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[dLMN8R]

[edit] IGN preview added. Look further down for PCG info.

IGN just put up their own preview of Crysis Warhead: http://pc.ign.com/articles/884/884351p1.html

I'm mostly stoked for this:

The designers gave us a view of one of early levels in the game, Ambush. Right off the bat it's intense. VTOL transports are coming in to drop off Marines, the radio is full of chatter, and jet fighters are dropping bombs left and right. Think of the opening of the Crysis level Assault, but with that amount of energy sustained throughout. It's all very loud and frantic, but this isn't an attempt to make a linear-game like Call of Duty. Warhead still embraces the series' philosophy of the nanosuit, the high-tech power suit that lets you alter your strategy and tactics on the fly. The battlefields are still large and open, and this gives you an incredible number of options when in a fight. You can stealth and hide to restore your health or ambush an opponent. Use strength to leap atop buildings and hit your enemy from above. Or you can use speed to zip from one location to another. "The core gameplay is still Veni, Vidi, Vici," Yerli said, referring to the Latin term "I came, I saw, I conquered."

With Assault being easily my favorite level in Crysis, seeing as it's basically a combination of the intensity of Call of Duty 4 but with the openness of Far Cry, I couldn't be more happy to read this.

They mention the same $652 computer that PC Gamer does, so I'm starting to think that the 8600GT making the game look good isn't a fluke after all. They say:

"Performance was astonishingly smooth and fluid even with a high level of graphical detail."

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I just got my issue of PC Gamer in the mail with Crysis Warhead on the cover. Here are some of the key points they talk about:

Crytek is mainly focusing on dealing with a perception problem:
-Performance, what it *actually* takes to run the game
-Sales, specifically saying it's sold about 1.5 million copies
-The perception that multi-platform development will dumb down PC versions

Crysis Warhead is a PC exclusive

Warhead is a full sized game, following Psycho during the events of Crysis. Not just a standalone expansion

Psycho's known appearance allows for 3rd-person cutscenes. Don't scoff - they could be used to teach you nanosuit techniques. I'll believe it when I see it though...

Prophet's story isn't touched in this game, but his story could be in yet another "sidequel". Ugh, what about addressing the cliffhanger ending?

Game starts when Psycho leaves Nomad (main character from first game) about half-way through the first game. Ends sometime before he shows back up on the aircraft carrier

Single player campaign of about 8-10 hours, beefed up multiplayer game (I'll go over it later)

Crytek's aim with Warhead is specifically to satisfy critics of the first game

Yerli admits that designing the game with future scalability was a "mistake", and that they should have released those higher settings later with a patch

"If you were able to run Crysis, you'll be able to run Warhead better" -Cevat Yerli

In addition to better performance, Warhead includes a new "global ambient lighting" system, lighting and shadowing improvements, and new particle effects - none of which impact framerates on current-gen machines

You don't need Vista and DX10 this time around for the highest-end effects - you can max out the graphics with DX9 on XP

AI improvements - aliens have more human-like organizations, enemies have better group tactics, korean combat chatter improves

Unlike Crysis' linear focus towards the end, Warhead maintains scripted and sandbox aspects, better integrated throughout the game. Vehicles remain important throughout it

You'll never be forced into a vehicle - they always remain options in Warhead

Yerli admits that announcing Crysis too early may have hurt the game - Warhead will ship this year, and from now on, he hopes to announce games merely 3 months before their release

Psycho's suit abilities will be the same as Nomad's, but Crytek says there might be a surprise later in the game.



