Batman Arkham Asylum Is The Best Looking Game On The Unreal Engine

Badassgamerblog: " Got my hands on the demo today, have played through it multiple times. I'll be posting my impressions of the demo soon, however one thing that struck me from the onset was just how good the game looks."

[mrblacknut]

Your pic quality doesn't show the game justice. No one would believe what you are saying unless they play it themselves. I hope others get a chance to play it themselves on their HD displays before seeing this.

[DasBunker]

lol those have to be the ugliest pics ive seen while trying to make a point about a game visuals.. really

loved the demo tough, charachter models are good and enviroments look better than resident evil 5 IMO.

Altough i see his point which i agree at some degree.. you gotta take in consideration stuff that gears 2 does that batman AA probably doesnt, so you can make a more accurate judgement..its not as simple as the writer puts it IMO

[PS360DS]

yes, not the best pics, those don't do the game any justice really, like u said amazing looking game

[bmatthews]

yeah, should probably get a HD camera or something...or maybe he isn't in his usual location? who knows.

[JL]

I haven't even finished downloading the demo to play it yet, but I can tell you those pics dont' do the game justice lol. Those really are some poor quality pics. Looks like he took a picture with his cell phone of his tv.

[The Dark Knight]

BATMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!! wooooooooooooo

[Kassanova07]

It's a great looking game but the honor goes to Bioshock imo.

[Megan Fox]

Good looking game, but not the best looking game on EU. Bioshock, ME and GeOW look better than this.

[el zorro]

I agree with you guys. Bioshock still looks better than this game.

Edit: Yes, Mass Effect and Gears also look better to me. But it is a pretty nice looking game. I think Batman fans are really going to dig it. Even many other gamers will enjoy it.

[Alex_Mexico]

you kidding right? How long ago was the last time you played Bioshock? Im playing it right now for the first time ever (PS3, 3/4 into the game now) and I can tell you this game looks without a doubt better than Bioshock.
Dunno about Bioshock 2 but yes, Batman AA looks better than Bioshock 1, no contest.

[Sarcasm]

I wouldn't say it's the best Unreal Engine game, but it's definitely using it better than 95% of other games using the engine that's for sure.

Overall great looking game though.

[MGSR THE HD VERSION]

bioshock ME and gears2 are better looking.

(Alex_Mexico )

"you kidding right? How long ago was the last time you played Bioshock? Im playing it right now for the first time ever (PS3, 3/4 into the game now) and I can tell you this game looks without a doubt better than Bioshock.
Dunno about Bioshock 2 but yes, Batman AA looks better than Bioshock 1, no contest."

ps3's version was a port. the pc/360 versions were the versions that made the game into 07's goty.

http://xbox360.ign.com/arti...

http://ps3.ign.com/articles...

http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

[SevWolf]

@ MGSR: Even though I personally thought Bioshock was an amazing looking game...you should know that the PS3 looked exactly like the 360, but the PS3 version had a few better textures(well that's what the IGN review said).

[Ju]

I totally agree. The character models, at least the main characters (guards look normal) are phenomenal (Gears doesn't even come close). The fighting animations are outstanding. Every slo-mo punsch hits its target exactly. Same with lightning. I was actually pretty impressed, even the cut scenes are directed in an outstanding movie fashion style. No need to compare this against the other games, neither of those has left me with an impression like the demo.

[gaffyh]

This game looks much much better than Bioshock, Mass Effect and Gears. There are actually points in this where it looks like CG, absolutely outstanding graphics for a multiplatform game.

Gears may look slightly better for some people due to the better bump mapping, that really does give things in Gears a great alien-like texture. But based on character models alone, Arkham Asylum is amazing.

EDIT: I'm not saying graphics in those games suck, they are just not as good as Batman's.

[dirthurts]

This game does not hold it's own against bioshock.
Especially the PS3 version. And Yes I have played them both.
I personally feel like Gears of War and Bioshock both beat this game.
Detail is pretty decent, but I don't like the character models. No one looks natural (except harley quinn. rawr. )
I am downloading the pc version however. Let's see how that version of Batman looks.

