Thanks @Desmonic for the trailer.
In-game (courtesy of @seanmcloughlin):
Some screenshots:
Three new screenshots, thanks @Sushiglutton
- PC, One, PS4.
- Gotham City
- Batmobile.
- Rocksteady.
- Kevin Conroy is back
- "Arkham Knight" isn't what we actually think it is.
- The Arkham Knight is actually a brand new character (probably villain) created by Rocksteady and DC.
- A single character in Arkham Knight has the same polygon count as the ENTIRE Arkham Asylum environment
- Final game in the series.
- Release date: October 14 2014
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Updated:
General:
- Rocksteady rethought the entire city structure to accommodate the Batmobile and street traffic
- Arkham Knight is built on a "juiced up" version of the a custom Unreal Engine to make use of the Xbox One and PS4.
- By not being cross-gen they've been able to push what the machines can do
- Rocksteady describe Arkham Knight as "a real, genuine next-gen game"
- There is no multiplayer in Arkham Knight. Rocksteady is focused on "making the best single-player experience it can" and doesn't feel it needs multiplayer.
- "Arkham Knight" is also the name of a new archrival that was created from scratch by DC Entertainment's Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, known for his work on Green Lantern and Justice League.
- The character will "really challenge Batman to go head to head with him in lots of different ways"
- Kevin Conroy is going to be voicing Batman, Nolan North will be voicing Penguin, Wally Wingert will be doing Riddler, Tara Strong returns as Harley Quinn and Troy Baker will be Two-Face
Gameplay
- Batman begins with his traditional Arkham City suite but gets a darker plated one later in the game. It adds new abilities and has continuity with the look of the Batmobile
- Arkham Knight is the end "of the later timeline"
- Game Informer says Rocksteady isn't saying what's next but "it's most definitely not Batman related"
- The finale has been in mind since the development of Arkham City
- Arkham Knight takes place in a new central zone of Gotham City, which is split into three island and is in total roughly five times the size of Arkham City
- Rocksteady is emphasising the detail is more important than the scale of the world. They don't want to create the biggest open-world, they want to create the richest, densest and most vibrant
- There is more space in between buildings to make the environments "traffic-friendly" and it becomes more fun to glide around
- Game Informer says the level of details is some of the most impressive its seen
- Arkham Knight takes place one year after Arkham City
- Joker is dead and crime rate has declined
- Batman continues to work on tech to fight crime, even with less of it around
- He knows something isn't right, but needs to wait to see what happens
- With the Joker gone, other key villains have spent time coming together to plan Batman's downfall
- Each villain has his/her own mission in the city and it's intended to spread Batman thin
- Scarecrow has threatened to blow up bombs in gotham and cover it with a new version of his fear toxin, so the city is ordered to evac
- Only criminals remain in the city; Gordon and his forces have been overwhelmed
- In the demo there are between four and five times the number of thugs in Gotham City than in Arkham
- Riots can feature up to 50 characters destroying things
- Two-Face and Penguin are killing cops, because they can
- Batman meets with Gordon and gives him tech to stay in contact
- All of the game's cutscenes take place in-engine, there are no pre-rendered cinematics. They are seamlessly integrated.
- Rocksteady is trying to take the level of in-game detail to the pre-rendered level
- Albert Feliu, lead character artist, says the polygon count on one character in Arkham Knight is as big as the count of the whole Arkham Asylum environment
- The detail in Gordon's face shows his age and it wrinkles as he talks
- Apex cloth physics are being used on Batman's cape and Gordon's trench coat so they react properly to wind and movement
- Although Jim Gordon believes she's gone, his daughter Barbara, a.k.a. Oracle is in the city and helping Batman
- Oracle is a "strong character" and is a character Batman physically meets as opposed to just a voice he hears
- She knows Batman's identity and is used to give him a human side
- Arkhamverse Barbara lines up with comic continuity in that she was paralysed by the Joker
- Batman knows Barbara is in the city and Jim Gordon believes she is not, the deception may become a plot point
- A new streamlined control option is used to tell batman to sprint to the nearest ledge and dive straight down
- Grapnel Gun now has a Mark 2 boost upgrade and slingshots Batman
- Line launcher returns to give Batman perch points and ziplines can be created instantly while flying around
- All quickfire gadgets, such as Batarangs, can be used in mid-air
- The classic counter system also returns. Rocksteady doesn't want to overcomplicate it as it thinks the strength is in the simplicity
- However, it has enhanced it somewhat with new features
- Normal goons can now do the charge and tackle only the larger enemies could in previous games
- A well timed backflip and Batarang can be used to instantly KO enemies doing a charge
- Batman now has quick ground strikes but full ground takedowns are still available, though they take longer to execute
- Batman can glide through glass surfaces
- He has throw counters that grabs enemies and launches them into another for double damage
- Hazards in the environment such as power generators can be mixed into combat
- Riddler appears in the demo to put the Batmobile to the test in a three-lap time trial through the underground tunnels of Gotham, but to the only way to make it through is to use a special radar pulse that alters parts of the track
- Players click the left stick to move obstacles while driving at high speeds and the course gets difficult with every lap
- Riddler has a plan for Batman and the city too, beyond testing his skills
- Batman still has detective vision
- He can access grates from further away, when in range a button prompt appears and he'll roll forward to get under it
- From a grate it's possible to initiate multiple takedowns, as one enemy is grabbed the action slows and the camera can be pointed in the direction of another enemy.
