Crytek's Crysis Warhead Goes Gold

Crytek's Crysis Warhead has gone gold, which means the development stage is completed and the game is now ready for duplication. Crysis Warhead will release on September 12 in Europe and September 16 in North America for a retail price of $29.99.


The game is Crytek's follow-up to their critically acclaimed first-person shooter Crysis, released back in 2007. In the first game, players took control of Nomad as he journeyed through savage jungles. While Warhead will take place on the same island, players will now take control of Nomad's comrade, Psycho.


In addition to a brand new single player campaign, Crysis Warhead will come with Crysis Wars, a new multiplayer package that will feature new modes and maps. Fans can now preorder Crysis Warhead at their local retail outlet.


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Leipzig GC 2008: Crysis Warhead Demo Impressions (Gamespot)

GameSpot posted their firsthand impressions of playing Crysis Warhead demo at the Leipzig Games Convention:


There are sequels, there are expansion packs, and somewhere in the middle there's Crysis Warhead. As a follow-up to last year's visually stunning first-person shooter Crysis, this game adheres to the same plotline of nanosuit-equipped Delta Force operatives terrorizing North Koreans on a lush island, but this time around the events unfold from a different perspective. Rather than going back to the role of Nomad, now you're filling the shoes of his squadmate Psycho, the slightly more verbose Brit who was stranded on the opposite side of the island for the majority of the original game. To find out what other differences you can expect to see, we paid a visit to EA's booth at the Leipzig Games Convention earlier today.


Our demo began with Psycho awakening in an ice sphere, one of the environments players of the first game should be familiar with. This time around, players can expect to become even more familiar with these frozen jungle settings. The Crytek rep on hand told us these spheres were one of the parts from Crysis that the development team really liked, but didn't feel they used them quite enough. So anyone who enjoys punching frozen enemies into a million pieces ought to be pleased.


Psycho did just that to the first pair of enemies he saw, but those poor saps were only frozen because they weren't lucky enough to be wearing nanosuits when the sphere activated. Not all enemies are so unlucky. Some of the human enemies you encounter will be wearing nanosuits just like you. These bad guys become a much more formidable challenge for you, but there are a few new options at your disposal for dealing with them. The most effective one we saw is the nano disruptor grenade, which deploys an EMP field to fry their suits so you can take them on more easily. One of the other new weaponry options we picked up on is the ability to wield dual SMGs--hardly the most powerful weapons in the game, but pretty stylish nonetheless.


Once Psycho dealt with the first wave of enemies on a frozen pond, he took a seat in a nearby hovercraft--one of the new vehicles in the game--to chase after Colonel Lee, who's just rushed off with an alien scout that the Delta Force would very much like to have. One of the biggest criticisms Crytek heard about the vehicles in the original game is that they were a little too squirrelly and didn't handle so well, so now they've gone and tightened up the handling to make it so you don't feel the need to stay on foot to stay alive.


After destroying a handful of snow-capped straw huts and plowing through roadside blockades in his new hovercraft, Psycho met up with a couple other squadmates and moved on to a group aliens down in a frozen valley. These floating creatures displayed some of the tweaks to the enemy AI. One of the aliens acts as a healer, hanging back until the opportunity presents itself to go and revive one of its downed allies. It's up to you to find which one is the healer so you can take it out to prevent all your progress from being reversed.


It was at this point in the valley that our brief demo came to an end. It's clear that Crysis Warhead isn't trying to go and shake things up too much, but you can still expect to see a few tweaks and additions sprinkled into the familiar open-ended action. Crysis Warhead is due to arrive shortly, with its September 16 release looming closely on the horizon.


By Shaun McInnis

Crysis Warhead - GI's Q&A with Cevat Yerli

Phil Elliott from Gamesindustry.biz interviewed Cevat Yerli, CEO and president of Crytek



Cevat Yerli is the CEO and president of Crytek, the PC-specialist developer behind smash hit Far Cry and the award-winning Crysis, with Crysis Warhead due next month.



Here Cevat gives his thoughts on how the industry has changed over the years, and offers his advice on what any new company starting out should focus on.


Q:
Crysis Warhead is coming next month - how much did you learn from releasing the original Crysis title last year?


