New Batman: Arkham Knight Details Revealed

All the latest on Rocksteady's series finale including its narrative, gameplay and pre-order DLC!
Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment and the US unofficial publication Game Informer have today revealed a substantial range of new details on Rocksteady Studios' latest superhero video game, Batman: Arkham Knight. Announced yesterday, the third instalment in the developers' trilogy of comic-book adaptations will take place a year after the events of Arkham City, with the Dark Knight bringing his iconic Batmobile to Gotham City as he prepares for his final battle.

There's a lot to get through today, so with the introductory pleasantries done and dusted, here's our full round-up of everything you need to know about this surefire Game of the Year 2014 contender (courtesy of CVG.co.uk and NeoGAF):

• Gotham City's structure and layout has undergone a refresh to allow for the sizable Batmobile vehicle and other abandoned cars on the roadside.
• Arkham Knight is "a real, genuine next-gen game" that will not feature multiplayer due to Rocksteady's aiming to provide "the best single-player experience it can".
• The game's title refers not to everyone's favourite Caped Crusader, but a "completely new and original" villain crafted by DC Entertainment's Geoff Johns (their Chief Creative Officer), who Batman must "go head to head with in lots of different ways".
• Kevin Conroy, Tara Strong, Nolan North, Wally Wingert and Troy Baker will each reprise their roles as Batman, Harley Quinn, Penguin, the Riddler and Two-Face respectively- we bet WB Montreal are feeling the burn now, since they elected to ditch Asylum and City's cast for a younger bunch of actors, only for their approach to backfire and land Origins with a heap of 5/10 and 6/10 scores.
• The upgraded suit depicted in yesterday's teaser trailer will not be the suit that Batman starts with, but instead will act as a central plot point when Bruce Wayne realises that he needs upgraded firepower.
• Arkham Knight's open-world is based in central Gotham, a region which is divided into three zones and spans a playing space which is five times bigger than Arkham City.
• Once again, the developers are prioritising the open-world's density over its size, a tact which worked wonders in both Asylum and City.
• Joker is still definitely dead, and Gotham's crime rate is beginning to fall as a result. Nevertheless, Scarecrow commences a campaign of terror by planting fear toxin bombs across the city, prompting the majority of its population to evacuate as he rallies an army of Batman's greatest adversaries to lead an all-out assault on the Dark Knight and everything he holds dear, with the ultimate aim being to kill him now that it seems as if Bats is willing to take lives such as the Joker's to achieve justice.
• Four/five-times the number of thugs in Arkham City will litter the streets of Gotham this time around, and riots including more than 50 goons can break out as the henchmen topple vehicles, break into abandoned stores and generally cause city-wide havoc.
• Oracle will return, this time in a physical role, with Bats being able to visit her hide-out where she resides despite Gordon's belief that she should be and has evacuated Gotham along with the rest of its citizens.
• Not only can Gotham's watchful guardian now utilise gadgets mid-flight, he'll even be able to spring out from the Batmobile and quickly glide through shop windows to engage in dangerous confrontations with goons, all of whom can now grapple the protagonist as opposed to just Titan-powered thugs as was the case in Asylum and City.
• "Fear Takedowns" involve stealth-combos of multiple foes who are close to another and have yet to spot Bats, though as a result, the number of enemies and their AI competence in stealth encounters will increase substantially here.
• Riddler quests will not be limited to ground- and flight-based tasks in Knight- Batmobile race tracks and stunt challenges will come into play too! Better yet, even if he is just a part of an ongoing secondary campaign, the Riddler has active plans for Gotham rather than just testing its hero.
• No word has landed as of yet as to whether Robin, Nightwing or any other superheroes from DC comic-book lore will feature, but given the former's cameo in City, we'll certainly be expecting a shock appearance or two.
• Anyone who pre-orders Batman: Arkham Knight will be able to download a DLC pack wherein they can play as Harley Quinn in four exclusive challenge maps (thankfully, the deal is available in all retailers rather than being limited to GAME or Amazon).
• Rocksteady are already hard at work on their next project behind-the-scenes, and "it's most definitely not Batman related"...

Batman: Arkham Knight crashes onto PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC this October 17th (UK).