Crytek has this morning released a new video trailer and a load of new screens of this year’s most important PC title, its EA-published FPS Crysis.
Crysis cover art adorns the latest (April 2006) issue of Edge magazine, which, whilst you may think ‘Yeah, and?’, well, bear in mind that the last PC title to score the illustrious Edge cover was Half-Life 2, which puts into perspective how important this PC title is shaping up to be.
Just check out the trailers, linked below, and look at these screens and weep a few tears of anticipatory joy. The video shows off some of Crytek’s proprietary CryEngine 2’s awesome technology, including Volumetric cloud formations that are illuminated in real-time and allow soft fly-throughs; real-time Ambient Maps with implementation of indirect lighting that approximates ambient light intensity; a leak and bleeding-free implementation of Depth of Field supporting focus changes; high quality “Video Realism” Motion Blur of the camera, as well as any object on screen; and Soft Shadows that are pixel accurate and soft according to the sunlight diffusion.
High res 1280x720
Quicktime (50MB)
Windows Media (62MB)
Medium res 640x360
Quicktime (16MB)
Windows Media (10MB)
More simply put, as the Edge piece points out: “Every object in Crysis will cast a shadow… everything will interact, and everything will exist and adapt in realtime, from weather and light cycles to vegetation.” So, with much, much more to come, just watch the trailer and see for yourself what all PC Gamers will be playing this winter (we hope, should they get it out on schedule).
The storyline in Crysis is as follows:
All of this is why Crysis is most probably the most important PC title of the year. We won’t give away too much more of the game’s plot right now, suffice to say that the development philosophy at Crytek is refreshingly open to something quite unique – life outside of gaming! As Crytek’s founder Cevat Yerli outlines in Edge: “There’s a need to understand the life outside – that of movies, books, current affairs and television. If you look at people who are only experienced at playing games – games which are iterations of iterations – they will only ever bring further iterations.” Wise words, mate!
EA will be picking up the publishing duties on Crysis, as it seems Crytek have had enough of their dalliance with Ubisoft (publishers of Far Cry), as Yerli makes clear to Edge: “…certain things happened during the development of Far Cry…which made us think they [Ubisoft] weren’t the partner for us… There are certain things like being out of stock for a prolonged period that simply shouldn’t happen. For the first month, Far Cry was constantly out of stock.”
Ah well, bad luck Ubi. It seems EA may well have snagged the next Half-Life 2.
Crysis cover art adorns the latest (April 2006) issue of Edge magazine, which, whilst you may think ‘Yeah, and?’, well, bear in mind that the last PC title to score the illustrious Edge cover was Half-Life 2, which puts into perspective how important this PC title is shaping up to be.
Just check out the trailers, linked below, and look at these screens and weep a few tears of anticipatory joy. The video shows off some of Crytek’s proprietary CryEngine 2’s awesome technology, including Volumetric cloud formations that are illuminated in real-time and allow soft fly-throughs; real-time Ambient Maps with implementation of indirect lighting that approximates ambient light intensity; a leak and bleeding-free implementation of Depth of Field supporting focus changes; high quality “Video Realism” Motion Blur of the camera, as well as any object on screen; and Soft Shadows that are pixel accurate and soft according to the sunlight diffusion.
High res 1280x720
Quicktime (50MB)
Windows Media (62MB)
Medium res 640x360
Quicktime (16MB)
Windows Media (10MB)
More simply put, as the Edge piece points out: “Every object in Crysis will cast a shadow… everything will interact, and everything will exist and adapt in realtime, from weather and light cycles to vegetation.” So, with much, much more to come, just watch the trailer and see for yourself what all PC Gamers will be playing this winter (we hope, should they get it out on schedule).
The storyline in Crysis is as follows:
Earth, 2019: A colossal asteroid crashes down to Earth.
The North Korean Government quickly seals off the island chain, claiming the mysteries of the asteroid for themselves. The United States responds by dispatching an elite team of Delta Force Operators to recon the situation and report back to the Pentagon. Amid rising tensions between the US and North Koreans, the asteroid suddenly bursts open, revealing a massive, 2km high alien ship. The ship generates an immense force sphere, freezing a vast portion of the island and drastically altering the global weather system. The invasion of Earth has begun.
