Return to Remastered Arkham in July on PS4/Xbone

So 'ts not a rumour anymore, we're going back to Arkham later this year, the specific date being July 26th.

Not surprised that they didn't include Origins, but it's still a shame, I enjoyed my time with it. I'm most interested in replaying City, though, haven't done that since I first played it. Asylum I've gone back to a few times, but I'd happily play that again as well.

It sucks that they didn't include Origins, I don't get Rocksteady's hatred against that game. It's the ugly step child they never wanted but it's a perfectly find Batman game and I think it had a better story than most of City. It also did the crime scene reconstruction better than Rocksteady ever did.

Blah.

Arkham Asylum was a cool game but I haven't gotten any remastered games yet (clarification: from the past gen of games, I DO have remastered 'classics') and I personally don't intend to now.

I agree that the lack of Origins is annoying but having never gotten around to playing any but the first I'll most likely be picking it up day one and finally play through the entire series this summer.

I adore the first two Arkham games (moreso Asylum) but... nah. I'm sick of this generation being mostly about buying the games I already own. I'll stick with my PC versions, I can't imagine there's a world of difference between running those on ultra and these repackages. All I got from the trailer is that the character faces look a little less... greasy? I think I'd need a side-by-side comparison, my memory can be fickle and maybe this remaster is actually better than I'm giving it credit for.

Also this is a Sony-specific trailer, is it coming out on anything else?

I think the way they try to pretend Origins doesn't exist is very silly.

I actually think Origins is great, probably like it more than Arkham City even. Liked the story more, and certainly found the bosses cooler.

I have bought Arkham City like 3 times (never at full price) with the intent to play it. Once on Xbox 360. Once on Ps3 physically with all the DLC, and once on PS3 digitally on a huge sale. Each time I was hoping it would give me the impetus to play it since I really liked Asylum but I just never got around to City for some reason. Now I'll probably buy it a 4th time remastered when it drops in price because I still want to play it and I'd rather play the prettier version.

I'm not just part of the problem I'm like the entire problem. I am the reason publishers do this.

Please note that Arkham City is a weird anomaly for me. I almost never buy multiple copies of games (except if I'm buying a copy of a game I loved as a gift for a friend, but that's a totally different thing.)

Both PS4 and Xbox, trailers for multiplatform games usually just tend to have PS flavouring on them whenever I find one.

It's really bizarre, especially since Arkham Knight flat out acknowledges Origins as "Arkham" canon.

Too soon. Asylum is a classic but I'm not interested in buying it again. It's cool for the people who didn't play it though.

Origins probably has the best story of all the games, it just had technical problems and didn't look as good as arkham city.

Yeah, the omission of Origins just seems childish and petty. What's more is that's the one Arkham game that could benefit the most from being released on newer consoles, since it's PS3/360 version was said to be rather shoddy. Or that it lacked the polish of the previous two in any case.

People keep saying it's childish and petty but they're underestimating the fact that it's also cheap. Not only is it more expensive to have to remaster a whole additional game, but they'd have to dive into the code base and fix the bugs that were never fixed on Origins (they were left intact so WB could focus on DLC) which would cost money too. It's possible that Origins would be included if it could somehow be done for free but given that Rocksteady wasn't happy with the game AND the fact that it would add to the cost of the package they may have just decided it was "good enough."

It's not unprecedented. The Silent Hill HD collection didn't include SH 1 or 4, and presumably for 1 at least it wasn't because they were disavowing the game. They may have figured that Origins doesn't have a lot of appeal so the cost of remastering wouldn't be worth any additional sales.

I know it looked like Knight had some evolutions from Origins, but I wonder if WB actually stole some long-worked on ideas from Rocksteady for it. I'm thinking of things like the detective system they had. Perhaps they're annoyed that their gameplay elements like that weren't completely fresh in their final game. Total bullshit speculation, though.

$50 is too much for this, but I will probably still buy it. These games are so good.

Will probably pick this up. As for Origins, maybe they are just bitter that Origins had better storytelling than any of their games.

I don't think the the SH HD collection is a fair comparison, given how shoddily even the games they did package in were handled.

@yummylee: We don't know if this will be shoddy or not yet. But there are other examples. The MGS HD collection didn't include 1 or 4 either (there were reasons for that of course, especially on PS3 which eventually got a complete collection) and Hitman didn't include Hitman 1.

The best example is probably the "Handsome Jack" collection which included Borderlands 2 and the pre-sequel and not Borderlands 1 for no clear reason.

I'm just saying sometimes these collections don't include every game. It's not necessarily because the company is officially disavowing that game (certainly Borderlands 1 isn't disavowed.) Sometimes it's economics.

I'd much rather just have them backwards compatible on Xbone since I got the digital versions for just five bucks recently. I doubt that'll ever happen since they can now squeeze $50 out of people, but at that price there's zero chance I'll ever buy this. Especially since it excludes my favorite Batman game, Origins.

Can't wait to revisit these remastered versions. Super bummed about Origins not being in there despite the fact that I'm not really a fan of that game.

Love all 3 main Arkham games though

Ehhhh... maybe I'll get it for like $5 because realistically I wouldn't go back to City again. Origins is actually the only one I'd be interested in, because I never played any of that DLC and I only ever played it the one time (unlike Asylum/City).

I'm a rampant sucker for remasters, but by not including Origins they've lost my purchase. I am just too averse to having the inconsistency in my game library (same reason that I did not buy a XB One/PS4 version of AC IV Black Flag: because AC Rogue stayed on the older systems).

