New Batman Game leaked, to be announced today.

[king3pj]

Dave Lang, the CEO of Iron Galaxy, is friends with Jeff Gerstmann from Giant Bomb. He's close enough with the Giant Bomb guys that he is occasionally a guest on the Giant Bombcast podcast and he streamed for 24 hours on Giantbomb.com as part of their 72 consecutive hours of streaming they did for Extra Life last weekend.

He's a likable guy and an interesting guest whenever they have him on the podcast. His company is also partially responsible for the Arkham Knight PC port.

The reason I bring this up is because Dave Lang was on the Giant Bombcast in yesterday's episode for the first time since Arkham Knight launched.

I listen to this podcast every week and I would argue that the whole thing is entertaining but the show is always a few hours long and I understand why many people wouldn't want to listen to all of it. At around the 1 hour and 8 minute mark they talk about the Arkham Knight PC port for a bit if you want to skip straight to it.

I do want to be clear though. This is not a tell all account of what the problem is. He goes into very little detail because his company signed a contract when they took the job saying that WB is the only company authorized to make press releases about this game. As he points out it also wouldn't make a lot of business sense for him to throw WB under the bus even if he didn't have that contract.

I still think it is an interesting listen though and it doesn't take long if you are only interested in the Arkham Knight part. At the very least it sounds a bit more sincere than the typical PR speak that doesn't actually say anything.

The podcast is available on iTunes and other podcast services but here is a link to it on their website.
http://www.giantbomb.com/podcasts/giant-bombcast-11102015/1600-1410/

 

[yourbeliefs]

I've delved back into Arkham Knight and have progressed further than I did back in June and here's some early performance impressions.

On my rig (Nvidia GTX 960 4GB, i5 2500k (no OC), SSD, 8GB RAM) this new patch has yielded a noticeable performance boost. Having said that, much like Digital Foundry noted, performance still isn't where it should be. I tried high settings across the board and was unable to get a steady 60 FPS. I then lowered to medium and then was able to get 45-60 FPS much more often. Still, on large open areas (such as when I'm gliding or going across the sky) the FPS often dips. Interior areas and fight sequences yielded the best constant rate, as would be expected with less to render. I'm not holding out much hope that a patch will be introduced before the end of the year, as WB hasn't had any news since their refund announcement.

Still, the performance is no where near for me to not want to play anymore. Now that I'm back in I want to keep going. Also, I have to say that the fighting sequences at 60 FPS are a lot more fun than the old 30 FPS versions in the last games. It adds a new layer of difficulty since things are coming faster than what I'm used to from prior games and similar ones like Shadow of Mordor. Hopefully in time I'll get back into my fun Batman groove. I am getting there.

 

[king3pj]

I've delved back into Arkham Knight and have progressed further than I did back in June and here's some early performance impressions.

On my rig (Nvidia GTX 960 4GB, i5 2500k (no OC), SSD, 8GB RAM) this new patch has yielded a noticeable performance boost. Having said that, much like Digital Foundry noted, performance still isn't where it should be. I tried high settings across the board and was unable to get a steady 60 FPS. I then lowered to medium and then was able to get 45-60 FPS much more often. Still, on large open areas (such as when I'm gliding or going across the sky) the FPS often dips. Interior areas and fight sequences yielded the best constant rate, as would be expected with less to render. I'm not holding out much hope that a patch will be introduced before the end of the year, as WB hasn't had any news since their refund announcement.

Still, the performance is no where near for me to not want to play anymore. Now that I'm back in I want to keep going. Also, I have to say that the fighting sequences at 60 FPS are a lot more fun than the old 30 FPS versions in the last games. It adds a new layer of difficulty since things are coming faster than what I'm used to from prior games and similar ones like Shadow of Mordor. Hopefully in time I'll get back into my fun Batman groove. I am getting there.

Yeah, it's really too bad we got the kind of port we did because the game really is pretty awesome. With how great it can look at times this could have been a showcase for what PCs can do. Performance issues kept that from being the case though.

 

[yourbeliefs]

If you thought Arkham Knight would get much better once they enabled SLI/Crossfire support... I'm afraid I got some bad news..

https://steamcommunity.com/app/208650/discussions/0/490124466457324535/#c485622866434485906

 

[king3pj]

If you thought Arkham Knight would get much better once they enabled SLI/Crossfire support... I'm afraid I got some bad news..

https://steamcommunity.com/app/208650/discussions/0/490124466457324535/#c485622866434485906

That's just a lame excuse. The way SLI and Crossfire typically work is that both GPUs load the same assets into their VRAM and then take turns drawing frames. Card one draws frame 1,3,5, etc while card two draws frame 2,4,6, etc. To play at 60 FPS each GPU only has to be capable of putting out 30 FPS. I'm sure it's a bit more complicated than that in reality but that is the basic summary of how SLI and Crossfire work.

The point is that I have never heard another developer say they can't include SLI/Crossfire support because it could cause issues for single GPU users. Some developers don't have the manpower or desire to work on a feature that a relatively small percentage players need so they leave it out.

I honestly would have been more satisfied if they said they were cutting their losses and not putting any more substantial resources into making a niche feature like SLI work. This feels like a cop out.

 

[yourbeliefs]

That's just a lame excuse. The way SLI and Crossfire typically work is that both GPUs load the same assets into their VRAM and then take turns drawing frames. To play at 60 FPS each GPU only has to be capable of putting out 30 FPS. I'm sure it's a bit more complicated than that in reality but that is the basic summary of how SLI and Crossfire work.

