing tone and a world chock-full of fan-pleasing easter eggs, I'm feeling hooked on Arkham City for a third freaking time.

But if you think I'm going to hunt down all 400 Riddler trophies again, you can forget it!

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