Will certainly hop in on this when it goes into a sale but not going to bother at release. Man Asylum was a cracking game.

I consider Arkham Asylum a perfect Batman game and its one of my favorite games of all time. I am excited to run through it once again....However, with the lack of Arkham Origins( which is superior to City, imo) this is not a must buy. I still own the original versions of all 3. This is not a Rocksteady pack, its an Arkham pack, which should include Origins. Its not like Rocksteady is doing to the port/upscale of these anyways.

Origins is secretly the second best Arkham game, behind only Asylum, but why do people think its exclusion was Rocksteady's decision? Seems WB would have made that call.

..... that was all the pre-rendered cinematics, they should have just shown the phys-x cape instead like how how handled the Tomb Raider remastered.

Glad to see some Origins love here. I thought that game was stellar and I was sad to see it get completely ripped apart by critics on release. It's kinda the only one I want to replay honestly. I went back to Asylum last year. That game does not hold up for me at all. It's lacking scope and depth compared to the later titles and it largely feels like its on rails. The metroidvania aspect is so overblown.

for $50 bucks, no thanks

nah Origins insn't worth remastering. Its like the Mass Effect 3 of the franchise don't waste limited resources on it.

Meh, probably consider picking this up when its on sale for dirt cheap, and enjoy revisiting them in higher def. Like most remasters i already bought, paid and played them already, so not worth the asking price new.

Excluding Origins is excluding the second best Batman game after Asylum. Real dumb imo.

The thing is, Rocksteady probably had their vision, and per usual, the higher ups got greedy, and demanded a cash grab game. I get why they wouldn't like Origins.

I like it. Loved City, never played Asylum. Will enjoy finding out whether Asylum is truly just better or being the first of those helps its case.

lol that price is ridiculous. Only real difference I see is that the prerendered cutscenes are touched up. I think I'll stick to reinstalling these games on my PC and play at the even higher resolution of 1440p

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"Remastered"

At this point doesn't remastered just mean a nicer framerate?

@TechnoSyndrome: Yea I only replayed all Asylum, City and Origins on my PC last year and I was thinking in my head while watching that trailer that it looks significantly worse. Glad I'm not a crazy person.

Also, man I'm surprised at all the Origins love here, I am too one who prefers Origins over City and I actually think City is a pretty poor game to be honest. I barely consume superhero content (outside of the Arkham games) whether it be in comic book/movie/game/cartoon form but man I'm feeling vicariously over saturated.

I'll almost certainly pick this up. I only ever got around to playing Arkham Asylum which I loved so the opportunity to play the other two is perfect for me. Re-releases of PS3/X360 games always cop a bunch of criticism but it's clear they work and the public enjoy them so long may it continue. Having access to full collections of great games without having to hook up an old console is great as far as I'm concerned.

This would have been more appealing, and I most likely would have really wanted it if it had come out before Arkham Knight, but it's a bit late. I love Asylum; was super disappointed and bored with City; was surprised and played Origins late, but liked it quite a bit. And Arkham Knight I thought was really good too. The only thing going against it was some predictable story parts, and it's more of the same thing again. I really actually enjoyed the bat mobile stuff. I think it is arguably the best one, but it cons make it so it's not quite as good as Asylum. I thought Origins had the first or second best soundtrack, as well as first or second best story. It's between that and Arkham Knight. Then atmospherically, it's between Knight and Asylum, but Asylum has a slight edge there. I loved exploring the Asylum.

@TechnoSyndrome: I'm usually not one to get uppity about graphics but that's just bizarre. Hugo and Joker also looks like that on the left on PS3 and 360. At least one can hope it's a stylistic change (from someone without any sense of style) and not a downgrade to get the games running 60FPS on the new consoles, because that'd be some hot garbage.

@TechnoSyndrome: wow that looks....... disgusting

i've been all batman'd out since arkham city

that first game is still excellent tho and it's still the best one so having a better version of it is a good thing even if i never want to play any of those games ever again

@stinger061: Just so you know this is only Asylum and City. Didn't know if you knew that since the way you worded the post implied there were three games.

I didn't realize Origins was so loved. I enjoyed it, especially the detective stuff they added. But I personally had the most fun with City. I think Asylum is probably the best Batman game, but City was the game I enjoyed most.

Man, I never played Origins and it's disappointing that this is not including it.

I don't think it's that crazy for them to not include Origins considering they didn't even develop it

Maybe they just look at double-billing rocksteady's ones as a safer bet.

I couldnt even tell they were updated...Also yea..No Origins would suck if I actually wanted to buy this. It was a great game, and better then AC imo.

@TechnoSyndrome said:

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Hmmm, I'll have to keep an eye on this. I said earlier in this thread that I'd gladly purchase this but the PC screenshots look the game I remember and the PS4 screenshots do not. That would be odd if the game actually looked worse, I've really enjoyed all the remasters I've purchased for PS4 so far.

In my opinion Origins is probably the one that needs the remaster treatment the most. Not because it was the best or anything but because it ran like straight shite, at least for me anyways. (I had it on PS3 but idk there was some severe framerate issues and texture pop-in for up to 5-10 seconds sometimes)

This got delayed for whatever reason, so no Batmaning this summer.

http://www.polygon.com/2016/6/28/12049804/batman-return-to-arkham-remaster-delayed-indefinitely