The point is that I have never heard another developer say they can't include SLI/Crossfire support because it could cause issues for single GPU users. Some developers don't have the manpower or desire to work on a feature that a relatively small percentage players need so they leave it out.

I honestly would have been more satisfied if they said they were cutting their losses and not putting any more substantial resources into making a niche feature like SLI work. This feels like a cop out.

Well what you say is true, except that in this case we're dealing with a game that was not made well at all. Arkham Knight is such a "coded for consoles" game that I do believe that it would cause issues to include SLI/CF. I'm not saying it's right, but given what a MESS this game has been I'd believe that they couldn't add higher quality textures due to fear of people loading lower quality textures having problems. I mean the fact that they're giving out refunds until the end of the year proves that they don't have a good plan on how to fix this thing. At this point better to cut losses than be continually dragged through the mud and hearing complaining and trying to fix a game that is more broken than our healthcare system. I predict 1 more optimized patch and after that WBIE and RS are going to wash their hands of this mess. In retrospect I should have just gotten the game via Gamefly for the PS4 (which was my original plan because I never thought I'd see a game f*cked up this bad) and I would have enjoyed the game in ignorant bliss.

 

[king3pj]

Well what you say is true, except that in this case we're dealing with a game that was not made well at all. Arkham Knight is such a "coded for consoles" game that I do believe that it would cause issues to include SLI/CF. I'm not saying it's right, but given what a MESS this game has been I'd believe that they couldn't add higher quality textures due to fear of people loading lower quality textures having problems. I mean the fact that they're giving out refunds until the end of the year proves that they don't have a good plan on how to fix this thing. At this point better to cut losses than be continually dragged through the mud and hearing complaining and trying to fix a game that is more broken than our healthcare system. I predict 1 more optimized patch and after that WBIE and RS are going to wash their hands of this mess. In retrospect I should have just gotten the game via Gamefly for the PS4 (which was my original plan because I never thought I'd see a game f*cked up this bad) and I would have enjoyed the game in ignorant bliss.

I'm strongly tempted to take a refund even though I would only get the $30 I paid for the season pass back because I got the game for free with a GPU. Then I think about how I said this was easily one of my favorite games this year and it doesn't really seem right to do that. I mean I did get 30+ hours of mostly enjoyment out of it and there is still currently released and upcoming DLC that I fully intend to play.

At the same time the lack of respect they showed their PC fans really makes it hard to feel bad about getting my money back even after playing all the content. I guess we'll see if I'm done with all the DLC by the end of the year and how I feel about it at that point.

 

[king3pj]

http://steamcommunity.com/games/208650/announcements/detail/128713039396595557

New patch for Arkham Knight released today.

 

[yourbeliefs]

It helped my performance a little bit but it's still very lacking

 

[yourbeliefs]

I ended up changing up my graphics settings. Rather than trying on Normal to get 60 FPS, I just locked it onto 30 and turned all the detail levels up to high. To be fair I didn't do much to the AA settings, but I saw this shadow work this morning and couldn't help but laugh. It looked much worse in motion.

 

[yourbeliefs]

The last batch of DLC for the season pass is released tomorrow.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/12/20/10629504/batman-arkham-knight-dlc-launch-date-last-pack

 

[king3pj]

Maybe I'll start working on the rest of the DLC tonight then. So far I have only played the Harley Quinn story pack.

 

[Bruce]

PlayStation Plus has the season pass on sale for $20, I just purchased it, tons of extra content, playing the Batgirl segment right now.

 

[king3pj]

PlayStation Plus has the season pass on sale for $20, I just purchased it, tons of extra content, playing the Batgirl segment right now.

Yeah people were upset with the season pass since it cost nearly as much as the game did. The actual content included is pretty cool though. If people can get it at a good price like you did they will probably enjoy it.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Well today marks over 1 month since I requested my refund from GMG for AK. Still haven't received it. Hell at this point I wonder if they even CAN give me a refund in that I think the card I used may have been cancelled, but I have to imagine in cases like that they should be able to credit my GMG account or give me a voucher for what I paid. Sent another notice to GMG.

 

[king3pj]

Well today marks over 1 month since I requested my refund from GMG for AK. Still haven't received it. Hell at this point I wonder if they even CAN give me a refund in that I think the card I used may have been cancelled, but I have to imagine in cases like that they should be able to credit my GMG account or give me a voucher for what I paid. Sent another notice to GMG.

Did they remove the game from your Steam library?

 

[yourbeliefs]

Nope. They're all still there (The only one that's mine is AA.)

Got an email back stating that there was an error that occurred last time and they'd submit it again. We'll see what happens.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I suppose this is more tangentially related to Batman in general, but apparently there was a Batman movie video game planned to be released along with The Dark Knight, which was to be developed by Pandemic Studios and released by EA Games. Obviously nothing ever materialized, but the story behind it is rather interesting. Had they pulled it off, we may have seen Arkham Knight (or at least something similar) back in 2008. Worth a watch IMO.

 

[yourbeliefs]

WBIE has announced that the Mac and Linux ports of Arkham Knight have been cancelled. At this point I view it more like a mercy killing/euthanasia.

http://www.polygon.com/2016/2/3/10910624/batman-arkham-knight-linux-mac-ports-canceled