arkhamknight
Latest
'Batman Arkham VR' put me inside the Batsuit
Telltale wasn't the only developer that brought Batman to E3 this year: The folks at Rocksteady Studios packed the Dark Knight into their suitcases as well. Batman Arkham VR was a surprise reveal at Sony's keynote earlier this week and drew a huge round of applause when it appeared onstage. Once I strapped on a PlayStation VR headset (it's a timed exclusive to the platform this October), I could tell why the team worked so hard to keep it a secret.
Warner Bros. cancels 'Batman: Arkham Knight' for Mac and Linux
Batman: Arkham Knight was one of the better big-budget games of last year -- but its launch on the PC was an unmitigated disaster. Warner Bros. had to pull the game from Steam and retailers and offer refunds to buyers because it was so hopelessly broken at launch, and even when the game came back it still had some problems. That checkered past makes today's news not entirely shocking: Warner Bros. has decided to cancel Arkham Knight for Mac and Linux gamers.
'Batman: Arkham Knight' returns to PC on October 28th
Months after Warner Bros. yanked the PC port of Batman: Arkham Knight to tackle its many launch day glitches, it's ready for take two. The publisher has announced that Rocksteady's game will return to Steam on October 28th at 10AM Pacific, or 1PM Eastern. The re-launch will also include a patch that brings PC players up to speed on features that are available on all console versions (such as Photo Mode and the Arkham Asylum skin), and anyone with a Season Pass will catch up on downloadable content. It's too soon to say if this will be the Batman game you were expecting this spring, but it should be much closer to the intended vision.
'Batman: Arkham Knight' never feels too big to play
This article contains spoilers for Batman: Arkham Knight; you've been warned. I didn't want to like Batman: Arkham Knight. In the long run-up to its release, I'd become increasingly disinterested every time developer Rocksteady Studios mentioned how the game had grown compared to its prequels. Twenty times bigger than Arkham Asylum! My eyes glazed over. Drive the Batmobile around Gotham! Yawn. My worry was that Arkham Knight would be a product of the Warner Bros. Interactive marketing department, riddling the series I love with bloat and unnecessary features solely because the PlayStation 4's and Xbox One's more powerful hardware allowed for bigger experiences. It's been a while since I was this happy to be wrong: Arkham Knight's genius is that despite its physical size, the game never feels larger than whatever carefully constructed moment you're in.
'Batman: Arkham Knight' for PC should be less broken now
Batman: Arkham Knight was supposed to be the perfect swansong for Rocksteady's Dark Knight trilogy. While the game was received positively on PS4 and Xbox One, the PC version was a mess -- so bad, in fact, that Warner Bros. eventually pulled it completely. That was in June and only now, 10 weeks later, are PC players getting a patch that should fix the most glaring issues. The new update claims to solve the game's fluctuating frame rate, while also improving its overall performance on all GPUs. Warner Bros. says it'll also remedy any low resolution textures and add a deeper set of in-game settings for you to play with. If you were hoping to buy the game now that's in a better state, bad news -- Arkham Knight is still unavailable to purchase on Steam. Perhaps that's an indication of where the game now stands -- better than before, but still a little way from what PC players deserve.
AMD's R9 Fury X is a beast, but 4K gaming is still a waste
Since the rise of 3D graphics cards, the inexorable trend in PC gaming has been around getting bigger, better and faster. That led to a culture of PC gamers obsessing over frame rates and doing whatever it took to push their hardware as much as possible. But now that even relatively affordable graphics cards can hit a silky smooth 60 fps at 1080p, there's only one big mountain left to climb: 4K gaming. And that's exactly what a powerhouse card like AMD's new Radeon R9 Fury X ($650) is poised to tackle. The only problem? 4K gaming still isn't worth your time and money.
The 1989 Batmobile and Batsuit are coming to 'Arkham Knight'
Yeah, you heard that right. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the original movie's theatrical release, the one directed by Tim Burton, Rocksteady Studios is releasing Michael Keaton's 1989 Batsuit and Batmobile as DLC for Batman: Arkham Knight in August. Of course, that's assuming you've shelled out the requisite $40 for the game's season pass. In addition to the two iconic skins, the expansion will also feature two new audio tracks and six new character skins -- 1990's Catwoman, Original Batman, One Year Later Robin, Arkham Origins Batman, 1970's Batman and Arkham Nightwing. Batgirl, unfortunately, is only available as a separate download.
'Batman: Arkham Knight' is a fun distraction, but it's not Batman
Neon green and red lights flash as Batman maneuvers the Batmobile through loop de loops in a gaudy underground racetrack. On the streets of Gotham, giant, bulbous tanks strafe around each other shooting at the speeding Bat-vehicle as it tries to escape. Onscreen, a computer-animated Alfred appears and gets snippy with master Bruce. This is a description of the things I did in a demo of Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham Knight, due out this June on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. And if any of the above sounds a whole hell of a lot like the camp film Batman & Robin, well, that's because it's eerily similar. If you were a fan of that Joel Schumacher-directed 1997 nipple fest or the open-world distractions of the 2011 video game Arkham City, then that gameplay might sound pretty awesome. But for a fan of Batman: Arkham Asylum like myself, however, this sample of Arkham Knight was disconcerting.
Limited edition 'Batman' PlayStation 4 scratches that superhero itch
If you missed out on that coveted 20th Anniversary PlayStation 4, don't fret: there's another special-run model coming soon. Sony has unveiled a limited edition Batman: Arkham Knight PS4 bundle that gives you a "steel grey" console emblazoned with the Caped Crusader's silhouette alongside the matching controller and, of course, the game. You'll want to pre-order the $450 pack quickly if you want to stand a chance of getting it on its June 23rd launch day, but there is a standard $400 bundle if you're either late to the party or are more interested in saving Gotham than showing off.
