Instead of low, medium, high and very high, Crysis Warhead offered by minimum, mainstream, gamer and enthusiast. Addressing user perception, Crytek simply renamed the settings. First of all, perception of the settings would change and specific optimisations were made to target the realities of PC games machines, but without having to rework the whole engine. The CPU world was moving wider, delivering more cores and threads, as opposed to concentrating on single-thread performance and frequency where CryEngine 2 would stand to benefit more.Ĭrytek's response for Warhead was twofold. Unfortunately, there was no similar uplift in CPU performance, despite the arrival of the incredible Core i7 920 based on Intel's groundbreaking Nehalem design. The Nvidia GTX 280 delivered a 55 per cent performance bump compared to the last-gen 8800 GTX flagship, with the GTX 270 still up to 29 per cet better than the same card. AI also opened up, with more interesting behaviour from the Nanosuited North Koreans and revamped aliens, including new types not seen in the original game.įrom a performance and optimisation perspective, Crytek needed to optimise but it could also lean into the arrival of a new generation of GPUs. Perhaps taking inspiration from Halo, alien encounters were more free-form and engaging, with main protagonist Psycho able to mix it up with both xenomorphs and North Koreans in the same combat scenarios - something we didn't see in the first Crysis. Thankfully, changes to the game to tackle the other issues were handled more comprehensively and with less of a sledgehammer approach.įrom a design perspective, Warhead addressed the alien controversy by integrating them into the main combat and gameplay scenarios that the first game was lauded for. ![]() To address piracy concerns, somewhat heavy and oppressive SecuROM DRM was added, limited to just five activations. The new game started production in May 2007, going gold in August 2008. It was the first title to utilise its new multi-studio strategy, with development primarily driven by Crytek's new Budapest-based satellie studio - albeit with support from the Frankfurt mothership. Revisiting Crysis Warhead - how did it attempt to improve on the original and how well does it hold up today?Ĭrysis Warhead was an attempt to remedy all of these issues. ![]() Understandably, spending $22m on a multi-year development for a single platform presents issues if the vast majority of your players are acquiring the game for free. Crysis sold nearly one million copies in two months, but it was also reportedly one of the most pirated games ever, with Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli claimed that there was a 20:1 ratio of pirates to paying customers. Indeed, as we've demonstrated in the past, even modern PCs with top-tier processors have a hard time delivering consistent performance.īeyond that, there were concerns from Crytek itself based return on investment - ROI. Even then, a number of levels strained the CPU due to Crysis being a very single-threaded game - even with overclocks, CPUs like the Q6600 would struggle to do much on the highest settings in levels like Ascension. Indeed, even turning up graphics to very high didn't deliver a playable experience on any but the most powerful 8800 GTX or SLI set-ups back in 2007. Beyond gameplay critiques, Crysis' lofty system requirements and ultra-high end graphics didn't go down well with users and reviewers of the time, to the point where even one of the best cards of the era - the GeForce 8800 GT - could struggle. Then there were the technical challenges in running the game that became the series' hallmark. The freeform 'wide linear' gameplay Crysis was feted for was all but forgotten, while the aliens themselves were perhaps rather one-note. While I may personally look back at the original game in its entirety rather fondly, a number of players and reviewers disliked the last third of the game, where you engage the alien threat in a more linear fashion. ![]() Firstly, in terms of design, it attempts to address core criticisms to the gameplay of Crysis itself. Warhead is both a continuation and an expansion for the original release but also a response to its many criticisms. With Crysis Remastered looming on the horizon, we wanted to look back at the game, to get a handle on its successes and failures and to answer the question: why is Crysis Warhead so often overlooked? Crysis Warhead is a PC exclusive standalone, released just under a year after the original, unclouded by the change of ambition and setting brought about by the multi-platform orientated Crysis 2. Crysis is legendary, seared into the mind of a PC generation - but one chapter of the saga is at best neglected, at worst all but forgotten.
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