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On June 26th, 2011 in Wii


German developer Crytek, known for Far Cry, Crysis 1 and 2, and one of the prettiest engines, CryEngine, has confirmed that it’s working on a Wii U version of its latest engine, CryEngine 3. CryEngine 3 was properly showcased earlier this year with the release of Crysis 2, although some have argued that it wasn’t as good as the previous version, since it was optimized to run on consoles, in addition to the PC.

Crytek is expected to deliver a DirectX 11 patch for Crysis 2 on PC next month, which will greatly improve the looks of the game. The engine is available for licensing to third party developers at a price of $1.8 million per project.

On June 15th, 2011 in PC

In case you wanted Crysis 2 on Steam today, you’re out of luck: CryTek’s FPS, among other EA titles, are gone from Steam. This is most likely EA preparing to offer its own exclusive titles to its Origin download service, but EA has issues a statement saying otherwise:

According to EA, Crytek “has an agreement with another download service which violates some new rules imposed by Steam, resulting in the expulsion of Crysis 2 from Steam,”, EA told gaming site Giant Bomb. Apparently, new Steam rules forbid certain games from being offered on other services, but this is unconfirmed.

There are still a few AAA titles from EA on Steam, including Bad Company 2, Bulletstorm and Dragon Age 2. EA has said that they intend to have exclusive titles for their new Origin service, including tar Wars: The Old Republic.

On April 26th, 2011 in PC

There are many different FPS games on the market with behemoths like Call of Duty largely ruling the scene. However, Crytek recently came forth to release Crysis 2 which takes the Call of Duty gameplay we’ve all come to know and love and adds in a whole slew of futuristic tools at the player’s disposal. Unfortunately seeing how the game is quite new it still retails for $60 at many different outlets. The good news? Amazon.com is cutting gamers like us a deal by dropping the game down to just $39.95.

Seeing how the promotion is set to last for today only, if you’re looking to get down on it you better do so fast. Check out the listing here.

On April 8th, 2011 in PC

Crytek’s Crysis franchise is without a doubt one of the the best looking games to ever hit the streets. In fact, the first entry into the franchise required such high tech hardware that many folks couldn’t even run it. Luckily, Crytek has taken to consoles with their latest title appropriately dubbed Crysis 2 which has given many more gamers access to the beautiful looking game. However, while the game looks quite good on the console there’s no denying the fact that at the highest settings the PC version blows it away. But, many PC gamers have been angry about the fact that the game is essentially a console to PC port rather than the opposite. Another thing that has pissed them off is the fact that the game did not ship with functionality for Direct X 11.

Luckily, it’s just been made known that Crytek will be answering the cries of PC gamers everywhere by releasing a DirectX 11 update for the game. Now, it’s not known exactly when the update will be coming out just yet so you’re going to sit tight until further information is made known.

On April 4th, 2011 in PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360


Crytek’s sci-fi shooter managed to hold on to the top sales spot in the UK market last week, barely beating out Zumba Fitness for the top spot — the no.1 spot separated Crysis and Zumba Fitness by less than 500 copies sold. The top 3 was finished by the latest entry in the LEGO Star Wars series, Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars.

Need for Speed Shift 2 (read our review of Shift 2) debuted on the no. 4 spot, which isn’t that bad. Sci-fi shooter Homefront finished fifth, after debuting at the no. 2 spot last week. The full top 10 best selling UK games for the week ending April 2:

  1. Crysis 2
  2. Zumba Fitness
  3. Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars
  4. Shift 2: Unleashed
  5. Homefront
  6. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters
  7. WWE All Stars
  8. FIFA 11
  9. Pokemon White Version
  10. Art Academy
On March 30th, 2011 in PC

In this day and age gamers are doing everything they can to gain an edge over one another. Unfortunately many times this means cheating in one form or another be it exploiting an in game glitch or using a modified console. In first person shooter games in particular this seems to happen more often than not and Crytek’s recently released Crysis 2 seems to be no different.

Luckily, Crytek seems to be jumping on this problem sooner rather than later releasing a statement today that they are doing what they can to not only eliminate the exploits that give some gamers an unfair advantage while also penalizing the players that actually choose to utilize these exploits.

So folks, in a nutshell, don’t cheat on Crysis 2 or else Crytek will find you and it won’t be pretty.

On March 28th, 2011 in PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Crysis 2 has seen solid reviews since its release (read our Crysis 2 review here), and the game has sold steadily as well, rising to the top of the sales charts i the UK for the week ending March 26. It’s worth noting that 57 percent of Crysis 2 sales were on the Xbox 360, 29 percent on PS3 and just 14 percent on PC. However, the sales tracker doesn’t include digital PC sales of the game, so it’s likely that the number is larger, perhaps at 20 percent. But the huge console sales do show why developer Crytek focused on consoles first with the game, and PC second. It all makes sense now. As for the full sales chart, you can find it below. It’s good to see Homefront is still hanging in there.

