EA and Crytek have announced the release date for Crysis Warhead. Those of you who were interested in Crysis but found the minimum system specs unreal may find Crysis Warhead will run on your PC.

“We think Crysis Warhead is going to offer a tremendous experience to a wide range of gamers,” said Cevat Yerli, CEO and President of Crytek. “Fans of Crysis are going to enjoy more of the open-ended gameplay, cutting-edge visuals and huge, epic battles from the first game, while also finally finding out what kind of havoc Psycho was wreaking on the other side of the island.

At the same time, we designed Warhead to be more accessible for gamers new to the Crysis franchise. 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.”

Gamers can pick up Crysis Warhead in North America on September 16th and in Europe on September 12th. The EA Store is taking pre-orders at $5 off the retail price. If you’ve got a pretty hefty gaming rig or have made use of Noobs Guide to Optimizing Crysis, you can purchase both Crysis and Crysis Warhead for $10 off.

This probably the largest press release I have ever seen – or at least since I have been at Gaming Today. Normally they are pretty much short, to the point, and padded with overly positive and glowing quotes regarding just how fabulous the announcement is to them or how wonderful it is to work with so and so.

I wonder if we will ever get a press release that includes quotes from people who hated to work with one another? For example: “Bob was drunk all the time and kept playing grab-ass with all the female employees” or “John was such a tyrant that I wanted to spit in his tall-quadruple-half-caff-light-foam-latte with soy milk every morning. God I hated that guy” or “Pete stunk so bad that even after I got home of the evening I could taste cabbage in the air – even in my apartment”.

Anyway, this press release is more or less a massive list of upcoming titles from EA and its studios which will be released around the holidays and into next year. These titles will also be showcased at E3 next week with the initial press conference being hosted by CEO John Riccitiello, will also spotlight many of the creative leaders behind the games.

The complete line-up of titles on display at E3 are as follows:

• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
• Crysis Warhead
• Dead Space
• FaceBreaker
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• HASBRO FAMILY GAME NIGHT
• iPhone/iPod Touch Games from EA Mobile
• iPod Games from EA Mobile
• Left 4 Dead
• LITTLEST PET SHOP
• Madden NFL 09
• Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
• Mirror’s Edge
• Mobile Phone Games from EA Mobile
• Mobile, iPhone & iPod titles
• MySims Kingdom for the Wii and Nintendo DS
• MySims, made for the PC
• NBA LIVE 09
• NCAA FOOTBALL 09
• Rock Band 2
• SimCity Creator for the Wii
• Skate It
• Spore
• The Lord of the Ring: Conquest
• The Sims 2 Apartment Pets for the Nintendo DS
• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09
• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09 for the PSP
• Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
• Zubo

For the full press release including more information on each title listed, as well as the prerequisite “sweet as honey” quotes from EA’s John Riccitiello and John Pleasants, read on after the jump.

Via: Press Release

Read the full article

Instantly upon reading comments from Cevat Yerli, the CEO of Crysis developer Crytek, I thought of something Stardock said back in March: that piracy is not the main issue facing PC games. Yerli seems to disagree, though. In a new interview discussing Crysis Warhead, Yerli said that while the developer made a profit on Crysis and the “real expectations” were met, piracy in PC gaming is very, very bad — to the point where, for every copy of a game that is sold, 20 copies are pirated.

“The other critique outside Crytek was the fact that the PC industry is really, at the moment, I would say the most intensely pirated market ever,” Yerli said, according to GI.biz. “It’s crazy how the ratio between sales to piracy is probably 1 to 15 to 1 to 20 right now. For one sale there are 15 to 20 pirates and pirate versions, and that’s a big shame for the PC industry. I hope with Warhead I hope we improve the situation, but at the same time it may have an impact on [our] PC exclusivity in the future.”

I don’t have specific numbers to cite, but it seems like Yerli is focusing too much on piracy. There’s no doubt that it’s a significant force, but once again, I think about the reasoning Stardock gave as to why they didn’t put copy protection on Sins of a Solar Empire. “We do it because the people who actually buy games don’t like to mess with it. Our customers make the rules, not the pirates. Pirates don’t count. We know our customers could pirate our games if they want but choose to support our efforts. So we return the favor – we make the games they want and deliver them how they want it. This is also known as operating like every other industry outside the PC game industry.”

