Arkham Asylum GOTY with 3D option

By Tom Bramwell Published 4 March, 2010

Out this month, works on normal TVs.

Square Enix has announced plans to release a special Game of the Year Edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum this month, complete with a 3D viewing option that works on regular TVs.

The GOTY Edition is due out on 26th March for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. All three versions get the six extra DLC challenge maps on disc, while the console versions include "TriOviz 3D" support.

"TriOviz 3D is a patented 3D process which adds depth to the game, visible to players wearing the included 3D glasses.

"By leveraging the depth-of-field while maintaining the original gameplay and colour integrity, TriOviz 3D creates a far more immersive gaming experience, allowing console players to dive deeper into the gothic world of Arkham Asylum."

So now you know. Check out our Batman: Arkham Asylum review to see why we thought it was so awesome in the first place.

You can also check out some Game of the Year Edition screenshots elsewhere on the site.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (42) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Eraysor #1 2 years ago

    I finished the game on Monday, was an absolute blast. It was like playing a comic book version of Metroid, only with punching instead of shooting.

  • Dolly #2 2 years ago

    Awesome. Now I can replay that awful last boss in awful faux-3D, through the comfort of awful cardboard glasses.

  • CaptainQuint #3 2 years ago

    Holy Colonel Quaritch! This could be worth another look.

  • Freek #4 2 years ago

    It's going to be one of those shitty red/bleu carboard glasses affairs, isn't it?

  • JonFE #5 2 years ago

    I'll be interested to check this 3D option first hand, however, if it is like the Red/Green glasses 3D implementation, I'll probably get a headache.

    If, on the other hand, Avatar's Real 3D could magically materialize in our homes, I'd be first in line.

  • Boomerang #6 2 years ago

    3D belongs in the cinema.

  • Murton #7 2 years ago

    I skipped this when it came out as I wanted other games around that time more, my friends have kept on recommending it but I've just not gotten round to it, perhaps I'll grab this version instead, even if the 3d is a bit shit it's an option that can be turned off or on depending on preference.

  • Widge #8 2 years ago

    I hope Digital Foundry are going to do a comment on the "goodness" of this...

  • M_of_the_sys #9 2 years ago

    Never seen a 3D film in my life. Do the images actually come out at you?

    From what I remember of Batman AA at the Eurogamer Expo, when putting on the 3D glasses, everything seems to sink away from you rather than come out at you. Am I the only one that saw it like that?

  • MiniAmin #10 2 years ago

    It's nice that the 3D is just an option, instead of something that requires a brand new television. Besides, if it isn't well implemented you can simply remove that option.

    This is a game which definitely warrants a second playthrough, so if the pricing is good it'll be well worth picking up.

  • sneetch #11 2 years ago

    @Freek @JonFE

    "By leveraging the depth-of-field while maintaining the original gameplay and colour integrity, TriOviz 3D creates a far more immersive gaming experience, allowing console players to dive deeper into the gothic world of Arkham Asylum."

    Wouldn't be possible with Red/Green glasses.

  • Eraysor #12 2 years ago

    Also, I thought Avatar in 3D was pointless. Maybe because the film was so bad.

  • GuiltySpark #13 2 years ago

    Sometimes the images come out at you, but not always. Sometimes it just gives the picture a lot more depth, with the "closest" object seemingly being at the point of the cinema screen.

  • buggerlugs75 #14 2 years ago

    m-of-the-sys -

    you had the glasses on backwards :p
    Edited by 1 at 04/03/10 @ 16:11

  • M_of_the_sys #15 2 years ago

    @GuiltySpark

    Yeah that's what I noticed. Rather than giving the game depth, I just found it obstructive.

    @buggerlugs75

    Ha! I was too busy checking out the NVIDIA girls.
    Edited by 1 at 04/03/10 @ 16:12

  • Golgo #16 2 years ago

    3D?! It's the future, I tells ya!!!

  • Lee_Morris #17 2 years ago

    When you say Square has announced plans to release to a GOTY edition, do you really mean you've seen the news on various website that a website from Asia put an advert for up for the game with a pic of the 3d glasses? It doesn't seem like you've received a press release EG.

    Come on fess up.
    Edited by 1 at 04/03/10 @ 16:38

  • apoc_reg #18 2 years ago

    so can i not buy these maps seperately?

    Well that sucks!!