Multiplayer

Warhead includes everything that Crysis has, including stuff added to the game post-release

Includes a third mode to the first Instant Action and Power Struggle modes

New mode isn't named yet, will be less complex than Power Struggle, but be more involved than instant Action

New maps feature more vertical environments, wide gaps to encourage strength jumps and such

All vehicles - including the new amphibious APC - will be available in multiplayer



Interview clips

Doesn't agree with Brad Wardell on piracy, says the problem is people choosing between spending money on hardware or spending money on software. Basically hopes that now that people have the hardware, they'll spend their money on Crysis

Says that yes, Crysis sold well, Crytek/EA made a profit despite the big budget of the game, but sales could have been better. Yes, 15-20 pirated copies for 1 sold copy doesn't mean they could have sold 15-20 times as much, but he thinks selling double the amount isn't an unreasonable estimate

Crysis 2's development depends heavily on Warhead's success

Cross-platform development would involve two teams, avoiding the "distilled, easier to access experience" that console games need on the PC version

Crytek's previous GDC announcement involving PS3 development is not Crysis-related

Pushing PC hardware? "I think we wouldn't be Crytek if each platform didn't have its technology pushed."



The PC Gamer $653 Warhead Machine

Crytek built its own machine capable of running the game "silky smooth", with "all the bells and whistles turned on". Considering that it has an 8600GT, I'll take it with a grain of salt, but Dan Stapleton confirmed in a PC Gamer Podcast thread that they absolutely did play the game on this machine, and it was running on High details.

Shuttle SG31G2S Barebone Case - $239.99
Intel Pentium E2180 2.0GHz Dual-Core CPU - $82.99
Samsung SH-S203B DVD Burner - $29.99
Hitachi Deskstar 7K160 160GB hard drive - $48.99
A-Data 2GB DDR2 SDRAM - $45.99
MSI GeForce 8600GT 512MB video card - $94.99
Vista Home Premium - $109.99

Don't forget that you can easily find a case/power supply solution for cheaper than that! It would compensate for the mouse, keyboard, speakers, and monitor you might need.

 

[Kabouter]

A super expensive case/PSU
But they use an 8600GT for $95 when for $50 extra you can get an 8800GT 512MB?
...

 

[I_D]

A super expensive case/PSU
But they use an 8600GT for $95 when for $50 extra you can get an 8800GT 512MB?
...

It was to show that you don't need a top-notch system to run the game at nice settings.


I'm wondering what resolution it was at, though.

 

[dLMN8R]

I posted another message on the PC Gamer Podcast forums - hopefully he'll clarify resolution/detail settings there. He posts there pretty regularly.

 

[godhandiscen]

The game is running Maxed on a 8600GT. This could only mean the engine has been optimized...finally.

 

[Chiggs]

The game is running Maxed on a 8600GT. This could only mean the engine has been optimized...finally.

Isn't that the real reason Crysis is such a hog--extremely unoptimized code?

 

[Durante]

Wow, what an utterly braindead build. You can get better performance from a $400 system.

Isn't that the real reason Crysis is such a hog--extremely unoptimized code?

I can't tell if you're joking, but the reason Crysis is slow on maxed settings is because it does a whole lot of things that no other game on any platform comes close to.

 

[Proelite]

Isn't that the real reason Crysis is such a hog--extremely unoptimized code?

Crysis benchmarks lol.

 

[bdouble]

Sounds pretty good. I like how they are going to prove that multi plat =!= dumbed down. I can see where the argument comes from but I also think that its possible to keep it the same. Just got to be intuitive with the controls.

Also nice how they addressed the piracy in a more direct way. That is a reasonable estimate I'd say.

PC price is obvious I mean a year ago they did 900 dollars it should be around 600 now. I mean especially with the 4xxx series from ATI that card is a killer deal.

Wow, what an utterly braindead build. You can get better performance from a $400 system.

Agreed but they are just proving a point. If you are smart about it its not hard to get a good setup. I mean cut out the optical drives and HDD in some cases because people already have them and you can get a beast.

For me I can buy just a mobo, cpu, gpu and ram. I have everything else (case, PSU for crossfire 4xxx, opticals ect ect.

Definitely look into Crysis once I do upgrade.

 

[Yixian]

So does this mean we're getting it before the end of October?

