Hot off the E3 grapevine is news that Crytek’s ultro-graphics shooter Crysis is definitely due a sequel. A proper sequel, that is, and not another Warheadesque expandalone: Crysis 2 will even sport a whole new engine. No further details whatsoever, and certainly no whiff of a screenshot, but hopefully all that stuff’s inbound later today. All we do know: it’s now multi-format. Oh, won’t someone please think of the children, etc. Me, I just hope it’s a better game than the underwhelming first two Cryses. Let’s start the guessing now, though – will Crytek stick to their tried and tested tropical setting, or elect to demonstrate the might of their new Cryengine 3 in a whole new locale? Urban would be fun… The press release, such as it is, is after the jump.
EA PARTNERS AND CRYTEK ANNOUNCE DEAL EXTENSION FOR MULTIPLATFORM DEVELOPMENT OF CRYSIS 2
Next Installment of the Critically-Acclaimed Crysis Franchise will be First Game Built on Crytek’s Multiplatform CryENGINE 3 Technology
Redwood City, Calif. – June 1, 2009 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced today that it has agreed to a deal extension with Crytek GmbH, the award-winning developers of the Crysis® universe, to publish Crysis 2. Renowned for their technical excellence, artistic craftsmanship and commitment to quality, Crytek is building Crysis 2 on their new state-of-the-art multiplatform game development solution CryENGINE®3 for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, and the PC.“The development of Crysis 2 marks a major stepping stone for our studio,” said Cevat Yerli, CEO and President of Crytek. “This is not only the next game in the Crysis franchise, it’s the first title we are developing for consoles and the first title being built on CryENGINE 3. We are excited to have the support of EA Partners again as we work together to make the launch of Crysis 2 a huge event.”“Nothing speaks more to the success of the EA Partners program than when a studio the caliber of Crytek continues to work with us,” said David DeMartini, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA Partners. “Crytek is already one of the elite PC development studios in the world and we are excited to have the opportunity to partner with them in bringing their award-winning technology and gameplay to more platforms and a wider audience with Crysis 2.”
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I hadn’t heard that everybody hated the second half, but when I got out of the totally shit no gravity part and was in a shitty ice land I quit right there and have never looked back. First half was great though.
In all of my attempts to stealth kill the aliens, they always noticed me, so I just deduced that their AI has a much larger *hey what’s that* radius than the human soldiers, and that stealth was mostly useless against them, and decided to shotgun them in the face whenever the opportunity presented it self, which wasn’t often enough, instead the aliens decided to quickly strafe my attacks.
Crysis: Pre-Alien encounter came down to playing effectively as the Predator from Predator, and that in itself is immensely enjoyable. It’s unfortunate though that there is no option to disable the soldiers without killing them, the tranqs strangely last only a minute and they hold on with a mighty grip to their guns while sleeping, and even when you do disarm them (it’s happened maybe, 3 times, in 4 replays) they run for a gun and shoot at you, no matter what. I know loyalty is technically the basis of rank in North Korea, but after I’ve killed half the military force on this island, by my self, ruthlessly hunting down each person, and I’m revealed to be able to turn invisible, throw cars (yeah right, try punching a car with strength, it moves and inch and starts burning, punch again and you die) and absorb thousands of bullets (only 10 at a time without dying), I think the grunts would have a tendency to run, far far away from me, after all, their alternatives are hanging, whipping, firing squad, versus being used as meat shields and projectiles by a black armor coated demon that can smash their skulls in with a good right jab… okay, so maybe it’s about 50/50 as far as pain goes, but… self preservation over reason anyone?
Of course the first posts repeat the kind of rubbish I tried to discourage in the previous Crysis thread…
Anywho, staying on-topic, I’m looking forward to this with some reservations. Hopefully they don’t go the Far Cry 2 route and screw up the controls (and remove leaning – for God’s sake stop taking out the leaning!).
Crysis on Delta difficulty and with Very High settings absolutely blew me away.
It was on Delta that Crysis really came into its own forcing a Predator like approach, and rewarding you with a real feeling of triumph after having cleaned an area of enemies.
Yeah, last 1/3 of the game was not so great… but still it was together with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. the most immersive game in years, and to me these games showcase what makes PC gaming great.