  • DFawkes #19 2 years ago

    I played this in 3D at the EG Expo, thought with the admittedly more expensive NVidea glasses - I really thought it was incredible! I wasn't sold on 3D until I saw it myself, but now I have I'm really looking forward to this, especially given I missed out due on AA to buying other things.

    Not sure how it'll work though, I googled this TriOviz 3D system and it had a lovely logo that says "Say No To Analyph" - <a href="http://games.trioviz.com/">Here if you're interested</a href>.
    Edited by 1 at 04/03/10 @ 16:43

  • Bulbatron #20 2 years ago

    The red and green version of 3-D doesn't work on me because I'm almost blind out of my left eye.

    Slightly off-topic, but does the method used for Avatar require both eyes to be fully functional to work - or is it just a modern version of red and green?

  • patchbox360 #21 2 years ago

    sold

  • Darknight #22 2 years ago

    @ Bulbatron - the new 3D is similar to the old red and green, in that it displays 2 slightly offset images, and the lens on the left eye lets you see one, while the lens on the right lets you see the other. I'd imagine you would have the same problems with "new" 3d as you do with the old red/green glasses.
    Edited by 1 at 04/03/10 @ 17:18

  • kingmong #23 2 years ago

    Yep, you're scuppered. I think those new nvidia glasses are coded to pick up 50% of the frames for each eye, and the screen alternates between the L and R images at 60hrz for each eye.

    That's why they only work on monitors/tvs with 120hrz refresh, which pissed me off.

    Then i realised my laptop isn't up to the task either, so fuck it :)

  • SleepyDeathFred #24 2 years ago

    Is this our reward for buying the game when it actually came out? Having to buy it again for the 3D?

  • JonFE #25 2 years ago

    @sneetch:
    Hopefully that press release will turn out to be accurate :)

    If Digital Foundry's forthcoming report on this is positive, I'd be willing to part with my cash - again!
    Edited by 1 at 04/03/10 @ 18:10

  • Sharzam #26 2 years ago

    Or play the PC version with a choice of 3d options and cheaper. Hell the Live download service had it for £7.49 at one point.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #27 2 years ago

    The red and green version of 3-D doesn't work on me because I'm almost blind out of my left eye.

    If you don't have full binocular vision, then no version of stereoscopic 3D is going to work for you, is it?
    Edited by 1 at 04/03/10 @ 18:23

  • RedPanda #28 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • Shikasama #29 2 years ago

    Your fucking joking. I just bought this today. Cunts.

  • KillerMonkey #30 2 years ago

    Why not release this as a patch or something?

  • LiamK #31 2 years ago

    "ur fucking joking. I just bought this today. Cunts."

    Yes, because releasing a new modified version will cause your current version to catch fire. I seriously don't get the moaning. "This is our reward for buying the game when it came out"? Your reward for buying the game when it came out was to FLIPPING PLAY THE GAME. A slightly modified version coming out later doesn't make your existing version a worse game.

    I mean, if doing that causes you to break out the word "cunts", what can you possibly have in reserve for truely objectionable things, like Piers Morgan?
    Edited by 1 at 04/03/10 @ 20:47

  • prettyboytim #32 2 years ago

    Hmmm: A Triovis patent

    It doesn't need a special TV.
    It uses a pair of green/magenta filters for the glasses.

    Using green / magenta means that when the images for both eyes are combined, a full colour gamut is possible. Also, skin tones show up fairly well for both eyes as you'll get the red and blue components through the magenta filter and the green through the other. This means you won't get the odd effect you get when red/blue glasses try and do colour where people show up a lot darker in one eye than the other. Also, at least one of the filters allows a small percentage of the image from the other eye to seep through at a low enough level that ghosting isn't noticeable but so that it softens the disparity between what the eyes see.

    The rest of the system seems to be a cunning set of algorithms to reduce unpleasant artefacts, including:

    * Adjusting colours that would show up strongly in one eye and only marginally in the other so as to reduce the contrast between the two (presumably at the expense of colour accuracy)
    * Adjusting the camera settings so that the maximum divergence between the images is minimised
    * Blurring areas of high divergence

    According to another source I read (sorry - I've lost the link) it's actually not too bad to watch if you're not wearing the glasses.
    I guess you wouldn't want to play it with the 3d turned on without the glasses, but for other people watching you it wouldn't be too bad.