Cevat Yerli:


Well, when we finished Crysis there was quite a bit of internal research as a post mortem of what we did right and wrong, and then we looked at the reviews, the gamer feedback. Some things weren't a surprise - some things we knew were wrong but we had to go. Sometimes you have to move on, knowing that something is wrong, but you've made the best out of it.


Unfortunately there were some things we knew - that the game's pace was changing, but that's because we wanted the players to finish the game at some point, but with that pace change came a game style change too in around the last 20 per cent of the game. And in that last 20 per cent the change in play style was criticised quite heavily, because it felt more contrived.


But we wanted to change the pace to make sure people got to the end, and found a satisfactory conclusion to the game. However, the next weakness was the ending itself - we said we'd have a great ending, and unfortunately we couldn't make it great this time. Of course, we'll be better next time, but this time we screwed it up. We were in the final crunch phase and it was a bad thing.


So the conclusion was that, because we knew we weren't on track there and Crysis Warhead was already in development before the original Crysis was finished, we said to the Warhead team to make sure that the same thing didn't happen with Warhead - the contrived ending, the play style change, and that the core sense of Crysis should work more strongly. It's something we found with Far Cry, and refined with Crysis - and we want to refine it further with Warhead.


So with Warhead we took the formula that was very well established with Crysis and pushed forward - more intensity, more action and a more cinematic feel. That's as much learning as we could get out of Crysis.


It's more optimised - but that doesn't mean Crysis wasn't optimised, because it was at the time. But once you finish something, then you can disassemble it and fit it together again, and you can always do is faster and better, because you know exactly what it is you need. The learning means we can fine-tune Warhead, and make sure it doesn't have any baggage that people don't need.


Q:
There comes a point at which you have to draw a line under a project and move on, though?


Cevat Yerli:


Yes, that's always a reality with every development, regardless of who you are. There's a situation that you have number of things that people are expecting, there's competition in the market, there's a lot of external things but also internal decisions.


At some point you have to move on - there may be mistakes, but we made it as well as we could.


Q:
The first Crysis pushed PC hardware to some degree - does Warhead make that any easier?


Cevat Yerli:


Well, there's a misconception in the market right now about that, which is that Crysis can only be played on PCs that are very expensive. It's not true - Crysis can be played on a USD 600 PC at the second-highest configuration that's better-looking than any console game, right now.


Q:
But compared to an Xbox 360 game, such as Call of Duty 4, whatever they took out of the box they'd play at maximum configuration - because there's only one configuration for everybody?


Cevat Yerli:


Yes, but imagine if we'd not shipped with that top configuration, they would have maxed out. We just had a configuration that people could have for the future, and they can play it now, but it will look even better. There are community projects that make extreme configurations for Crysis, because that also shipped in the game but we just didn't enable it, because people would have "cried" even more then. They'd have said they need a PC that doesn't even exist today to play it...


But our intention was benevolent, but it backfired on us because people said they couldn't max out their settings. But maxing out isn't the point - we have a game that if you can max it out, it's ahead of anything else by a big margin. That backfired with people telling us they could max out other games...yes, but they don't offer two more generations...


Q:
Wouldn't it just have been a lot more simple to develop games for consoles?


Cevat Yerli:


Well, it's true in that respect that console development is quite a lot easier, because you only have one configuration, and if you find an optimum set of engine features, and work towards that, it's certainly better internally.


We've been investigating consoles for almost two and a half years now, and I wouldn't be surprised if something comes up for consoles from us. I think the experience we have from PC will help us to make better console games in fact.


But it's true - life is a lot easier with a fixed platform compared to a moving platform, but we saw PC as our strength, and we wanted to make the PC gamer happy - they're all about the platform, they want the best experience for their PC, but later on if they buy a new PC, they want to still be able to play the classic games without them getting old.


That was my thinking as a PC gamer - if I boot up Crysis in three years, and we make the settings configuration official from Crytek, I'll be able to scale the game up to hold its own with the best games then, in the future, because it has built-in scalability.


Q:
Do you think the game will have a long tail then?


Cevat Yerli:


Frankly, and it sounds a bit strange from a business perspective, but there was no interest in making sales long term - it was just to offer those people that bought Crysis the knowledge that further down the line they can discover a visual experience in the game that they won't have seen before.


