PC Version of Batman: Arkham Asylum Offers Significantly Greater Immersion Than Console Counterparts.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 11:08AM 
“This isn’t one of those in-game pre-rendered movies, is it?” As Batman: Arkham Asylum played on the screen, a Game Night attendee demanded answers. I couldn’t fault him for questioning the graphics’ validity. Videogame companies notoriously employ smoke, mirrors, and feature film-quality 3D animation to mislead consumers into buying a product that can, in no way, live up to such a high visual precedent. In truth, it’s my fault I was caught off guard by the question. I should’ve expected the interrogator’s response. I often ask the same exact question (Thanks, Killzone 2!).
Batman doesn’t need in-game movies. The title immerses the player in the Bat-experience without them. The cinematic encounters aren’t observed, like in some “Final” titles, they’re played. Developer Rocksteady shows players this almost immediately during the lengthy introduction of escorting the Joker into the depths of Arkham. As many of us know, this kind of medium interactivity isn’t new.
Cutting to a computer-generated or, heaven forbid, full motion video clip during an interactive game can segment the experience. In the world the player inhabits, he or she can move the protagonist around and interact with various objects and people. The boundaries are known, if only somewhat, here, and the objects are, in a way, tangible. But the world the clip inhabits might be entirely different, and potentially occupied by a similar, but bizarro-ish protagonist who possesses the capability to make decisions contradicting, or slightly off, from those made by the player. We assume they’re the same, because continuity and what games have taught us throughout years tell us, but we really don’t know. Think of it this way, you know the properties of an orange when holding it – the pleasant smell of the citrus flavors, the round and sometimes ovular shape, and the smooth but bumpy texture – but if all you know of an orange is what you’ve seen in a picture, then you can only assume. The power of a first-hand experience must never be underestimated.
Since this is a licensed title, it’s more vital than normal that the player feels like Batman (we all expect certain things from the Dark Knight). Through smart, and extremely well-designed gameplay mechanics, Rocksteady achieves this. Next, it’s up to the visuals to do their part (no sense in creating elaborate mechanics for Batsy Watsy if he looks and moves like a black tin can wearing a cape). Spoiler: The art department proved themselves as capable as the gameplay guys (and gals?). Arkham Asylum can hang with the biggest of visual baddies (not including the great emperor Crysis), in lighting, shadows, and raw pixel count. It’s really a beautiful game, and even better looking on the PC, provided you have the necessary setup.
As I said in my other Arkham Asylum-related article, the game includes added support for NVIDIA’s PhysX technology (”a proprietary realtime physics engine middleware software development kit). Since I possess a capable computer, I figured I’d bite, and see what kind of improvements this flaunted technology offered.
The difference is staggering. As the HardOCP folks say in their review of the title, “… there is absolutely a graphical effects payoff in Batman: Arkham Asylum.”
Read the rest of the article at IPR's Multimedia blog.
Nvidia, PC, PC gaming, Physx, PlaStation 3, Xbox 360, bizarro, cutscene, fmv, immersion, videogames in PC, videogames 