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The Batman: Arkham HD Release We Deserve

The Batman: Arkham HD Release We Deserve

Surprise! Two of the best action / adventure games ever made are coming to the Xbox One and PS4. They’re going to be combined onto one disc; they’ll be affordable; they’ll provide you with dozens if not hundreds of hours of entertainment; they’re arguably the two best superhero video games we’ve ever played. I’m talking, of course, about Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City.

If you’ve been living under a rock and missed out on the timely break from our own Jenni Lada, let me fill you in on the exciting news. A GameStop employee sent Eurogamer a picture he or she snapped of an internal memo detailing a new Batman collection called Batman: Return to Arkham . The picture included all of the juicy details, including a release date and a pre-order date, but it also looked – let’s just say… less-than-official. At that point we were cautiously optimistic, but now a PEGI rating has surfaced for Batman: Return to Arkham – Arkham Asylum. That’s about all the confirmation we need, folks. We expect to see a rating for Arkham City any moment now, as the collection will contain both games.

This is great news. If you’ve already played a bit of one game or the other, this is the perfect chance to play through definitive versions of both games with a single purchase. While we eagerly await Horizon: Zero Dawn , I can’t think of a better way to ease the pangs of anticipation. If you haven’t played through either of these games, shame on you. You need to place your pre-order now, and here’s why:

Two GOTYs, One Collection

Arkham Asylum and Arkham City both won multiple GOTY awards and were hailed, after each respective release, as the best Batman games ever made. Fast-paced combat, stunning visuals, incredible voice acting, and countless side missions left fans wanting more. Too bad Arkham Knight let so many of them down.

The Batman: Arkham HD Release We Deserve

These Are the Definitive Editions

Everyone keeps calling these HD releases, which I find strange, because the games were already in HD. But don’t get me wrong, they are the definitive editions of two incredible games. The visuals have been updated and optimized for both the PS4 and Xbox One. Expect to be amazed, because even on the 360 and PS3 these games looked incredible. They actually look so good that I’m wondering if 1080p / 60 fps is possible, but even if the frame rate is locked at a stable 30 fps I’ll be happy.

DLC Galore

Return to Arkham is going to include all previously released DLC and additional content for both games, which is why I’m confident that this will last many of you well over a hundred hours. For Arkham Asylum and Arkham City combined, we’re talking about 13 separate DLC packs that were worth upwards of $100 when bought separately at the time of release. If this re-release is $60 or less we’re looking at about $160 of savings on games that are still so, so relevant.

I’m curious to hear what you guys are thinking. This bundle came out of nowhere, but it honestly might be the next-gen Batman experience that we were all waiting for. It is kind of a bummer that Arkham Origins isn’t included, but as Origins was developed by a separate studio, it does make sense. Is this something you guys are planning to pick up? If not, what adventure game are you most looking forward to in the next few months?

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