Crytek clearly has a different mentality. Yerli continued, “Effectively, if the game isn’t an online game or multiplayer game–there are challenges regardless of what you do–the game can be cracked. The effort is to make it more difficult to crack, and certainly we’re going to make it more difficult this time with Warhead.”

It’s difficult to blame companies for wanting to emphasize copy protection. But one has to wonder when a company is spending too much time on copy protection — especially when you consider that if there’s a will, there’s a way, and if pirates want to crack something, they will.

In Crysis Warhead, players will don the Nanosuit of Sergeant Sykes, also known as ‘Psycho’, one of the most memorable characters from Crysis. More brash and aggressive than his Delta Force squadmate Nomad, players will experience Psycho’s parallel story during the events of the original game, finding that life on the other side of the island is even more intense and explosive than they ever could have imagined. Luckily, Psycho’s Nanosuit is just as capable and he’s equipped with an even bigger arsenal of fully customizable weapons and new vehicles, giving players access to the tools they need to dominate any situation.

Aside from this new, exciting single player campaign, Crysis Warhead will also feature new multiplayer content.

Microsoft sent this letter to our inboxes yesterday and to be honest with you I never even gave it a second thought until this morning. What I found hilarious is that the letter states “In the last year, we have helped launch a wide range of stellar PC game titles”. Sure you have, because you have a monopoly with Windows…

Anyway, my hateful tone aside, I honestly have to agree with him. The console is huge right now, but as long as people are using PC’s and Laptops for work or home use, there will always be a demand for gaming on those systems. Unlike a lot of other nay-sayers, I personally do not see PC gaming going the way of the dinosaur anytime soon.

Read the letter:

Growth and Opportunities in PC Gaming

These are exciting times for the PC gaming industry. Over the past couple of years, Microsoft Corp. has increased its focus on investment in Windows gaming because we see the incredible growth and opportunities it represents not just for us, but for the industry at large.

Today I’m excited to report that Microsoft and a growing community of the gaming industry’s leading publishers, hardware manufacturers and retailers have made the Windows-based PC the largest gaming platform in the world. Every major region will see PC gaming continue to grow in audience, game revenue and hardware purchases for the foreseeable future. While the challenges we face as an industry are many, PC gaming has never been stronger, and we’re confident this trend will continue in the years to come.

The past year has seen exponential growth in online activity and sales, continued platform and hardware innovation, and continued success with the Games for Windows branding initiative, which adds prominence, a quality and technical bar, and a consistent look and feel to the retail PC gaming experience.

In the last year, we have helped launch a wide range of stellar PC game titles exclusive to Windows including “World in Conflict,” “Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar” and “Sins of a Solar Empire.” Other popular titles such as “Crysis” and “Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures” have sold and shipped more than 1 million copies, respectively. “Hellgate: London” now has more than 1 million active subscribers.

We are also dedicated to supporting the next generation of PC game developers with XNA Game Studio, a set of free, easy-to-use development tools for Windows-based PCs, Xbox 360 and Zune. Our goal is to assist a growing community of more than 1 million students, hobbyists and independent game developers realize their potential and enhance the Windows gaming ecosystem through their ingenuity.

Later today in San Francisco, Microsoft will be joined by our partners and select press at our Big Picture showcase event, where attendees will experience the PC gaming renaissance firsthand. Top game publisher Activision will premiere upcoming title “Call of Duty: World at War.” Attendees will also be among the first to experience AMD’s new Radeon HD 4800 Series DirectX 10 graphics card, NVIDIA’s new GeForce 9M notebook GPU and other stellar hardware from Dell Inc., HP, Gateway Inc. and Acer Inc.

Also today, 16 titles join the Games for Windows portfolio, including “Call of Duty: World at War” (Activision), “Ghostbusters: The Videogame” (Sierra Entertainment), “Crysis: Warhead,” (EA Partners), and “Zoo Tycoon 2: Ultimate Collection” (Microsoft Game Studios).

The Windows-based PC is the most connected gaming platform on the planet. Microsoft’s continued investments will enable game publishers to take advantage of that connectivity while delivering to consumers the kinds of gaming experiences they will love.

These are exciting times. We’re proud of how far we’ve come and excited for what the future holds.
Here’s to Windows gaming,

John Schappert
Corporate Vice President
LIVE, Software and Services
Microsoft

Thanks to a link provided by VG247, we now have a list of developers confirmed for E3 2008 along with what titles they will be showing off at the event. While the list is still updated regularly, as of this post, this is what you can expect should you be attending.

