It's been a long time since people like me got excited by Ageia's new PhysX cards, with its tech demo games like Cell Factor, but that doesn't mean that the PhysX technology isn't still important. Granted now all you need is an Nvidia GPU, but if you're part of the green team, you'll get more fancy graphical effects when you pick up Batman: Arkham Origins later this year.

Some of the effects on show are pretty basic stuff, like flickering fire and some floating paper scraps, but the big game changer is the atmospheric fog. It swirls around Batman and his enemies, reacting, as you move through it, or to the dead body you drop to the floor. It also moves around the environment, dropping down from platforms and moving around at the behest of air currents. [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0nGhrE4fs8′]

Other PhysX effects include added snow particles, which really add to the feel of an icy environment. When this is combined with DX11 tessellation, you get footprints in the snow that cast their own shadows internally, looking far more life like.

KitGuru Says: This doesn't look as “next-gen” as some games we've seen trailers for recently, but it looks very pretty indeed and could be one of the last, great looking games of this generation, along with GTA V and Watchdogs. 

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