Spotlight On: Batman: Arkham Asylum PC (With PhysX)

By AndrewP, GameSpotPosted Sep 1, 2009 4:52 pm PT

We just had a chance to look at the PC version of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the recently released console game starring the caped crusader himself. While the console version of the game has a lot to offer, it seems like the PC version will have even more, especially if you're running Nvidia...

We just had a chance to look at the PC version of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the recently released console game starring the caped crusader himself. While the console version of the game has a lot to offer, it seems like the PC version will have even more, especially if you're running Nvidia hardware. Be advised that this story may contain spoilers.


Get ready for explosive special effects in the PC version of Batman: Arkham Asylum.

The demonstration we watched took place on a machine with video cards set up in SLI. While users with lower-end setups will be able to enjoy some of the higher-end graphical effects, Nvidia suggests that the best way to enjoy all the graphical bells and whistles, particularly the game's implementation of PhysX, is to have an SLI setup with one card rendering graphics and the other set to handle the in-game physics. To have the best experience, the hardware manufacturer also recommends you use its handy-dandy 3D vision goggles, which have additional depth-of-field and out-of-screen effects similar to other games that support it, like Resident Evil 5.

We sat through a demonstration of some of the earlier levels in the game, which showed the way that the PhysX rendering will enhance all particle effects, while 3D vision will make them pop out of the screen. Batman looks good beating the stuffing out of thugs, but when the time comes to pry a grille out of a wall, the bolts will pop out of the screen, and the cobwebs in the air vent will sway procedurally to and fro. Batman uses his grapnel to vault up onto gargoyles in the shadows, and bits of stone and rubble go bouncing out of the walls each time the hook hits home.


Batman, his enhanced volumetric fog, and all his PC-exclusive special effects will ship out on September 15.

The physics rendering provides a lot of subtle visual effects, but there are also parts of the game where they're used to great effect. At one point, Batman rescues a team of Arkham therapists who have been gassed by the Scarecrow, who appears in the game as a gaunt figure with glowing eyes and syringes for fingers. It soon becomes clear that Batman has also been gassed as he begins to hallucinate about a dead Commissioner Gordon, the corpses of his parents returning to cuss him out, and an eventual attack by a giant-sized Scarecrow. This last encounter takes place in a hallucination-enhanced version of the asylum's morgue, where the walls and ceiling and floor have been all but torn away, and the room floats in midair. As regular-sized Batman, you need to sneak around the shattered room without attracting your enemy's attention to get to a bat-signal flood light and shine it on him to banish him, constantly staying on the move by hopping across floating floor fragments to avoid his gaze. In the meantime, surgical instruments and dozens of wall tiles swirl dramatically in the air as the gigantic Scarecrow peers over the fragments of the wall trying to hunt you down. The effect of the floating debris is pretty spectacular, and it's a shame it'll be exclusive to the PC version, which is scheduled for release on September 15.

91 Comments

  • big_mr_a

    Posted Dec 6, 2009 7:43 am PT

    the game of the year

  • bradygames2009

    Posted Sep 23, 2009 11:39 am PT

    Check out www.eddienaston.com!

  • olidragon

    Posted Sep 19, 2009 2:59 am PT

    will this run on x1950gt?
    ofc not on high settings but on 720 with mid/low-settings or something?
    rest of my can handle the majority of games at highest settings (borrowed a 280 once)

  • melisa06

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 4:59 pm PT

    Very cool thank you very much..
    http://www.gelsesli.com/

  • melisa06

    Posted Sep 15, 2009 7:55 pm PT

    Very cool thank you..
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  • Omislash1234

    Posted Sep 13, 2009 4:06 am PT

    I got this on the ps3, but recently played the demo on my PC 3870 ati. It looks amazing. Now I have to get the PC game when it comes out.

  • jvsexy

    Posted Sep 10, 2009 3:10 am PT

    @xts3 totally agree with you. alwz remember that ALL games including console games since the very first game ever released years ago is designed & programmed on a PC !!!!!

