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Batman: Arkham Knight A Matter of Family DLC is a hollow cash grab

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Arkham Knight's A Matter of Family DLC isn't worth its price tag

Arkham Knight’s A Matter of Family DLC offers an hour of disappointing story that doesn’t justify its price tag

After fighting and sneaking my way through every inch of the first two games in Rocksteady’s infamous Batman series I expected the final installment to end on the highest possible note. In the end Batman: Arkham Knight felt like Rocksteady simply wanted to be done with the trilogy and move on. The story’s major plot twist and other elements were lackluster at best.

So I had turned my hopes towards the post-release DLC to give the final piece of this epic trilogy what it was lacking. ‘Batgirl: A Matter of Family’ that released this week shot down those hopes; leaving me feeling like it and the games season pass were just a cash grab. A prequel story that puts players behind the cowl of Batgirl AKA Barbara Gordon was simply a letdown.

The first place you’ll see problems in A Matter of Family is the combat. Where Arkham Knight’s main story is filled with options for sneaking or outright brawling Batgirl is linear. You’re shoved into generic fights that you want to get through as fast as possible and never deal with again. Of course there are players who prefer a straight to the point experience like this; but that still isn’t what Rocksteady’s games are known for.

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A Matter of Family’s storyline is just as frustrating, doing nothing to make up for those lackluster fight scenes. Being a prequel story starring Batgirl and Robin, two important characters to the Batman universe, there was plenty of material to work with. So why does A Matter of Family have no meaningful connection to the Arkham universe? Even the case that Batgirl had become Oracle by the time of Batman: Arkham Asylum and that her previous identity wasn’t a factor doesn’t hold water.

Granted this a stand alone piece of DLC so we can expect massive additions to the storyline but some type of connection could have been made. The dynamic between Batgirl and Robin, which is admittedly fun to take advantage of with Dual Play, also feels like a missed opportunity. At no point does the story take time to dive into it despite countless chances to do so.

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Admittedly A Matter of Family has its good points including unique collectibles and demented amusement park settings but those don’t make up for its failings. At an hour-long it’s hard to justify its $10 stand-alone price tag or it being part of the $40 season pass. When gamers pick up a piece of DLC they expect it to add a fair amount of length and content to justify its price. A Matter of Family doesn’t give players any of that making it tough to recommend and tougher to see it as anything but a hollow cash grab.

Just like most other people are here, Ryan is very passionate about gaming and technology. When he's not writing about video games, you'll likely find him talking about the latest gadgets.

Gaming

Ubisoft says that future Assassin’s Creed games will need more time to be made

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As Assassin’s Creed Shadows is about to sneak up on people in November, Ubisoft says that the time between developing games needs to be longer to find the “right balance.” Shadows has been in development for four years, longer than any other game in the series up to this point. That includes the huge open-world epics Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

Shadows lead producer Karl Onnée (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz) says that the latest AC game took 25% longer to make than Valhalla. He says this is necessary to keep the quality of the series that it is known for: “It’s always a balance between time and costs, but the more time you have, the more you can iterate.” You can speed up a project by adding more people to it, but that doesn’t give you more time to make changes.

Onnée says this has as much to do with immersion and aesthetics as it does with fixing bugs and smoothing out pixels. This is because the development team needs time to learn about each new historical setting: “We are trying to make a game that is as real as possible.” We’re proud of it, and the process took a long time. In feudal Japan, building a house is very different from building a house in France or England in the Middle Ages. As an artist, you need to learn where to put things in a feudal Japanese home. For example, food might not belong there. Get all the information you need and learn it. That process takes a long time.”

You’ll have to wait a little longer for Ubisoft to work on each game. Are you okay with that? In what part of Shadows are you now? Is it interesting to you? Leave a comment below and let us know.

 

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You can now pre-order Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP on PS5

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You can now pre-order Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP, a remaster that Dragami Games and Capcom both created. You can now pre-order the PS5 game on the PS Store for $44.99 or £39.99. If you have PS Plus, you can get an extra 10% off the price.

The company put out a new trailer with about three minutes of gameplay to mark the start of the pre-order period. Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP is a remaster of Grasshopper Manufacture’s crazy action game from 2012. You play as Juliet, a high school student who fights off waves of zombies.

The remaster adds RePOP mode, an alternative mode that swaps out the blood and gore for fun visual effects. It also adds a bunch of other features and improvements that make the game better overall. You can expect the graphics and sound to be better as well.

The game will now come out on September 12, 2024, instead of September 12, 2024. Are you excited to get back to this? Please cheer us on in the section below.

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This Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 zombies trailer is way too expensive

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Is there really anyone who is following the story of Call of Duty’s zombie mode? We’ve known about the story in a vague way for a while, but we couldn’t tell you anything about it. It looks like the “Dark Aether” story will continue in Black Ops 6, but we don’t really know what that means.

For those of you who care, here is the official blurb with some background: “Requiem, led by the CIA, finally closed the last-dimensional portal, sending its inhabitants back to the nightmare world known as the Dark Aether, after two years of fighting zombie outbreaks around the world during the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War timeline.”

Wait, there’s more! “Agent Samantha Maxis gave her life to seal this weird dimension from the inside out.” Even worse things were to come: senior staff members of Requiem were arrested without a reason by the Project Director, who turned out to be Edward Richtofen.

Black Ops 6 will take place about five years later, and it looks like it will show more about Richtofen’s goals and motivations. The most important thing is that you will probably be shooting an unimaginable number of zombies in the head. This week, on August 8, there will be a full reveal of the gameplay, so keep an eye out for that.

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