To help understand what went wrong with the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight, Kotaku spoke with a quality assurance tester, who claimed publisher Warner Bros knew about the problems for months.
As for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of Arkham Knight, the tester source, who wished to remain anonymous, talked about why the game was delayed on multiple occasions by Warner Bros and developer Rocksteady:
Getting it to work on consoles was impossible for months. That’s part of why the game got delayed so many times, they were totally unprepared for how hard it was on next-gen consoles.
Another source who was close to the production of Arkham Knight backed this up, saying QA teams were told in various meetings that the new consoles were “not nearly as easy to work with as [Rocksteady] expected.” As a result, testers were told to focus on finding console bugs, with just 10% of the roughly 100 people focused on PC.
The source then discussed how testing went for Arkham Knight:
Testing a game this big is very different from linear or smaller games. You usually get a mission, chapter or area of the map, or pick one yourself, and just go to town. You bug everything you see. We had some testers bugging more than 100 bugs per day. Devs would fix what they could but they were juggling that with actually finishing the game so they were insanely slow. Only when the game was done and no new features had to be built could they actually buckle down. Once that happens they also restrict what you can or can’t bug, to ensure that they can catch up.
While there are lots of issues with the PC version, it launched on PS4 last month “in a very refined, polished state.”
[Source: Kotaku]
Arkham Knight Info Dump
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Batman: Arkham Knight
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Story
Scarecrow has returned to Gotham City, uniting all of Batman's foes while prompting an evacuation of the city using fear toxin and by planting bombs throughout the place. According to Rocksteady, "Batman faces the ultimate threat against the city that he is sworn to protect, as Scarecrow returns to unite the super criminals of Gotham and destroy the Batman forever."
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The Villains
Scarecrow is going to be the leading villain in Arkham Knight. Rocksteady says he's an expert in using fear tactics, and that players won't know what to expect or believe. Harley Quinn, on the other, hand is now leading her own gang and pursuing her own objectives. And then there's Arkham Knight, created specifically for the game.
Watch this trailer to learn more about Scarecrow’s Rogues Gallery, which includes Two-Face, The Penguin, the Riddler, the Arkham Knight, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy.
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The Cast
Here’s a quick look at who’s a part of Arkham Knight:
• Kevin Conroy as Batman
• Tara Strong as Harley Quinn
• Troy Baker as Two-Face
• Nolan North as Penguin
• Jonathan Banks as James Gordon
• Ashley Greene as Barbara Gordon
• John Noble as Scarecrow
• Scott Porter as Nightwing -
Combat
Arkham Knight will not only enhance combat but will also introduce some new mechanics. For instance, Rocksteady has "supercharged" the free flow combat system, giving players more options, capabilities and the freedom to approach combat how they want.
Arkham Knight will also include weapon steals, and a throw counter that which allows players to throw a thug at other enemies. Additionally, players can use gadgets while gliding "which is a really great feature for starting combat and for general exploration," according to Rocksteady's Gaz Deaves.
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Driveable Batmobile
Arkham Knight introduces Batmobile as a driveable vehicle for the first time in the series. In an interview with PSLS, Rocksteady's Gaz Deaves said that the Batmobile was "the missing piece from the Arkham experience." Watch this trailer showcasing the Batmobile and how it can transition into “Battle Mode," which can fire devastating blasts to take down the enemy. And here's another video that details Battle Mode features.
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Batsuit
The Batsuit in Arkham Knight "mirrors the design" of the Batmobile to "highlight the interaction" between both. According to Rocksteady, the new suit impacts gameplay and is designed to work with the vehicle alongside enhancing some of Batman's abilities.
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Fear Takedown
This video showcases Arkham Knight's new Fear Takedown, as well as how the Batmobile integrates into gameplay and Combat Mode.
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Disruptor
There's a new gadget called "Disruptor" in Arkham Knight, which lets Batman take on enemies from long range. Don't be fooled by its looks as it's not really a gun.
Details revealed in the Batman Arkham forums state:
"The Disruptor has three charges per engagement, requiring Batman to carefully select how best to use each charge in order to compliment his plan of attack."
For a list of core abilities at Batman’s disposal out of the box, click here.
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Dual Play
Rocksteady has introduced a new Dual Play feature to Arkham Knight, which allows players to swap characters. Batman can turn into his closest allies to help him save Gotham City.
Watch this video for details on the feature. If you have time, here's another video of the Dual Play system, and one that shows Batman and Nightwing Dual Play combat.
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No Multiplayer
Game Director Sefton Hill said that Arkham Knight won't include multiplayer because Rocksteady didn't have any time to work on it. "We want to focus on making the best single-player experience we can," he said.
