By Jim Rossignol on August 20th, 2009 at 6:28 pm.
The Crysis 2 teaser site is up, and it’s quite an entertaining idea: it’s a brochure site for the Nanosuit 2, the next version of the powered armour worn by the super-soldiers of the original game. At the time of Crysis I felt as if the Nanosuit was the best idea, with its constraints actually being a little too tight on the player and hampering the hilarity of carrying opponents around by the throat. Hopefully this time we’ll see less limits on super-soldier action, and a more over-the-top deliver from the super-punching, super-jumping, cloaking death-armour. Anyway, there’s nothing of the game to be see yet, but the PDF leaflet detailing the capabilities of the new suit is fun. It possibly gives away some features of the game, too: “with Crynet’s optional Necro-Organic Metabolites plug-in (NOM), the N2 can even extract usable energy from battlefield carrion.” Hmm. Icky.
20/08/2009 at 18:31 The Colonel says:
Will there be a brand new CryEngine for this one?
20/08/2009 at 18:32 Jim Rossignol says:
I believe so, there were some tech demos from Siggraph.
20/08/2009 at 18:33 Inigo says:
OM NOM NOM NOM
20/08/2009 at 18:35 Howard says:
Isn’t the is just going to be Crysis:360 though? CryEngine 3 has definitely been announced but it is actually a downgrade of Number 2 so that it functions on what 360 laughingly calls a graphics card.
20/08/2009 at 18:36 Jim Rossignol says:
Well we don’t know any details of that Crysis 2 will support on PC. I can’t see Crytek radically reversing their previous philosophy.
(I wondered how long before an OM NOM NOM NOM. That was fast.)
20/08/2009 at 18:46 Howard says:
Well after what can only be described as the “huge hissy fit” Crytek threw when they realised that Crysis was being pirated (OH NOES!) they all but announced they would never write exclusively for PC again. With that in mind and when you consider that the 360 and PS3 have the awe-inspiring total of 512MB of RAM to use for physics, CPU cache and GFX VRAM and that Crysis is ALL about the textures, I cannot see how this will be anything other than a step back for PC owners unless Crytek create a whole different set of assets and textures just for us. Which they wont. ‘Cos we are eble piwates.
20/08/2009 at 18:48 tba says:
I see no mention of stealth in this new suit?
20/08/2009 at 18:49 A Delicate Balance says:
Well, I for one know what I want for Christmas now. That is the Nano-suit 2.0, not Crysis 2. Not that I don’t want to play Crysis 2, but… MUST HAVE SEXY NANO-SUIT.
20/08/2009 at 18:52 Metal_Circus says:
I look forward to them ruining the end of this one with an utterly ridiculous alien/mutant sub-plot as they have done with all their previous titles which would have been great games if they had just stuck to soldier combat and replaced the crap aliens with, oh I dunno, a decent story? Sheeeeesh. [/rant]
20/08/2009 at 18:53 DrGonzo says:
Sounds like your having a hissy fit now. Crytek in wanting to make a profit shocker!
20/08/2009 at 18:54 Heliocentric says:
Eating corpses? Great. I knew crysis was missing something other than sex in its ratings board classification.
20/08/2009 at 18:56 Blast Hardcheese says:
Actually the corpse energy stuff sounds a lot more like something from Metroid.
20/08/2009 at 18:56 Jim Rossignol says:
Third time lucky on no crazy mutants, I guess.
20/08/2009 at 18:56 Howard says:
@DrGonzo
Fine, be flippant and ignore the fact that Crysis and Crysis:Warhead WERE both profitable games. The crap they spewed in the press after the launch of Crysis was nothing short of a temper-tantrum
20/08/2009 at 18:57 Heliocentric says:
The german board of
censorshipclassification are gonna love that. So when are crytek fleeing that country? I hear israel is a good place for people persecuted by the german government to go.20/08/2009 at 19:01 Persus-9 says:
@ Howard: Crysis still sold well and it really only did so on the basis of being the most graphical intensive game money can buy. I doubt Crytek will want to give up the graphics crown so I wouldn’t be surprised if in spite of the fact they’re building a console version they also built the max settings for the PC high enough to make a 295 curl up in the corner and cry. I hope they do.