Our investment was purely on the future benefits of the gamer, and not about creating massive sales in two years - we never believed in massive sales after two years.


Q:
And I guess there will be other products, like Warhead, to take its place?


Cevat Yerli:


To some extent I think that will happen, but I think also Warhead will be another natural entry point into the franchise - if you like that you can move on to Crysis. We're looking at Warhead as a game that appeals to a wider audience that potentially hasn't played Crysis, and if they like it they can move on to Crysis.


Q:
You've been working very closely with EA - how's that relationship continuing?


Cevat Yerli:


Great - pretty good actually, it's been quite solid. We'll see what happens in the future, but I think we'll continue having good relations.


Q:
What have they been like to work with as a publishing partner? What's the main area of support they've provided you?


Cevat Yerli:


EA's been supportive in the sense that they haven't interfered in the development too much - people on the outside might think they would interfere with the concept and the development, but it's simply not the case. In some other areas we've received benefits in terms of market research, and how we could market the titles more efficitently.


But for Crysis specifically, it was a difficult situation - I think EA did as well as they could in terms of getting the game out. For the timing, it was the most intense release window for new titles in the history of the industry, but we held up pretty well against the competition, because Crysis was a well-known IP by then.


Our Google ranking was over 25 million hits for Crysis, and EA was instrumental in getting that IP out there, so they did a great job and I think that's where we benefited most.


Q:
The industry's changed a lot since Crytek first started - what do you feel you've learned in that time on the business side?


Cevat Yerli:


I think the number one thing we learned was to be agile and iterative - we knew that already, but that thought was confirmed. Always stay independent, agile and iterative, but when I say that it doesn't mean necessarily being independent of a publisher, but being having the ability to make decisions.


Then if you want to make iterations, it means you need to be able to cycle through changes quickly, and again you can't need to ask somebody before you make changes. So independence doesn't necessarily mean financial or business independence - that's one idea to aim for - but also within the structure of the company.


Because if you look at it, the bottom line with Crytek, whatever we did so far, whether it's technical, vision, gameplay, audio - everything was an achievement of a certain quality bar - but we established those areas as independent units in our organisational structure.


So within the team you can have smaller teams of five or six people that are independent of the larger team - and that's what it was all about, so that we could maintain that agility, those iterative principles, or our company.


That allows us to get better games out there faster, because at the end of the day efficiency in releasing a game is the most important thing in coming to market - how you get your idea out. Crysis could have been faster, but frankly we had to move on, and for every mistake we made, there were 20 or 30 things that we did right.


So the good things outweigh the bad, you can create faster, and you're independent in your organisation, at the end of the day that brings efficiency.


Q:
Do you think it's harder for a company to set up now that it was when Crytek first started?


Cevat Yerli:


Absolutely, nowadays I don't think Crytek could have set up. It wouldn't exist. The situation has changed drastically, the competition is more serious, companies have consolidated, costs have increased, the platforms are getting more difficult to enter, and so on.


For example, to make a next-gen PC title entering the market now we'd need about EUR 10-12 million, even for a newcomer, to make an FPS as good as Far Cry was back then. To get the trust and commitment from a publisher for a newby studio...I think it's quite impossible.


Q:
So what's the best thing for any new games studio to focus on now then? What would you advise?


Cevat Yerli:


From the concept perspective, don't rely on anything that's about realism or technology, focus on something that involves creativity and gameplay. No new company can really compete on production values.


The second thing on the business perspective I would suggest looking at digital distribution - whether it's you or a publisher distributing it, it doesn't matter, but prepare for that market. Then you've already narrowed down your choice of platforms, which is either PC, mobile/iPhone, modding potentially, XBLA and PSN.


Then it's about finding the right partner to fund it, with a concept that is small enough but creative enough to bring it to the market. With any of those platforms you can get a fraction of what you'd need for a triple-A title, you could work on a prototype with four or five friends, in fact.


Then pitch a playable version, and if your core idea and concept convinces, then you might get support for production values.



Cevat Yerli is the CEO and president of Crytek. Interview by Phil Elliott.