    It'll be interesting to see how well it works. I'll actually be tempted to trade in my current copy of the game so that I can try out this new one.

  • AaronTurner #33 2 years ago

    I'll be interested to try it out but I can't see how a 3d effect can be good on my 32" tv. I find it weird enough when foreground objects are chopped off at the screen edge in the cinema.
    Edited by 1 at 04/03/10 @ 20:59

  • Gambit1977 #34 2 years ago

    Bulbatron, that must really suck :-(
    But surely, if you're blind in one eye, you don't perceive things in 3 dimensions anyway? Or am I a meringue?

  • Bulbatron #35 2 years ago

    Gambit1977, I said 'ALMOST blind out of my left eye'. If I cover my left eye, I lose a barely perceptible amount of peripheral vision. If I cover my right eye, all I can see is whatever I'm using to cover it, with a sort of vague image from my left eye which is so weak that I can do nothing with it, such as reading or writing or whatever. The image of whatever is covering my right eye and the weak image from my left eye sort of appear simultaneously, merging with one-another - but the covering of my right eye far more dominant. My left eye is more or less useless.

    When I was a toddler they tried to get my left eye to work by making me wear a patch over my right eye, but being a toddler I didn't understand why they kept on blinding me and so I just pulled it off.

    But back on-topic. Arkham Asylum was probably the best game of last year in my opinion.
    Edited by 1 at 04/03/10 @ 22:40

  • Shikasama #36 2 years ago

    Liam - Being a genuine Geordie I reserve the right to break out a cunt whenever I please.

    If you can't see why I would wish to convey displeasure at what happened then I'm not qualified enough to explain it ;)

  • callum9999 #37 2 years ago

    Why can't the people who seem to hate that other people enjoy 3D just shup up and carry on playing their normal games, leaving whoever wants to play in 3D to do so in peace? It's not as if you are being forced to play it in 3D or are somehow missing out because of it.

  • Stepharneo #38 2 years ago

    This should be free for all those people (me) who bought that crappy batarang...by which I am of course referring to the CE

    Liam K, you've clearly never owned an Ipod or a mobile phone, when new versions of these things come out, it certainly does make yours more shit. I wouldn't even mind if this was released as DLC that I have to pay (a small sum) for, but I'm not going to sell my CE to buy a GOTY that's madness. I'd venture as far to say that they'd have to put me in Arkham if I were to do such a thing (I hate myself).
    Edited by 1 at 05/03/10 @ 02:21

  • metalmike25 #39 2 years ago

    @Bulbatron

    I'm nearly blind in my left eye too! Went to see Avatar and it didn't really work for me :( You still need to wear the glasses though or the image is really bad. Hope 3-d fails for purely selfish reasons, not really hope it's good for you lucky two eyed bastards!

  • funkateer #40 2 years ago

    "It doesn't need a special TV.
    It uses a pair of green/magenta filters for the glasses."
    Ah, so it *is* a kind of anaglyph then. Except using green/magenta instead of red/cyan or amber/purple (ColorCode).

    "Using green / magenta means that when the images for both eyes are combined, a full colour gamut is possible. "
    Well, yes and no. Yes: You can produce full colour (just like full colour anaglyph using red/cyan or ColorCode), but NO: Some colours can't be displayed in 3D, like green or blue.

    "This means you won't get the odd effect you get when red/blue glasses try and do colour where people show up a lot darker in one eye than the other"
    No, that's simply not true. Green will be bright on one eye, and dark on the other. Again, just like other anaglyph methods.

    "Also, at least one of the filters allows a small percentage of the image from the other eye to seep through at a low enough level that ghosting isn't noticeable but so that it softens the disparity between what the eyes see. "
    But ghosting is *caused* by the effect of the image for one eye seeping to the other eye.

    My take on this is that if TriOviz indeed uses glasses with colour filters, then it simply *IS* another anaglyph method that does some attempts to minimize the negative effects typical for anaglyph imaging.
    In that sense, it sounds VERY similar to ColorCode.

  • X3Entente #41 2 years ago

    can someone with technical knowledge tell me whether or not this is the sort of thing that can simply be patched into the pc version? I played through it once on hard difficulty, had a blast, collected all the riddler trophies, but was so exhausted by the end ive never gone back to it. This is the kind of thing that would make me fire it up again

  • jambo74 #42 2 years ago

    Sigh - another non reward for the loyal day 1 gamer