Batman Arkham Knight

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 1:39 pm

So, I am noticing a lack of commentary on this upcoming game. That makes me a little nervous, so I thought I would gauge the waters here. I enjoyed Arkham Asylum quite a bit, but never got to play Arkham City. They are billing this one as being "5-times bigger than Arkham City" and "Open World (where you can drive the batmobile)."

I guess what I am hoping for is something like a Batman-themed Shadows of Mordor. Has anyone heard anything or have any insight?

One thing that is bothering me is that there seems to be a bit of media silence on it, despite the release date later this month. I have seen some gameplay trailer and it looks as expected, but I thought there would be more buzz.

I did hear something about an outrageous season pass price and DLC scheme. Any idea what that was about?

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 2:12 pm

baelthazar wrote:One thing that is bothering me is that there seems to be a bit of media silence on it, despite the release date later this month. I have seen some gameplay trailer and it looks as expected, but I thought there would be more buzz.

I really thought this was coming in the fall. Thanks for the heads up that it is coming much sooner... though there is no way I am finishing Witcher 3 by the 23rd.

I was a bit iffy on buying this as Arkham City was pretty repetitive to me and I am pretty sure I never finished it (well, maybe I did, not sure). Arkham Origins was downright disappointing. I got a free copy with a new video card purchase, so I will be playing it despite my misgivings.

In summary, I will be playing it because I got a free copy. I have no idea what is going on with it.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 2:16 pm

baelthazar wrote:So, I am noticing a lack of commentary on this upcoming game. That makes me a little nervous, so I thought I would gauge the waters here. I enjoyed Arkham Asylum quite a bit, but never got to play Arkham City. They are billing this one as being "5-times bigger than Arkham City" and "Open World (where you can drive the batmobile)."

I just finished City last week and it was great. Better than Asylum in a lot of ways, although less coherent story telling. City is fairly small, which is good since your only means of transport are parkour, grapnelling or gliding around.

City was so good I'm playing it again in Story Plus mode.

I buy the batman games when they hit 5 bucks, so I'm not your target OO'er when it comes to a new release.

WarPig · Post by **WarPig** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 6:08 pm

I really want to play this as well, also being a "wait till it's on sale" guy normally. However, the minimum specs (nVidia 660 GTX) on this outweigh my current graphics card (560 GTX) so looks like i'm saving up for that instead. I could probably still run it but I'm using it as an excuse to upgrade anyway.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 6:51 pm

WarPig wrote:I really want to play this as well, also being a "wait till it's on sale" guy normally. However, the minimum specs (nVidia 660 GTX) on this outweigh my current graphics card (560 GTX) so looks like i'm saving up for that instead. I could probably still run it but I'm using it as an excuse to upgrade anyway.

If I get it, I will likely grab the PS4 version for ease of use. I prefer the PS4 controllers to my Xbox PC controller anyway. My rig is probably too old to run it effectively as well.

Reemul · Post by **Reemul** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:26 am

I finished the first 2 and am halfway through Origin which I was enjoying until I got side tracked.

I love anything Batman and htink the time and effort put in to this means it will be great, they even got anotehr house to do Origin so they could focus on this which should be a good thing.

I pre ordered this on GMG for like £20 so am looking forward to it but W3 has it hooks in big time.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 9:34 am

I've been watching, but I've learned the less I know about a game, the more I'm inclined to like it.

I still think Arkham Asylum was my favorite, followed by Origins and then City. For that reason alone, I'm nervous as this is a sequel to Arkham City. For me it will come down to the story as I think they more or less have the mechanics down.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 9:36 am

The attention to detail in these games is phenomenal. Highly polished, extremely fun, tons of batman universe lore and VERY batmanish.

Batman's voice acting in City is a little weaker than in the Asylum imo. It's just a little too over acted, again in my opinion. Everything he says is always very grave and important, even when he's just responding to a simple yes/no question.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 9:39 am

To quote PC Gamer -- Batman: Arkham Knight's PC port appears to be a disaster:

Chief complaints include stuttering frame-rates and a 30 frames-per-second cap. This latter restriction can be removed by editing a config file. To do that, open your Arkham Knight install directory, and navigate to, "\BmGame\Config\BmSystemSettings.ini”.

In the config file, search for "Max_FPS=30", and change it to "Max_FPS=9999".

In addition, it sounds like even high-end graphics cards are struggling to maintain a stable frame-rate, despite new drivers from both Nvidia and AMD.

Buatha · Post by **Buatha** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 9:45 am

Well, I can't feel too bad since I got the code free with my new, shiny graphics card, but I was hoping to use this game to test out my new system build.

Oh well, I guess I will have to wait for inevitable patch(es).

