[360, PS3] Batman: Arkham Asylum

If the lighting doesnt makes shadows dont just blame the light for that, they may have just disabled the shadowmaps for those [common with UE3 though] they still act as real light sources by lighting up areas & objects. Though given how many UE3 games dont even have real lights but just glows its pretty good to see the lights in Batman.

I've seen that RE5 uses baked shadows for almost everything [indoor & outdoor both] but the character still receive real shadows over them, its almost as if they do shadowmapping for objects but erase it from the ground & replace it with baked shadows.

 

RE5 creates shadows for the sunlight, but from what I have seen uptill now, it has NO baked shadows for the indoor environments. just big glows around bulbs. It annoys me as RE4 had great baked shadows to add to the depth of the scene.

And Whats that?

Thats what I am saying, that the lights don't cast shadows. Even KZ2 provides baked shadows, as does every other game, also in ps2 era, to add to the depth of the scene. I don't get ur comment. If a game lacks shadows for the light sources indoors, then I am to comment on the lighting, what else? Lights and shadows complementary, if one is missing, the other is incomplete.

 

Yes,thats true but there are two types of real light sources Shadow casting & non Shadow casting. Non-Shadow casting is basically when they simply disable the shadow calculations but that doesnt means that the light is bad, as its still doing its job of luminating the area & characters near it. Infamous has a lot of lights but many of them are non shadow casting lights, does that means it has bad lighting ?

Batman doesnt has a lot of exciting light effects to see, but what you have in the game, is good.

 

I understand that completely! I am a lighting artist in studios for the past 5 years and understand how lights work in CG and games ! Casting shadow maps is expensive, but when the lights themselves are not dynamic, it makes sense to atleast bake the shadows that they would create to create depth and complete the look.
RE5 and Batman demo have lots of Indoor lights, but most of them have no shadows associated with them. Devs spend so much effort on shaders this gen, that they seem to be overlooking the simple dynamics of light and shadow to create great 3D environments. Thats my complaint, and it also is extended to Insomniac, as far as I am concerned. To me, lighting creates the illusion of depth on a flat canvas, and I had bigger expectations for this generation, especially after upcoming games on the PC, a few years back laid so much emphasis on lighting. But the arrival of consoles has made lighting take a back seat again, especially for the environments.
KZ2 has a very good balance of both the techniques. It used Deferred rendering, which, mind you, allows for a lot of lights on screen , but not lots of shadows. Shadow still have to be created in the convetional way, using shadow maps. To counter that, KZ2 bakes a lot of shadows in the environments to create depth, while the lights are basically non shadow casting(except for muzzle flashes and Key lights).

The fact that baking shadows was effectively used even in the ps2 era, and is being mostly dropped now, makes me bring the point out.

 

I agree, that's why I love the flash light in KZ2 so much, it pretty much cast shadows on almost anything in the environment.

 

Just finished the game.

And wasn't expecting that from a batman game. I'm amazed by the entertainment on all levels in this package. Imo it raised the bar a couple of notches.

 

Great game, but it could have done with more variety in the boss fights. There are a couple of unique ones, but most of them are variations of the same boss.

Bring on the sequel! I want to mug on Two Face and his gangsters! Hopefully it'll add more gadgets and vehicle segments, and add some more options in combat, plus more animations for those sweet sweet counters.

Best superhero game ever. Not only is the game good, it really does seem like you're playing as Batman, not just any other brawler in a Batman costume. They have a good mix of stealth, combat and gadgets and all of them seem authentic to the character.

Now I have to get all of the riddler stuff done so I can unlock the rest of the challenges. I doubt I'll be able to get anywhere near 100% on the achievements, but I think I'll end up with a pretty solid gamerscore on this one.

 

I thought the lighting was decent. Sometimes it takes a few seconds for the specular maps to load in. But I was especially very happy about NO FLICKERING SHADOWS in this game!

There is self shadowing and everything and I never once had to cringe at an ugly looking low res shadow. I've only played the PS3 version so I can't speak for the technique used in the other version.

I think this is the best looking UE3 game I have seen outside the Gears games.

 

I just finished the game last night and on PS3 version too. I still think either the cutscene lighting was too good or the ingame one was too flat in comparison, the difference is too inconsistent for me personally. I agree however the shadows are good, high res and none flickering. Anyway I totally enjoyed it, very satisfying experience overall. I do wish the Killer Croc boss fight could be elaborated or maybe they're saving it for the sequel. Gonna try the challenges now.

 

Finally finished, good game. I think the combat and boss fights wore thin starting around the Poison Ivy fight. I do think the variety in game play picked up at the end due to the new toys, like the zip line. I don't think I will go back for any riddle stuff or challenge rooms, I grew tired of the whole experience in the last stretch.

8/10 - Great story, art, ambiance, etc. Shallow combat and overly simple "investigations". The best parts were the exploration (as limited as they were) and the rooms of armed thugs.

 

The cutscenes are prerendered, so they obviously pushed the numbers quite a bit(resolution, light sources etc).

 

Exactly what I thought, it's somewhat a double edged sword if you ask me.

 

I loved the game, it finally made me realize why people praised and loved Metriod. I never liked Metroid, I would find myself playing it, completing it and still not get what everyone would rave about, after playing Batman, I can see the brilliance of the Metriod series. I guess I just needed a character that I can relate/wrap my mind around with.

I actually enjoyed the back-tracking and clear Riddler puzzles. Especially how they related to the fictional world, not just gmikly repeated items. (ok maybe the joker teeth were). On top of all this it really made you "feel" like batman, hopefully more games can live up to Batman's standards.

 

basically how I feel, dont feel like playing the game again once Im done. Good game still.

 

Apparently Batman sold 2 million copies worldwide its first month. Pretty impressive, especially considered it is, for most intents and purposes, completely single-player.

 

Got a link to that figure? I wonder what their internal expectations were.

 

There's an article at Ars on how some people (including the author of the article) have had their 60GB PS3s die while playing Batman -- has that happened to anyone here?

 

Nope - been playing since day 1, nary a hiccup sans some grief caused by the new dashboard gui - though...that's really just because I hate the font size



jack