I also hope the the Nanosuit 2 doesn’t use that awful mode selection wheel, that way it might actually be a fun.
20/08/2009 at 19:02 g-eJ says:
Actually the corpse energy stuff sounds a lot more like something from LIFE!
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/07/military-researchers-develop-corpse-eating-robots/
Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to hide in my cupboard from the flesh eating robots.
20/08/2009 at 19:03 AlexW says:
IGN has three (last I checked) videos of CryEngine 3. Such as this one: http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/dor/gc-2009-cry-engine-3-demo/1014410/videos/gcom09act_crytek_demo2_081709.html
The site points to a ’20% increase in fuel cell capacity’, suggesting that the suit will have more energy but regenerate at the same rate as last time (meaning longer total, if my phrasing is as bad as I think it is). Hopefully there’s a longer time allowed on the night vision too.
Also, you can pick up enemies in any mode, Jim. Even Cloak, if you really want to confuse their buddies for an extra second.
Also also, Crysis is awesome. Thought I should just make sure it’s written down near the top of the thread.
20/08/2009 at 19:10 Howard says:
@AlexW
Agreed. Both Crysis games are great. I recently played through them both again and was giggling like a school girl at finalyl being able to max out the details. Fantastic stuff.
20/08/2009 at 19:14 Jim Rossignol says:
Persus-9: you know keyboard double-taps did the same thing as the wheel, so you didn’t have to use it?
20/08/2009 at 19:15 TheLordHimself says:
I have to say for all the people who bash Crysis, aside from the Aliens, it is pretty good. The combat does feel really smooth and if you play it on the hardest setting and try not to use a gun, it becomes a great Predator simulator. The graphics are amazing even now.
Compare it to Far Cry 2, which a lot of people said was awesome, but I found a bit of a let down, and IMO it wins easily. The combat in Far Cry 2 is so wooden, the movement feels like its out of a TES game and this so called freedom: drive unsatisfying vehicles from X to Y through wide corridor Z and shoot 11 bad guys… I know Crysis wasn’t open either but still, at least it had a kind of progression and a sense of place rather than this weird fake world of grinding…
20/08/2009 at 19:16 TheLordHimself says:
But, those fucking aliens….
20/08/2009 at 19:18 Xercies says:
@Metal_Circus
That won’t happen since the aliens will be at the start of this one…so not liking there chances
I loved the first Crysis really good balance between linearity and open world mechanics and very sweet graphics(Just got a computer that I can max it on…man that is beutiful) also has very good modding tools.
20/08/2009 at 19:23 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
While lurking around from spot to spot with the Cloak-Recharge thing was fun, it really would be even better to just cut loose. I mean you’ve got wicked-looking nanotech powered armor defining your play experience, why not have some fun with it? That is, to say, I’m hoping for the exact same thing Jim is and am willing to say the same-thing-but-with-more-words.
tba’s right on the no-stealth info but then again it doesn’t mention most of the other nanosuit powers so there’s no reason to assume they’ve gone and messed it up.
And watching those videos on the site reminds me of those car commercials that are “too classy to show the product.”
Which I think is awesome.
20/08/2009 at 19:24 TheSombreroKid says:
cry engine 3 isn’t a downgrade lol, yeah it looks worse than cryengine 2 on a speced out pc, when running on a 360, but theres a lot of cool graphical stuff going on and on a speced out pc will blow cry engine 2 away.
20/08/2009 at 19:27 Flint says:
Crysis is one of my favourite FPS games from the recent years so yeah, a sequel is going to be welcomed in this camp. The aliens didn’t bother me either, sure the stealth approach I loved during the first half of the game didn’t work anymore but the game was still great fun. Only things I could complain about were the VTOL sequence and how every single discussion on the game just turned into the whining/praising about the graphics rather than focusing on the actual game. An annoyance that still doesn’t seem to have ended and which will most likely continue to plague everything related to Crysis 2.
20/08/2009 at 19:27 Sam C. says:
@TheLordHimself: Really, wooden? I personally enjoy the movement and combat – I though the running and sliding was fairly natural and smooth. Far Cry 2 certainly has issues, but I never felt that it was wooden.
And the “drive unsatisfying vehicles from X to Y through wide corridor Z and shoot 11 bad guys” could be easily applied to Crysis, or almost any first person shooter, for that matter.
