CryENGINE 2 to be demonstrated on XBOX 360 and PS3
At GDC this year, those wonderfully talented bods at Crytek, will show off the engine that powers the graphically staggering Crysis on the XBOX 360 and PS3 platforms. Make no mistake people this is significant currently for one reason and one reason only… EA get to fulfill their mantra of releasing games on as many formats as they can and will bring the PC FPS Opus to the next-gen (when does it become current gen?) console market.
This is significant to you for three reasons.
Firstly, Crysis is one of the most beautiful and intricately structured shooters since Half-Life 2.
Secondly, you don’t have to pay £700/£800 for a PC rig just to play the darn thing.
Lastly, those of your friends who did, will, in all likelihood be crying into the beer when they realise you will be able to play the game on a £200 console.
Again, nothing official has been announced regarding a conversion, but surely logic dictates that it surely has to be a matter of time and an obvious conclusion to the demonstration to the CryENGINE 2 tech… Unless of course we get an orginal IP using the engine, which is unlikely given the current popularity of the Crysis IP already.
What do you think folks?
BitSnark 
I think this is fantastic news, should go some way to show the true power of current console hardware. However i do have my reservations as to the quality of the port and indeed the ‘nature’ of the port.
Could we really see a ‘doom 3 on xbox’ level of quality for crysis on the 360/ps3? Or is it more likely we’ll see a game that indeed features the title ‘crysis’ but is more akin to far-cry instincts on the original xbox?
The main issue the crytek guys will have, i believe, is the limited amount of ram. The game world in crysis is huge, seriously over detailed too boot. Its not just a case of adding streaming world content ala: oblivion; the level of physics; lighting; shadows and everything else all going on at once would surely push the limited ram of either console. Be interesting to see if they really can pull this off however.
Anonymous
February 1, 2008 at 10:36 am
With the limitations that are prevlant on both machines – lack of GPU horsepower on 360 and silly non-unified RAM on PS3, any possiblity of a Crysis conversion would be a tall order certainly.
I agree that it’s highly likely that we’ll see an ‘Instincts’ version of Crysis, a somewhat diluted experience compared to it’s PC counterpart.
That said, it all depends on how ballsy Crytek are, in that if they think they can get a good conversion from the current tech then more than likely they’ll go for it. The issue obviously will be the result of that conversion – would we get a conversion like XBOX Doom 3, or would we get a crappy framerate, nasty loading times and glitching out the ass (I’m looking in your direction Half-Life 2 on XBOX).
Regardless of how it goes though, EA WILL get Crysis out there one way or another and will, regardless of the conversion, get people to plonk down the greens and sterling based purely on the IP.
Still a sadistic side of me would like to see if they can get the PC version wholesale over to the consoles, y’know, just to see what a trainwreck they would make of it.
Time will tell I guess 🙂
bitsnark
February 3, 2008 at 10:24 pm