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Map Size
Arkham Knight's map size is five times larger than that of Arkham Asylum but we're promised that it won't compromise anything in the game. One of the reasons Rocksteady went for a larger map was that it wanted to introduce the Batmobile. According to Marketing Manager Guy Perkins, Arkham Asylum's and Arkham City's maps were too small to handle it.
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Current-Gen Only
Speaking in the April 2014 issue of Game Informer, Sefton Hill said that Rocksteady didn't want the game to be reined in by being cross-gen. "It’s not a challenge to move to next-gen. The real challenge is making sure you’re getting the best out of the machines," he explained.
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Awesome Takes Time
Arkham Knight joined the list of delayed video games last year when Rocksteady pushed its release date from October 2014 to 2015. According to the developer, "awesome takes time" and the dev team wanted to ensure that players receive the quality that they expect from the conclusion to Rocksteady's Arkham trilogy.
Awesome took a little more time in March this year, when the game was further delayed to June 23, 2015.
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Mature Rating Explained
Arkham Knight is the first game in the series to receive a Mature rating instead of a Teen rating. Rocksteady said that it would be wrong to "water down" the game that it wanted to deliver just to cater to a larger market.
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Bigger and Richer
Game Director Sefton Hill has said that Arkham Knight is as rich and contains as much handcrafted gameplay content than Arkham City and Arkham Asylum combined. Not only is the quality of content better, there's more variety in gameplay, offering the "ultimate" Batman experience.
Marketing Director Dax Ginn also said that Arkham Knight is the "biggest game we've ever made."
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Frame Rate and Resolution
We were told earlier this year that Arkham Knight will run at 1080p. With the embargo lifted, a Digital Foundry performance analysis further confirmed that the game runs at a capped 30 frames-per-second on the PS4.
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Doomed Limited Edition and Batmobile Edition
Arkham Knight Limited Edition and Batmobile Edition were announced late last year, and include goodies such as custom art books, steelbooks, comic books, exclusive character skin packs, and statues.
Unfortunately, the Batmobile Edition has been cancelled due to Batmobiles not being of acceptable quality. What's worse is that the Amazon-exclusive Limited Edition has reportedly been delayed, according to emails sent to customers by Amazon.co.uk. The reason given for delay is a "packaging quality issue."
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PlayStation 4 Bundles
Sony announced an Arkham Knight PS4 bundle for $400, and a limited edition special steel grey bundle for $450. In Canada, both bundles with cost $500 and $550, respectively. Details of the bundles and what they include are available here.
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Pre-Order Bonuses
Pre-ordering Arkham Knight will allow you to play as Harley Quinn in a special DLC story mission. Those who pre-ordered Arkham Knight via GameStop are also eligible to receive the Red Hood Story Pack, which will allow them to play as the "ruthless vigilante."
Here's a video showing off both characters in action.
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Season Pass
Arkham Knight's $40 Season Pass will add regular new content for six months post-launch, including new story missions, additional super villains invading Gotham City, legendary Batmobile skins, advanced challenge maps, alternative character skins, and new drivable race tracks.
The price of the Season Pass stirred some controversy because people felt that it was too expensive. In response, WB Games revealed further details about the pass, including the ability to play as Batgirl, hoping that it'll calm the storm a little bit. We were also recently told that the Season Pass includes retailer-exclusive pre-order DLC.
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Timed Exclusive DLC
PS4 owners will have access to timed exclusive DLC for Arkham Knight. The content includes scarecrow missions, classic TV Batmobile skin, Justice League 3000 Batman skin, and classic TV series Batman skin.
Here's a trailer showing off all the exclusive content you’ll get upon launch.
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Day-One Patch
As with most games, a few copies of Arkham Knight seem to have leaked early, and according to reports, there's a 3.5GB day-one patch to download. Patch notes revealed are as follows:
• Improved Performance
• Stability Fixes
• New feature: Rival Points
• New feature: Original Batsuit skin available to select
• Support for “A Matter Of Family” additional content
• General gameplay, graphical, audio, UI, and localization fixes -
Digital Copies
The downloadable version of Arkham Knight unlocks at 9pm PT on June 22 and 12am ET on June 23. According to the PlayStation Store, the game's download size is 47.2GB.
Those who pre-ordered the game digitally will receive a free theme, and will be able to play as Harley Quinn. For more details on that, click here.
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Trophy List
Arkham Knight's trophy list includes a ton of Bronze. The game comes with one Gold and One silver trophy. More trophies are available in the pre-order DLC and A Matter of Family DLC, which will all be available in the Season Pass.
Click here to see the full list but beware of potential spoilers.
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E3 2015 Gameplay and Trailer
Game Director Sefton Hill dropped by YouTube Live at E3, where he debuted a PS4 live gameplay demo. We were also shown the terrifying Arkham Knight trailer, which you can watch here.
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Moving On
Arkham Knight is Rocksteady's last Batman game as the studio is moving on to other projects.