20/08/2009 at 19:30 TheSombreroKid says:
it would be good if jump and stealth were combined to 1 power and strength, run and armour the other, that would make a hell of a lot of sense, since those powers go together well.
20/08/2009 at 19:40 A-Scale says:
I really thought Crysis was quite shite but with a nice pretty veneer. I’m not terribly excited about this one except for how it might advance PC game graphics.
20/08/2009 at 19:50 Nimic says:
I really quite liked Crysis, and Crysis Warhead. I’ve played both all the way through at least three times each, and if that isn’t a Nimic Seal of Approval I don’t know what is. There really aren’t a whole lot of games I play several times through.
I even liked the Alien bits. Granted, not as much as the non-Alien bits, but I didn’t dislike it by any means. All in all I thought it was a great game, and I just hope that the second one won’t be console-exclusive. I’ve got a console, but I’d never dream of playing an FPS game on it, even a game which didn’t find its way to the PC.
20/08/2009 at 19:51 AlexW says:
No, it really wouldn’t, Sombrero. Speed and Strength would go together brilliantly, and personally I’d prefer it if they removed weapon modification from the choice wheel (better with just its keyboard shortcut, in my opinion), but removing part of the strength-enhancing power to add to the opposite would dilute it down. It was actually quite fun to do a strength jump, immediately cloak while in mid-air, and check for any watchers on the rare occasion when it seemed necessary.
Also, I should play it a third time, the Rambo route (rather than my two previous Predator-with-a-bad-battery ones). Delta, naturally.
Also also, vague spoilers for fools/poor blokes with no Crysis finish under their belt: I don’t see how it would be possible to start the game with the N2, so there are three possibilities: first, continuity error; second, Nomad gets it later; third, there’ll be more enemies with NanoSuits, and they’ll have better ones than the player.
20/08/2009 at 19:57 reaper47 says:
Here’s two tech demos of the new engine:
http://www.chip.de/c1_videos/CryEngine-3-SIGGRAPH-Trailer-1-Video_37605696.html
http://www.chip.de/c1_videos/CryEngine-3-SIGGRAPH-Trailer-2-Video_37605688.html
I’m a sucker for global illumination. So warm and cozy…
20/08/2009 at 19:59 Persus-9 says:
@ Jim: That does ring a bell but I don’t like double taping either so my predominant memory of the suit aspect of Crysis is being really annoyed that you couldn’t remap the controls to anything that made sense to me.
20/08/2009 at 20:17 DMJ says:
I for one welcome our new nanite-based flesh-eating overlords.
20/08/2009 at 20:18 Bib Fortuna says:
The design of the new nanosuit is UGLY!
20/08/2009 at 20:35 Azhrarn says:
@Jim & Persus-9:
Good mouse, “wheel” bound to thumb-button. Press, twitch in right direction, release, mode changed.
Made shifting modes as natural as could be, for me anyway.
Will be keeping an eye on this, I quite enjoyed the first game, although by the time this comes out I may actually own a PC capable of turning up the graphics anywhere above medium. ^_^
20/08/2009 at 20:35 subedii says:
Big fan of the original games, so I’m looking forward to this. I’m not really worried about CryEngine 3 being configured with consoles in mind. It’s pretty likely that it’s going to be heavily scalable, I would expect high-end computers to be able to take advantage of graphical features just like before.
One thing I really hope they remember to include (given the new console emphasis) is the .ini configuration files. Pretty much any complaints about the nanosuits energy go out the window once you can manually tweak your settings by changing a few numbers.
The more I played the game, the more I actually ended up preferring the default settings strangely enough, but it was fun being able to run faster than The Flash with little or no power drain. Although one thing I do keep is having infinite nightvision. Seriously, I don’t understand the point of having that on its own energy limit.
I also agree with others that have said Speed and Strength would probably be better combined, those two would work so much better together for being able to navigate the environment.
20/08/2009 at 21:14 Taillefer says:
Does the Nanosuit 2 include the self-destruct if you stray from the battlefield feature? That would be the danger of strength and speed combined; you’d be able to get to too many places you’re not meant to go… then blow up.
I’d also like a city setting. Then I can be Predator 2 this time.