Reemul · Post by **Reemul** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 10:21 am

Yeah I have this but being 70% through the Witcher 3 and Ark being played a lot I shall stick this on the back burner until theissues are fixed.

Still very shoddy, especially re no review code sent out anywhere at all. Almost like they knew there was major issues.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 10:21 am

I swore off my "no preorders, moron!" edict and picked this up for 35 bucks on the GMG sale. I played for about 40 minutes this morning and didn't notice any stuttering or other framerate issues. Of course, I realized when I quit to the main menu that I hadn't enabled any of the nvidia gameworks effects. So I'll try those tonight.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 10:25 am

I was surprised to see the headlines given this isn't their first time at the rodeo. However, then I thought maybe the publisher put the developer under pressure to release the game before the Fall 2015 gaming blitz takes place. Under that scenario, I could totally see optimization for PC falling to the wayside as I'd imagine console copies are going to make up a bulk of the sales.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 10:27 am

Is it time to trot out the "PC Gaming is Dying" banner yet?

TiLT · Post by **TiLT** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 11:11 am

Smoove_B wrote:I was surprised to see the headlines given this isn't their first time at the rodeo. However, then I thought maybe the publisher put the developer under pressure to release the game before the Fall 2015 gaming blitz takes place. Under that scenario, I could totally see optimization for PC falling to the wayside as I'd imagine console copies are going to make up a bulk of the sales.

The PC port was supposedly (I can't verify this) developed by a third-party studio with a shoddy reputation for ports.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 11:15 am

IGN

Rocksteady has issued a statement regarding the issues, saying it's working to get them resolved while highlighting it was another studio that did the PC port of the game.

"We're aware that some users are reporting performance issues with the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight," it reads. "This is something that Rocksteady takes very seriously. We are working closely with our external PC development partner to make sure these issues get resolved as quickly as possible. We'll update this thread when we've got more info to share."

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:01 pm

Buatha wrote:Well, I can't feel too bad since I got the code free with my new, shiny graphics card, but I was hoping to use this game to test out my new system build.

Oh well, I guess I will have to wait for inevitable patch(es).

Witcher 3 would be a better test case for that.

I too got it free along with Witcher 3 and for the most part it runs fairly smooth. I did notice some stuttering and a few times it would hang.

You'd think that if you are going to showcase your games, give it away for free that it wouldn't have these type of problems.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:04 pm

With all of that said, the game is awesome in terms of presentation. Hell even the batmobile segments were very fun.

Reemul · Post by **Reemul** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:50 pm

TiLT wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:I was surprised to see the headlines given this isn't their first time at the rodeo. However, then I thought maybe the publisher put the developer under pressure to release the game before the Fall 2015 gaming blitz takes place. Under that scenario, I could totally see optimization for PC falling to the wayside as I'd imagine console copies are going to make up a bulk of the sales.
The PC port was supposedly (I can't verify this) developed by a third-party studio with a shoddy reputation for ports.

It is a joke really, the days when we are still buying games with Rocksteady on the cover but made by someone else should be long gone. Certainly when we go and buy a product we expect that product to be the same, oh look my ford car is really made by iraqi motors r us but i'm sure it will be fine still sorry you never realised and it blew up in town how could we have known.

It should be clear the reputable company is not the one working on my game and as such be made clear. Instead it's like they are just blaming someone else and saying f you to those that buy the PC version.

Very disappointing

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:53 pm

See also: Aliens: Colonial Marines, branded as from Gearbox

TiLT · Post by **TiLT** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 1:03 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:See also: Aliens: Colonial Marines, branded as from Gearbox

This isn't even remotely close to being the same kind of situation. Rocksteady made the entire game, but this other company made the front-end that makes it work on PC. Code in projects like this is structured in layers, where most of the layers can be retained between platforms since they are platform agnostic. Only the outermost layers have knowledge of the platform they're running on, and only these parts need to be replaced or adjusted.

Reemul · Post by **Reemul** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 1:07 pm

TiLT wrote:
Isgrimnur wrote:See also: Aliens: Colonial Marines, branded as from Gearbox
This isn't even remotely close to being the same kind of situation. Rocksteady made the entire game, but this other company made the front-end that makes it work on PC. Code in projects like this is structured in layers, where most of the layers can be retained between platforms since they are platform agnostic. Only the outermost layers have knowledge of the platform they're running on, and only these parts need to be replaced or adjusted.

It should still be made clear it is not just a Rocksteady game, I mean if there is never an issue why not tell us about it. The reason is there is always more of a chance that it is going to suck so they keep quiet.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 2:54 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:Is it time to trot out the "PC Gaming is Dying" banner yet?

