Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass continues to expand with even more Xbox One games added to the service. Starting today, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s Batman: Return to Arkham, Disney’s Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two! and Double Fine’s Headlander are available for subscribers. On February 28th, Telltale’s The Walking Dead: Season 2 and The Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation will also be available.

Batman: Return to Arkham is arguably the highlight of this month’s launches. It includes remastered versions of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City, complete with all of the downloadable content for both. As for Headlander from Double Fine Productions, it’s a retro-futuristic Metroidvania-type game where you play as a disembodied head. Ripping off robot heads and attaching yours to their bodies is important for success.

Disney’s Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two! was designed by Warren Spector (who’s currently working on System Shock 3). It features Mickey and Oswald as they work to save the Wasteland. Various Disney characters and attractions will be encountered, further adding to the charm- even if the sequel isn’t as good as its predecessor.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to GamingBolt as an organization.

Trevor – Grand Theft Auto V

While later entries on this list might make him seem like a teletubby, Trevor from GTAV is still quite a reprehensible person. A product of circumstances and environment that make Trevor the sociopath he is becomes a huge part of the commentary of the game, and make Trevor one of the more sympathetic examples here, even if we still wouldn’t have him over for dinner.

A whole lot of games on the PS4 Pro don’t necessarily run the way they should- in fact, they often end up running worse than the standard PS4 versions. Thankfully, in all these cases, these games also receive updates to remedy the problem right away.

That has also happened with Batman: Return to Arkham. The Arkham City/Arkham Asylum PS4 remaster collection has received a new update on PS4 Pro, which improves its performance, and also makes the game run more stably, adding some more visual upgrades into the mix at the same time as well. So if you want to play Arkham Asulym and Arkham City, there is no better way to play them right now than simply picking them up on your PS4 Pro.

The Batman Arkham series technically ended with last year’s Arkham Knight and this year’s Arkham VR– developers Rocksteady have stated that they are moving on from the games. That said, there are rumors that Warner Montreal may be developing a new title in the franchise starring Damien Wayne in the lead.

Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City on the PS4 and Xbox One are both running on the Unreal Engine 4 compared to the Unreal Engine 3 implementation on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. This immediately results into better post processing effects such as improved screen space reflections, enhanced lighting and detailed draw distances. In short, few of the technologies that were used in Batman Arkham Knight have been used in this remaster although the latest game ran on a highly modified Unreal Engine 3.

For the purpose of this analysis we will be taking an in-depth look at the PlayStation 4 version of Batman: Return To Arkham and compare it against the PS3 and PC versions of the originals. Let’s begin with Batman Arkham Asylum. Released more than seven years ago, Arkham Asylum has surprisingly aged quite well. Arkham Asylum runs at a native 1080p resolution which immediately puts it ahead of the sub-HD resolution found on last gen consoles. Taking a look at the PC version and it’s clear that the PS4 version gains the upper hand with better lighting, shadow effects, ambient occlusion and parallax occlusion on brick walls.

Further improvements include better rain effects, volumetric and alpha effects along with better texture filtering and improved foliage density in some places. The remaster also improves on LOD over longer draw distances and improved texture resolutions across several levels. In many places, the shadows are missing in the original; however this is no longer the case in the remaster resulting into better atmospheric setting compared to the original. Overall, we are quite pleased with the graphical improvements but we have three major complaints with Arkham Asylum’s remaster. There is a sort of yellow filter and for this reason we prefer the cinematics of the original and Joker looks less detailed in the remaster. Of course, these two are points are quite subjective and may differ from player to player but we prefer the older color pallet.

However, unfortunately, one of the biggest cons of this remaster is the locked 30fps cap on the PS4. It’s quite disappointing that a seven year old title is unable to run at a fluid 60fps in 2016. Granted there might be engine deficiencies and difficulties faced while porting stuff over to current gen hardware, the lack of 60fps is still a bit surprising. Furthermore, there seems to be frame pacing issues with the PS4 version although v-sync remains engaged throughout to prevent any sort of screen tearing.

On the other hand we have Batman Arkham City and unlike Arkham Asylum, it runs with a dynamic horizontal resolution. However the vertical is locked at 1080p which is once again a surprise since this game is half a decade old. On the graphical front the level of improvements are quite similar to what we observed in Arkham Asylum. Arkham City for its time was a fairly modern title so most of the improvements are subtle. Better water effects and character models, improved volumetric and alpha effects are quite prevalent compared to the original.

 However, just like Arkham Asylum on the PS4,  Arkham City has performance issues as well. The game clearly runs at an unlocked frame rate resulting into an inconsistent gameplay experience at times. In all honesty, unlocked frame rate isn’t ideal and we would prefer it be locked at 30 fps…although we are still bamboozled by the lack of 60fps support. Furthermore, Arkham City also seems to struggle in outdoor areas, especially when Batman is gliding over the wide open world.

