Batman Arkham Asylum/city Remaster - coming this year

cloud493

A compilation release featuring earlier titles in the Batman: Arkham series is coming to PS4 and Xbox One later this year, VideoGamer.com understands.

The information was provided by a trusted industry source prior to IGN Italy's report this morning, which also claims that Arkham Asylum and Arkham City will both release on current-gen consoles this Christmas.

VideoGamer.com also understands that the collection will release at the end of the year, after this June's release of Batman: Arkham Knight, with the games set to run in 1080p.

http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/batman_arkham_asylum/news/batman_arkham_collection_ps4_and_xbox_one_remaster_coming_later_this_year.html


I love me some remasters

Generic Dreadhead

Oh for the Love of God, just Stop!!!!! :mad:

Stone Deaf 4evr

I've played the first 2 already but foolishly traded them in. If theres a reasonably priced collection that includes the newest game, I'll be all over that.

Retr0gamer

It will probably just be the PC versions which were significantly better than the last gen versions with lots of current gen bells and whistles.

johnny_ultimate

To be fair this doesn't fit into the 'buying time until we release the proper sequel' category of remasters, since the proper sequel will be out before this is released. So yeah can't see any reasonable objection with this - buy it or not, carry on with one's life.

cloud493

Odd if they leave out origins though.

thorbarry

Why complain about remasters? You dont need to buy it, if someone hasnt played these games it gives them a great chance to catch up

Josey Wales

cloud493 wrote: »

Odd if they leave out origins though.

I'd say Rocksteady don't consider Origins to be a part of their series of games. Their trilogy is Asylum, City and Knight.

It is a shame though as Origins is every bit as good as the first two.

Mickeroo

I would hope/like to think all these remasters are paving the way for backward compatibility being standard in future console generations. A man can dream I suppose.

cloud493

sugarman wrote: »

Because game studios are wasting time and money redeveloping old games that don't need to be touched. Especially last gen stuff is ridiculous.

Would you not rather they plough on with a new game of the series instead? And focus on that bring top notch and well polished? As well as having it released quicker. I know I do.

Yet there's no evidence remasters stop new games being made?

Captain Chaos

See, this is what happens when BC is left out of consoles combined with a lack of new releases and IPs.

Look at the 360's first 18 months on the market, it hit the ground running.

thorbarry

cloud493 wrote: »

Yet there's no evidence remasters stop new games being made?

If anything it might give a smaller dev a chance porting a game and optimizing it for current gen consoles. Showing publishers and people with the money what they are capable of

Another unneeded remaster....taking the piss at this stage

Retr0gamer

Mickeroo wrote: »

I would hope/like to think all these remasters are paving the way for backward compatibility being standard in future console generations. A man can dream I suppose.

Sure, as long as the platform holder can charge you to play the games you own already.

tok9

Remasters fine.. but give us the whole collection if you are doing it.

Irish Halo

Never played Asylum so will pick it up for PS4 for the right price but would prefer just general BC though, missed a good few games on PS3 (i.e. never had one) so would like to be able to play them easily on PS4

Zero-Cool

Agree with Johnny in that it's strange that this is being released (possibly missing a title) after the New Gen release. Would be a nice collection (whole trilogy) this year if Arkham Knight wasn't out until 2016 or 17. Still hoping Mass Effect Trilogy hits New Gen some time this year to tide me over til the next Mass Effect, especially as I missed on a good bit of the DLC and played ME1 on PC with minimum settings.

My favourite games on PS4 over the last 6 months have been Last of Us, GTA V and Resident Evil. All dirty smelly remasters...

Back to Batman, this smells of a Christmas cash grab (more than the usual remaster). I probably would have picked it up if it was released Christmas just gone.

Robert ninja

I already replayed these games on PC @ 1080 and over 60fps so this is of no interest to me but it's pretty face-palm worthy to see yet another unnecessary remaster.

Adamcp898

I don't mind remasters for certain PS2 era titles and older. But re-making games that were released on consoles which are still very far from being defunct is just money grabbing.

That being said, they wouldn't be doing it if there wasn't a market of people out there only too willing to buy a game 2/3 times.

Mickeroo

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Sure, as long as the platform holder can charge you to play the games you own already.

They'd have to port the games to give backward compatibility this gen (with xbox anyway, don't know about PS), what I'm hoping is that won't be the case with the next gen. It's probably a pipe dream of course.

wandatowell

Sick of this remastering sh*te.



New idea please.

