Batman: Arkham Knight is 'real next-gen,' map is five times the size of Arkham City

"Obviously, you see a lot of games that are cross-gen, and they feel a bit reined in because of that."

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Unlikes its predecessor, Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham Knight is exclusive to the next-gen. It's one of the first games to ditch cross-gen, focusing exclusively on harnessing the power of the new consoles. "Obviously, you see a lot of games that are cross-gen, and they feel a bit reined in because of that," director Sefton Hill said. "Because we were able to make that decision quite early, we were able to be more ambitious with the design and make a real, genuine next-gen game."

So what does that entail? According to Game Informer (via CVG), some of the characters in the upcoming game use the same number of polygons as "the whole environment" of Arkham Asylum. The end result should be a game that looks closer to pre-rendered cutscenes than ever before.

The map is also expanded, and should be five times as large as the map created for Arkham City. In addition, there are three to four times as many thugs in Gotham City compared to previous games.

Arkham Knight will launch later this year on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    March 5, 2014 12:00 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Batman: Arkham Knight is 'real next-gen,' map is five times the size of Arkham City.

    "Obviously, you see a lot of games that are cross-gen, and they feel a bit reined in because of that."

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      March 5, 2014 12:05 PM

      [deleted]

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        March 5, 2014 12:20 PM

        I do ... bring on Gotham City :)

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          March 5, 2014 12:21 PM

          It's Batman's normal environment and world, unlike Aslyum + Arkham City which feel like game arenas.

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        March 5, 2014 12:49 PM

        Why would anyone not want a bigger map? From the beginning of AA,I wanted to be able to play in the city that was in the background.

        A bigger city can only make the game better,especially if you are driving around in the Batmobile.

        AA was a great game,but not nearly as good as Arkham City,mainly because of the better set pieces,but more importantly,because of some of the epic boss fights,mainly Solomon Grundy and Mr. Freeze.

        Yeah,I can't wait for this game.

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        March 5, 2014 12:51 PM

        I posted that kind of question a while back; open world vs more closed and focused. The majority of people that responded said they ended up favoring more focus vs open world freedom.

        I feel that same way. I keep thinking about Crackdown with so much back-and-forth roaming. It might be on the extreme and early to the open world side of things, but that doesn't make it less accurate of the sentiment.

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        March 5, 2014 1:12 PM

        i was playing AC this weekend, because i'm always super behind in video games, and i think it's become one of my favorite games of all time. i'm only about 40% through the main quest and i've never felt so authentically batman! the villain roster has always been what i liked best about b-man and the way so many of them are worked into the plot is so enjoyable. i even had an encounter with mad hatter!

        flying from the rooftops en route to the bat signal never gets old and i love perching on gargoyles scanning the scene and intervening, especially when some thug was harassing an innocent. i imagine the new game would have lots of this which feels like what batman would be doing most nights.

        i would get frustrated playing AA and being unable to leave the island

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          March 5, 2014 4:05 PM

          See, so many games have done that kind of open world much better, though: Crackdown, Saints Row 4 and, hell, even [Prototype]. Having played all of those, perhaps I was just burned out on open world.

          It's also like that game couldn't decide whether it wanted to be Arkham Asylum or Crackdown Batman. I got really annoyed by the distraction and repetitive nature of side missions plus the one billion Riddler clues teasing the hell out of you, all while I was trying to swing halfway across town to get to the next story mission. Perhaps it's just a problem with my OCD.

          One of the biggest problems was the WTF beginning of the game, I had finished Asylum just before that and had no clue what the hell was going on in the intro. I was shocked to find out it was actually developed by Rocksteady as it felt totally different in a bad way.

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        March 5, 2014 1:17 PM

        W0rd

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        March 5, 2014 1:20 PM

        It can actually be both. There were problems with pacing at the beginning of AC that made it a little tougher to get into at the start, but they don't have to repeat that, regardless of the city size.

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          March 6, 2014 7:00 AM

          Get that logic out of here, we only make sweeping generalizations and assumptions!

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        March 5, 2014 1:26 PM

        I thought Arkham City struck a good balance between open world and focused expereiences within the buildings. It seems like a lot of people do not agree with that, though.

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        March 5, 2014 3:52 PM

        Pretty, pretty, pretteeeaaaaah, pretty much.

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        March 5, 2014 4:16 PM

        Totally agree, I liked the hub and spoke model of AA. I didn't much care of all the open world travelling in AC.

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        March 5, 2014 6:24 PM

        [deleted]

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      March 5, 2014 12:17 PM

      [deleted]

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      March 5, 2014 12:34 PM

      Ok, so the map is bigger. To me this means missions with very long distances in between them, with little to no content. No wonder the Batmobile is in the game. Unless there is follow up with 5 times the content and missions I'm not excited.

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        March 5, 2014 12:52 PM

        Could also mean bigger set pieces. Maybe destruction of whole city blocks.

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        March 5, 2014 1:03 PM

        Isn't the gliding supposed to be faster? This could work.