Overall, we are pretty pleased with the visual updates that Virtuous Games have implemented in both the games although we remain disappointed with the game’s performance issues. Both remasters should have run at 60 fps right out of the box and if that weren’t an option they should have at least made it to run at a locked 30fps. In the end Batman Return To Arkham is a decent remastering effort. The number of technical improvements is vast and if frame pacing and the lack of 60 fps support aren’t a bother for you then it’s very well worth visiting Arkham all over again.

Arguably one of the most ambitious remasters announced this generation so far have been the Batman: Arkham remasters- announced as Batman: Return to Arkham, the remasters redo Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City in Unreal Engine 4, and then package them together neatly into one bundle.

It’s a good collection, and the chance to play two excellent games again would have been greatly appreciated- but the problem was that Return to Arkham had been abruptly delayed earlier this year, with no new release date given. Warner Bros. insisted that the delay was because developer Virtuous needed more time to polish their work and deliver a polished Batman experience, but the abrupt nature, and the lack of any new release window, made people wonder if we were ever actually going to see the collection again.

Well, we are. It’s launching in just over a month. And we have a new comparison trailer showing us just how extensively the games have been redone for you to see below, too. It’s just a pity that they forewent the inclusion of Arkham Origins still.

Warner Bros.’s Batman: Return to Arkham, featuring remasters of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, was originally supposed to release in July for the Xbox One and PS4. However, it was delayed to allow for further polish – no doubt to avoid another Arkham Knight-like launch mess – with no indication of when it would officially arrive.

According to UK retailer Base though. Batman: Return to Arkham will be releasing on November 25th. The retailer has leaked correct release information in the past (like The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Special Edition) and seems in line with rumours stating that the game would arrive by November.

Regardless, take this all with a grain of salt until an official announcement arrives from Warner Bros. Batman: Return to Arkham is being handled by Virtuous Games, the same studio which brought Heavy Rain to the PS4 and Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster to the PS3, PS4 and PS Vita.

Earlier this year, after multiple leaks, Warner Bros. finally confirmed that they would be launching a collection of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, remastered for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The remasters were supposed to be extensive, bringing those classic games to the Unreal Engine 4.

However, just a while back, the collection was unexpectedly delayed ‘indefinitely,’ prompting many to question if the project had not maybe been too ambitious, and if it had not been called off behind the scenes. However, now Eurogamer is reporting that according to multiple sources, Return To Arkham is due out in November- at the earliest. This means that it could be out later too, in turn prompting speculation that whatever caused the delay with the game is a far more far reaching issue than may originally have been suspected.

Warner Bros.’ own official stance, on their part, has not yet changed. In a statement to Eurogamer, they said, “After reviewing the progress of the project, the team at WB Games has decided to delay the release of Batman: Return to Arkham to give the team at Virtuous Games additional time to deliver a polished Batman Arkham game experience.

“We do not have a release date yet and will be sure to communicate that once we are sure the game will be ready. We know this is disappointing news, but we feel the extra time will allow the team to create the best gaming experience for our fans.”

Warner Bros.’ remastered bundle of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City, namely Batman: Return to Arkham, has been delayed from its original July 26th release date.

A representative for the publisher noted on the WB Games forum that the developer in charge of the remaster, Virtuous Games, would required more time for polish. “After reviewing the progress of the project, the team at WB Games has decided to delay the release of Batman: Return to Arkham to give the team at Virtuous Games additional time to deliver a polished Batman Arkham game experience.

“We do not have a release date yet and will be sure to communicate that once we are sure the game will be ready. We know this is disappointing news, but we feel the extra time will allow the team to create the best gaming experience for our fans.”

When will it be out? Your guess is as good as ours but in the meantime, simply revisit Arkham Knight if you want some Batman action.

Warner Bros. has announced that the PS4 and Xbox One will be receiving remasters of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City on July 26th. They will be packaged together as the Batman: Return to Arkham bundle and retail for $50. Just in time for Arkham Knight! Oh wait.

The remasters are being handled by Virtuous, which has been responsible for the PS4 version of Heavy Rain and also worked on Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. It also created assets for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

You can check out the trailer for the bundle below which showcases the upgraded visuals. This isn’t a simple resolution and frame rate bump though – the remasters will be using Unreal Engine 4 as opposed to Unreal Engine 3. It’s a first for the series (Arkham Knight ran on Unreal Engine 3 when it released last year).

What are your thoughts on the Batman: Return to Arkham bundle? Could it come to PC? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

There are way too many leaks these days- so many, that we don’t really get much in the way of surprises anymore. For instance, the Batman: Arkham collection for current generations consoles has been speculated upon for a very long time, and it’s also already been leaked before. And now, it’s leaked again.

The Batman: Return to Arkham collection, as it is apparently going to be called, has been leaked by GameStop Italy, making it the newest piece of evidence in a growing pile that this is indeed a thing. Previously, we’ve had leaks by GameStop and a rating by PEGI.

The Return to Arkham collection will apparently include Arkham Asylum and Arkham City (although for some reason, the underrated Arkham Origins is not going to be a part of the package). It is an excellent chance for fans to play these genre defining adventures on their current consoles, and to complete the Arkham set on one console as well. Hopefully, it is officially announced soon.