@Eli Just:
You missed out on some good stuff. The Alien ship does go on too long and is naff. But the winter wonderland section doesn’t go on forever. There are some great frantic set pieces when the poop hits the fan and you’ve rejoined your peeps outside the dome.
The end is not like the beginning, it becomes much more run-gun-survive as the Aliens can’t be stealthed. I quite enjoyed the change of pace, but was ready for it to end. The end of game boss was not great though.
I think they nailed the controls for Crysis. It is a joy to play.
And once you’ve learned the nanosuit, it becomes an absolute jape. Bear in mind that it was pitched at the 25-30 year old market, so ideally this would be tech spods (like most of our good selves here) with a bit of dosh for a decent pc, and are quite demanding in term of what they want for their gameplay.
I think it succeeded for what it aimed for, it just was let down by a weak plot and a desire to one up itself every half an hour with NEWNESS! It aimed to be the ‘next’ Half-Life and almost succeeded. I can’t see as much innovation coming from the sequel as there was between HL1 and 2.
Thoroughly enjoyed it, and Warhead. The second level with the village and tanks is sandbox heaven given your meagre weapons. It makes you learn dammit!
Roll on number 2.
Has anyone tried crysis with a xbox 360 controller,i’d say it didn’t feel like,you needed mouse,so it was always in their plans to move to consoles.
Lol @ the tanks.
Hint: There’s certain buildings in the village that are CHOCK-FULL of missile launchers. A little exploration can go a long, long way, y’know.
“Crysis and Far Cry were both almost very good. Hopefully they can now go forth and make something that is genuinely splendid.”
The future is Far Crysis.
“Plus of course the fact that 1 and a half years on no game has come close graphically!”
Killzone 2 is more impressive than Crysis imo, Crysis wins it on vistas (environments, not operating systems :P) but KZ2 is so dense and has such a rock solid asthetic I think it takes it.
Of course I’m one of these art direction > art technical people, so that might be pure bias showing through.
@John1990
As a Games for Windows release i’d expect full Xbox 360 pad support as standard.
It works well, and even if you don’t use the pad, you can put it ’somewhere’ and benefit from the rumble function.
AHEM.
I enjoyed Crysis a lot. People often say it was the latter half that let it down, but I think it was more the middle.
Up to the point where you enter the spaceship I liked the alien build-up, the spaceship itself dragged on too long, and it didn’t help that I managed to lose my way at one point. Then the escort section with Prophet was annoying (as almost all escort sections are) but after that it picked up again and didn’t fall for me until the very end.
I haven’t bought Warhead because it has limited activations but I may buy this next one if it doesn’t.
Underwhelming, really? I thought Crysis and Warhead were two of the best FPS’s of recent years. Graphics I could care less about but the non-linearity and versatility they allowed in gameplay was really awesome. Especially after years of enforced linearity at the hands of games developers who think they know how to craft an amazing scripted sequence that everyone simply must sit through.
To everyone wondering about possible settings for the new game, the tech-demo video for Cryengine 3 has lots of city and sci-fi enviroments, with what looks like properly destructable buildings, and also lots of European type forests, as well as jungle recycled from Crysis – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u85sf_ARiW0
@Vandelay
yes it was the crytek engine and i assure you it did look a lot better, you have to understand that the video was tailered to show that they were using particular techniques to techie types and wasn’t designed to impress your average gamer.
none of the crysis detractors have pointed out a better Single Player FPS that’s came about since.
@rocketman71
alec deletes all comments featuring personal attacks and tbh he’s probably right.
“Hint: There’s certain buildings in the village that are CHOCK-FULL of missile launchers. A little exploration can go a long, long way, y’know.”
Also, beyond that there’s the fact there are other ways to beat the tanks with a little imagination and improvisation. In Crysis’ case giving up because “omg no rockets left” says more about someone’s approach to the game than the game itself.
I found the Aliens less fun than the earlier parts, but I only found it a relatively small drop compared to infamous later-game quality drops like, say, Xen or the worst of the Trigen levels in Farcry, plus it was way further in than half-way, more like three quarters or so considering the last levels are much shorter than most of the earlier ones.
