Batman: Arkham City Packs Over 40 Hours Of Game Content

More game news heads our way as the E3 conference approaches and this time it's an update on the much anticipated Batman: Arkham City. This follow up to the popular Batman: Arkham Asylum was last revealed to provide up to 8 hours of game play plus 15 hours worth of side-quests. However, a recent interview has revealed that the hours have been bumped way up to over 40 hours of content.

"It takes over 25 hours to complete the main stories in Batman: Arkham City," said game director Sefton Hill in an interview with The Guardian. "To keep players engaged for this length of time, not only do the characters and the story need to progress, but the core mechanics of the game they are playing need to change and adapt as well."

The 15 hours of side quests remains the same making a grand whopping total of 40 hours. Now, everyone plays at their own pace so it's hard to truly measure, but either way, a bump up from an estimated 8 hours to 25 hours is quite significant.

Hill goes on to further explain how the game is similar to the pacing of a TV show, as opposed to a movie:

"In terms of narrative structure, I think games are much more analogous to an episodic TV series than a film. You have, say, 15 hourly episodes to fill, each requiring its own narrative arc but each plugging into an overarching storyline", he explained.

"It requires a lot of planning to make sure that every single hour is consistent with each other, is feeding and driving towards a compelling crescendo, while remaining implicitly self-explanatory so players can pick up and play at any time and know what they are doing."

The game is slated for an October 18th release for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Are you looking forward to this title and now its 40 hours of playtime?

[via CVG]