 

[godhandiscen]

Isn't that the real reason Crysis is such a hog--extremely unoptimized code?

Yep, thats the only reason. The graphics are good, but not "that" good to render any system to its knees. People love to say how Crysis is really pushing it, but I really doubt it. IMHO it has always been an unoptimized engine. I love the gameplay though and its the one aspect which saves the whole game.

Wow, what an utterly braindead build. You can get better performance from a $400 system.

I can't tell if you're joking, but the reason Crysis is slow on maxed settings is because it does a whole lot of things that no other game on any platform comes close to.

So if now Warhead looks better and runs better on crappier systems, what does that mean?

 

[knitoe]

Max at 800X640 res? And, performance should increase if your running DX 9 instead of 10. Hell, going from Vista down to XP increases performance too.

 

[Durante]

Yep, thats the only reason. The graphics are good, but not "that" good to render any system to its knees. People love to say how Crysis is really pushing it, but I really doubt it.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

So if now Warhead looks better and runs better on crappier systems, what does that mean?

If it actually does run significantly better on the same system while providing the same graphical fidelity as the original on maxed settings I'll eat crow. But that won't happen.

 

[Chiggs]

Wow, what an utterly braindead build. You can get better performance from a $400 system.

I can't tell if you're joking, but the reason Crysis is slow on maxed settings is because it does a whole lot of things that no other game on any platform comes close to.

I wasn't exactly. I know the game is a complete beast, but when I see a pair of GTX 280's not exactly destroying it, something else is going on.

 

[bdouble]

Yep, thats the only reason. The graphics are good, but not "that" good to render any system to its knees. People love to say how Crysis is really pushing it, but I really doubt it. IMHO it has always been an unoptimized engine. I love the gameplay though and its the one aspect which saves the whole game.

So your saying they did it on purpose? :lol :lol

I wasn't exactly. I know the game is a complete beast, but when I see a pair of GTX 280's not exactly destroying it, something else is going on.

The 4870x2 will destroy it. Not the 280's. Hell the 4850 is doing a decent job right now. btw I only care about 1900x1200. Anything less is kinda a wast and thats the rez I'm looking to build my next rig around.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=13&cp=3

 

[Chiggs]

So your saying they did it on purpose? :lol :lol

You may disagree with him, but I don't think he's claiming that.

 

[Xdrive05]

Max at 800X640 res? And, performance should increase if your running DX 9 instead of 10. Hell, going from Vista down to XP increases performance too.

No it doesn't, unless you're using old ass Vista. SP1 is a bit faster than XP.

What I want to know is if you have the option of using DX9 in Vista. No reason not to choose it from the looks of that feature.

 

[godhandiscen]

You have no idea what you're talking about.
If it actually does run significantly better on the same system while providing the same graphical fidelity as the original on maxed settings I'll eat crow. But that won't happen.

Open the console, read the logs. The game shits itself while looking for memory spaces. A lot of stuff fails to load. Thats what I call unoptimized.

So your saying they did it on purpose? :lol :lol

I don't know where you get the idea, and what is funny, but whatever. I am just saying that is understandable for such an ambitious project to fail with a couple technical things.

 

[I_D]

If it actually does run significantly better on the same system while providing the same graphical fidelity as the original on maxed settings I'll eat crow. But that won't happen.

It can happen.


Crysis was pretty damn unoptimized, but that's not the only reason it's such a hog. It truly is a beast of a game, and that takes up quite a few resources.

However, if this new game is also a beast of a game, that still leaves room for optimization, which would make it run better.

 

[rollingstart]

Unlike Crysis' linear focus towards the end, Warhead maintains scripted and sandbox aspects, better integrated throughout the game. Vehicles remain important throughout it

Rock on.

 

[Davidion]

This could be sexy, very sexy.