Akella
Postal III (PC, X360)

Bethesda Softworks
Fallout 3 (PC, PS3, X360)

Capcom
Bionic Commando (PC, PS3, X360)
Bionic Commando Rearmed (PC, PS3, X360)
Capcom Project #1 [untitled] (other)
Capcom Project #2 [untitled] (other)
Dark Void (PC, PS3, X360)
MotoGP 08 (other)
Neopets Puzzle Adventure (PC, Wii)
Plunder (PC, PS3, X360)
Resident Evil 5 (PS3, X360)
Spyborgs (Wii)
Street Fighter IV (PC, PS3, X360)
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PS3, X360)

For the full list, hit the jump.

Read the full article

There’s been some confusion over Crytek’s studio boss Cevat Yerli recently announced that the Crysis series will no longer be exclusive to the PC. It’s no wonder since Crytek has subsequently announced the PC exclusive title Crysis Warhead, leaving console players scratching their heads, and a little disappointed.

Crytek’s business manager, Harald Seeley spoke to Next Generation about the apparent paradox to set players straight.

When Cevat said we would not create new PC exclusives, he was referring to any new projects we will start in the future. Of course Warhead has been under development for quite some time, and we had no desire or intention to disappoint our loyal PC fans. So, after some careful consideration, we decided to continue our support for the PC Crysis franchise with this release. But yes, all new franchises we develop in the future will be created with a cross platform strategy in mind. Of course we’re also aware of the danger of making a game that is only designed for one particular audience and platform, and failing to meet the needs of the others. So any game we create will always offer something unique on each platform and will be carefully tuned to both the capabilities and strengths of that platform, as well as the intended audience.

Seeley also has a few words on copyright protection and piracy, but doesn’t give in to the hysteria plaguing PC developers these days. He also gives gamers a look at the new CryENGINE 2. Catch the full Q&A with Crytek’s Harald Seeley on Next Generation.

Yesterday, Jonathan posted a teaser from the Cyrsis website which contained a screen with the word “Warhead” and not much else. Today though, we received a lovely press release which should make fans of the game pretty darn happy.Crysis Warhead, according to the press release from EA and Crytek, will be a parallel story to Crysis and will ship exclusively for the PC this autumn. Crysis Warhead is the first title to be developed at Crytek´s Budapest studio, and is built on a new, enhanced and optimized version of Crytek’s CryENGINE 2 technology.

In Crysis Warhead, players will don the Nanosuit of Sergeant Sykes, also known as ‘Psycho’, one of the most brash and aggressive member of the Delta Force and especially more so than his squadmate Nomad. Players will experience Psycho’s parallel story during the events of the original game, finding that life on the other side of the island is even more intense and explosive than they ever could have imagined. Luckily, Psycho’s Nanosuit is just as capable and he’s equipped with an even bigger arsenal of fully customizable weapons and new vehicles, giving players access to the tools they need to dominate any situation. Aside from this new single player campaign, Crysis Warhead will also feature new multiplayer content.

Stay tuned for more details headed our way this summer.

Via: Press Release 

Not long ago, Crytek made some cryptic remarks that there would be no further updates to Crysis, while quickly adding that the reason for this would be revealed soon. Well, this might be it…whatever it is. Right now, the official Crysis website is showing a graphic for something called “Crysis Warhead.” Unfortunately, that’s really all we know about it at this time. It could be an expansion, it could be an entirely new game, it could be a console port, it could be a new clothing line. Who knows? Hopefully we’ll get some answers soon; I hate being teased.

Via Crysis Website

As Big Tuesday looms over us, three days from now GTA IV will hit the world upside the head with a baseball bat. While this game is indeed the most anticipated and hyped game to headline gaming news since Halo 3 – I for one will not get to play it with the rest of the world on Tuesday because I am in the process of moving this week. I have sat at my computer for a couple of weeks now, listening to my boyfriend play GTA 1-3, Vice City, and San Andreas in anticipation of his pre-order and while I love the GTA games, I am sick to death of hearing about GTA IV, and because of this franchise hogging my television screen for the past few weeks – I could care less about the launch.

