Batman: Arkham Knight

[Luxorek]

Batman: Arkham Knight

Leaked cover of the new Batman Arkham game, this time from Rocksteady. It seems to be next-gen exclusive, however since this isn't exactly an official announcement I could be wrong.

Description from GAME:

In the explosive finale to the Arkham series, Batman faces the ultimate threat against the city he is sworn to protect. The Scarecrow returns to unite an impressive roster of super villains, including Penguin, Two-Face and Harley Quinn, to destroy The Dark Knight forever.

Batman: Arkham Knight introduces Rocksteady's uniquely designed version of the Batmobile, which is drivable for the first time in the franchise. The addition of this legendary vehicle, combined with the acclaimed gameplay of the Batman Arkham series, offers gamers the ultimate and complete Batman experience as they tear through the streets and soar across the skyline of the entirety of Gotham City.

Be The Batman.

So... next-gen graphics. Drivable Batmobile. Scarecrow as the main villain. And it's a "finale" of the Arkham series apparently

I'm in.

EDIT: Gameinformer's April Cover revealed. Lots of details. It's indeed next-gen only.

 

[Aaden]

Read "pre-order to", decided to not waste any thoughts on it until GotY version is available. Just like the previous games.

 

[volsung]

I played Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. What I noticed was a degradation of the narrative and cohesion, and an improvement of the combat mechanics. I really liked Arkham Asylum for its graphic novel atmosphere, but Arkham City felt more like a... Hollywood blockbuster.

What I saw from Arkham Origins made me feel like they kept going in the same direction. Basically, a Batman themed 3D brawler. Can't say I'm excited about this new Batman entry unless they go back to their original concept. And why the hell do they keep calling these games Arkham?

The last, really annoying thing (which really contributed to make me stop buying the series) is how disgustingly DRM heavy these games were and how you get a barebones version if you purchase right away. Seems like they release these games 70% complete and then finish it with "DLC". Like aaden said, just buy the GOTY if at all.

 

[Luxorek]

Batman: Arkham Knight

Batman: Arham Knight Debut CGI trailer. Sweet. And yes, I would prefer gameplay one, but beggars can't be choosers.

 

[ReptilePZ]

They appear to have changed from classic Batman to Christian Bale Batman, not sure how I feel about this. Hopefully this one will actually be good, now that Rocksteady are behind it again. Also hoping that a car isn't the only new thing they're adding. AO suffered from lack of (significant) innovation.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

And why the hell do they keep calling these games Arkham?

The last, really annoying thing (which really contributed to make me stop buying the series) is how disgustingly DRM heavy these games were and how you get a barebones version if you purchase right away. Seems like they release these games 70% complete and then finish it with "DLC". Like aaden said, just buy the GOTY if at all.

Yeah, Arkham Knight sounds like Mad Knight to me. Never played any of the series, I guess I'll wait until they'll come out DRM-free, hehe.

 

[Luxorek]

It's next-gen only and that gives me a lot of hope. I can only imagine the things they can do now. Spectacular car chases, crowds on the streets and so on. If they don't pull Batman: Arkham Origins, with its depopulated and empty Gotham and instead present you with something that resembles an actual living city... then who knows. Then again, in the beginning of this CGI trailer Scarecrow urges the people to abandon the city [how convienient].

 

[ReptilePZ]

If they don't pull Batman: Arkham Origins, with its depopulated and empty Gotham and instead present you with something that resembles an actual living city...

Yea, that was perhaps the dumbest thing in the entire game. In AA, there was a reason why everyone on the streets was a criminal, but in AO it makes 0 sense. It was clearly a product that ws rushed in order to make money to support the actual next game - Arkham Knight. AO was essentially an expansion pack.

 

[volsung]

I am afraid this might turn out to be a Batman GTA.

In the case it doesn't it would be cool trying to stop criminals while avoiding or saving civilians. But only if it makes sense. Arkham Asylum narrative needs to come back.

I might avoid this game anyway, I don't want to support all these regional locks showing up in most major games nowadays. And I don't mean price, I mean region locks (as in South Park: The Stick of Truth).

 

[sidspyker]

Some new info here

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=779120

 

[Luxorek]

Just posting stuff from that thread on NeoGAF. Nice.

• Last Batman game for Rocksteady, will work on something totally new next.
• There will be a brand new villain, something made by Rocksteady that they say will be the ultimate test for Batman
• Batmobile can be called at any moment with a button.
• The city streets are much wider to allow for the batmobile. You will rocket jump off ramps and do all sorts of cool maneuvers.
• You can eject jump out of the batmobile right into a super fast glide straight through the glass of a building to knock out enemies. They said glass breaking will be a big new thing.
• New moves include being able to use all your gadgets during flight. You now have a counter throw where you counter a guy and throw him into another guy. A new quick ground takedown. A quick backflip where you then throw a batarang in an enemies face.
• For the predator sections you can now chain takedowns of up to four enemies. For instance pop out of a grate and take one guy, jump to the next and so on. You can now enter grates from a distance, he will automatically do a jump or roll to enter them.
• Riddler challenges seem to be car based. The first one has you enter a sort of Riddler race track where you have to activate walls and ramps, when you activate one another closes so as you drive you have to be constantly turning on and off these ramps as you navigate the course.
• Batmobile fires missles and stun guns. It destroys anything it touches so if you bump into cars the cars go flying. It's basically unstoppable.
• Story is that after Joker's death all the criminals decided to work together and their plan comes together this night where they plan to kill batman. The article talks mostly about Scarecrow, he scattered bombs throughout Gotham.
• Oracle will play a larger role, you get to visit her base and talk to her, tons of batman easter eggs included.
• Kevin Conroy is Batman, all the previous voice actors are back.
• Gotham City is 5 times bigger than AC. Split into 3 areas. NO LOAD TIMES at all, entering buildings is seemless.
• They spend a bunch of time talking about how detailed the models are, one character has more polygons than the environment of Asylum.
• Batman will start off with the old batsuit and upgrade at some point in the game.
• It says it is running on their modified Unreal engine.
• No more pre-rendered cinematics everything is done in engine
• The larger riots can have up to 50 people flipping cars and looting stores
• Arkham Knight isn't just the name of the game.. it's also the name of the [new] villain.
• Fear Takedowns. ie, burst out of grate, action slows down allowing you to target another goon for another attack and so on. Can be used on groups up to 3 as long as they're close enough together and no one has already spotted Batman.
• They seem to try to tackle the old school Arkham issue of "open door - black screen loading"
• The game looks gorgeous. Huge.
• "This is a single-player game. There is no multiplayer."