Stone Deaf 4evr

I dunno lads, the hate for the remasters is a bit strong. If you don't want them, don't buy them, simple as. its grand for most of us on here who probably have the last gen systems, but shouldn't little johnny who buys his ps4 / xbox one with his confirmation or birthday money, get a shot at playing some of the best games of the last gen?

And moaning that there's no backwards compatibility doesn't wash for me either - if you loved them so much, you would have held onto the original consoles to play them.

The thing with most of these 'remasters' is that, for the most part, they're PC ports, not actual recodings of the original games (with the exception being sony's first party titles like The Last of Us) so its unfair to say that they're holding back backwards compatibility on a hardware level.

Pac1Man

Little Johnny ruins everything. I wish he would grow up and get a job. He's been making his confirmation for the last 10 years.

The backwards compatibility issue is more aimed at convenience. Many current gen owners still own last gen titles. Not everyone trades in or sells on. It just takes up another space under the TV.

Stone Deaf 4evr

Pac1Man wrote: »

Little Johnny ruins everything. I wish he would grow up and get a job. He's been making his confirmation for the last 10 years.

The backwards compatibility issue is more aimed at convenience. Many current gen owners still own last gen titles. Not everyone trades in or sells on. It just takes up another space under the TV.

Its not really about convenience though is it? people hang onto N64's , mega drives etc because they love the games. if your games on the previous gen mean that much to you, you'd hold onto the system.

I can see the appeal of Backwards compatibility - if the PS4 had BC, i'd buy one tomorrow, but mostly so I could play all the exclusives I missed from not owning a PS3.

As for the economics of it, we could go down a deep rabbit hole about how the cost of new games has largely remained unchanged for years etc, etc, but this thread is about batman

p.s. Agreed - little johnny is b0llix.

tampler

Josey Wales wrote: »

I'd say Rocksteady don't consider Origins to be a part of their series of games. Their trilogy is Asylum, City and Knight.

It is a shame though as Origins is every bit as good as the first two.

There is also the issue of Origins having that multiplayer mode. Probably too much of a hassle to rip it out.

And like you said, it is a shame, I really did enjoy origins as well.

the groutch

This sort of stuff is the reason why I haven't bought a PS4 or Xbone, and probably never will.
All this remastering of games that are only a year or two old means theat there's little or no original IPs on the next gen (or current gen if you're pedantic).
Then there's the whole thing of GOTY editions. Where's the incentive to buy on release and pay decent money for DLC, when 6-12 months later it'll all be lumped together with a budget pricetag?
I hate the PC users' term "master race", but they are definitely intellectually superior to the people who cough up time after time and facilitate publishers peddling this BS.

Retr0gamer

It's the nature of the games industry at the moment. Games like Tomb Raider only hit publisher expectations for sales with the release of the Remastered or whatever they call it edition.

FaoiSin

If you don't want the game don't buy the game. I never got round to these titles on PS3 and now that they're coming to PS4 as a collection at a reasonable price I'll be more than happy to pick it up seeing as they were so well received.

The amount of negativity in the gaming community is f***ing toxic. There is a market out there for re-releasing your games. Why wouldn't they do it?

P.S. If you want a new Batman game there's one coming out this summer called Arkham Knight. I suggest you check it out

Lemlin

JeaicMaG wrote: »

If you don't want the game don't buy the game. I never got round to these titles on PS3 and now that they're coming to PS4 as a collection at a reasonable price I'll be more than happy to pick it up seeing as they were so well received.

The amount of negativity in the gaming community is f***ing toxic. There is a market out there for re-releasing your games. Why wouldn't they do it?

P.S. If you want a new Batman game there's one coming out this summer called Arkham Knight. I suggest you check it out

Couldn't agree more. I missed these games in the last gen so am looking forward to them.

gizmo

the groutch wrote: »

This sort of stuff is the reason why I haven't bought a PS4 or Xbone, and probably never will.
All this remastering of games that are only a year or two old means theat there's little or no original IPs on the next gen (or current gen if you're pedantic).

The team which work on the remaster are rarely, if ever, the main team working on the next iteration of the franchise. Hell, quite often they're not even the same studio.

the groutch wrote: »

Then there's the whole thing of GOTY editions. Where's the incentive to buy on release and pay decent money for DLC, when 6-12 months later it'll all be lumped together with a budget pricetag?

Because people don't want to wait up to a year to play a game in order to save a couple of quid?

the groutch wrote: »

I hate the PC users' term "master race", but they are definitely intellectually superior to the people who cough up time after time and facilitate publishers peddling this BS.