Nope. PC gaming shouldn't be considered just a subset of the big AAA release options. Look at all the awesome PC only games, like Kerbal Space Program, Out of the Park Baseball, Cities: Skylines, etc. PC gaming just happens to also get a lot of the AAA titles. No one who is primarily interested in the AAA titles should ever consider going with a PC, considering the number of crappy ports released in the past few years. PC gaming IMHO gives a player a lot more options of what to play.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 3:00 pm

...and X Com 2 is going to be PC only.

With the advent of the steam box (and/or similar software/hardware), I predict that Steam will actually bridge that stream between console and PC.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 3:02 pm

hepcat wrote:...and X Com 2 is going to be PC only.

I forgot about that! And now that Steam is giving refunds, you can feel a bit less "taken for a ride" when you get a PC game that doesn't live up to expectations, or runs like a dog (I'm looking at you, AC Unity!

)

Buatha · Post by **Buatha** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 10:43 am

I fired up the game last night and went through the first few minutes of gliding/swooping/jumping/grappling and had smooth performance throughout with everything maxed out. Granted, I have a brand new rig that is above recommended specs.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 11:04 am

I played a bit more last night and noticed some stuttering in cut scenes after I enabled all the Nvidia gameworks stuff (fog, weather, etc.). Still, it's running smoother than what I'm hearing from others.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 1:34 pm

Yeah my rig is at (or just below) minimum. While I could play it it stuttered a lot whereas Witcher 3 plays great. I am planning on upgrading sometime over the summer (I hope...don't have a ton of cash) but hopefully an optimization patch helps

stimpy · Post by **stimpy** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 7:51 pm

Yea...I'll be lining up for this:

Get nothing but black screen upon launch.
Disappointing.

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 11:53 pm

Pulled from the (virtual) shelves by the publisher.

Dear Batman: Arkham Knight PC owners,

We want to apologize to those of you who are experiencing performance issues with Batman: Arkham Knight on PC. We take these issues very seriously and have therefore decided to suspend future game sales of the PC version while we work to address these issues to satisfy our quality standards.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 9:05 am

ouch. I wonder if steam's return policy has been a factor in this? In the past, it was purely a buyer beware market. But now the consumer has more of a voice. And it sounds like we're being heard.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 9:29 am

Unfortunately Green Man Gaming still isn't doing refunds, although I read that they may consider this a special case. Actually GMG might have to change their policy anyway, as folks might be more inclined to go with the regular price on Steam, knowing they can get a refund, rather than getting a discount on GMG but with no prospect of getting their money back.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 9:45 am

jztemple2, I was thinking that when deciding where to get Witcher 3 - pay full price and get a refund if it runs like ass on my system, or pay half price and just have to eat it.

But back to the Batman - I don't have a dog in this race since I decided after the first two that these games just aren't my cup of meat. But a cynical man might suggest that Rocksteady/WB were fully aware of the problems before launch (I understand there was no PC release code sent to review sites in advance) but decided to keep it on the market long enough to collect pre-order and Day One money before announcing it was being pulled.

Good thing I'm not a cynical man.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 9:52 am

sucks that it doesn't play well for others (Especially people with AMD cards) but man it's runs nice on my rig. Did the benchmark and I'm averaging about 45 fps. Occasionally is stutters, but it's definitely playable, pretty and fun.

Reemul · Post by **Reemul** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 9:58 am

naednek wrote:sucks that it doesn't play well for others (Especially people with AMD cards) but man it's runs nice on my rig. Did the benchmark and I'm averaging about 45 fps. Occasionally is stutters, but it's definitely playable, pretty and fun.

I think the feeling is even when it runs well it isn't showing and doing everything, graphics are downgraded or missing and it isn't even up to the standard of the PS4 version yet the specs needed are pretty hefty and top pc specs are mroe than enough to not have to be running with half the special effects not even implemented.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 10:00 am

jztemple2 wrote:Unfortunately Green Man Gaming still isn't doing refunds, although I read that they may consider this a special case.

They're accepting refund requests if the next patch doesn't address your problems.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 10:43 am

It's too bad, because the PS4 version is a lot of fun (albeit hard for me). I am still getting used to the batmobile making this GTA Batman, but overall the atmosphere and story are cool. Jonathan Banks playing Gordon is not so cool - I love the actor but he sounds so damn bored as he reads his lines.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 10:59 am

I had the exact same reaction to Banks' reading as well.

I think I may just ask for a refund (not based on Banks' performance, though) when the option becomes available through GMG. Then I'll just wait for the PS4 version to drop in price later this year.

stimpy · Post by **stimpy** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 12:29 pm

jztemple2 wrote:Unfortunately Green Man Gaming still isn't doing refunds, although I read that they may consider this a special case.

Just got an email from GMG stating that they have refunded my money.
Put in the request late last Knight.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 1:02 pm

stimpy wrote:
Put in the request late last Knight.

edit: I just put in my request too.