 

[aznpxdd]

Jesus...some of you just love talking out of your ass. Crysis is unoptimized...because you are trying to run a game which pushes the boundaries of graphic fidelity in video games with old hardware. I do agree with Yerli that Crytek should have released a patch to unlock the "very high" settings, it would have stopped people crying not being able to max out Crysis. I remember ID did something similar with Doom 3, you couldn't even select the Ultra setting unless you have a 6800 or above.

 

[godhandiscen]

So your saying they did it on purpose? :lol :lol

The 4870x2 will destroy it. Not the 280's. Hell the 4850 is doing a decent job right now. btw I only care about 1900x1200. Anything less is kinda a wast and thats the rez I'm looking to build my next rig around.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=13&cp=3

The fact ATI made the 4850 CF the best setup for the money, doesn't mean Crysis is "optimized". It just means ATI pulled a miracle.

 

[bdouble]

You may disagree with him, but I don't think he's claiming that.

Well almost would make sense. I mean if you have a nice rig your gonna buy Crysis to show off in a way and the people with a nice rig want that game to bring it to their knees. It sets a good bench mark. Just Crytek could have purposely released it too early knowing that just so a buzz starts of "we are the best looking game now and will be in the future".

Make good enough tools and you can put out a "enhanced version" 12 months later and sell a few more million. Just include the original in the package. Exactly what they are doing now.

Geez now that I think about it its actually a kinda viable situation. Just goes along with the episodic content situation. Not only does it beat piracy but it extends the life of the game.

\/\/Yeah why the heck did they pick an 8600? wtf cheap 100 bucks off the other parts and get a 8800 or 4850. My x1950 is comparable to the 8600.

 

[MechDX]

My HP's specs are better than that set up.

 

[godhandiscen]

Well almost would make sense. I mean if you have a nice rig your gonna buy Crysis to show off in a way and the people with a nice rig want that game to bring it to their knees. It sets a good bench mark. Just Crytek could have purposely released it too early knowing that just so a buzz starts of "we are the best looking game now and will be in the future".

Make good enough tools and you can put out a "enhanced version" 12 months later and sell a few more million. Just include the original in the package. Exactly what they are doing now.

Geez now that I think about it its actually a kinda viable situation.

I am not accusing them of anything. However, I am pretty sure a lot of people pirated the game because of the bad buzz the game's requirements generated.

 

[Druz]

Crysis is not unoptimized, the game looks amazing. If you want to see an unoptimized engine play Gothic 3 and Age of Conan

 

[bdouble]

I am not accusing them of anything. However, I am pretty sure a lot of people pirated the game because of the bad buzz the game's requirements generated.

demo didn't help either iirc. It wasn't even worth me downloading.

 

[Chiggs]

Crysis is not unoptimized, the game looks amazing. If you want to see an unoptimized engine play Gothic 3 and Age of Conan

Hey, Gothic 3 is almost playable!

 

[godhandiscen]

Crysis is not unoptimized, the game looks amazing. If you want to see an unoptimized engine play Gothic 3 and Age of Conan

:lol I should have done my research before hopping into the AoC bandwagon. The engine they use is some pretty noob shit. Their shading algorithm hasn't been improved since the times of Anarchy Online. totally wastes current hardware potential.

 

[LazerShark]

So a Dell XPS 1530 can pretty much run Crysis Warhead on High settings? Fuck yeah, I just ordered one and it'll come in 2 weeks. I'm ready!

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

As much as I like this how about they uncancel those performance patches they cancelled that were almost done...

 

[psychopsychic]

Its not too hard to believe they optimized the engine that much.

Their multi-core support wasn't very good so they could be getting a big bump from optimizing that. The huge difference in performance due to resolution is testament to that. Also they were developing the engine before 8800 prototypes were even available to them.

Even still, I got the same machine they have but with a 2.67 Ghz Dual Core and it barely gets by with Crysis on Medium/Low settings and 1024x768 res, so that would have to be some pretty hefty optimizations.

 

[dLMN8R]

Those claiming Crysis to be unoptimized really need to open their eyes, and play the game for themselves.