[nycredude]

What is wrong with everyone here. This game, in the demo looks ok! That's it. There are some areas that look great but others that look really bad with crap textures. Biioshock was better looking and what about Gears 1 and 2?

Only the main character models so far look good, but the guards and other secondary enemies look like total ass!!!! Environments look kind of stale too. Maybe I am spoiled but I wasn't impress with the graphics.

However the gameplay was pretty tight, and is probably what will make this game a possible buy for me.

[DaTruth]

I haven't downloaded yet, but when I heard Unreal I wasn't going to bother. But since reading the comments, I will definitely be downloading... actually, I'll do that now.

[LUCKYXS7LEVEN]

n looks good in her cheerleader outfit

[BlackTar187]

Graphics im not sure had to much to do with Bioshock GOTY man you just cant leave out comments like that huh. How sad.

PS3 a port pc/360 made GOTY i played it on pc because it was $10 cheaper and i had just got a new alienware and after playing it and beating it then getting the 360 version for achievements and ps3 for trophies and the extra mode i have to say 360 and ps3 are both terrible looking then my comp was kinda off set the game since the lighting was what made the game for me and on 360 and ps3 it wasn't up to par. Now this is something only ruined by my comp exp. but to me Bioshock looks sub par on both systems .

BUT IN ORDER FOR ME TO PLAY IT LIKE 12x total thats saying something special and all this talk i want to go play it right now.

[gaffyh]

@1.17 - Well a demo is representative of the final product, and demos are usually from earlier builds of the game, which means the game will look better than this demo.

I like the character trophy feature they have, it's pretty cool to see the full 3D model, too bad it doesn't animate though like it would in other games.

[bmatthews]

Good read, and I agree game looks better than most games on the UE right now, mass effects 2 might have something to say about that ;)

[OperationFlashpoint2]

Nice, must say Gears 2 has nothing on this game, this game simply looks awesome the demo is amazing

[MiloGarret]

That's probably due to the fact that you're blind, but whatever. The Joker does look better than any Gears character but overall it's not really a contest. It IS a great looking game nevertheless, which is even more impressive considering it's a multiplat game, so good going devs!

Pre-ordered it today along Assassins Creed 2 and Uncharted 2, oh happy times are a-comin'

Best thing is i got them for NOTHING by trading in games I played through ages ago. I'm actually liking Gamestop today.

[PirateThom]

The game really does look good, you can tell it's UE, but it's so, so good looking which may be partly down to artstyle. It draws a lot of inspiration from various Batman media (comics, cartoons and the Burton and Nolan movies).

[CestusGOWIII]

very true, the game looks great with a vivid art style.

[lyvon]

couldn't have said it better myself

[raztad]

@cectus

I think you tangentially nailed it. This game has a very fitting art style that brings life to it, but IMO the graphics are average, nothing outstanding. This one and Bioshock are pretty comparable. Something that really impressed and surprised me was the game running at 1080p. I noticed it cause I have 720p mode dissabled, probably its just in-game upscaling (like MGS4 or NGS) but its nice nonetheless.

BTW, I'm gonna try the PC version at medium settings to see how compares with PS3's. It's a good chance to find out.

[kaveti6616]

What? I played the game demo today at a Target and the visuals are definitely not the best the Unreal Engine 3 has offered. I call bullcrap on this article, and some fool up in the posts said the environments look better than Resident Evil 5? Is that guy blind?

[PirateThom]

That demo may be an old build, because it looks great. Really, really good.

[STONEY4]

The demo at Target isn't the same one. That's been out for about a year.

[Donga]

I really can't believe how amazing the game looks on my console, I wasn't expecting it to look that good.