Ok, I am lying. I am just bitter because I will be too busy moving to play the game – and I am sure the folks I work with will rub it in my face like a banana cream pie all next week. They better not though, because I have a general idea of where they all live.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings – which are nothing more than a distraction from the fact that the demos that hit FileFront were nominal again this week. Studies may show that trailers work better when promoting a product than demos, but I personally think that it is only because once a gamer plays a demo, they know how crappy the game is and refuse to buy it. With trailer, you have no idea until it is too late – just like a bad boyfriend or girlfriend.

Here is a list of the demos with the most downloads this week:

• Conflict Desert Storm: A demo version of conflict desert storm, just extract it, some video bugs.co-op. The PC version does not support co-op. The game begins shortly after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990. During an attempt to destroy one of the bridges crossing the Iraq-Kuwait border, sniper Paul Foley is captured, while his other team member is killed. The next morning, John Bradley, a rifleman, and later on, squad leader, is sent in alone to rescue Foley and complete the original mission of destroying the bridge. Shortly after landing, Bradley comes into a firefight with a small force of Iraqi mechanized infantry. Shortly after rescuing Foley, Bradley completes the mission of destroying the bridge, thus slowing the Iraqi advance. From there, the squad carries out various missions, such as rescuing the Emir of Kuwait, engaging Iraqi forces in the Battle of Khafji, destroying Iraqi early-warning radar, rescuing POWs from Baghdad, and leading an advance element of U.S. cavalry in a fight with the Tawalkana Division of the Iraqi Republican Guard. Also the player protects a scientist whose purpose is to disarm a nuclear warhead for an ICBM, collect plutonium to prevent the creation of more nuclear warheads and later go after General Aziz who at least in the game is the Iraqi Supreme Commander and who’s death will shorten the war as he doesn’t want to give up.

• I Wanna Be The Guy Demo: I Wanna Be The Guy: The Movie: The Game is a sardonic loveletter to the halcyon days of early American videogaming, packaged as a nail-rippingly difficult platform adventure. Players fill the role of The Kid, a youthful, vaguely Megaman-esque protagonist on a quest to become The Guy. This inscrutable plot, however, is just a vehicle for a wide variety of inventive, well-designed and frustrating jump-and-shoot challenges that pay homage to many of the games you loved as a child. The ever-fragile Kid explodes in a shower of red pixels at the slightest brush from the game’s many obstacles, from traditional spikes and bottomless pits to more unconventional killers, such as plantlife and puzzle pieces. You’ll die a thousand deaths and know you deserved every one of them. All the NES references, like the hundred foot tall fire breathing Mike Tyson, are just icing on the killing-the-hell-out-of-us cake. This demo lets you face 3 bosses.

• Baseball Mogul 2009 Demo: Baseball Mogul 2009 gives you complete control on the field, combined with an easy-to-learn interface and thousands of stats at your fingertips. With customized ratings and head-to-head stats for every player, you have everything you need to win the battle of wits between batter and pitcher.

• WorldShift Multiplayer: Black Sea Studios has released a multiplayer demo for WorldShift. The demo contains two cooperative multiplayer maps (The Lost Coast and Tay-Rammin tundra), also playable 1vs1.

• Voxelstein 3D : FPS game inspired by Wolfenstein 3D. The game uses Ken Silverman’s VOXLAP engine to render voxels in software. The levels in the game are fully destructible – and by fully we mean fully.The game world is built from tiny cubes called voxels. There are over 37 million in the first level. Rendering a world like this is slow (especially without hardware acceleration), but there is an advantage: voxels can be added, removed or otherwise altered very very quickly. This enables all kinds of cool stuff, including fully destructible worlds. Features: Weapons: knife, pistol, chaingun, grenades, C4. Enemies: guard, officer. Many treasures to collect, fully destructible world: blow holes in walls, ceilings, enemies, anywhere. Loads original sounds and music from Wolfenstein 3D. P.S. Check the game directory for a demo of the original Wolfenstein 3D.

Patches are listed below, but I must warn you, there are not too many of those either. The largest ones to hit this week were LotRO: Shadows of Angmar Book 13 and Hellgate: London (single player patch). As always, for more demos and patches, hit the respective links.

The Golden Horde, Seven Kingdoms: Conquest v1.04 , Fate of Hellas, UFO: Afterlight v1.6 , Cabal Online US (04-21-08), and Frontlines: Fuel of War v1.0.2 Ded Server Hotfix