The two rival nations unite to stop the aliens and save mankind. The newly formed alliance fights epic battles against the marauding Aliens. With hope rapidly fading, the player must lead a crack squad through lush tropical jungle, harsh frozen landscapes, and finally into the heart of the alien ship itself for the ultimate Zero G encounter with the aliens.
The North Korean Government quickly seals off the island chain, claiming the mysteries of the asteroid for themselves. The United States responds by dispatching an elite team of Delta Force Operators to recon the situation and report back to the Pentagon. Amid rising tensions between the US and North Koreans, the asteroid suddenly bursts open, revealing a massive, 2km high alien ship. The ship generates an immense force sphere, freezing a vast portion of the island and drastically altering the global weather system. The invasion of Earth has begun.
The two rival nations unite to stop the aliens and save mankind. The newly formed alliance fights epic battles against the marauding Aliens. With hope rapidly fading, the player must lead a crack squad through lush tropical jungle, harsh frozen landscapes, and finally into the heart of the alien ship itself for the ultimate Zero G encounter with the aliens.
All of this is why Crysis is most probably the most important PC title of the year. We won’t give away too much more of the game’s plot right now, suffice to say that the development philosophy at Crytek is refreshingly open to something quite unique – life outside of gaming! As Crytek’s founder Cevat Yerli outlines in Edge: “There’s a need to understand the life outside – that of movies, books, current affairs and television. If you look at people who are only experienced at playing games – games which are iterations of iterations – they will only ever bring further iterations.” Wise words, mate!
EA will be picking up the publishing duties on Crysis, as it seems Crytek have had enough of their dalliance with Ubisoft (publishers of Far Cry), as Yerli makes clear to Edge: “…certain things happened during the development of Far Cry…which made us think they [Ubisoft] weren’t the partner for us… There are certain things like being out of stock for a prolonged period that simply shouldn’t happen. For the first month, Far Cry was constantly out of stock.”
Ah well, bad luck Ubi. It seems EA may well have snagged the next Half-Life 2.
Companies:
Crytek Electronic Arts Ubisoft
Games: Crysis Far Cry Far Cry Instincts Evolution Far Cry Instincts: Predator
Games: Crysis Far Cry Far Cry Instincts Evolution Far Cry Instincts: Predator
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Comments
ozfunghi 29 Mar 2006 18:16
1/9
Ok,
I'm wondering what PC will be able to run that game.
I'm wondering what PC will be able to run that game.
Joji 29 Mar 2006 22:37
2/9
Looks lovely and I hope Crytec will pull off a good game too.
One problem though is the PC's obsession with graphics, on consoles this is bad enough. To make a good pc game you don't have to have it look ike a movie. Where will the boundaries of game and real life begin and end?
I'm happy for them but concentrate on the games, Crytec.
One problem though is the PC's obsession with graphics, on consoles this is bad enough. To make a good pc game you don't have to have it look ike a movie. Where will the boundaries of game and real life begin and end?
I'm happy for them but concentrate on the games, Crytec.
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vault 13 29 Mar 2006 23:59
3/9
Joji wrote:
Looks lovely and I hope Crytec will pull off a good game too.
One problem though is the PC's obsession with graphics, on consoles this is bad enough. To make a good pc game you don't have to have it look ike a movie. Where will the boundaries of game and real life begin and end?
I'm happy for them but concentrate on the games, Crytec.
One problem though is the PC's obsession with graphics, on consoles this is bad enough. To make a good pc game you don't have to have it look ike a movie. Where will the boundaries of game and real life begin and end?
I'm happy for them but concentrate on the games, Crytec.
If graphics weren't important, we'd all still be playing Nintendo. So don't shove the whole graphics don't mean much if the gameplay is good. Just try and count how many games on magazine, online, and journalists' top 10 lists or even top 100 lists have average or sub par graphics. Graphics are part of what make these games so memorable.
I do agree that some companies do obsess over graphics and tend to forget gameplay (I'm looking at you Doom 3), but they do matter, alot!
config 30 Mar 2006 09:50
4/9
ozfunghi wrote:
Ok,
I'm wondering what PC will be able to run that game.
I'm wondering what PC will be able to run that game.
