Introduction

Comic books might not be a big part of most people’s lives today, even among kids but the impression left behind and the influence of graphic novels to popular culture is undeniable. As a medium that currently serves as a mine from where Hollywood can extract summer blockbuster hits from, it is surprising to see the succession of DC or Marvel video games that were simply unbearably horrible. That is of course until Rocksteady and DC decided to create a video game that is directly based on the a franchise character with DC's guidance rather than as an adaptation of an adaptation of an adaptation.

Batman, perhaps the most recognizable superhero of all-time, took the PC gaming world by storm in 2009 with the release of Batman Arkham Asylum. While gamers fell in-love with the game’s fresh new fighting mechanics, PC gamers equipped with Nvidia GPUs experienced a higher level of gaming that previous games before it can only aspire to.   Advanced destruction, particle and cloth interactive effects delivered by Nvidia’s PhysX technology as well as true 60Hz-per-eye stereoscopic 3D gameplay using 3D Vision technology raised Arkham Asylum’s level of immersion and interaction beyond what people have come to expect from console-to-PC ported games.  

Batman Arkham City is the long awaited sequel to the 2009 original, placing Batman square in the middle of a walled-off section of Gotham city with hundreds of Arkham Asylum inmates.  Unlike the original title, Batman Arkham City is an open world sandbox environment where Batman can freely glide from one building to the next.  Much like Batman Arkham Asylum however, NVIDIA’s PhysX and 3D Vision technologies once again take center stage with improved performance and a significantly prominent level of interactivity.  While Rocksteady is busy working on a DX11 patch, it is the perfect opportunity to take a look at NVIDIA specific enhancements in Batman Arkham City compared to the original Batman Arkham Asylum.