Remasters aren't aimed at people who have already bought the game on the previous generation. They're primarily aimed at those who would have missed out on said title originally, either through not having the console it was released on, selling the console to fuel another purchase before getting around to it or simply not bothering at the time at all. There are plenty of people on both this thread and others which fall into this category. There are also those who would have loved the game when it originally came out and have no problem shelling out for it again if it was re-released with noteworthy improvements. There's plenty of those folk too.

Intellectually superior certainly isn't a term I'd use to describe the demographic that aren't aware of the above and prefer to moan that titles are being developed which aren't for them.

Mal-Adjusted

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

I dunno lads, the hate for the remasters is a bit strong.

I don't think the hate is aimed at remasters in general, more the perceived need to remaster games that are still relatively young and fresh (Arkham Asylum is 2009 and City is 2011) These are huge games available on tons of platforms already, There are people who didn't own a seventh gen console or a PC, but it does seem like taking the piss when publishers are "remastering" games still hot from the printing press... And because there's been such a drought of big games since the 8th gen launched, there's the perception that it's catalog is full of older games you may already have, which can be annoying after dropping several hundred euro on the machine.

What i feel really NEEDS a remaster (and need really is the key work) are older, not so readily available titles. Imagine a remastered collection of Jet Set Radio/Jet Set Radio Future, or the Soul Reaver games, maybe include the option of more contemporary control schemes or alter design and other issues from the first time round...a true "remastering", not just slap HD all over it.

gizmo

Mal-Adjusted wrote: »

I don't think the hate is aimed at remasters in general, more the perceived need to remaster games that are still relatively young and fresh (Arkham Asylum is 2009 and City is 2011) These are huge games available on tons of platforms already, There are people who didn't own a seventh gen console or a PC, but it does seem like taking the piss when publishers are "remastering" games still hot from the printing press... And because there's been such a drought of big games since the 8th gen launched, there's the perception that it's catalog is full of older games you may already have, which can be annoying after dropping several hundred euro on the machine.

What i feel really NEEDS a remaster (and need really is the key work) are older, not so readily available titles. Imagine a remastered collection of Jet Set Radio/Jet Set Radio Future, or the Soul Reaver games, maybe include the option of more contemporary control schemes or alter design and other issues from the first time round...a true "remastering", not just slap HD all over it.

Well it comes down to the fact that not all remasters are created equally. In the case of Batman, the devs have the noticeably better PC version to build upon so it hopefully won't just be a 1080p60 remaster but one which includes the higher resolution textures and effects from the PC version and also some of the nice PhysX effects which could be moved GPU side.

As for the examples you gave, I'm a massive fan of the Soul Reaver games but they don't need remasters, they would need a full blown remake to really get the benefit out of another release.

johnny_ultimate

I made this comparison in another thread, but to me 'remasters' are no different than a Blu-Ray or theatrical re-release of a film. If there are legitimate improvements that can be made, it's advantageous to fans and newcomers alike. In games even more so than film, given the pace at which technology improves. If you're indifferent, you simply don't have to engage with the whole thing - the great thing about a 'free market' (as bothersome as that phrase is) is you have choice.

kunst nugget

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I made this comparison in another thread, but to me 'remasters' are no different than a Blu-Ray or theatrical re-release of a film. If there are legitimate improvements that can be made, it's advantageous to fans and newcomers alike. In games even more so than film, given the pace at which technology improves. If you're indifferent, you simply don't have to engage with the whole thing - the great thing about a 'free market' (as bothersome as that phrase is) is you have choice.

No, that's not how it works. If I don't need or want to play those games, I have to complain bitterly about how developers are ruining gaming by releasing them. Did you not get the memo on this?

CiDeRmAn

I would be cynical and say that a remaster is a way, not to service fans, but to generate an extra income stream from minimal outlay.
And, with the Batman games, it seems to be the same.
It also appears to fill out an otherwise rather anaemic games shelf, in the shops, so instead of a handful of exclusives and the usual mutilplatform annual releases, you have a rather large percentage of remasters/HD releases/compilations on the shelves for the PS4/XB1.
It was a practice made more palatable back in the PS2/PS3 eras when the shelves were jam packed with original titles, but now it seems that the schedules are more full of "Remeber this great game you played? Well here it is again" except now it can't be claimed that "HD" is a feature, because it was HD to begin with!
And, of course I'm not obliged to buy them.
But I can see that teams who might otherwise be engaged in new development are instead tasked with producing ever more remakes of games that are barely old to begin with.
And so it does p1ss one off somewhat, especially when you have a shiny lovely PS4 sitting there with bugger all to play on it, at least until this weekend!