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Crysis Warhead - System Requirements Revealed

Electronic Arts has revealed the system requirements to Crysis Warhead via its online store. While the original Crysis was universally praised for its graphics, many gamers were intimidated with the first-person shooter's system requirements. Crytek President Cevat Yerli has said that Crysis Warhead, the follow-up to the 2007 shooter, would be better optimized for a wider range of computers and should run anywhere between 30-35 frames per second at high settings on a $620 rig. To see if his word holds up, you can take a look below:


CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista), Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista), AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or better
RAM: 1GB (1.5GB on Windows Vista)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Radeon X800 Pro for Vista) or better
VRAM: 256MB of Graphics Memory
Storage: 15GB
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible
ODD: DVD-ROM
OS: Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Microsoft Vista
DirectX: DX9.0c or DX10


While the technical specifications are nearly identical to the recommended specs of the original Crysis, three more gigs of hard drive space are required for Warhead. Gamers can test out their gaming rigs when Warhead launches on September 16.

Crysis Warhead Due Next Month

Crytek has announced that Crysis Warhead, the follow up to last year's graphical stunner Crysis, is set for release in North America on September 16 and Europe on September 12. Moreover, if you're planning on purchasing Warhead, Electronic Arts (the game's publisher) has announced that you can pre-order it on their online store and pay $24.95, five bucks less than the normal price.

But that is not all - also announced was Crysis Wars, a new multiplayer feature in Crysis Warhead that will come with three modes of play: InstantAction and PowerStruggle from the original Crysis, and the new TeamInstantAction mode that, obviously, adds teams to the mix. Crysis Wars will include 21 maps in total, including six new maps for TeamInstantAction and InstantAction, and one new map for PowerStruggle.

"We designed Warhead to be more accessible for gamers new to the Crysis franchise," said Cevat Yerli, CEO and president of Crytek. "It is a game with a story that can stand on its own, it has been optimized to run better on a wider range of PCs, and we are introducing Crysis Wars, a tailor-made experience for multiplayer gamers within the Crysis universe - all at a great value."

Crysis Warhead's story takes place concurrently with the original Crysis, following the exploits of Sergeant "Psycho" Sikes, who was wreaking havoc on the opposite side of the island from where the original Crysis took place. For more on what to expect from the game and how it's shaping up, check out our hands-on preview from E3 last month.

Crysis Warhead - First Details on Multiplayer Crysis Wars

Gamespot published interview with multiplayer producer Eric Lagel and producer Bernd Diemer

First-person shooters aren't just action-packed games that let you play as a gun-toting commando. Often, they're also used as showcases for impressive new technology. 2007's Crysis was such a shooter--a beautiful-looking action game that pushed most PCs to their limits, even as it featured intriguing gameplay that combined heavy-duty gunplay with superhuman powers offered by your character's experimental "nanosuit." Now, developer Crytek is working with its Budapest studio to bring back all the action from last year's excellent game, plus more, in its stand-alone follow-up, Crysis Warhead. Warhead will also debut a completely revamped version of Crysis multiplayer known as Crysis Wars. We have the first details from multiplayer producer Eric Lagel and producer Bernd Diemer.

GameSpot: The big news we can finally talk about in Warhead is the revised and expanded multiplayer, which has been renamed as Crysis Wars. What's the deal with the new name? Give us an overview of what we can expect.

Eric Lagel: Crysis Wars is a new brand, a way to tell the players that we aim to deliver a game that has been refined and rebalanced to exclusively match multiplayer expectations. We have been reading the community feedback and have improved many aspects of the game, [including] balance, cheat protection, performance, [and] accessibility. Creating Crysis Wars is a strong signal from Crytek to say that we have ambitions in the online multiplayer environment, and want to improve and refine Crysis' multiplayer [to be] as close to perfection as possible.

Crysis Warhead will introduce all-new multiplayer options in Crysis Wars

GS: How will the core multiplayer gameplay of Crysis be improved in Crysis Wars? How will the use of nanosuits and vehicles be tweaked, for instance? Are any of Crysis Wars' new multiplayer elements the result of elements that didn't quite make it into the original game, such as capture the flag?

EL: There is a lot that has been tweaked and improved in Crysis Wars. The nanosuit now regenerates faster in order to [let players use it] more often, but also doesn't regenerate while you are in combat for better readability. The whole weapon system has been rebalanced in order to provide a faster frag rate, within a consistent pricing system. Vehicles have been rebalanced to reduce the VTOL overpowered position; to provide a better driving sensation for cars; and to have better survivability for tanks against rockets, amongst other things. The new Team Instant Action game mode is certainly a delivery that we hoped we could have delivered with Crysis, but we needed to work on it more. Now it arrives in Crysis Wars.