[CestusGOWIII]

It has to be said, this game looks amazing, still DL'd the demo

[HeavyInfamous]

played the demo about 30 times now, loving it all the way, the silent predator parts are so amazing. the way u frighten the guards, play around with them e.t.c

[lyvon]

I've been playing the demo for such a long time myself, however I'm finding the predator gameplay slightly restrictive...I guess it's to do with having limited equipments to play with(only the batarangs)

[AntMad]

I keep restarting the predator gameplay parts, because it's so much fun..I love seeing their reactions when they are terrified.

[beavis4play]

what surprised me was how much fun it would be to fight with batman. i really enjoyed that more than i thought i would. i love the "cape stun" and there seem to be lots of combos. combine all of this with the varied enemies to be encountered and this game is a WINNER!

[JonnyBigBoss]

Looks better than Gears of War 2 imo.

[El_Colombiano]

NO. Your wrong. NOT IMO. Fact. :)

[kaveti6616]

No way. Gears 2 may have some hitches but I've played it and it trumps the hell out of Arkham Asylum. Stop trolling Jleack, we know how much you love the PS3, but don't be a d*ck.

[DelbertGrady]

Looks better than Uncharted 2 imo. /s

[Alex_Mexico]

While I agree Batman looks better than Bioshock and comparable at best with GeOW2 I definetly positevly think this game does NOT look better than Uncharted 2. And this is not only my opinion, Uncharted 2 took home most of the "best graphics awards" from countless websites on last year's E3, even being called "Best graphics we've ever seen" by Gametrailers.

[DelbertGrady]

"/s" = sarcasm

I was thinking of leaving it out because I thought it was too obvious, but clearly some of you have a hard time seeing it as a joke even with the "/s" at the end...

[Saaking]

Much better than Gears that's for sure.

[el zorro]

Not in my opinion. It is one of the best UE3 games though.

[Saaking]

Gears 2 is Gears 1. They both look the same. No improvement whatsoever. The character models in Batman are better and the environments have more color and are better detailed.

[DelbertGrady]

Uncharted 2 is Uncharted 1. They both look the same. No improvement whatsoever.

To translate it into a language you understand. That's how stupid you sound.

[NeptuneOO7]

Saaking you really are pathetic. Grow some balls you deluded fanboy.

[Sir Ken_Kutaragi]

Good Demo tho. But for some reason everytime i play 90% of 'Unreal Engine' games it gives me a Bad Head(i feel unwell)??? :-/ Not sure why, anyway that means i can't buy or play the full game...oh well...

[zack61]

good god you're stupid

[Man_of_the_year]

Ya Saaking you are incorrect. There are differences. If you played the game you would have seen them. I finished playing the demo on the 360 this morning and ya Batman looks amazing...but it doesn't look as good as Gears yet. Maybe with the full game i will get a better idea but Gears really knew how to use the UE when it came to the moist environments. such as the inside of the caves and ****SPOILER***** inside of the giant Worm. Batman so far doesn't really have any moist environments, just a lot of steel walls and concrete walls. But the demo was limited so i can't wait to find out.

[talltony]

lol you guys are just saying these things cause its also on ps3. Still the game looks great from what we have seen its just way to early to tell which UE game looks the best right now.

[Kleptic]

yeah whatever...its still UE3...you can still tell its UE3...and it is a great looking game, considering its still UE3...stuff still looks like plastic, the lighting is completely wrong at times (and the bloom is as annoying as ever, Harley Quinn looked lifted right out of Bioshock because of that), and facial animation is a joke for some characters (they did nail the joker though)..

but the gameplay is awesome imo...might even buy this now...i'm simply tired of UE3 thats all...but it won't change my overall opinion of any game using it...this is definitely one of the best looking UE3 games...whether its the 'best' or not is irrelevant because they all look so similar it doesn't matter...

hell I am just happy my PS3 can run the game...considering its UE3...har har...

