By Kieron Gillen on October 28th, 2007 at 2:53 pm.
In short: Crytek have spent so much time thinking about how best they can show Korean gentlemen being throttled, they forgot to remove the design-doc-script thing from the demo files. Oh noes!
Basically, if you want to know all this stuff, you need to head to “C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis SP Demo\Game\Localized” where you’ll find the english.pak file. Open it up with winrar or something. Inside the compiled docs bit you’ll find an enormous amount of 27 (Count ‘em!) pages of plot based gubbins – and new screens – which you can absorb at your leisure and be able to tell people that the cake is a lie, or local equivalent thereof.
Thanks to Thiefsie for the tip off.
28/10/2007 at 17:29 Cargo Cult says:
I think they’ve done a good enough job of spoiling the plot anyway – the whole aliens-and-zero-g-thing could have been interesting if they hadn’t been busy trumpeting about it throughout the game’s development…
Another thing – is Generic Powered Armour Bloke in the screenshot busy headbutting a corrugated iron shack, or being thwacked in the nether-parts by an inexplicably fast-moving version of the aforementioned hut? MEIN GOTT DAS HURTZ etc…
28/10/2007 at 17:33 Watcher95 says:
Do like the audio dialog samples in there.
28/10/2007 at 17:54 weego says:
who would have thought that the Korean guy was dead all along, and turned out to be Kaiser Soze.
28/10/2007 at 18:49 The_B says:
The chickens are actually the evil masterminds eh? Predictable.
28/10/2007 at 19:06 drunkymonkey says:
@Cargo: They would definitely be taking a risk there, not revealing that the game had aliens in it. Interesting for some, yes, but I imagine that there’d be a lot of complaining that the game had taken an unexpected and unwanted turn for the worse. Just look at Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, or the original Far Cry for that matter.
I suppose this is why the element was so trumpeted, because they wanted to make people aware of it before hand. It would have been narratively excellent, I agree, but hell hath no fury like a fanboy scorned.
28/10/2007 at 20:42 Chemix says:
The pic is cropped, but the full version shows that the dude has just ripped open the top of a hut with some NKA inside, though it does look like he could be head bashing in the crop, and yes, I know your observations were probably a joke, and yes they were entertaining. I’m sorry if this comes across the wrong way, I’m just trying to cover all possible mis-interpretations of this post.
28/10/2007 at 20:52 Radiant says:
Why do developers do it?
Lovely out door fights vs well modelled and smart enemies replaced by *spoiler* indoor fights with rushing alien blobs for the last third of the game.
Shotgun whilst back peddling it is then.
29/10/2007 at 00:44 malkav11 says:
I don’t think that people were upset about Far Cry’s trigens because they were an unexpected element of the storyline. I think they were upset about them because they were poorly balanced and not much fun to fight, in stark contrast to the human soldiers.
(Not that I’ve played anywhere near that far into Far Cry, it’s just what I hear about them.)
29/10/2007 at 01:20 feffrey says:
For me FarCry was awesome until you meat the trigens. The Mercs were intelligent and would change tactics when you least expected it.
When the trigens got introduced it was all run and gun and screw tactics. I hope Crysis does not suffer the same fate with the aliens.
29/10/2007 at 01:35 Thiefsie says:
hehe, not exactly the smartest thing to leave inside a pak file ;)
29/10/2007 at 01:38 Thiefsie says:
On a side note, those crysis macho men are pretty weak, I reckon I could throw a chicken further than them without even trying. haha
29/10/2007 at 01:39 Chis says:
FarCry was awesome until you meet… enemies. Then you realise that it’s impossible to play the game with much stealth.
Crysis CAN be played stealthily, although it makes the game very easy even on the hardest difficulty. Still, it’s a LOT more fun than FarCry, if only because – hallelujah – you can save where you want.
29/10/2007 at 01:48 Thiefsie says:
People got around that in Far Cry with the console saving. Criminal that it wasn’t actually implemented via the GUI or shortcut buttons tho!
29/10/2007 at 01:49 Richard says:
Another couple of companies that did something similar.
Sierra, Gabriel Knight 1 demo. Gave you a blow-by-blow account of each day, not entirely ruining every plot twist, but pretty much removing any need to play the game.
Origin, Wing Commander 3. Released a demo disc (I think it was on PCG) which contained the full screenplay. Kinda neat. But it did rather ruin any surprises.
29/10/2007 at 03:16 Radiant says:
Other games that were spoiled early?
Tetris:
They showed you all the blocks in the game on the front of the box.
I don’t think anyone’s ever been completely blown away by twists in an fps’ story [ie the only thing killing Sarge blew away where all the dreams and plans of fanfic writers everywhere].
What they should have stuck in the pak file is whether or not the game is any good.
Do I still have to walk backwards pouring bullets into unrelenting damage sponges?
How is the gameplay different to the trillion other special ability shooters released this year?
Do I get to see any titties?
Real talk.
29/10/2007 at 04:58 Nick says:
The shareware version of Yendorian Tales Chapter 2 on an old PC Gamer disc hasa bug which causes the built in hintbook to unlock fully – this gives you the registration key (a password for a door) thus enabling the full game. That’s a bit similar. Only worse.
29/10/2007 at 07:21 Weighted Companion Cube says:
Thanks for spoiling Tetris, Radiant.
29/10/2007 at 13:26 drunkymonkey says:
“I don’t think anyone’s ever been completely blown away by twists in an fps’ story ”
Bioshock?
30/10/2007 at 02:26 Chemix says:
I second Drunkymonkey’s comment and add Deus Ex, and I’m not talking about the fact that you change teams, that’s to be expected.
30/10/2007 at 08:03 Kismet says:
I’ll refrain from reading it until I’ll have finished the game.
Meanwhile though, what I’d really want to know from people who’ve read the document, is it if it says if Psycho (the marine who’s always bitching about everything, on your left in the introduction) is, in fact, Kurt Russell.
Being on mission with “Snake” Plissken (or Jack Burton) would make way more bearable the whole super marine atmosphere. I don’t know how many “Aww Man” (or “No Man” or “Oh Man” not really sure what’s the guy on the radio is saying) I can sustain before snapping.
30/10/2007 at 22:30 supra says:
what they should have stuck in the pak file is whether or not the game is any good!
06/11/2007 at 18:09 Westie says:
Sounds all a little convenient to me. Are we sure that all this isn’t just another marketing ploy? Especially since the uptake of Vista has been sluggish. I’m sure that it won’t do sales of the game any harm now that many, many more people that haven’t upgraded to Vista have discovered that they can play the game with all the same visual effects. And Xmas is just around the corner….