Rocksteady’s trilogy of Batman games have become gaming legend in recent years. Never before has a studio nailed the feel of a comic/movie icon so well in gaming form. Behind every great game though, are reams of artwork inspiring ambitious mechanics and design. The creative mind’s eye uses the page to provide the provisional jumping off point for others.
This hardback book is a celebration and homage to the journey of the Batman series’ aesthetics from concept through completion. It’s an absolute beast of a book too, a true coffee table piece if ever there was one. Weighing in at 2KG, The Art of Rocksteady’s Batman has 304 pages containing 400 high quality images. Concept art has long been an unlockable feature in video games, but high quality art assets are much better appreciated on the page rather than your TV screen.
Continue reading The Art of Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Asylum, Arkham City & Arkham Knight (Book Review) →
This is the end folks. Rocksteady’s last Batman game. As we saw with Warner Montréal’s Arkham Origins, you can’t just ask another studio to copy the formula and come up with the goods. Wipe away those tears though and step into the world of Batman: Arkham Knight.
This final adventure sees Batman finally playing on home turf in the expansive Gotham City. A dream come true for gamers, but the Scarecrow wants to make it everyone’s worst nightmare. He’s been cooking up a small ocean of his trademark fear toxin to make a whole city lose its mind and tear itself apart. Continue reading Batman: Arkham Knight (Review) →
So, I’ve just spent my first night tearing around Gotham in the Batmobile. Rocksteady have taken their time recreating one of the most iconic cars of all time and the pressure was certainly on to do it justice as their trilogy of Batman games draws to a close with Arkham Knight. My review is coming later this week, but in many ways, the main question we’re asking is, how’s the Batmobile? How does it handle? Is it an empowering blast and buckets of fun? Or do the tank-like transformations betray Batman’s Legacy? I’ll tell you.
From the first time you unleash the Batmobile on the streets of Gotham, there’s a volatile burst of aggression that makes it almost intimidating to handle. Steering can be very sensitive, resulting in much more fish-tailing than I’d care to admit. It got to the point where I was getting quite annoyed actually. Continue reading Batman: Arkham Knight’s Batmobile – Brilliant fun or a legacy betrayed? →
Today’s new video for Batman: Arkham Knight shows seven minutes of continuous footage from a segment of the game. This gives us an excellent impression of the different play styles available in the space of a few short minutes. We’re always happy to see gameplay over snappily edited snippets of cutscenes.
Over the course of seven minutes, we’ll see Batman swoop over Gotham’s beautifully lit Chinatown, before he dives through a building’s glass skylight and straight into an indoor brawl with no loading sequence at all. This part of the story sees him rescuing a rather underdressed Poison Ivy (where are your pants, Ivy!) from Scarecrow’s goons. There’s nothing spoilery to look out for though.
After a quick cutscene Batman gives her a lift in the batmobile to Gotham PD, giving Warner and Rocksteady the chance to show off how you can smash through buildings for shortcuts as alternatives to the route-planning line on the HUD. There’s a brief battle against the Arkham Knight’s armoured tanks on the way, which is a good excuse to transform the Batmobile into Battle Mode for some quick strafe and shoot rocket-fuelled fun. Take a look for yourself below and maybe play through Asylum and City to get ready for Batman: Arkham Knight in a month’s time. Continue reading 7 mins of new Batman: Arkham Knight footage →
Rocksteady have kicked off a new series of videos from within their studio as they talk about the upcoming Batman: Arkham Knight game. Today’s 12 minute video has an extensive breakdown of the ‘All Who follow You’ trailer. After that, you can see staff answer questions fired at them from the Batman fan community for some extra tidbits of information. For example, did you know that there will be no loading screens when moving from exteriors to interiors? Colour us impressed.
Batman: Arkham Knight will be released June 23rd and you can find the Arkham Insider video and links to the cheapest deals on PS4, Xbox and PC below. Continue reading Rocksteady release Batman: Arkham Insider #1 video →
Batman: Arkham Knight is getting closer and the latest trailer gives us more reasons to be excited by showing some of the terrific voice talent behind the cast of Rocksteady’s Arkham finale. There are plenty of recognisable faces alongside Kevin Conroy (the long-running voice of Batman). We also have memorable cast members from the likes of Breaking Bad and Lord of the Rings in the roles of Commissioner Gordon and Scarecrow.
If you’re still looking to get your preorder down on any format, we’ve got a few options below including some super sweet deals on PC for both UK and US gamers. Continue reading Seen Batman: Arkham Knight’s cast trailer? You’ll want these cheap deals then →
Don’t take that title as a slur on Rocksteady’s excellent work on the Arkham series of Batman games, or as an ill-judged prediction that Arkham Knight is going to be anything other than brilliant. Far from it. Batman: Arkham Knight could be the crowning achievement of the trilogy, the realisation of years of hard work and the culmination of efforts and ideas that were finally allowed to exist as gaming hardware caught up to Rocksteady’s lofty ambitions.
So why so keen to see them let the Dark Knight go after June 23rd (well, after the inevitable expansion packs at least)? Rocksteady have proved themselves to be an excellent studio and it would be cruel to tie them to making one franchise over and over again. Let’s see them and Batman go out on a high, before ideas become stale and before the studio becomes fatigued trying to come up with fresh ideas in order to better their own impossibly high bench marks. They’ve been working on Arkham games nonstop since 2007! Continue reading Why Rocksteady quitting Batman after Arkham Knight is the right choice →
Batman: Arkham Knight has suffered yet another delay. Instead of releasing June 6th, you’ll now have to wait until June 23rd. It’s not the longest of delays (Uncharted 4 has hurt us the most in recent weeks) and we’re glad that Rocksteady is waiting until they decide the game is ready if we’re honest.
Arkham Knight is looking fantastic so far and Warner Bros has released a new trailer called ‘Officer Down’ to ensure our appetite doesn’t diminish while we wait. Enjoy the video below to see a fresh seven minutes of gameplay. After that, take a look at our hot pre-order offers, where you can reserve a PS4 or XO copy from as little as £37.99. Continue reading Batman: Arkham Knight delayed again, but here’s a new trailer →
It’s been widely understood for ages that Rocksteady have been secretly working away on a next-gen Batman game for a while now, but that doesn’t mean that yesterday’s announcement hasn’t got us wildly excited for the Dark Knight’s debut on the PS4 and Xbox One with Batman: Arkham Knight. So let’s dive into what we’ve been able to find out about the game since its reveal.
Continue reading Batman: Arkham Knight – 10 Things You Need to Know →
Gaming reviews, previews and features by Brendan Griffiths
The No Sleep Gamer 