20/08/2009 at 21:19 troy says:
what irks me about crysis (crytek) is they just dropped support the game. it had a great multiplayer element to it . and was probably the most fun i had in a fps . but then cheaters became so rampant that the games became ridiculous and crytek started yelling about piracy . then they screwed us who bought crysis by not fixing it basicly telling us to go take a hike .
not to much latter crytek realeses warhead saying it is a better product and heck its cheaper also. so go buy it !! instead of complaining about crysis .
well all i have to say is im not wasting my money on another one of crytek’s products. crytek burned me once with crysis and they are not going to regain my faith by releasing a cheap remix . I am not going to cough up 50+ for next gen titles either . I just wished their was more people who was less forgiving in this world so companies who pull the crap like crytek did feel the pain when they screw over customers.
20/08/2009 at 21:43 RC-1290'Dreadnought' says:
Who cares about stealth when you have a super soldier running around on Crystal Meth(or their variant) with armor tough enough to survive a nuke?
ehhh, you’re right, that’s not fun.
20/08/2009 at 21:47 underposeductor says:
…I would like to see a nanosuit designed for bodybuilders. I just hope they make Crysis 2 harder, the game was too easy even on delta. It all should be more… bloodthirsty.
20/08/2009 at 21:53 Krondonian says:
I really loved the radial powerup menu for Crysis.
On pretty much every other FPS I always panic, and over or under scroll, changing weapons too fast. If TF2 had that kind of menu I’d never be seen running out of rockets then frantically switching to the spade instead of the shotgun as Soldier.
I’m very interested in Crysis 2, also. The more I played, the more I appreciated having limited resources in 1. Being forced to slowly waltz around a room full of alerted soldiers, angling yourself to take them all down before losing invisibilty is one of the greatest stealth feelings of a game.
The fact that you could choose to grab one, throw him through the roof and jump straight through the hole after him is just incredible. I even loved the Alien bits.
So, more of the same kind of thing, with imaginative set pieces would be dandy.
20/08/2009 at 22:06 underposeductor says:
I still wonder where Crysis 2 will take place. Maybe Japan? Where was that alien fleet heading?
20/08/2009 at 22:09 whaleloever says:
Does my bum look big in this?
20/08/2009 at 22:17 Berzee says:
I came in here, naively hoping that nobody had said OM NOM NOM NOM. I was disappointed, and yet thrilled!
20/08/2009 at 22:17 Heliosicle says:
they shouldve just made a predator mode, where enery is unlimited
i enjoyed the first crysis despite playing through the WHOLE game at 20 fps on my crappy laptop that has a 256mb card, lovely
20/08/2009 at 22:20 tim says:
“with Crynet’s optional Necro-Organic Metabolites plug-in (NOM), the N2 can even extract usable energy from battlefield carrion.”
Yeah, this sounds like an excuse to have enemies drop life power-ups when they die.
20/08/2009 at 22:23 JonFitt says:
Has anyone gotten into the mysterious login section of the teaser site yet? Possible ARGy-ness?
20/08/2009 at 22:29 Dominic White says:
@tim – more like an excuse to let you EAT THE CORPSES OF YOUR FALLEN FOES.
Cmon, it’s called the ‘NOM’ system. You’re eating em.
20/08/2009 at 22:31 Railick says:
That corpse energy stuff is actually real. That is probably based on the new auto-mated robot coming out that is suposed to be able to burn battlefield carrion to power itself (Along with anything else it finds that it can burn) that would include the corpses of fallen enemies O.o
20/08/2009 at 22:41 jsutcliffe says:
Wait … you _don’t_ have to use the wheel to change modes? What magic is this?
That’s one of the things I dislike about the downloadable purchase hoojab — the lack of a printed manual. I can never be bothered (a) finding the damned manual .pdf (assuming one was included) or (b) staring at a screen reading it. I want my manual printed and where I can refer to it if need be.
20/08/2009 at 23:34 Howard says:
@all who missed it
How did you not see that the wheel was only one of the selection methods? Amateurs…
That aside, I didn’t mind the aliens. Exactly what your puritanical hatred of shooting aliens over Koreans was I am not certain but I think you all may have lost the plot. Shooting stuff is shooting stuff, guys…
21/08/2009 at 00:12 Monchberter says:
Is it just me or are most most of the comments now overwhelmingly positive about Crysis? Only a year or so ago you couldn’t move for slating??