  1. Crysis 2
  2. Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars
  3. Homefront
  4. Super Street Fighter 4 3D Edition
  5. Pokemon White Version
  6. Pilotwings Resort
  7. Pokemon Black Version
  8. The Sims: Medieval
  9. Rayman 3D
  10. FIFA 11
On March 23rd, 2011 in PC, Reviews

“But can it run Crysis”, has become a meme since the original Crysis was released, a game that was notoriously hard on even the highest end PC systems. And still to this day, it’s one of the most realistic looking games you can get. So it’s with great anticipation that PC system owners are looking forward to Crysis 2, too bad the game has been “consolized” to some extent, meaning that the visuals aren’t as groundbreaking as they were before. But they’re still very, very pretty. And the game isn’t that bad either. Read on for our full Crysis 2 review.

Crysis 2 is set in New York City, which has come under attack from aliens, and you, sporting your trusty Nano suit, get to kick a lot of ass. The game isn’t as open as the previous Crysis, where you could roam the island and do what you want, Crysis 2 in comparison is a lot more streamlined and linear, but fortunately, not as linear as, say, Call of Duty. The combat is great and your three suit functions: strength, armor and stealth add depth to the gameplay, where you have to decide how to attack a certain objective (and make sure that your suit energy doesn’t run out). However, the great gun play and action is somewhat inhibited by a disappointing AI, which isn’t as smart as we anticipated in a title like this. In many ways, the AI in Crysis 1 felt smarter. Some times, you’ll attack enemies and they won’t respond, or will notice you but won’t fire. But it’s never a huge issue in the game, and it doesn’t affect the campaign to much. And may we add, the singleplayer campaign is great, albeit a bit too linear, but thoroughly enjoyable.

The same can’t be said about multiplayer. Up to 16 players can duke it out in what we can only describe as Call of Duty: Future Warfare. The amount of features Crysis 2 “borrows” from Call of Duty is staggering, down to the point where you need a certain level to join certain game types. And the nano suit, which is also available in multiplayer, offers lots of unbalancing issues. It just feels that Crysis 2 could have tried something new with multiplayer, but instead opted for the obvious choices that everyone else is doing.

Visually, the game is a looker, but PC owners might be a bit disappointed, seeing how the game was developed with consoles in mind. The PC version doesn’t support DirectX 11 and isn’t visually as revolutionizing as its predecessor, but we really can’t complain about the looks of the game: it looks gorgeous! We reviewed the PC version, but briefly played the Xbox 360 version, and it was one of the best looking games we’ve played on that console. But even on the Xbox 360, as with the PC version, there are some technical issues like frame rate drops, some texture popping and shadows sometimes tend to disappear. Overall, Crysis 2 is a solid shooter, and one of the better looking ones. Too bad the multiplayer is too by-the-books, with little innovation.

The Good:
Great, intense campaign
Awesome visuals

The Bad:
A few bugs and glitches
Disappointing multiplayer
Bad AI

Overall score: 8/10

On March 1st, 2011 in PlayStation 3

If you’ve been paying attention you’ll surely know that Crytek’s Crysis 2 has been gaining a ton of buzz lately thanks to its over the top gameplay and graphical value. However, until the game is actually released we won’t be able to tell how it does again behemoths like Call of Duty and Halo. Luckily, in the mean time, Crytek has given us a multiplayer beta for the game that will, hopefully, hold us over until 22nd when the game is released for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

When I say Crytek has given us the demo I should clarify that by us I mean Xbox 360 and PC owners who got the demo earlier today. We’ve been looking for information regarding a PS3 demo and today Crytek’s Nathan Camarillo has come forth to announce that the demo will be hitting Sony’s console on March 15th.

Stay tuned.

On February 2nd, 2011 in Uncategorized

When Crysis first hit the scene gamers were amazed by the top notch graphics Crytek managed to display. However, back in 2007 the hardware needed to actually run Crysis properly was quite expensive meaning not everyone was able to bask in its glory. Well, not that Crysis 2 is just over the horizon many have wondered what kind of super machine they will need to render the game.

Crytek, for one, has kept quite about this but EA Germany has come forth on Facebook to let us know the minimum requirements for the game which are listed below.

  • OS: XP/Vista/Windows 7
  • CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo at 2Ghz, AMD Athlon 64 x2 2Ghz or better
  • 2 GB RAM
  • 9 GB hard drive space
  • DVD ROM: 8x
  • NVidia 8800GT 512Mb RAM, ATI 3850HD 512Mb RAM graphics card
  • DirectX 9.0c-compatible audio controller
  • Keyboard, mouse, or Microsoft Xbox 360 controller for Windows
  • Internet connection for activation and online mutiplayer

While these specs aren’t too groundbreaking they may prove themselves to be a bit of a problem for gamers running dated rigs. But then again, what better time to upgrade than now?

READ ON »

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