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      March 5, 2014 12:37 PM

      Arkham City's problem definitely was not 'map ain't big enough'.

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      March 5, 2014 12:58 PM

      So, what, now 10,000 Riddler trophies to collect?

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        March 5, 2014 1:21 PM

        yea that's kind of how i interpret it too, a giant map with more useless shit to do

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      March 5, 2014 1:18 PM

      [deleted]

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      March 5, 2014 1:28 PM

      I'm going to try this again, but from my laptop this time. So I had written a post about how this has a driveable Bat Mobile and then said something about it being GTA: Gotham. Then I had the idea for an awesome game which I will now rewrite for you you lovely ladies to read.

      Ok so imagine this with me if you will. A GTA style video game set in Gotham. Instead of being Batman though, or an officer of the GPD you'd start off as a low on the totem poll criminal. Over the course of the game you'd commit various crimes all in an effort to eventually audition for different crime organizations and then to be a henchman for one of the city's super villains. As the game progresses you'd gain notoriety and power, constantly working your way up the criminal ladder. Maybe you'd be given your own group of thugs to pull off jobs with and do the bidding of your crime / super villain boss. The main goal being to eventually become a crime boss / or super villain of your own. Once becoming a super villain you'd be able to choose whether you have super powers or use technology. As you become a crime boss or super villain you'd do battle with the GPD and some low end super heroes, and then eventually The God Damn Batman himself.

      I'd play the shit out of something like this.

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        March 5, 2014 2:16 PM

        Sounds amazing.

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        March 5, 2014 2:30 PM

        I don't think you should directly 'CHOOSE' whether to gain powers or use tech, but actions in-game should choose for you. Such as ways that you prefer to eliminate your enemies (guns, chemicals, the good ol' fist, etc). That way, how you PLAY THE GAME would affect the outcome of your villainy. There would need to be a lot of balancing to this though, to make it fair across the board. But I think that'd be a freaking great game.

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          March 5, 2014 2:46 PM

          I like that idea. It would definitely ad replay value to the game.

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        March 5, 2014 2:44 PM

        But there's no Win Condition. You eventually fight Bruce, which means you lose. I guess Escaping Alive would award Victory Points?

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          March 5, 2014 2:47 PM

          It's not about the destination, but the path you take to get there.

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          March 5, 2014 3:00 PM

          I think it'd be a perfect ending if you were sent to prison.

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          March 5, 2014 3:08 PM

          *SPOILER*

          You "win" but it ends up you were fighting an impostor the whole time, real Batman shows up out of the blue and beats you to a pulp. You wake up strapped to the electric chair with Batman and Commissioner Gordon talking to you about all your crimes, and they fry you.

          *ROLL CREDITS*

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            March 5, 2014 3:15 PM

            I think I just shed a tear of joy, it's just so beautiful.

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          March 5, 2014 4:17 PM

          Some men just want to watch the world burn.

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        March 5, 2014 2:46 PM

        Were you high when you came up with this? Because it's bloody brilliant

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          March 5, 2014 2:49 PM

          I came up with it like 30 min ago, so yeah. But to be fair, there's usually not a time when I'm not high ON LIFE!

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        March 5, 2014 2:51 PM

        Or you end up getting a batarang to the face as one of the random low level thugs Batman beats up en route to another local.

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          March 5, 2014 2:57 PM

          I think having Batman occasionally pop in and beat your ass down would be great. It would fuel the hate fire of your character further justifying your desire to become a super villain in order to take on Batman on "even" footing.

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            March 5, 2014 3:02 PM

            This. Also as a background story your character's parents could have been put in the brig for life (or even the character himself and he got out?) by Batman. There's many things that could spawn a hate for The Bat from a villain's point of view.

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              March 5, 2014 3:10 PM

              Oh man, this would be such an awesome game. Maybe your character's wife was killed by bank robbers who Batman wasn't able to stop in time, and he holds him accountable. He turns to a life of crime after his whole world is destroyed by the death of his wife. He could go mad with grief and the only ones there for him are some other local criminals and booze. The possibilities are quite endless really.

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            March 5, 2014 4:14 PM

            I wish it will be more of a Resident Evil: Nemesis villain following you and creating great chases in the environment with the Batmobile instead of hours of cutscenes of the villain yapping at you.

            In a way I feel like there will be lots of racing in timed missions which I hate with a passion.

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          March 5, 2014 3:50 PM

          Thats why it needs to be a rogue like like.

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        March 5, 2014 6:50 PM

        [deleted]

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        March 5, 2014 6:55 PM

        I'd play this

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          March 5, 2014 6:55 PM

          Actually, it kind of sounds like Mount and Blade: Gotham City

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      March 5, 2014 2:15 PM

      Awesome

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      March 5, 2014 2:41 PM

      [deleted]

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      March 5, 2014 6:30 PM

      yeah that sounds fantastic to me. I cant wait for this one.

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      March 6, 2014 2:51 AM

      Great. An even bigger city, to be bored to tears in

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