In Crysis, you'd get about 1/3 to 1/2 of the frame rate you'd get in a game like Unreal Tournament 3, and there's easily 2-3x the amount of stuff going on.



Either way, I hope the 8600GT business is clarified. I still find it hard to believe. Dan S had this to say:


"Chuck actually played a pre-alpha version of Warhead on that machine, and said it ran very well (around 30fps). We’ll be testing it for ourselves when it comes out, but it sounds extremely promising so far."

 

[Omeyocan]

I really hope they show the console engine of crysis in E3.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

This game better support sli unlike the original too...

 

[Sqrt_minus_one]

Says that yes, Crysis sold well, Crytek/EA made a profit despite the big budget of the game, but sales could have been better. Yes, 15-20 pirated copies for 1 sold copy doesn't mean they could have sold 15-20 times as much, but he thinks selling double the amount isn't an unreasonable estimate

The scale of piracy is just mind boggling, sometimes I don't blame companies from putting the draconian copy protection systems in place.

 

[Zzoram]

The scale of piracy is just mind boggling, sometimes I don't blame companies from putting the draconian copy protection systems in place.

That has to be an exaggeration. There is no way 20million people pirated Crysis. I bet there aren't even 20million people that know about it.

 

[Zzoram]

I'm getting really pumped for Crysis Warhead, because it seems to address every issue critics had with Crysis, and now I have the computer I need to play it. I really enjoyed the Crysis demo on Low last year, but I heard that the aliens made the game pretty meh in the second half, so I haven't bought it yet. My friend got the Special Edition on sale for $40 when he bought his 8800GT, and I've seen it at his house. If I see Crysis on sale for like $20 I'll buy it in a heartbeat though.

My main concern about Crysis is that it doesn't seem to have a robust online community like CoD4 or TF2 or CS:S do, and that's important for a $50 game when the single player is only 8-10 hours long. Hopefully Warhead can remedy that issue as well, but I'll probably buy it regardless. Hopefully there'll be some kind of Crysis Gold bundle for like $70 with both, I'd buy that.

 

[Oldschoolgamer]

"No shitty vehicles." THANK GOD. Thats the only part I hate about Crysis. The vehicles and controls all suck. Hell, I made it through most of the tank sections on foot, because they piss me off so much. I'm stoked for this.

 

[jet1911]

"No shitty vehicles." THANK GOD. Thats the only part I hate about Crysis. The vehicles and controls all suck. Hell, I made it through most of the tank sections on foot, because they piss me off so much. I'm stoked for this.

I loved the VTOL section.

 

[nelsonroyale]

So a Dell XPS 1530 can pretty much run Crysis Warhead on High settings? Fuck yeah, I just ordered one and it'll come in 2 weeks. I'm ready!

Better than that!... Look for cuban crysis config, and you can set it to level 4...it will chug on a couple of the later levels badly...but for most of the game it runs fine, and looks close to very high settings...its awesome heheh. I have an xps 1530

cant wait for this

 

[Teknoman]

Those claiming Crysis to be unoptimized really need to open their eyes, and play the game for themselves.

In Crysis, you'd get about 1/3 to 1/2 of the frame rate you'd get in a game like Unreal Tournament 3, and there's easily 2-3x the amount of stuff going on.


Either way, I hope the 8600GT business is clarified. I still find it hard to believe. Dan S had this to say:


"Chuck actually played a pre-alpha version of Warhead on that machine, and said it ran very well (around 30fps). We’ll be testing it for ourselves when it comes out, but it sounds extremely promising so far."

Maybe its different in the full version than in the demo. In UT3(full version) i'd get about 60 fps with everything maxed out and maybe a few drops here and there. Crysis demo, maxed out graphic quality (nothing with AA or AF if possible on either)...not so much.

AMD64 X2 6400+, 2gigs of ram, and a Radeon 2900pro 512MB (Windows Vista Ultimate).

