Batman: Arkham City gets stunning visual overhaul

Modders have given a new lease of life to Batman: Arkham City, 11 years on from its original release, with this gorgeous texture pack that improves over a thousand textures in the game.

Batman: Arkham City is beloved, boasting unforgettable performances from Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill and one of the best Batman stories in the business balancing all of its iconic villains against its hero. Rocksteady Studios truly showed us that it knew how to handle a Batman game, therefore cementing its status as an influential piece of media for fans and for fellow developers to be inspired by.

Bit heavy isn't it? Here's what Bru- I mean, Batman gets up to on his days off.

This labour of love comes from a team of two, GPUnity and Neato, and the difference that the mod makes is like night and day. Batman: Arkham City hasn't aged horrendously, actually, and this optimises the visuals to a standard that wouldn't be out of place if it was remastered today. A bang for your buck, you might say, and GPUnity and Neato have released this for free, but appreciates any donations that fans can spare for their efforts.

The mod comes in two varieties - the HD Texture Pack Plus and the HD Texture Pack Lite. Expectedly, the former includes over a thousand shiny new textures for the assets that have been upscaled, retouched, refined and even manually improved in some instances. Lite, on the other hand, prioritises character and user interface upgrades over environmental upgrades.

And there's also an Alternate Textures pack, compatible with the Plus and Lite, that allows you to swap Batman into a black suit with three different capes. I love a dress-up game, me.