15 for 2015: Batman: Arkham Knight

Batman is set to return in 2015 in Arkham Knight, the next game from Rocksteady and the trilogy closer, because as far as they're concerned, 2013's Arkham Origins doesn't count. Arkham Knight has slipped back since it was first announced, but that wasn't unexpected, given the huge scope and scale of project. Will Rocksteady be able to deliver a game that rivals both the exceptionally constructed original and the expansive world of Arkham City? Time will tell, but we really can't wait to find out.

Why? Because Rocksteady has probably created the best license-based game ever in Batman: Arkham Asylum (although Creative Assembly and Sega's Alien: Isolation came close last year), and we're looking forward to seeing if they can pull the same trick for a third time. Arkham City, while perhaps a little bloated in comparison to the refinement found in the original, was still an excellent game, and there's every chance that Arkham Knight will be another decent offering by the studio.

Visually it looks like an absolute treat, a genuine chance for the power of the current-gen machines to really shine. The streets of Gotham are packed with detail, and there's a new level of verticality and traversal that should widen the scope of options during the moment-to-moment encounters with enemies. Producer Dax Ginn had the following to say about the improved setting when we caught up with him at E3 last summer:

"Building up the entirety of Gotham City is a big thing that we really wanted to achieve with Arkham Knight, and that's the thing about building out Gotham. It's such a legendary place you get a sense that the atmosphere and emotion is as important as the buildings in there," Ginn explained.

"You have a building like Wayne Tower - it's this massive skyscraper. In previous games we couldn't really use the horsepower of those platforms to get that kind of vertical reality. With the power of next-gen we can go all the way to the top of these buildings, dive off, glide all the way down, land where we want, get into the Batmobile... it's insane what we can do for next-gen horsepower."

Then there's the big sell. The thing that sets Arkham Knight apart from its predecessors; the aforementioned Batmobile, which is one thing fans have been asking for, and that Rocksteady felt ready to deliver thanks to the additional processing power of Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Bats' car is an integral part of this new outing into Gotham. It can transform from solid tank to speedier drag racer at the tap of a button, and can also be called in to aid during melee combat. It's shaping up to be a genuine game-changer, opening up new gameplay possibilities and introducing new mission types. Vehicular combat layers on top of the already stellar melee combat system, which will return (and hopefully in better shape than it was when we saw it in Arkham Origins, which felt sluggish in comparison to Rocksteady's offerings).

The combat is a means to reach a new foe, the Rocksteady-created and titular Arkham Knight, as well as Scarecrow, who makes a return. "We wanted a villain that could challenge Batman physically in a combat situation and we wanted someone as well to be a commander of this vast military force that's facing down Batman in this final conclusive chapter," Ginn told us of their new villain. We're certainly intrigued and look forward to finding out more.

How will Arkham Knight shape up? Given the additional time afforded to the project thanks to the release of Batman: Arkham Origins, Rocksteady has had plenty of time to fine tune their systems, adding spit and polish as they go. The late-2014 release date was ambitious, and the slip into 2015 wasn't surprise. Indeed, we'd not be overly shocked if the launch crept back even further, but if it doesn't, the June will be an excellent month for fans of the Dark Knight.

The Competition

2015 should end up being a great year for fans of the open-world genre. Most notably there's Just Cause 3 from Avalanche Studios, which is heading to PC, PS4 and Xbox One at some point in the next twelve months (we hope). Also, from the same studio, there's Mad Max, which is also down for a 2015 release.

Crackdown is an Xbox One-exclusive, but it's still something of an unknown quantity, so we're waiting for more details before we start getting too excited in that direction. Another game we're holding back our excitement for is Assassin's Creed: Victory. The new AC game has a London-based setting, and it looks great from what we've glimpsed so far, but after the botched launch of Assassin's Creed: Unity, we're going to remain calm until this one lands.

Zombie lovers, and there's plenty of you out there, have several open-world options coming your way in 2015, including Dying Light, Dead Island 2 and H1Z1 (and SOE's Planetside 2, an open-world shooter, is finally heading to PS4 this year too). Then there's the expansion to Volition's comical-sandbox series, Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, and we've also previously previewed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which is also heading into open-world territory this year. So, potentially a great year, and who knows, we might even get an expansion of some kind for GTAV, which would make for an even better 2015.