Have no idea - couldn't find anything about it on the Crytek site. I'd imagine that for "everything on", an ATi X1900.
Worst of all, I'll be it'll require DirectX10, i.e. Windows Vista (ick) to run it at it's best.
king skins 30 Mar 2006 11:50
5/9
config wrote:
ozfunghi wrote:
Ok,
I'm wondering what PC will be able to run that game.
I'm wondering what PC will be able to run that game.
Have no idea - couldn't find anything about it on the Crytek site. I'd imagine that for "everything on", an ATi X1900.
Worst of all, I'll be it'll require DirectX10, i.e. Windows Vista (ick) to run it at it's best.
So that will mean the earliest it will be out is 2007, I dont think the consumer version is out until early 2007 with the business version out in November.
Edit: Windows Vista
vault 13 30 Mar 2006 18:03
6/9
Well we all know that we're not gonna be paying for Windows Vista, so we can knock that $200 out right there. Then we can just use the profits from when we sell our ATi X800 XT graphics card with 256 MB of GDDR3 and 16 pipelines and 450 MHz clock speed to absorb the X1900. Oh wait? You guys don't have one of those? Damn...
thane_jaw 30 Mar 2006 18:17
7/9
Joji wrote:
One problem though is the PC's obsession with graphics, on consoles this is bad enough.
which is kinda ironic because graphics whores on the pc get super duper looking games whilst the consoles generally trail behind a bit.
The demo looks fantastic, I love the way the vegetation is interactive - its approaching the quasi-perfect realism we should expect from games.
config 31 Mar 2006 08:41
8/9
I feel we're pretty much at a point where developers need to hold off thorbbing over graphical advances and concentrate on the NPC AI.
Imagine you're in that jungle, playing single player. You're having trouble spotting the enemy NPCs due to them wearing camo and not moving.
However, s**tty AI would result in a shower of in hot lead because NPCs are able to spot you whether you're all camo'd up, prone and motionless in dense jungle shadow, or wearing hot pink overalls and dancing under their noses, illuminated with black lights.
In the multi-core future that is 360 and PS3, I would love to see least one 360 PPC, or 3 Cell SPUs devoted to NPC AI.
Imagine you're in that jungle, playing single player. You're having trouble spotting the enemy NPCs due to them wearing camo and not moving.
However, s**tty AI would result in a shower of in hot lead because NPCs are able to spot you whether you're all camo'd up, prone and motionless in dense jungle shadow, or wearing hot pink overalls and dancing under their noses, illuminated with black lights.
In the multi-core future that is 360 and PS3, I would love to see least one 360 PPC, or 3 Cell SPUs devoted to NPC AI.
king skins 31 Mar 2006 09:43
9/9
config wrote:
I feel we're pretty much at a point where developers need to hold off thorbbing over graphical advances and concentrate on the NPC AI.
Imagine you're in that jungle, playing single player. You're having trouble spotting the enemy NPCs due to them wearing camo and not moving.
However, s**tty AI would result in a shower of in hot lead because NPCs are able to spot you whether you're all camo'd up, prone and motionless in dense jungle shadow, or wearing hot pink overalls and dancing under their noses, illuminated with black lights.
In the multi-core future that is 360 and PS3, I would love to see least one 360 PPC, or 3 Cell SPUs devoted to NPC AI.
Imagine you're in that jungle, playing single player. You're having trouble spotting the enemy NPCs due to them wearing camo and not moving.
However, s**tty AI would result in a shower of in hot lead because NPCs are able to spot you whether you're all camo'd up, prone and motionless in dense jungle shadow, or wearing hot pink overalls and dancing under their noses, illuminated with black lights.
In the multi-core future that is 360 and PS3, I would love to see least one 360 PPC, or 3 Cell SPUs devoted to NPC AI.
Completely agree with you there. Its so annoy when there are 4 guys standing around and you pop 3 of them in the head and the one facing the other way doesn't even notice his 3 biddies have had there heads blown off. Or they become so damned predictable that you know exactly what they are going to do next :(
Game AI is s**t. I especially hate the ones that cheat. Total War games are good, but on the harder levels they just cheat and build units and cities far to quickly. I stop playing what thing like that happen, its just unfair.