GS: Power Struggle was a unique multiplayer mode, to say the least. Including nano powers, awesome vehicles, huge maps, and our favorite, the suitcase nuke, Power Struggle set the stage for some awesome online gaming. What changes are you looking at in Crysis Wars?

EL: The changes we have been focusing on in Crysis Wars are towards accessibility and streamlining of the experience. We have reworked the HUD elements to provide a better understanding of the session progress, while also simplifying the rules and the objectives to follow. In this revamped Power Struggle, we have kept everything that made this mode special, and improved its pace with clearly defined objectives, a tighter fighting frame, and simplified rules to avoid stalemates and blocked situations.

GS: The Instant Action mode was basically a typical deathmatch with the addition of Crysis' trademark nanosuit powers. How have you improved instant action in Crysis Wars?

EL: Instant Action has actually been indirectly benefiting from the progress made through the development of Team Instant Action. You will find that the new maps allow players to take advantage of the nanosuit capabilities in a much-improved way. The weapon rebalancing and the nanosuit improvements make for a refined Instant Action experience.

GS: Switching gears to talk about the single-player game, we understand that the main character in Crysis Warhead is Sykes, a soldier so headstrong and dangerous in the field that he carries the nickname "Psycho." Since Warhead takes place at the same time as the original Crysis, what is Sykes' mission, and what are some of the new areas on the island that we'll see?

Bernd Diemer: In [the original] Crysis, you part company with Sykes during the assault mission after he gives the player sniper cover, and a couple hours later, you meet him again on the deck of the aircraft carrier. Warhead tells the story of his adventures.

His mission takes him to the other side of the island, where life is very exiting. He is dropped right into the action. He has to fight his way through North Korean soldiers, aliens, and other obstacles in a race to catch up with his nemesis, wreaking havoc along the way.

As for the new environments...we've decided to keep our cards very close to our chest this time to let players be surprised and hopefully amazed.

GS: Since Warhead aims to be more action-oriented than Crysis, can you give us an example of an over-the-top action sequence you had while playing as Sykes?

BD: There is a lot of action to be had in Warhead, and we made sure Sykes has the right tools in addition to the nanosuit to make the most of it.

GS: You've already announced Warhead as PC-exclusive, but there's no doubt there are a lot of console gamers salivating for Crytek games. Do you think Crytek will develop console games in the near future?

BD: The inevitable question. We love doing PC games, and strongly believe in the PC as a gaming platform. As a studio we are thinking about other platforms as well. We have no set plans so far, but anything is possible.

Crysis Warhead's single-player game will put more focus on explosive action

GS: Crysis Warhead is your first project with your new Budapest studio. What challenges did you have using an outside studio for the first time, and how do you think Warhead compares in quality to the original Crysis?

BD: We do not see the Budapest studio as an outside studio. They are self-sufficient and have creative ownership of Warhead but are a part of the Crytek family. I first met the Budapest team when we were [finishing] Crysis and everybody was really busy. The core team flew to Frankfurt to meet the Crysis team--to get familiar with the engine and tools and to talk about what projects they could do.

We basically started with the main character and developed the design from there (Sykes and his explosive approach to problems and obstacles). The team did a couple of gameplay and visual prototypes, called a meeting to show what Warhead could be, and everybody was amazed.

After everybody picked up their jaws from the floor it was clear that this was beyond the scope of a classic expansion pack, so we decided to make it a stand-alone installment.

GS: Remember a few years ago when simply shooting trees in demos of Crysis blew everyone's mind? What graphical flourishes will blow our minds in Warhead?

BD: I remember the trees very well. When we demoed Crysis for the first time at E3, everybody shot trees. When we drove back to the hotel, I wanted to shoot every palm tree I saw. I dreamed of shooting trees. At Crytek, we make sure that there are what we call "Wow moments" in every level. For example, the ice shaders are absolutely stunning. We also have global ambient lighting--you could call it the Warhead shader, it makes the world gritty and sharper.

GS: Thanks for your time.

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