Batman: Arkham Knight--new info11/25/2014 First post updated.

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**insaniak**

Manchu wrote:
I still haven't played Origins!.

I probably won't.

I enjoyed the hell out of Asylum and City... but was almost finished City when they closed down GFWL, which meant I had to switch over to Steam and start all over again. And that was after all the hassles getting GFWL to work with these two games in the first place.

I got my crankies on.

**Manchu**

But you did play City again right? To me, that's great testimony of the game's playability. Major nuisances like the ones you describe tend to spoil me even on good games. I am thinking specifically about game breaking NWN2 bugs.

I haven't played Origins yet because ... I guess the marketing never convinced me it was (1) doing more than City or (2) telling an interesting story. (But I should also mention that while I love Asylum and City, I didn't think the story of either was particularly interesting.) Contrast that to Arkham Knight where we have the Batmobile.

**Medium of Death**

Origins was OK, I liked the story but the action got a little repetitive. It might help to get some of the background on the characters of this particular incarnation of Batman/Gotham, but I don't think you would be missing much.

I might actually buy a next gen console for this. First game that's really pulled me in, plus I loved Asylum and City.

Do you think they'll follow up that element from City with the guy who had made himself to look like Bruce Wayne with all those dead peoples faces? Hush?

Perhaps Scarecrow will use Hush to discredit Wayne. Perhaps that's why Thomas' will is part of the trailer, kind of highlighting what a good guy Bruce is and potentially what he could have become instead.

**Manchu**

Oh gosh, I wonder if (along those lines) the trailer is a teaser for Simon Hurt. The Arkham series ... with some Grant Morrison inspiration ... would be mind blowing!

**Tannhauser42**

Trailer looked good overall. I wonder how much of it will actually be in the game, though? I mean, how much money did they blow on a trailer that could have been spent on further game development?

I'm undecided on the design of the Batmobile. I think my favorite is still the Tim Burton Batmobile.

Hmm, maybe they will have alternative Batmobiles you can unlock, just like different costumes? Would be cool to cruise around in the Adam West Batmobile.

**insaniak**

Manchu wrote:
But you did play City again right?

Not yet. The first run through was only a few months ago. I'll probably go back to it sooner or later, but I'm still trying to summon up the enthusiasm.

(But I should also mention that while I love Asylum and City, I didn't think the story of either was particularly interesting.) .

I actually quite enjoyed the stories of both. City in particular felt a lot like No Man's Land, which was a story that I enjoyed the hell out of.

**Kanluwen**

So one of the devs at Rocksteady is dropping hints that this has cooperative gameplay, with the second player being able to take their pick of Robin, Catwoman, or Nightwing as their character.

**Manchu**

Tannhauser42 wrote:
Hmm, maybe they will have alternative Batmobiles you can unlock, just like different costumes?

That my good man is a really top notch idea. (BTW the Burtonmobile is also my favorite!)

insaniak wrote:
City in particular felt a lot like No Man's Land, which was a story that I enjoyed the hell out of.

Very true, it did capture that feeling. No Man's Land came out in three paperbacks around the time Arkham City launched so I took the opportunity to collect them. It's a good series. I have a lot of favorite Batman I guess but I would love to see a game that has more of that 80s O'Neil and Adams "Batman is James Bond" feeling or, as hinted at above, some Grant Morrison mind bending. Or Knightfall!!!

Kanluwen wrote:
Nightwing

Awesome!

**H.B.M.C.**

Origins was twice the size of City. 5 times? Yikes.

And Conroy is back.

Tannhauser42 wrote:
Trailer looked good overall. I wonder how much of it will actually be in the game, though? I mean, how much money did they blow on a trailer that could have been spent on further game development?

This isn't the first time they've done a CG trailer for an Arkham game. City had its own CGI trailer, made by Blur (so I presume this one was too), and given that it's Warner Brothers and that Batman is one of their biggest propeties I'd hazzard that not only did this trailer's cost come out of the game's marketing budget (and not its development budget) but that this game's marketing budget will be huge.

Kanluwen wrote:
So one of the devs at Rocksteady is dropping hints that this has cooperative gameplay, with the second player being able to take their pick of Robin, Catwoman, or Nightwing as their character.

They've also specifically said that there's no multiplayer, and that they're focusing on making the best single-player experience they can. Nice to see a studio bunking the trend of crow-barring a pointless multiplayer mode into a single-player game.

