Warner Bros have just announced the Batman: Return To Arkham collection, bundling the first two games in Rocksteady Studios Batman franchise together.
The updated release on PS4 and Xbox One was first heard about thanks to a PEGI rating last month and is being handled by Virtuos, a company that handles a lot of ports and re-releases. Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham Knight will both have all their extra content included on the disc, as well as improvements to character models, environments, lighting, effects and shaders.
For those that don’t know, Arkham Asylum follows the story of the Joker taking over the asylum after purposefully getting captured by Batman. Arkham City follows on from the first game, seeing a large chunk of Gotham turned into a prison by Hugo Strange because of the failure of the asylum. Arkham City also offers the ability to play as Catwoman for certain sections of the game.
This collection is only half of the Arkham franchise however, leaving out the prequel Arkham Origins (the only game in the franchise not developed by Rocksteady) and the finale Arkham Knight. Arkham Knights exclusion makes sense, given it’s already out for PS4 and Xbox One, Arkham Origins on the other hand was a last gen only affair, and was faced with some criticism for various reasons including technical problems. So it seems Warner Bros is all too happy for everyone to just forget Arkham Origins.
Both Arkham Asylum and Arkham Knight came out for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, in 2009 and 2011 respectively, to critical acclaim. The praise was well deserved as they were both fantastic games, and I’m looking forward to playing them again and checking out these improvements. Return To Arkham will be available from July 29, with a RRP of £39.99 and no announced price in euros.
