Falcon Northwest Mach V: Fastest PC Yet Runs Crysis at 60FPS [Gizmodo]

Though it's not a popular view, in my mind a lot of gamers are overreacting—look how many people buy music through iTunes, whose DRM mechanics are hardly lenient. That's not meant to be a judgment of right or wrong, it's just an observation that may illustrate the gulf between a certain gamer segment and the larger audience that seems to be continually more frightened away by non-casual PC gaming; I would submit their flight isn't based on activation limits.

I lurk on Reddit lots, and DRM has joined police brutality, atheism and astronomy photos as surefire front page material with predictable, wholly tendentious reactions. The level of outrage, and the demands made of industry actors, often far exceed the actual injury — but it usually does when you're talking about abstract matters like who owns what and what rights a consumer has. That's not to excuse shifty or intellectually dishonest behavior by publishers trying to slide in DRM restrictions without being transparent about it. At least Valve pointed out that Crysis Warhead, has it. But really, Remo says:

I can't help but feel a lot of the vocal protestors are simply getting caught up in the righteous fury of the moment. It looks like we're at five activations per game now, up from three; that's unlimited installs on each of five PCs, as I understand it, and a deauthorization tool is coming. Realistically, how much more do you need? Obviously, it's not as good as "infinity installs (plus one)" but can't we just come to terms with the fact that no amount of internet petitioning or Amazon guerrilla warfare is going to take the activation limit out of the realms of the finite?

Agreed. When every DRM matter is treated with the same level of fury, it makes it hard to pick out which case really is egregious or abusive beyond the pale.

The Origin of the CD-Keys, Part Two {Penny Arcade]

Complete news release is on the jump.

CRYSIS WARHEAD COMING TO STEAM

Latest from Legendary Studio Coming to Leading Online Platform

September 12, 2008 - Crytek and Valve today announced an agreement to bring Crysis Warhead® and Crysis® to Steam, a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC games and digital content with over 15 million accounts around the world.

"The millions of gamers logging into Steam every week to play today's best PC games are going to love Crysis Warhead," said Avni Yerli, Managing Director at Crytek. "Crytek Hungary has done a terrific job creating this new experience while optimizing CryEngine 2, and we're looking forward to delivering it and the original Crysis as our first offerings on Steam."

"Crytek is one of the industry's great success stories, emerging new technology and talent," said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. "Crysis is one of today's leading PC franchises and delivering the original and Crysis Warhead via Steam is landmark for the platform."

The follow up to Crysis, one of the highest rated PC games of last year, Crysis Warhead will take players through the parallel story of Sergeant Michael 'Psycho' Sykes as he embarks on an intense, explosive adventure on the other side of the island. With waves of more challenging human and alien enemies to navigate through, players will once again be outfitted with the revolutionary Nanosuit and an arsenal of new weapons and vehicles to help Psycho complete his critical mission.Crysis Warhead will also come with Crysis Wars®, a tailor-made experience for multiplayer gamers, featuring three diverse match types and 21 maps.

Crysis Warhead and Crysis will be available for pre-purchase via Steam starting this weekend, and expected to be released in mid September. Both games are published by EA Partners. For more details, please visit www.steamgames.com and www.crysiswarhead.com.

We're certainly sad with the results for Flagship and what's happened with Hellgate, because at the time we signed it, we were trying to get involved in a very complicated relationship between Namco and Flagship. We were coming late to the party, and trying to do whatever we could to sprinkle the game magic on the project and get it headed in the right direction.

I think that's an example where all three parties had the best interest of the game in mind, and sometimes the game doesn't work out. Hellgate is still an incredible concept. The guys who worked on it spent thousands of hours trying to make that concept work, and sometimes we just don't see something. Sometimes, we just didn't take enough time. Sometimes, things don't work out the way you expect.

It's kind of like a film with all big stars — on the script, it should be successful, but the movie doesn't turn out as good as everybody hoped. That's why EAP takes a portfolio approach with its games. You have to place a lot of bets, and hope for a lot of hits.