A few more details (some repeated):

Examiner.com wrote:As for the storyline in "Arkham Knight," the game takes places after Joker's death in "Arkham City," where all the major villains and crime lords in Gotham have joined forces one night to eliminate Batman. Without giving too much away, the game opens up with Scarecrow telling everyone in Gotham to scram, as he planted fear toxin bombs all over the city. The demo played by Game Informer ends with a reveal of a mysterious new character dressed similarly to Batman called the Arkham Knight, who sports an "A" instead of a bat logo. The Arkham Knight is an original character by Rocksteady and was created with the help of Geoff Johns, DC Comics writer and Chief Creative Officer. Longtime Batman voice actor, Kevin Conroy, reprises his role as the Dark Knight in the latest game.

Gotham City is said to be five time larger than the open-world environment in "Arkham City" and split into three areas. The city streets are much wider than previous games to accommodate for players driving in the Batmobile. The Batmobile can be summoned with a button and can destroy anything it touches on the road. On top of that, the Batmobile can fire missiles, stun guns, and Batman himself into the air. Car-based challenges are also present in the game, with the first coming from the Riddler.

Batman will start off with his old costume and upgrade to a new suit later on in the game. All moves can now be done in-flight, including the use of gadgets. Additionally, the linear launcher can now be used anywhere to create ziplines to traverse. "Arkham Knight" is running on a modified Unreal engine and makes full use of the PS4's and Xbox One's hardware. All cinematics in the game are not pre-rendered; everything is done in engine. With no load times present, players can now entering buildings in the game seamlessly.

While Rocksteady and Conroy have returned to the Arkham game franchise, comic book writer and long associated Batman writer, Paul Dini, has not. However, Dini offered some encouraging words for the game and Rocksteady on his official Twitter account.

Paul Dini wrote:Okay I just read the announcement and saw the father/son promo. Really the first I've heard of it. However, it looks kick-ass...

And as it's Rocksteady, you know it's going to be great. I can't wait to see more

Trust Rocksteady, gang. They know Batman.

Holy crap...

And some more info from Kotaku:

Nolan North, Wally Wigbert, Tara Strong and Troy Baker will also return to reprise their roles as Penguin, Riddler, Harley Quinn and Two-Face.

YAY!

**Manchu**

The no load times thing sounds great. I wonder if that will become a standard thing with these types of games during this new console generation. As to the suit upgrade part, and given the trailer, I guess that means taking on the Nolan look.

**LuciusAR**

I really hope they don't bring back Joker. His death was such a fantastic moment in City that to resurect him would just feel cheap.

Glad to see two face in the Traler, I hope he gets a role as a major villian this time. Being only a minor villian for Catwoman in City was kind of disapointing.

**Manchu**

Hasn't Mark Hamill said City would be his last work as the Joker? Not to say that proves the Joker won't reappear (even if this was already kind of the plot of City) but maybe it points in that direction.

**H.B.M.C.**

If the Harley Quinn stuff is a small single-player campaign (as opposed to just her being playable in challenge maps), then I can see the Joker returning as hallucinations/flashbacks. She is nuts after all, so that'd make sense.

Otherwise yeah, he really shouldn't be in this as it does cheapen City's great ending. Plus, as mentioned, Hamill did say City was his final performance as Joker and I doubt that, as good as he is, they'll have Troy Baker pull double duty as Two-Face and Joker (and maybe even Robin, again!).

**Compel**

Hamill has also said that he'd drop everything if he got to do 'The Killing Joke' as Joker.

Personally, yeah, I can see Joker not being in Arkham Knight.

However, I'm never going to call an Al Ghul dead, whatever the medium.

I am wondering what plot point Harley's baby is going to play in it. Or whether they'll be saving that for a Batman Beyond series of games.

**Manchu**

H.B.M.C. wrote:
I can see the Joker returning as hallucinations/flashbacks. She is nuts after all, so that'd make sense.

Excellent point -- I don't really see her as being able to, erm, move on from that, ah, relationship.

H.B.M.C. wrote:
I doubt that, as good as he is, they'll have Troy Baker pull double duty

Unless he can do a great impression of Mark Hamill's Joker, it might also end up being off-putting (as for example, IMO, in DC animated features such as the otherwise excellent Under The Red Hood).

Compel wrote:
Or whether they'll be saving that for a Batman Beyond series of games.