All that being said, there was something pretty excellent about Arkham Asylum, while I could leave the sequel tbh. The first one was very impressive, loved the environment and how tightly designed it was, almost to a Dark Souls degree, there are worse things to find oneself playing while awaiting something new and AAA on a next gen system.

johnny_ultimate

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I would be cynical and say that a remaster is a way, not to service fans, but to generate an extra income stream from minimal outlay.
And, with the Batman games, it seems to be the same.

And why not? If you could generate extra income with minimal outlay, surely you would too? Speaking from a business perspective it makes sense, and there's a solid playerbase who will benefit from the practice. What's the harm? As you say, none of us are under any obligation to buy or play it as we can clearly evaluate the reasoning behind the release. And it's not exactly like the Batman games were greenlit in the first place with wholly non-commercial, artistic motivations :pac:

But I can see that teams who might otherwise be engaged in new development are instead tasked with producing ever more remakes of games that are barely old to begin with.
And so it does p1ss one off somewhat, especially when you have a shiny lovely PS4 sitting there with bugger all to play on it, at least until this weekend!

These games do not require large teams, a mere fraction of those employed on a brand new title as almost everything is done already. The only ones that would are ground up remakes, where you need a whole or closer to whole team back on board. For the most part the creative designers, artists etc... are most likely working away on other new games (which, as an aside, are taking longer and longer to produce and more and more money to make - surely other significant factors in keeping a franchise financially lucrative during the lengthy down times between proper sequels).

Again, I feel there is one simple fact that negates any frustration about a Batman series remaster: we're getting a brand new title before it's released, so it's not impacting on the continuation of the series.

CiDeRmAn

No fun coming herd if we didn't have the craic and disagree!
No, Batman is less of a problem but there does seem to be a never ending stream of older titles being released.
While Nintendo seem content to release such games via online services the others seem to prefer the premium of a physical release.
Metroid Prime Trilogy is a release on the WiiU of a enhanced release on the Wii of a trilogy of which two were on the GameCube.
And they charge €20 for it, a tenner of you got in early.
Ah, each to their own.
I'd be happy to pick up a physical copy of the Mario Galaxy series in HD if they were good enough to release it.

kunst nugget

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

No fun coming herd if we didn't have the craic and disagree!
No, Batman is less of a problem but there does seem to be a never ending stream of older titles being released.
While Nintendo seem content to release such games via online services the others seem to prefer the premium of a physical release.
Metroid Prime Trilogy is a release on the WiiU of a enhanced release on the Wii of a trilogy of which two were on the GameCube.
And they charge €20 for it, a tenner of you got in early.
Ah, each to their own.
I'd be happy to pick up a physical copy of the Mario Galaxy series in HD if they were good enough to release it.

Tbf, there's been good discounts on some of those remasters on the PS Store over the last while with the Sleeping Dogs one being around €12 in the deal of the week recently.

Stone Deaf 4evr

kunst nugget wrote: »

Tbf, there's been good discounts on some of those remasters on the PS Store over the last while with the Sleeping Dogs one being around €12 in the deal of the week recently.

Exactly this, most of em are reduced in price, I think the recent DmC remaster was about €40, considering that all the DLC is included, thats a pretty good deal.

Also, the funny thing about DmC is that, whilst it got good reviews, it got a mauling from the mostly ignorant masses of the internet, which no doubt put a lot of people off buying it in the first place. Now people are getting a chance to see the game looking as good as it can outside of a gaming PC.

CiDeRmAn

Sleeping Dogs, not that hot tbh, isn't it a True Crime: Honk Kong game but got renamed?
It was discounted very very quickly on release, not dissimilar to Thief in that regard.
Still, €12 for a GTA clone isn't bad, though I reckon it's PS+ fodder for sure in the not too distant future.

CiDeRmAn

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Sleeping Dogs, not that hot tbh, isn't it a True Crime: Honk Kong game but got renamed?
It was discounted very very quickly on release, not dissimilar to Thief in that regard.
Still, €12 for a GTA clone isn't bad, though I reckon it's PS+ fodder for sure in the not too distant future.

It was a good game and nothing more. And relatively new.

It never needed a 'remaster'. They need to change the naming convention to 'upgrade'.

IMO a remaster should be a definitive version of a near perfect game but should also include all additional content and DLC to make it a worthwhile purchase.

super_furry

The problem here is that it seems to most people that these remasters are coming at the expense of new games. We're 1 months into the current generation and it seems that Bloodborne will be (to my mind) only the second genuinely excellent new title on both consoles after Titanfall. In that time we've seen little else but safe sequels, indie games and remasters of games people played years ago.

Pac1Man

Borderlands 1 could be on the horizon "if the fans demand it".