 

[Darklord]

You don't need Vista and DX10 this time around for the highest-end effects - you can max out the graphics with DX9 on XP

What? Is DX10 removed from Warhead? Or has they had all the effects possible in DX9?

 

[Zzoram]

What? Is DX10 removed from Warhead? Or has they had all the effects possible in DX9?

Pretty much everything is possible in DX9, but is easier to implement in DX10. DX10 is supposed to be better optimized for performance, but Vista is bloated, so they cancel each other out. SP1 has helped to improve game performance quite a bit, but it'll probably be SP2 that will really make DX10 pull ahead.

 

[zoku88]

Pretty much everything is possible in DX9, but is easier to implement in DX10. DX10 is supposed to be better optimized for performance, but Vista is bloated, so they cancel each other out. SP1 has helped to improve game performance quite a bit, but it'll probably be SP2 that will really make DX10 pull ahead.

That's not really the cause at all...

It's more of the implementation of DX10 that results in the poor performance (which isn't surprising considering that it's new and all.) Gaming was fine on Vista way before SP1 came out... (since most of SP1 was comprised of pre-existing patches.)

 

[KyanMehwulfe]

smart strategy

treating it as much like a full release as possible; targeting gamer perception

i said back soon after release, a typical original-game-required expansion would not have been wise, and because how powerful the engine is, they should be releasing new standalone software (and thus new standalone marketing/hype) for a long time since the engine gives them that ability

so it's good to see them creating their own strategy with similar logic

 

[SapientWolf]

Those claiming Crysis to be unoptimized really need to open their eyes, and play the game for themselves.

In Crysis, you'd get about 1/3 to 1/2 of the frame rate you'd get in a game like Unreal Tournament 3, and there's easily 2-3x the amount of stuff going on.



Either way, I hope the 8600GT business is clarified. I still find it hard to believe. Dan S had this to say:


"Chuck actually played a pre-alpha version of Warhead on that machine, and said it ran very well (around 30fps). We’ll be testing it for ourselves when it comes out, but it sounds extremely promising so far."

Maybe that's true. But UE3.0 engine games look and run great on my PC and I couldn't find any acceptable trade-off between performance and image quality for Crysis. So I bought Bioshock and Crysis stayed on the shelf.

 

[dLMN8R]

Pretty much everything is possible in DX9, but is easier to implement in DX10. DX10 is supposed to be better optimized for performance, but Vista is bloated, so they cancel each other out. SP1 has helped to improve game performance quite a bit, but it'll probably be SP2 that will really make DX10 pull ahead.

Leave the Vista bullshit out of this thread. Learn what Superfetch is before calling Vista "bloated", and do yourself a favor and check out some recent benchmarks:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2304031,00.asp

Vista performance in games is now equal to or better than XP performance.

Maybe that's true. But UE3.0 engine games look and run great on my PC and I couldn't find any acceptable trade-off between performance and image quality for Crysis. So I bought Bioshock and Crysis stayed on the shelf.

That has nothing to do with what I said. Your machine may not be capable of a good balance, but that doesn't mean Crysis is unoptimized. I was going on my personal experience:

In Unreal Tournament 3, my machine gets about 50-60fps at max details, 1680x1050
In Crysis, my machine gets about 20-25fps at High details, 1680x1050.

Obviously, I'm not talking about Very High detail here, considering that it's High details I'm talking about that destroy the competition, easily rendering and computing 2-3x the complexity that Unreal Tournament 3 ever is. Very High is a completely new level all over again, not at all meant for the generation of hardware available when Crysis came out.

 

[Spoit]

God, what is with all the Crysis and vista FUD in this thread. While there is no doubt that optimizations could be made, especially since a lot of the development was about adding completely new technologies to their engine, when I looked at all the console information readouts, I never go the feeling that it was wasting power, especially compared to UE3 games, especially the ubisoft ones.