I get the feeling from the trailer that Rocksteady is moving away from comics/cartoon Batman and toward Nolan Batman. Then again, the CG trailer for City didn't really represent the actual tone of the game too well.

**H.B.M.C.**

I'd say it's actually neither the comics nor Nolan Batman. It's more like a more high-tech take on the cartoon series (unsurprising really, given who wrote the first two games).

As far as Harley's baby goes, I'm pretty sure that plotline was concluded in Harley Quinn's Revenge. In the steel mill you find a crib with a mutilated Scarface doll surrounded by 'Negative' pregnancy tests. It appears the one in City-proper was a false positive.

And Troy does do the voice of Joker in Origins, and he does a really good job. There are times where it's indistinguishable from Hamill, but it is a younger Joker. But in small doses (the aforementioned hallucinatons) it could be quite good.

**Manchu**

H.B.M.C. wrote:
It's more like a more high-tech take on the cartoon series (unsurprising really, given who wrote the first two games).

Very true of Asylum and City. The reason I bring up Nolan is because of the trailer for Knight. The cowl seems to become the Nolan bathelm -- as per the article above, this could be an in-game moment.

H.B.M.C. wrote:
And Troy does do the voice of Joker in Origins, and he does a really good job.

Just keep John DiMaggio (Bender from Futurama/Jake from Adventure Time) away from the role!

**H.B.M.C.**

The only Nolan in these games is Nolan North, voice of Penguin (and, like, all the thugs that aren't either "Generic Black Man" or Steve Blum).

Oh, and one thing we all need to remember: Rocksteady is still just the developer. The publisher remains the as consumer unfriendly as ever Warner Brothers, the same people who cut the Catwoman section out of City to turn it into a makeshift online pass available only with new copies.

To that end:

And that confirms that Harley’s stuff is just Deathstroke-esque challenge maps and unfortunately (?) not a single-player Catwoman-esque section.

**Manchu**

The design aesthetic, at least that we've seen so far, of the Bat suit in Arkham Knight breaks with that of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. In the previous two games, Batman wore a rubber-like cowl, a mask that also covers the neck and parts of the shoulders. In Arkham Knight, Batman seems to have a helmet made from some kind of hard material that is totally separate from his cape and the material around his neck:

Spoiler:

That in turn was a novel design choice from Nolan's Dark Knight:

Spoiler:

You can also see the influence of Nolan's Bat suit, in terms of the angular, hard material plates, on the Arkham Knight suit. By contrast, the Bat suit in Asylum and City was a variation on the more traditional 1990s Detective Comics suit.

Spoiler:

Interestingly, the the City design already shows hints of being influenced by the Nolan movies:

Spoiler:

I'd also say that the Arkham Knight batmobile has more in common with the militaristic tumbler from the Nolan films than the swept back coup of the Burton films or the Animated Series -- or even the Arkham City batmobile for that matter!

Spoiler:

**gunslingerpro**

Really not a fan of Harley's new makeup in that trailer.

**H.B.M.C.**

It's a CGI trailer. Not ingame.

**gunslingerpro**

H.B.M.C. wrote:
It's a CGI trailer. Not ingame.

Regardless.

**H.B.M.C.**

I guess my point was we needn't worry about how she looks in-game until we've seen her in-game.

**Medium of Death**

Surely the CGI trailer is indicative of the characters looks in game?

I was a little confused about Two-Face having a more Dark Knight look than he did in the previous games.

**H.B.M.C.**

Really? He looked like the City one to me. And screenshots of the game show him as well. He's the same as City - even has the scars Catwoman gave him.

**LuciusAR**

The Batmobile in the Trailer looked to me like it had been influenced somewhat by the Tumbler Batmobile from the Nolan films.

Not an obvious copy, but it has a very similar feel to it.

**Manchu**

LuciusAR wrote:
Not an obvious copy, but it has a very similar feel to it.

That's the overall impression I have from the whole trailer, that there is a strong "Nolanian" influence. If it plays out beyond the CGI trailer, it seems like a pretty big change for the franchise.

**Kanluwen**

Plus, Bruce looked pretty Ben Afflecky.

**Manchu**

That's a low blow Kan! But it would make sense, I guess. On the other side, Bats never looked like Bale in either Asylum or City (at least to mine eyes).

**Alpharius**

He definitely didn't.

I'm cautiously optimistic on this one...

...I just want to play as Azrael!