Wow. Good call, sir. I could have sworn I cleaned out the church, though... Must have been before I interrogated all the henchmen. Thanks.
Yeah, trophies inside buildings can glitch out (maybe intentionally) so they don't show up on the map. So then you're stuck like me searching every inch of Park Row, only to find out there are some still in the church (and thus count toward the Park Row count) ****ing annoying.
I got both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City for Christmas, and I have to say, these games are ****ing awesome. This franchise is by far my favorite single player franchise. There is a lot I can say that I like, but most of it is already said. I beat Arkham Asylum and obtained all of the Riddler trophies (legitimately, which was the first time I got all the secrets in the game on my own) in about two days. Although I did play the game for hours upon hours at a time. Arkham City is taking me a lot longer, although I can already say I've played it more than arkham asylum. I'm still going to try and get all of the riddler trophies on my own. I was worried at first because there were no maps to pick up, but the ability to interrogate henchmen totally blew my mind. As of now, I have beat the main story, all but 3 of the side missions (watcher in the wings, the riddler stuff, and the murder case), and have not touched the challenge maps except to play as Robin for a second. Arkham City would be my game of the year if portal 2 wasn't so good. I agree that Arkham Asylum had better pacing, but it didn't last me near as long as Arkham City. Spoiler Like a few of the in-game henchmen, I'm a bit skeptical of the Joker's death. How could they kill of Batman's arch nemesis? Did any of the developers definitively say that he wasn't coming back? or is there still a chance?
Spoiler Mark Hamill is no longer doing the voice work for the Joker in any medium apparently, so that's almost a definitive "no" for the videogames. But they always replace voice actors in cartoons with little fuss, so they're safe, I suppose. As for the death of Joker in the game, I doubt they'd find a way to legitimately bring him back to life in the next game, but I honestly think his death in AC was necessary. He's such a great counterpoint for Batman and an excellent nemesis, but it's due time that someone else took centre stage for once. There's only so much you can do with a character, anyway.
Spoiler I would agree with Xun on his latter point that while the Joker is an excellent villain, playing the third game in the series with him as the lead bad guy would be borderline boring. I would like to see someone or something else be Batman's main focus in the next game. I don't really think it had much to do with Mark Hamill's supposed finale. They replaced Harley Quinn's voice actor with little thought or consequence, and I'm sure they could find an adequate Joker impersonator out there. Would it be the same? No, but neither was Harley.
Spoiler Well, they also killed off Joker in the last movie remember? There are so many villins in the Batman series, that writers can very smoothly act around the absence of a few characters. What is going to be interesting is the death of Hugo Strane and how it changes the next game
A very good point on your final sentence there. Spoiler They need more pivotal characters, but I'm not sure if there are any more in the Batman Rogues Gallery that could be strong enough to fill the position of lead role, which is why the focus of the main storyline was split up between Joker, Hugo Strange, and several other smaller characters. Penguin and Two-Face would be likely candidates to fill the Jokers wing-tips, but like I said, I'm not sure if they're strong enough character wise to carry that burden. There's always Ra's al Ghul again, I suppose. He has a penchant for escaping death.
Spoiler They didn't kill the Joker. At the end of the movie you are led to believe that the joker is in custody. They are only making one more movie so the loss of the joker isn't a big deal, but how many more batman games are going to be made? I agree that having the joker as the main villain in the next game would be boring, I just don't think killing off the the main character's arch nemesis is a good idea. Good thing Batman has an abundance of awesome villains.
Spoiler I know I'm a little late to the party, but I'd like to give my thoughts on the Joker's death and his potential return. Do I think Joker should return as a main character? No. I'd prefer it if Rocksteady chose to utilize another villain instead of Joker. Joker's death in Arkham City was executed wonderfully, there's really no need to bring him back. I mean, as great as The Joker is, I thinks it's time for another villain to step up to the plate and act as the star villain. Personally, I think Scarecrow would probably be the best choice. Hell, if they still want to include Joker in some form, have him appear to torment Batman during a Scarecrow hallucination. I could imagine being poisoned and then eventually hearing Joker's trademark laugh. Along with Scarecrow, I'm very interested in seeing what they will do with Hush. Hopefully he returns as one of the main villains and not just a character in a side quest.
Spoiler Honestly i think this could work out very well, maybe like first mission of the game track down and 'beat' scarecrow. Then the joker 'returns' and you spend the first half of the game running around trying to solve the mystery of how the joker has returned recovering clues and such that ultimately only lead to dead ends. (along the way you'll still be fighting other baddies of course). Then you hit this sort of reveation moment mid to late game where batman discovers that up to this point hes been operating under one of scarecrows halucenogens, and he then begins to unravel the true plot. Maybe scarecrows working for someone, i dont know just seems like an interesting plot thread.
Spoiler Just thought that I'd mention that Hugo Strange is not dead. There are extra hard to find Easter eggs that tell that he is alive. Also, the only villains I would say for sure are dead are: Joker and Talia. Ra's is going to regenerate, Hugo is for sure alive, and you never saw Clay Face's body. All in all, that was one heck of a fun game. I really enjoyed tormenting all of the hoods. I would like to see more Two Face, Spoiler hush and Ra's. Mostly because you get a sword in the Ra's level.