- "Fear Takedowns" can be used on groups of three enemies as long as they're close together and none of them spot Batman
- The demo ends with a mysterious villain describes as a "militaristic Batman" with what looks like an "Arkham A" on his chest appears to land a jump kick on Batman and stomp him. He points a gun at Batman and the screen fades to black as the shot is fired.
Batmobile:
- Batmobile is designed to be "the best car in any game ever", it takes up around 160mb of memory in game and will just about fit in an Xbox 360 (if that was the whole game). There are hundreds of thousands of polygons, as well as textures and shaders used on it
- Batmobile is the only car Batman has access to in the game
- It zooms to your location at the touch of the button
- It can do burnouts, jumps, boosts and "rotate in a circle at a full stop to get you pointed in the right direction
- It is bulletproof and can smash through barricades, trees and building corners
- Enemies will try and jump out of its way
- Driving gameplay is balanced with out-of-car gameplay so players don't just stay in it all the time
- While Batmobile has speed and damage Batman has a better freedom of movement and gadgets,
- Players can swap between the two based on what the job requires
- Batmobile can missile lock and fire an immobilizer at enemy vehicles
- Batmobile is designed to segue perfectly with Batman and his navigational skills
- When within range of a key point Batman can eject out of the Batmobile and launch himself into a fast glide
A bit shorter version for those who are too busy looking at pictures :-P (thanks @jg4xchamp):
- Rocksteady pretty well acknowledges that AO was a stop-gap game because they thought it was too much to expect fans to hold onto interest three years after AC's release.
- The game is set one year after AC, with Batman developing ever more powerful gadgets to protect Gotham while the villains unite to come up with a play to defeat the Bat once and for all. Scarecrow plants bombs with a new strain of fear gas throughout the city, forcing an evacuation, and the alliance of villains includes Penguin, Two-Face, Harley Quinn, and Riddler.
- The game world is five times larger than AC, with larger buildings and more open space. Batman's gliding and grappling abilities have been enhanced to help deal with this, and you can use the Line Launcher and quickfire gadgets at any time during a glide. The number of enemies is also greatly increased, and you can come upon riots with up to 50 thugs trashing store fronts.
- Bats starts the game in the Batsuit from AC and will upgrade to a new one during the game.
- The Batmobile is insanely detailed; the model alone is 160MB, and by itself would take up a whole Xbox 360 disc. The player essentially has to choose between when they want the speed and armor of the Batmobile and when they want to hop out and do stuff as Batman. The Batmobile can lock onto enemy vehicles and fire a missile-like device to immobilize them without harming the passengers.
- Combat has been tweaked a bit more; there's now a quick ground takedown move, and environmental actions (like slamming a thug into a power box to shock him and knock him out). Batman's ability to counter weapons now includes the ability to actually use them (the demo shown to GI had him counter a baseball bat, then use it to wallop the thugs attacking him).
- In terms of Predator Mode, you can now access grates from farther away, with Bats performing a quick roll (kind of sounds like the slide move from the new Thief). There's a new type of fear-based takedown that lets you deal with groups of enemies (up to 3 at a time) as long as they're close enough together and none of them have spotted you yet; during the takedown the action slows down and you can pan the camera over to new targets before pressing a button to dash in and attack.
- The voice cast from the past games returns, with Kevin Conroy as Batman again.
- There'll be a new OC villain actually called the Arkham Knight, who's being designed by Geoff Johns in cooperation with Rocksteady. His costume is said to look like a militaristic Batsuit with the Arkham "A" logo on it, and he wields a silenced pistol.
- Absolutely no multiplayer component this time. Rocksteady is being very clear about this, saying they don't have the time and don't feel it's necessary.
- Everything is rendered with the in-game engine; there aren't any pre-rendered cutscenes. Also, the polygon and texture sizes have been vastly increased; a single AK character has the same polycount as the entire AA map.
- Oracle will apparently be a physical presence in this game, with Batman visiting her clocktower lair. The lair had shout-outs to the Animated Series (a movie poster for "The Ghost Wore Gray") and the Adam West series (a bust of Shakespeare with an identity scanner).
- The game is supposedly slated for an October 14 release on PS4, Xbone, and PC; the pre-order bonus is a set of four challenge maps where you play as Harley, who has her own unique set of weapons and gadgets.
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