'Batman: Return to Arkham' HD remaster to arrive in July

batmanreturntoarkham.com

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has announced that the HD remaster "Batman: Return to Arkham" will arrive in July. The announcement was made through an extensive trailer.

After a series of leaked reports in in the past months, the game publisher finally released the official trailer for the remastered collection containing two of the most popular video games in the "Batman: Arkham" franchise. It includes "Batman: Arkham Asylum" and "Batman: Arkham City," together with all of the games' DLC packs and the Game of the Year edition bonus content. Both games are developed by Rocksteady Games.

In the 2009-released "Batman: Arkham Asylum," the Caped Crusader is trapped in Arkham City's mental hospital after the facility was held hostage by his mortal enemy, The Joker. Meanwhile, 2011's "Batman: Arkham City" follows the superhero as he fights off The Joker, Two-Face and Penguin in Gotham City's darkest streets.

The HD collection will shift both games from Unreal Engine 3 to Unreal Engine 4 to provide "improved graphics, as well as upgraded models, environments, lighting, effects and shaders" to the games. The upgrade was made possible by Virtuos, the same porting studio that took care of remastering the "Final Fantasy X" and "Heavy Rain" games.

The new collection will allow loyal "Batman: Arkham" fans to experience the game in a new light, while new players can start enjoying the critically acclaimed games with better graphics.

The "Batman: Return to Arkham" HD remastered collection will start selling in stores for a suggested retail price of $49.99/£39.99/€49.99 on July 29.

The collection's release will come one week after the digital release of the R-rated movie titled "Batman: The Killing Joke" starring Mark Hamill as The Joker and Kevin Conroy as Batman. The straight-to-video movie directed by Sam Liu will come out on July 23.