Personally i have always liked it and i think it is a game that stand up very well to replay. If anything it gets BETTER the more you play it and get used to the nanosuit’s nuances. I’m very much looking forward to the sequel even with minimal tinkering with the formula.
21/08/2009 at 00:22 Railick says:
I never was able to get it to play on my PC so I have no idea if it was any good or not. I didn’t like Farcry so I figured trying to get this game to work was a waste of time any how.
21/08/2009 at 00:23 Howard says:
@Monchberter
That is because PC gamers are reactionary sheep who would not know a good game if it bit their right one off.
Crysis was great, all the grab-asses with shit machines just whined
21/08/2009 at 00:32 Monchberter says:
The 360 pad support with the original Crysis was spot on, so personally, i’d like to see Crytek wipe the floor of the Xbox 360 market, especially with multiplayer and finally banish the crock of shit that is Halo to a dark dark place.
21/08/2009 at 00:45 whaleloever says:
Seriously, I can’t be the only one who thinks Crysisman looks like he’s put on weight. He’s got a bit of a paunch going on there. Maybe there’ll be a Gillian McKeith option for the suit’s vocals this time round. One that’ll have a big Scottish go at him for eating people and not pooing enough.
21/08/2009 at 00:49 Railick says:
That’s not a paunch it’s his nano-battery back :P
“Is your nanosuit 2 enhancing your natural abilities or are you just happy to see me” wakka wakka
21/08/2009 at 01:42 Stupoider says:
The only paunch he’s got going on begins with falcon.
21/08/2009 at 01:53 subedii says:
@ Howard: Last I checked, Crysis got rave reviews all around when it was released. The consternation with the game was (and remains) the last quarter where it swaps out human opponents and open-world gameplay for aliens and much more linear action.
Personally I really enjoyed the alien segment (it was a nice change of pace, and the alien mothership still looks freaking amazing), but I can at least understant why there was complaint about the last act, it was a pretty major shift from the rest of the game.
The remainder of whatever slating there was usually came from a vocal batch of idiots who either never played it or never got the point of it (or maybe the more sandbox mechanics just didn’t jive with them because they were expecting something more scripted like CoD4), so simply marked it down as all graphics and no gameplay.
I’m wondering now whether they’re going to go more for the open-world, more stealth emphasised gameplay of Crysis, or the slightly more linear and more action packed firefights of Warhead. The games were like flipsides of the same coin, different takes on just what could be achieved with an open world and the right setting and tools. You could go both routes in either game, but one was usually more heavily emphasised depending on which game you were playing, and which mission.
Personal favourite mission still remains the harbour level. Dumped into a warzone, given some objectives, call us when you’re done. I must have replayed that level just on its own maybe 5-6 times (although I’ve replayed the game one or two times as well), and each time doing it in a completely different way whilst having a blast doing it.
That’s probably the chief feature of Crysis that really made it stand out from the crowd. That sandbox gameplay that really allowed for whatever approach to the situation you wanted, making the levels big playpens of possibilities. They really need to take care to preserve that and not let it become just another linear shooter.
21/08/2009 at 01:56 bhlaab says:
That’s silly, what made Crysis fun was working inside the limited boundaries of your superpowers! Don’t be silly!
21/08/2009 at 02:42 Alistair says:
I thought the suit powers were spot on – I don’t want a Just Cause/Mercenaries 2 feel.
21/08/2009 at 05:22 pkt-zer0 says:
To be honest, I’m not too hopeful about the open-world stuff surviving the transition to consoles. Cevat Yerli pointed to the PS3′s lack of memory (a whopping 256MB for everything) as one of the reasons something open like Crysis would not be possible on the console.
21/08/2009 at 05:23 Psychopomp says:
@PKT
Morrowind
There will be load times. Lots of them.
21/08/2009 at 05:47 Chemix says:
From what I’ve read
You get the following improvements:
-You’re harder to kill (hopefully making strength and speed viable, I spent 50% of my time in armor mode, 40% in stealth and 10% in strength to climb)
-You get new vision modes akin to Splinter Cell
-You get more energy
-You gain energy from killing people (for the ratings bit, it actually could be done as a fading or disintegrating effect with energy orbs or something, like many fantasy games)
-Destructible Concrete Walls (implied in brochure page with hand)
21/08/2009 at 06:27 pkt-zer0 says:
@Psychopomp
Oblivion.