[Hoolock]

I was playing the demo earlier on my 360, the game does look much nicer than gears, im really impressed and it plays really well too. I would agree that this is the best looking unreal engine game although i do prefer the style that is the gears universe and graphics over the Batman style, plus gears its extremely diverse in the enviroments the game visits whilst i expected Batman to pretty much stick within steal walls for the full game BTW it has its share of big burly men and is defo an Unreal engine game

[likedamaster]

You're a moron, that's a given. Both Gears and Batman are the best looking. Finally, another talented, unlazy developer willing to push the Unreal Engine 3. Congrats on a great looking/playing game Eidos.

[Unicron]

Am I the only one who doesn't think it's ALL that? I mean it looks good... great even... but best UE game? I think that's pushing it. Especially since most of the best visuals are the cinematics, which are clearly well above the gameplay models (check out the first guard's face you chat with.) The lack of environment interactivity was also majorly jarring for me... I couldn't even knock a coffee cup off a desk!

Still, I think this is gonna be a great game. Can't wait. Mark Hamill ROCKS.

[el zorro]

The demo looks and plays great, but yeah I think some people are exaggerating how good it looks.

[Allowen]

I have played the demo on my PS3 and I did not see anything marvellous about this game.
in terms of graphics and sound , Bioshock is still ten times better then this Batman(preaty much identical to those recentelly launched Watchmen games) game

[devilhunterx]

na na na na BATMAN!

[DonCorneo]

maybe because i was playing killzone 2 before i played the batman demo. i found it ugly to be frank. check out the plant in the first section, it was a blurry mess unlike motorstorm pr or uncharted. the character models were alright but the background was shiny plastic unlike mgs4's.

[Saaking]

It's better than any 360 exclusive.haha

[LuHawk2]

this game looks better than you and yo momma

[shutupandplay]

Saaking: True, I think it is better LOOKING than most 360 games. Too bad everything else about it sucked.

[Saaking]

PS3 looks better in some, 360 looks better in some.

[likedamaster]

Ah... the famous "washed-out version" aka PS3 version vs. Xbox 360.

Oh well, we all know the outcome of that.

[starchild]

I just got done playing it for a few minutes on my PC and it looks decent, but not 'oh my god' amazing like this article leads you to believe.

[Mo0eY]

Play it on your HD console with an HDTV, guy.

[Death]

I suppose some could have the absolute worst vid card, but really...

-Death

[Gitaroo]

no, still not running on the latest version of UE3, it doesn't have ambient occlusion and other techs that Gears 2 does. All the cut scene are FMV probably rendered on high end PC then recorded, you can easily tell the lighting is much better and more advance in the cut scene than compare to the game itself.

[Gitaroo]

just an update, played the PC demo, ambient occlusion is indeed in it but missing in the PS3 version, as well as environmental damage if you can use the nvidia physX. Also lots of dynamic steam effects when physX is enable. Definite is at least on par if not better than Gears 2 with physX, at least on PC.

[jack_burt0n]

I wanna play it with a ds3 and get trophies hmmmm might download the demo to check out the phsyx smoke >_<

[Fatal Blow]

Best batman game so far that i have played or any other movie based game
for that matter boy i feel like a kid now trying to be batman lol

[Kleptic]

best batman...definitely...but best 'movie based game'?...this is no goldeneye...but nothing ever will be again...

still think I might buy it now after playing the demo...it was a lot of fun...

[chriski333]

great demo to bad it was short but the fighting system is great and cant wait to play as joker sucks for xbox owners hahahaha

[Pandamobile]

The character models sure are detailed though.

Here's some screenshots I took:

http://img35.imageshack.us/...
http://img8.imageshack.us/i...

[Major_Tom]

I'm also playing at at 1680x1050 and on full, definitely the best looking Unreal game.

Did you test out the Physx? The hit in the frames department was huge.