    PC will always rule...PC is the KING...now you guys decide who is the queen & jack ?? cheeers

  • grim_reaper_000

    Posted Sep 9, 2009 2:21 am PT

    will it run great on gts 250

  • xts3

    Posted Sep 8, 2009 1:08 am PT

    @seepyou

    " The idea that something exists to serve only the elite top percent is so wrong on so many levels but I'll just say this: anything that marginalizes itself will find that it has choked its own life. Or does anyone think that businessmen will keep feeding PC gaming with quality titles if it ends up only on a 5% market share?"

    Sorry but game companies adding special effects to PC games has nothing to do with being elitist or marginilizing their game since they research these kinds of things before blowing millions of dollars on game development. Game developers are usually game enthusiasts themselves and consoles are computationally limited. PC's by their nature are always ahead of the consoles, in fact ALL modern consoles only have the graphics power they do thanks to PC 3D gaming which ushered in 3D accelerators you all now use (nvidia, and ati), in the early days 3Dfx, nvidia were head to head, 3dfx made a bunch of bad business decisions and went under and Nviida scooped up their engineers and IP. Xbox 1 - Nvidia graphics
    Gamecube - ATI graphics
    Xbox 360 - ATI
    PS3 - Nvidia
    Wii - ATI

    Notice how the last 2 generations of consoles have been using modern 3D chips poached from the PC gaming graphics cards, which is essentially what all modern consoles are - cpu + pc gaming graphics chip in it.

    SF4 PC blows away all other versions. Be a gamer not a platform fanboy. It's about the games not the platform they are released on.

  • Spl1nt3r_C3ll

    Posted Sep 6, 2009 1:52 pm PT

    Wow, a game that will utilise my 3-way setup with 3d glasses.. I can't wait ! I can understand the frustration of those with powerpc's. What with games being "dumbed down" for console compatibility. Put it this way, your setup right now will last longer than previous setups and games will have to be better optimised for this generation to get the best out of the current hardware.

  • lordmelvern

    Posted Sep 6, 2009 9:33 am PT

    will it run fine on a gtx260 no sli on full with physx

  • xconbud

    Posted Sep 6, 2009 8:05 am PT

    I bought this for ps3 and will have it on pc also.my only gripe is nvidia trying to monopolize the market with there physx bs...don't get me wrong its pretty and all but dam me and my ati 4850 gets no love...i thought i wouldnt notice a difference but after watchin some youtube..I did.Lets go ATI..or this will be my last ati

  • shadowblade34

    Posted Sep 6, 2009 2:18 am PT

    Will an ATI Radeon 4850 be good enough?

  • Killer_73

    Posted Sep 4, 2009 7:40 pm PT

    people with gtx 295 will run it extremely no nee for SLI

  • zanelli

    Posted Sep 4, 2009 4:18 pm PT

    @crz_mofo Maybe not, my 8800gtx seemed to be able to run Physx in alot of other games with the graphics pretty much maxed. So we'll see.

  • seepyou

    Posted Sep 4, 2009 10:24 am PT

    @Brewer74 The idea that something exists to serve only the elite top percent is so wrong on so many levels but I'll just say this: anything that marginalizes itself will find that it has choked its own life. Or does anyone think that businessmen will keep feeding PC gaming with quality titles if it ends up only on a 5% market share?

  • crz_mofo

    Posted Sep 4, 2009 1:51 am PT

    gamer082009, unless you have a second nvidia card for Physx processing you have no advantage over similar ati products...

  • Kleeyook

    Posted Sep 4, 2009 12:18 am PT

    I wish I had gaming PC! Not this craptop!

  • Brewer74

    Posted Sep 3, 2009 11:31 pm PT

    @seepyou Mate, you have missed the whole point of PC gaming. It exsists for the enthusiast gamer, not a casual gamer and the majority of mid-range PC's out there. I have a beast setup, and if a company were to dumb down the graphics so it can run on mid/low spec PC's, I would not be happy, as would most of the other proper PC gamers out there. The PC is king because of games like this and Crysis, the consoles physically cannot match the power, resolution etc. Maybe you should just run it at a lower resolution anyway, make it look like a console ans would run on a modest PC.

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