NVIDIA Shows Off PhysX in Batman: Arkham City

After its release in 2009, Batman: Arkham Asylum gained the reputation of being one of the best superhero games ever created (but to be fair, it shouldn’t have been hard to pull off given most superhero games are not worth the packaging wrapped around them). The game not only had solid graphics and audio, but its gameplay matched, and overall, the experience was as immersive as we could hope any game to be.

Helping that to some extent was the game’s use of both NVIDIA 3D Vision and PhysX. Up until that point, most games that used either or haven’t blown us off our feet, but it was clear from the get-go that Arkham Asylum was to become the showpiece for both technologies.

Batman: Arkham City is now right around the corner, and according to NVIDIA, its PhysX use is going to be even greater than the original. Helping this might be the fact that NVIDIA’s latest generation cards have been tweaked for faster physics computation – so if you want to experience the best the game has to offer, a GT 400 series card or later will be required.

In a video posted to YouTube, NVIDIA helps prove this to some extent by comparing the gameplay with PhysX off on a GeForce 8800 GT (this was chosen as it’s the most popular card in use according to the Steam survey) to a GTX 560 with PhysX on. The differences are as expected, rather stark. Fighting inside a bank with PhysX on shows banknotes flying all around the room due to the action going on, while without PhysX, there’s no such thing. Other examples show falling glass when going through a hallway and sparks flying from some equipment.

If this video is representative of the final game, then NVIDIA might have the best case for its PhysX technology yet. I am not even a fan of superhero movies or games yet I feel like checking this game out just for the physics alone. We’ll find out soon enough if it does improve the game to a large degree though, as it becomes available on November 15 (console gamers can get it now).