Certainly worth a read through — I always enjoy reading interviews that cover a lot of ground, and this certainly satisfies in that respect.

David DeMartini on the Renaissance of EA Partners [Gamasutra]

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista), Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista), AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or better

RAM: 1GB (1.5GB on Windows Vista)

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Radeon X800 Pro for Vista) or better

VRAM: 256MB of Graphics Memory

Storage: 15GB

Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible

ODD: DVD-ROM

OS: Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Microsoft Vista

DirectX: DX9.0c or DX10

Crysis Warhead [EA]

Said award-winning composer Inon Zur, “CRYSIS is one of the most interesting and challenging games I have scored to date so I am thrilled that it is going to be featured in Video Games Live. I’m very proud and honored to have my music played in this groundbreaking concert series."

The concert is to be held at the 7,000 seat Leipzig arena on Wednesday, August 20th. Not sure if McWhertor or I will be stopping by at this point, but in any case we'll be there in spirit. Or nearby drinking the local spirits. One of those.

WORLD PREMIERE OF CRYSIS TO BE PERFORMED AT VIDEO GAMES LIVE IN LEIPZIG

Performance to be held at 7,000 seat Leipzig Arena during Games Convention

LOS ANGELES, CA – AUGUST 11, 2008 — Video Games Live and German based developer Crytek are pleased to announce the music from the multiple award winning PC blockbuster CRYSIS will make its world premiere on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at the 7,000 seat Leipzig Arena in Leipzig, Germany during the world renowned Games Convention. Recently the “Video Games Live – Volume One” album debuted on the Billboard charts at #10 and in week 2 of the release has climbed to #8 (SOURCE: Billboard Top 10)

Video Games Live is proud to be the official game concert of one of the biggest video game conventions in the world which received over 185,000 people from around the globe in 2007. In celebration of this special concert event, a powerful arrangement of tracks from the modern cinematic score composed by Inon Zur, will be featured for the first time and synchronized to exclusive video footage and state-of-the-art lighting and special effects.

Said award-winning composer Inon Zur, “CRYSIS is one of the most interesting and challenging games I have scored to date so I am thrilled that it is going to be featured in Video Games Live. I’m very proud and honored to have my music played in this groundbreaking concert series." Co-Creator and conductor of Video Games Live, Jack Wall added, “"When we debut a new segment in Video Games Live, it's always a thrill to perform it for the first time in the place where the game was originally created. Playing the world premiere of CRYSIS in Germany is something I am really looking forward to!"

For CRYSIS Inon Zur wrote a modern cinematic score that heightens the impact of the dramatic storyline, realistic environments and highly-evolved gameplay. His CRYSIS compositions feature sweeping themes, immersive setup pieces, intense action music, and "otherworldly" instrumental soundscapes performed by the orchestra to invoke the alien influences in the game.

The Leipzig Games Convention is an annual video game event in Leipzig, Germany, first held in 2002. Its concept was created by the German Federal Association for Entertainment Software amongst others. With 185,000+ visitors, 2,600 journalists and 368 exhibitors from 25 countries in 2007, the Games Convention rivals the Tokyo Game Show as the biggest games event in the world. By comparison, both the Leipzig and Tokyo shows, where gamers of all ages can visit the show floor, were three times the size of the trade-only 2006 E3 show in Los Angeles. The conference takes place in a sprawling modern complex of exhibition halls in Leipzig, Germany.

"What a great honor to be asked by the Leipzig Games Convention to be a part of their incredible convention", said game composer and co-creator of Video Games Live Tommy Tallarico. "We've received so many e-mails and requests over the years to bring our show to Germany, and to finally perform there in such a prominent and prestigious way is very special to us. We're really looking forward to exposing German audiences to our very unique presentation which will include many special guests from around the world.”