[Pandamobile]

Yeah, I had the PhysX set to full. I'm not sure how big the FPS hit was because I never tried it without it on. But I got on average 45-60 FPS with everything maxed. I recorded some 1280 x 720 resolution footage and Fraps was able to stay at a solid 30 FPS, so that's good. (I've got an i7 920 @ 3.6 Ghz and GTX 295 in case you're wondering)

[DelbertGrady]

I thought UE3 was old and worthless? No one seems to be complaining now ;)

[Major_Tom]

Because a Team does better with UE3 than Epic does with their own games? Ya, that's something to be proud about.

Besides it really doesn't look all that great on PS3 or Xbox 360 infact I thought it looked boring. Definitely a change of heart on the PC however.

[Kleptic]

careful...I am still not amazed at the visuals...its the gameplay that is way more impressive...

it still has crappy lighting...crappy bloom...and crappy shiny plastic everything...it is DEFINITELY has UE3'isms every where...but it doesn't hurt the game really...the art direction is pretty awesome; i'm glad its a campy burton like atmosphere as apposed to Batman begins and TDK...the 'realistic' side works better for movies, but the comic book theme fits a game much better imo...

[Shane Kim]

The demo was great and all but the graphics was nothing special. Looked like I was playing Gears only having Marcus dressed up in a Batman suit.

[user858621]

joker woooo!!!! :D

[PHIL1017]

IT'S GOOD! I LIKE IT!

[kingboy]

wow you call this good looking?hahah at least not to a ps3 owner

[clintos59]

What really caught my attention was the gameplay. I love how u can do some sick matrix type combos & also play stealth using batman type stealth like hang upside down from an object and gran an enemy or just sneak behind him & choke him out silently.

I wasnt even expecting this game to be that great but after the demo this game is a first day purchase for me. One of the best super hero games ive ever played.

[Sangria]

Too bad there's a load of aliasing, the game looks really awesome, almost nearby Gears of War 2 quality.

[KingKionic]

This game doesn't look better then gears of war 2 at all .

[likedamaster]

Maybe not but it sure is up there though. 2 very good looking games.

[badbond1]

is good. Don't think it is a good idea to get caught up in graphics as long as storyline and gameplay is good, which in this case, is the case. Don't expect games that are nonPS3 exclusive to look good as uncharted 2 or killzone 2. The 360 crapbox dumbs the graphics down a bit to be expected. Oh well, will get this and Uncharted 2, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, R&C, MAG, Madden 10, and GT5 this year = 420 -- ooooweeeee! Gonna be a broke SOB!

[onijutsu]

the game really did look good, although the demo was little easy, might pick this one up after it drops down in price.

[Redgehammer]

damn "you" people will argue about anything..lol

before you say it..."what do you mean you people?....."

[tripewire]

WTF?

Looks like toss IMO.

Character textures are ok, but models are stiff and not very dynamic. Effects are pretty bleh and the gameplay got boring after about a minute.

Story looks ok though...

[DeathSyphon66]

The Resolution on the 360 version is 1080p. The PS3 version is only 720p
just go to game stops website and look up the game then click the link to display the back of the box and see for yourselves. The PS3 version is a sh%tty port. Depressing really don't know why anyone else hasn't noticed.

[Hoolock]

will use the upscaler, i bet the 360 version runs in 720 as well but will upsacale to 1080p

[SaberEdge]

Yeah, it's just being upscaled to 1080P. Luckily the 360 has a fantastic hardware scaler.

[DeathSyphon66]

360 = 1080p
PS3 = 720p

[ShadowCK]

"And Yes, I have played Gears of War 2 and while that game had amazing environments and beautiful textures, this game just seems to edge it out with sharper and cleaner looking textures."

>_>

Gears of war 2 has huge environments like you said. If it was set in small corridors like in Batman Arkham Asylum then it's graphics would be near Crysis standard, as Epic Games would be able to cram in alot more detail to the graphics.

It would look simpler, if not better, to this:

http://images.gamersyde.com...

[Double Toasted]

this game looks better than Gears 2? Thats some HILARIOUS sh!t right there!!!

[cygnuszero]

It's so good, that batmans head is about half the size it should be. >.>