NVISION 08 | DAY ONE

by John Gaudiosi

Come September 18, the world can play Electronic Arts and Crytek's sequel to last year's PC Game of the Year -- Crysis Warhead. And the cost of admission is only $30. Bernd Diemer, producer of Crysis Warhead, was on hand at NVISION 08 at the Games Showcase in the HD Theater to talk about the single-player and multiplayer options for this new sci-fi PC shooter.

Crysis Warhead, the newest installment in the Crysis universe, is a stand-alone game. In fact, it's actually two games in one with Warhead offering a single player action adventure and Crysis Wars serving up multiplayer online warfare.

In the single player campaign, players assume the role of Sergeant. Sykes (aka Psycho) and discover what happened on the other side of the island. The plan was for Crytek to make a game more action-packed than the first one. That's why they chose Pycho.

"If you played the original game, you’ll remember Psycho as this very impulsive British dude," said Diemer. "The game’s very intense, explosive and in-your-face. You don’t need to be familiar with the original game because this is a parallel story that takes place on the other side of the island."

Warhead all the key elements of the original, including the open sandbox gameplay and the nanosuit that adapts to different situations using things like speed, cloak and armor. The game also offers stunning graphics and customizable weapons and vehicles.

"It's a slightly shorter single player experience than the original, but much more open-ended so the replayability is higher," said Diemer. "You can play it through many times and the experience will be different. You can use different paths and find new things."

The game clocks in at about eight hours in a go-round but Diemer said members of his team have played it hundreds of times because of all of the variables at play.

Crysis Warhead runs on an optimized version of the CryEngine 2. The team worked hard to make it run better on lower spec machines. As a result, Warhead can be played on a $650 PC. But for hardcore PC gamers, Diemer said the game will look amazing. Everything is scalable, so gamers can get the most of the experience.

"We've improved the visuals through global ambient lighting, which makes better use of lighting and shadows," said Diemer. "You can see really fine details like the pores of someone’s face. We’ve enhanced the explosions -- and there are a lot of them -- and they look amazing now. We have parallex mapping, which enhances normal and bump mapping to give you more depth and make everything look and feel more real."

Other new features include screen space ambient occlusion, sub surface scattering, and bloom effects, as well as photo filter. Diemer said Crytek has some really talented artists that can change the environmental picture to make it match up with their vision and mood to make it lighter or darker.

Other new additions to the game include new critters to interact with, new customizable weapons and vehicles (including a hovercraft), and a more diverse gameplay experience. For nubes, in the Easy and Normal modes, you’ll automatically pick up ammo and weapons to make it a quicker and more streamlined experience.

Crysis Wars features 21 maps in total, including seven new maps designed for this sequel. The game includes auto patching and auto map download, as well as an improved HUD for better accessibility.

Depending on the game mode, up to 32 players can compete online. The largest game mode, Power Struggle, has big maps with 32 players for 16 versus 16 combat. Team Instant Action has smaller maps and is focused on five versus five gameplay.

"The technology performance is getting better, which has improved the framerate," said Diemer. "The engine is stabilized the client and serve runs great for an uninterrupted gameplay experience."