Features will be cut (no levitating into cities). Seems more likely.
21/08/2009 at 06:32 Vinraith says:
Levitation was a horrifically abusable mechanic in Morrowind, most balance mods neutered it to the degree possible while still allowing those portions of the game that required it to function. There may be some solid examples of features cut from Oblivion because of console porting, but that’s not one of them.
21/08/2009 at 08:59 Inigo says:
I have my doubts that the “nonsentient biochip” will stay that way. Or I could just be paranoid.
21/08/2009 at 09:11 Ian says:
I thought the mode selection wheel was fine and a decent way to very swiftly change your setting.
21/08/2009 at 11:20 anon says:
NOM will have unworkable controls and players will starve
21/08/2009 at 11:40 demonarm says:
I read
“the text version of the powered armour”
and was intruigede…
21/08/2009 at 11:52 Gap Gen says:
demonarm:
You are in a jungle. There are North Koreans to the North and South. To the East, there is a cliff. To the West, there is a cave.
> GO WEST
The cave is dark. You have been eaten by a grue. Play again? Y/N
>
21/08/2009 at 13:04 Paul Moloney says:
I prefered the Crysis games over the Far Cry games (and finished both) simply because, ropey aliens and cut-out characters aside, combat was always a joy. FC1 became an over-difficult slog against those big mutants; FC2, while a wonderful idea and a game I was enthralled with at the beginning, was overlong and got a bit samey; at around 65% completion, I just felt that it was getting way too repetitive and there was really nothing new left to be revealed.
P.
21/08/2009 at 13:58 Mechorpheus says:
@ pkt-zer0: I’m pretty sure the PS3 has 512mb ram, but its split 50/50 between CPU and GPU, but it’s still not really enough when you consider Crysis 1 struggles on a PC with 2gb, even assuming as much as 1gb for windows footprint etc.
What worries me more about specifically PS3 development of Crysis 2 is the GPU in that is essentially a Geforce 7900, any my old 8800GTS320 struggled to get Crysis running at anything approaching reasonable settings. I cannot imagine how they can not drop the effects down significantly to support console development.
21/08/2009 at 14:07 NickS says:
The tech demo video on IGN, very, very impressive, though whether these optimisations feed through to CryEngine 3 running better on low-end gaming PC is what I want to know.
Also, CryTek had Peter Watts, a fairly decent sci-fi writer in recently, so fingers crossed it was doing some of the writing for Crysis 2.
21/08/2009 at 20:42 Nimic says:
@ Mechorpheus
I’ve got 8800GTS320 as well, and while I couldn’t exactly hit the highest settings, the game still looked very nice. My memory might be tainted by Warhead, which was much better optimized, though.
22/08/2009 at 12:46 Tom says:
I played Crysis most of the way through without firing weapons. Try it out – you obviously need them for the flying enemies and larger guys, but clearing soldiers out of a village purely through stealth and throwing guys at each other was a lot of fun.
22/08/2009 at 21:39 GS says:
I loved Crysis to the point of Cryteks community managers commenting on mastering of the suit (I made several small videos showing how Crysis should be played) and have since run through the entire game using only my fists and the occasional rocket launcher.
im not worried about the technology side of things as it looks like Crytek have got that wrapped up on all platforms.
Its the gameplay that im especially worried about , whilst not wanting to start a flame war PC gaming is a different kettle of fish (think Ford vs Ferrari of the motor industry)
ah well, regardless of the outcome Crysis and Warhead were perfect and we’ll always have those.
24/08/2009 at 17:13 Bahumat says:
From the brochure:
“It can also take over the operator’s purely autonomic and regulatory functions in the event of somatic damage.”
Hahaha, awesome. That’s pure Peter Watts’ writing, right there. Read “Blindsight” at his website, http://www.rifters.org, there’s a character who (spoiler warning) dies near the end, and ends up with his AI controlling his body from his brainstem, since all the meat overhead is fried.
Now that would be rather awesome as a gameplay mechanic; instead of “Game Over” you’d get “Your AI takes over your body to finish the mission.”