 

[soldiergeralt]

Batman: Arham Knight Debut CGI trailer. Sweet. And yes, I would prefer gameplay one, but beggars can't be choosers.

the character proportions no longer look really stupid, but unfortunately that's probabaly just for the cgi trailer

 

[ReptilePZ]

I really want this to be good. I also respect the fact that it's going to be their last Batman game. I was afraid it'd turn into another CoD or AC, and it might still end up like that, but not under Rocksteady.

The CGI looks pretty bad, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's target render.

 

[Garrison72]

Leaked cover of the new Batman Arkham game, this time from Rocksteady. It seems to be next-gen exclusive, however since this isn't exactly an official announcement I could be wrong.

Description from GAME:


So... next-gen graphics. Drivable Batmobile. Scarecrow as the main villain. And it's a "finale" of the Arkham series apparently

I'm in.

EDIT: Gameinformer's April Cover revealed. Lots of details. It's indeed next-gen only.

Fuck yes. They took inspiration from the tumbler.. my fanboy side is giddy. The only drawback is that I'm sick of the same campy villains they keep bringing back. Oh well. AC was better than AA and I hope they knock this one out of the park.


Edit- ok I just read some previous posts. Couldn't disagree more with you, Volsung. The boss fights in AA mostly sucked. The narrative was corny, especially the resolution. Gameplay wise, AC was better in every respect. It was also more difficult, something I welcomed. And lastly, I love the new look of Batman and his suit. The more Christian Bale in there, the better. Well, not his Bat voice.

 

[Sardukhar]

Fuck yes. They took inspiration from the tumbler.. my fanboy side is giddy. The only drawback is that I'm sick of the same campy villains they keep bringing back. Oh well. AC was better than AA and I hope they knock this one out of the park..

I found AC fairly dull actually. Keep trying it, not interested in playing. Haven't made it much past the first few hours. Just lacking in drive. the game, not me.

I liked AA, something about the tight confines and frequent use of Predator mode pleased me muchly.

I always hate boss fights, so for me you're comparing a sundae made of dog feces to one made of cat feces. Yuck either way.

 

[Username.]

the character proportions no longer look really stupid, but unfortunately that's probabaly just for the cgi trailer

Judging by the magazine screens the characters are all reasonably proportioned this time, also those character models are really fucking good.

 

[volsung]

Couldn't disagree more with you, Volsung. The boss fights in AA mostly sucked. The narrative was corny, especially the resolution. Gameplay wise, AC was better in every respect. It was also more difficult, something I welcomed.

Hmm well I suppose we agree to disagree I also think fights in general were more varied and entertaining in AC and I agree with the overall combat difficulty. AC's combat and gameplay is in general more fun. But I think AA was more cohesive and did a better job at justifying why we had to do things, even if it did have mostly lame boss fights. I kind of like Poison Ivy though, feels like a classic platformer/action game boss.

In Morrison and McKean's "Arkham Asylum: A serious house on serious earth" we see a shadowy Batman forcefully go through a psycho trip, confronting several of his enemies on more equal terms. The encounter with Killer Croc for instance is excellent, as Batman feels genuinely wary of "the dragon". I hope I am not confusing it with another comic book...

In any case, AA does, in my opinion, a good job at stringing together a series of events that somehow affect Batman personally. Some lines can be corny, like when Scarecrow tries drugging Batman the last time and he is like "I gave you enough poison to take out ten men, what are you!?" or something like that. But in extension, the game does a good job at reproducing a lighter version of the AA book. The final encounter is terrible, I agree with you.

AC feels more like a day in cartoon Batman's shoes, chasing criminals, grappling around and destroying public property. Several times it felt like new enemies were introduced just for the sake of expanding their roster. Of course, being Arkham City, most big criminals were supposed to be there. AC just does not feel like the noir detective Batman should be, in my opinion. I did like the parts about gathering clues, but the game did everything for you like it was on auto win. Some sequences I especially liked from AC are Wonder City, most of Ra's Al Ghul (which was campy at times), and the short meeting with the mad hatter. Clayface was visually awesome but, again, way over the top.

 

[Aditya]

Batman: Arkham Knight

The gods have blessed us yet again.

CAN'T FREAKING WAIT.

(oops sorry, forgot to add this inside the video games sub section. mods move pls? thanks!)

 

[Aditya]

Being a life long Batman fan, this made me just shriek with happiness. And I made a new thread on this because we can per game now

btw here is that article which @Luxorek mentioned. Cool artwork and screenshots

 

[Garrison72]

Rocksteady is one of my favorite devs. Like CDPR, they just came out of nowhere. I'm not expecting something as bold as what CDPR is doing as they go from sequel to sequel; it's yet another 'baddies converge to take down Bats in one night' scenario. But all the gameplay details sound great.