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/borderlands-1-could-come-to-xbox-one-ps4-if-fans-d/1100-6426119/

"One potential problem, Pitchford said, is that the original Borderlands runs on a different game engine than Borderlands 2 and The Pre-Sequel. This means there would be "some work involved" to get the game running on Xbox One and PS4..."

Although unconfirmed as of yet, this is a perfect example as to why needless remasters of games that were released on both platforms last gen, two years into a new console's life cycle are a load of bollix.

FaoiSin

I think people who feel there are a lack of games to play on PS4 and Xbox One must not have tried any of the fantastic indies out there. There are more games on my PS4 than I can get round to playing. They are also quite cheap which is nice!

CiDeRmAn

JeaicMaG wrote: »

I think people who feel there are a lack of games to play on PS4 and Xbox One must not have tried any of the fantastic indies out there. There are more games on my PS4 than I can get round to playing. They are also quite cheap which is nice!

Or they could buy a WiiU!

Or go old school with a PS2, lots to play there!

kunst nugget

super_furry wrote: »

In that time we've seen little else but safe sequels, indie games and remasters of games people played years ago.

That's a problem that's likely to persist as the cost of development of games keeps on rising and developers become more risk averse.

kunst nugget

Pac1Man wrote: »

Borderlands 1 could be on the horizon "if the fans demand it".

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/borderlands-1-could-come-to-xbox-one-ps4-if-fans-d/1100-6426119/

"One potential problem, Pitchford said, is that the original Borderlands runs on a different game engine than Borderlands 2 and The Pre-Sequel. This means there would be "some work involved" to get the game running on Xbox One and PS4..."

Although unconfirmed as of yet, this is a perfect example as to why needless remasters of games that were released on both platforms last gen, two years into a new console's life cycle are a load of bollix.

So, you're giving out about a game that hasn't even been remastered yet but might potentially be if the developers see there is enough interest from people to see it being released on the current gen consoles?

Stone Deaf 4evr

JeaicMaG wrote: »

I think people who feel there are a lack of games to play on PS4 and Xbox One must not have tried any of the fantastic indies out there. There are more games on my PS4 than I can get round to playing. They are also quite cheap which is nice!

I'll be 100% upfront and admit that as a console gamer, I've largely ignored indie titles, mainly because my time is limited and I want to be playing the (so called) cream of the crop AAA titles. The current gen has definitely opened my eyes a bit to what else is available if you look around. There's something to be said for simple, 8-10 hour experiences that are different from the usual run and gun affairs

FaoiSin

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

I'll be 100% upfront and admit that as a console gamer, I've largely ignored indie titles, mainly because my time is limited and I want to be playing the (so called) cream of the crop AAA titles. The current gen has definitely opened my eyes a bit to what else is available if you look around. There's something to be said for simple, 8-10 hour experiences that are different from the usual run and gun affairs

I feel that they are easy to overlook but with the amount of them I get with PlayStation Plus I've grown fond of them

K.O.Kiki

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

Exactly this, most of em are reduced in price, I think the recent DmC remaster was about €40, considering that all the DLC is included, thats a pretty good deal.

Also, the funny thing about DmC is that, whilst it got good reviews, it got a mauling from the mostly ignorant masses of the internet, which no doubt put a lot of people off buying it in the first place. Now people are getting a chance to see the game looking as good as it can outside of a gaming PC.

:rolleyes:
It got a mauling from fans of the first 4 games because they made Dante an unlikeable pr*ck, gutted the Style system, and released it at 30fps on console.

And then the devs threw hissy fits when loyal gamers wouldn't bend over backwards & accept their "vision" (which damn near killed Devil May Cry).

---
And back on topic, the 7th-gen consoles were 3-4 years past their shelf-life already, with devs having to cut corners in many areas to squeeze a bit of performance/quality out of their titles.

I for one welcome all these remasters as long as they get them running on a MINIMUM 720p60 (1080p60 preferred).

Stone Deaf 4evr

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

:rolleyes:
It got a mauling from fans of the first 4 games because they made Dante an unlikeable pr*ck, gutted the Style system, and released it at 30fps on console.

And then the devs threw hissy fits when loyal gamers wouldn't bend over backwards & accept their "vision" (which damn near killed Devil May Cry).

---
And back on topic, the 7th-gen consoles were 3-4 years past their shelf-life already, with devs having to cut corners in many areas to squeeze a bit of performance/quality out of their titles.

I for one welcome all these remasters as long as they get them running on a MINIMUM 720p60 (1080p60 preferred).

It got mauled from the very first screenshots that were released, showing dante with black hair. :rolleyes: