Crytek is supporting official mods for Crysis and is monitoring the development and progress of these projects. Obsidian Edge II: Theatre of War is the sequel to the original mod made for Far Cry, and will be based on using stealth tactics to overcome the enemy. Ten multiplayer modes and ten single-player missions are currently in development, which will most likely set back its public distribution to a month or two after Crysis is released. A second mod that Crytek is endorsing is Navy SEALS: Covert Wars, which will mix in role playing elements to the tactical shooter, and is on schedule to be distributed on the game’s release date. Another pre-planned mod is Stepping Stones: Pacific Theatre, although Crytek has not yet given the development team the SDK in order to start creating it. It seeks to recreate both the famous and minor battles of World War II and put the player in the shoes of a common soldier, all the while creating a realistic feel by making the vehicles, weapons, and environment historically correct. Crysis will come with a sandbox editor that will allow anyone to create and edit custom maps, all of which will have multiplayer support.
“Don’t shoot! Appreciate the scenery!”
CryENGINE2 will be among the first game engines to utilize the DirectX 10 framework in Windows Vista. Two-dimensional clouds are a thing of the past; Crysis will have clouds with depth and volume. Maps will be rendered in real time, meaning the angle of light and shadows will change as time passes. The sea will be ever-changing, as wind patterns will affect the waves, creating shadows and highlights underwater. Motion blur and depth of field will simulate real human vision, as things will come in and out of focus depending on how far they are and how fast they are moving. Facial animations for troops are captured from real humans’ expressions, creating a level of realism never before experienced in a game. Environments will be destructible, meaning forests can be cleared and components of vehicles can be blown off their chassis. Advanced rope physics will allow vegetation to bend and sway with the wind and rain, as well as creating rope bridges that will respond to players’ movements. Other features that the engine will support are subsurface scattering, parallax mapping, HDR lighting, advanced particle mechanics, occlusion mapping, and parametric skeletal animation. In addition, draw distances will be up to 16 km, meaning you can see everything from one end of the island to the other.
The artificial intelligence in Crysis will be some of the most advanced and realistic simulations of human behavior ever seen. Enemy soldiers will constantly challenge the player with tactical maneuvers such as setting up ambushes amongst the scenery, working together in groups, and adapting to any changes in the environment or surroundings. The AI will respond to sound and even notice when a player makes too much noise moving through the forest. The troops will display typical human behavior when not in combat as well, such as smoking, yawning, talking with each other, waxing cars, patrolling the area, and/or saluting superior officers, among other actions.
Although Crysis could undoubtedly take a toll on even the most expensive gaming rig, Crytek has announced that it will be playable on computers a couple years old, running on Windows XP. That’s good news, considering Nvidia’s GeForce 8800 series is the only lineup of graphics cards that even supports DirectX 10. In the past few years, as developers and consumers have moved towards the more standardized system specifications that consoles have brought, the PC fanbase has been steadily declining; however, with the constantly released graphics cards and processors that only PC users will be able to take advantage of, computer games will always have the advantage as far as performance goes. The question as to how much longer the PC will survive in the industry is left unanswered for now, but it’s clear from upcoming games like Crysis that it still has a few good years left in it, if not more.
Game Reviews Index