I hope they go with the time-travel type thing that was hinted at in the techdemo for the new Crysis engine, as that would both allow for a lot of gameplay variation as well as a ton of graphics porn.
what time travel thing? The medieval setting was another unanounced game if thats what you mean
Stalking the AI through the jungle while invisible was ace, the rest, not so much. I hope they actually get dinosaurs into the sequel this time.
The first game was incredibly boring. I’d like it, if they fixed that. Maybe hired some creative people onto the design department.
In my experience those that didn’t have much fun in Crysis didn’t seem to put much into it. Played as a standard shooter it will seem average, but utilizing the full potential of the nanosuit opens up many doors to dealing with the situations that develop.
Saying the jungle island environment is tired? Please, three games and you’re done? And not even the entirety of the three games. Guess you just can’t please some people.
Ooh good news. I love both Crysises, even counting alien parts. Actually second in most engaging FPSes after Stalker(s) for me – even if bit too easy (at delta – and I suck at gaming). Waiting for moar.
Imagine time-travel in Crysis, I want to take on a medieval raiding party. Spook the peasants while the knights shout, ‘Show thy face foule deamone!’ when I go invisible.
I really loved Crysis, even the alien interior bit (The layout was confusing, but it had a fantastic sense of otherworldlyness about it).
It’s most definitely the best graphics I’ve seen in a computer game yet, and is absolutely beautiful, bordering on photorealistic at times.
Warhead I’m not so keen on. Firstly because of the limited activations and they way they were only disclosed at the last possible minute – after my pre-order had shipped. It annoyed me so much I made myself a promise never to buy another limited activation game.
Secondly, the much vaunted graphic optimisation essentially boiled down to having masses more pop-in, which spoiled the immersion.
Thirdly, it was a much more linear game, with little of the freedom of the original’s levels.
I did enjoy it, but it’s obvious it didn’t have the time, budget or care of the original.
The second-to-last level in Crysis (the retreat one) was very good, I thought. The helo controls were a little off, but it was worth it for the scene of the one military guy standing against the giant walker by himself. The games as a whole were “ok” in my estimation.
:shrug:
Hm, I really enjoyed Crysis AND Warhead. They were kind of dumb, but fun. They had some decent setpieces and nice level design and so on. I even liked the alien bits of Crysis, although it got really hard… I like the whole “and now we’re losing!” aspect of it, and I hope that if the human race bounces back it’s with something decent and not just some lame deus ex machina.
Actually, I didn’t like ALL of Crysis. The stupid “Magical Boss Battle Gun” and the associated boss battle were really irritating.
I’ll probably go back and play it again in a couple of months when I feel like blowin’ some stuff up. Boom.
Notice how they carefully mention the “Personal Computer platform” last. We now know where we stand. And it’s all because of the pirates… or Micro$oft’s crappy “DX10-needs-Vista Games for Windows” marketing? Or the fact that only Nasa could afford a computer that could actually run Crysis at release date? … No, must be teh pirates!1one
Funny how there’s no footage or screens shown. I’m betting the game looks the same or worse than Warhead and they didn’t want the graphics to be the buzz surrounding the announcement, especially a game that is known almost exclusively for its graphical prowess.
@CryingTheAnnualKingo
Well, it is Crysis. I’m sure no one is complaining about it looking bad.
I liked Crysis just fine, and loved the atmosphere of the alien bits, if not the gameplay. I never did buy Warhead but I’ll grab it bargain bin at some point.
But the same old sacrifices will have to be made for console, which doesn’t mean it will be awful for PCers, but it can’t be as good.
It’s not surprising though. After all the anti-PC vitriol from the devs caused by piracy, I was thinking Crysis 2 would likely be console only.
Crysis underwhelming? Well next to Stalker I consider it pretty much the best FPS I’ve ever played and replayed. Certainly more enjoyable than HL2.
The opening of sections Crysis and Far Cry are among the best (reasonably) open ended fps games I’ve ever played.
Stalking your way across the jungle, moving from location to location, then picking your approach and targets from afar with your binoculars.
If they make another game like that without it turning into an on rails Island of Dr. Moreau/Aliens shooter craptacular they could make a truly amazing game.
I’m honestly shocked they pulled the same trick with Crysis after they got slammed for it with Far Cry.