8. Batman: Arkham Knight (October 14)
The Batman: Arkham series has been one of the jewels in the crown of the past gaming generation: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City were widely acclaimed for bringing Batman together in a style that combined the grit of Christopher Nolan's films with the heightened reality of the comic books. Last year's Arkham Origins may not have been quite as good, though that blame can largely be squared at the fact that Rocksteady Studios were busy working on Arkham Knight, and so gave the prequel duties to Warner Bros. Games Montréal instead. From the brilliant CGI trailer we've seen so far, this looks to be every bit the epic finale to the Arkham saga that Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises was. Scarecrow has returned to Gotham, and intends to unite Bats' rogues gallery against him for one last stand to kill him off. Still, the most exciting addition is the promise of the Batmobile as a driveable vehicle, something which was requested and omitted in all previous titles. Journalists able to see a demo of the game have commented on how Batman is able to move faster and fly further than ever before, seemingly in an effort to make him as easy to use as possible. The versatility of the Batmobile has also been widely praised as adding even more variety to the gameplay.
Will It Deliver? We have little reason to doubt Rocksteady: this should be every bit the amazing final chapter that their Batman deserves.