Crytek GmbH ("Crytek") creators of the multi-award winning first person shooter Far Cry®, and the recent blockbuster hit Crysis®, awarded best PC Game of both E3 2007 and the 2007 Leipzig Games Convention, and awarded Best Technology at the 2008 Game Developers Choice Awards, is an interactive entertainment development company with its headquarters located in Frankfurt Main, Germany and additional studios in Kiev, Ukraine, Budapest, Hungary and Sofia in Bulgaria. Crytek is dedicated to creating exceptionally high quality video games for the PC and next-generation consoles, powered by their proprietary cutting edge 3D-Game-Technology CryENGINE®2.

The CRYSIS Original Soundtrack is available on CD from Sumthing Else Music Works and for digital download from iTunes and Sumthing Digital. VIDEO GAMES LIVE - VOLUME ONE is currently available wherever music is sold including retail outlets, iTunes, Amazon.com and Walmart.com.

For more information on the composer Inon Zur please visit his official website www.inonzur.com.

Not that we were expecting the Crysis series to be turned on its head, but Crysis Warhead looks perhaps a bit too familiar. Maybe we're reading a bit too much into this action packed teaser trailer for the EA published shooter and, no, it's not a proper sequel and maybe Crytek has already spoiled us with the gorgeous original, but I can't shake the feeling of deja vu.

Crysis Warhead HD [GameTrailers]

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.

Yerli goes on to say that if a game isn't an online multiplayer game, it's up for grabs to piraters, and for that reason the company is spending development effort making Crysis: Warhead more difficult to crack. But if it doesn't pan out, and PC games continue to be pirated at the 15:1 ratio he offers, it's going to affect Crysis' development strategy in the future. "We would only consider full PC exclusives — if the situation continues like this or gets worse — I think we would only consider PC exclusive titles that are either online or multiplayer and no more single-player," Yerli says.

So I guess the message is: PC gamers, stop pirating and start snitching on your friends if you want more exclusives out of Crytek. And to show he's serious, he also tells IGN they're working on a non-Crysis console game.

Cevat Yerli Q&A [IGN]

Crytek is currently working on something for the PlayStation 3, which has been rumored to be an "enhanced" version of Crysis, that may also be multi-platform. Whether that's a PSP spin-off or something totally new altogether, we'll have to wait to find out.

PSP Programmer [Crytek - thanks, Andrew & EN!]

We are aware that this news will disappoint many of you, and we would like to apologize profusely. There is a good reason for this and we hope you understand when you hear more about the reasons why in the very, very near future.

That's awfully mysterious. Hopefully that "good reason" is genuinely a good reason, and there's nothing to worry about, because "we can't be arsed anymore" is not a "good reason".

So, What About Patch 1.3? [Crytek, via Blues News]

Very early on we knew that we wanted to go a completely different direction. Instead of going for the tropical island and trying to go for hyper realism, we changed the setting. First of all we wanted to have a really, really credible environment, but we didn't want to replicate anybody's vacation photos.

Probably smart. Who wants to play somebody's vacation photos anyway?

Far Cry 2 Different [Ubisoft] [Pic]

I was actually pretty surprised to find out how much of a gamer Steven Spielberg is.

He - regularly, when we meet with him - makes references to games that a lot of us game developers haven't played or haven't played in years. But also recent games, like Crysis, he talks a lot about.

As a Chicagoan, when I used to hear "Michael Jordan's Bulls," even with as good as Michael Jordan was, it seemed to sell the incredible Bulls short. Now when I see names like John Woo and Steven Spielberg headlining titles—guys who don't even show up for every game, so to speak—it sure feels like the credit (and I'd guess, the paychecks) are a bit misaligned.

Boom Blox producer impressed by "gamer" Spielberg [Gamesindustry]

We expect the final outcome will result in games that look like they're running at high settings, or nearly high settings, on a PC.

...it won't be a straight conversion of the PC game. We understand PS3 Crysis will be an almost 50% new game, with many of the original games staff taken off PC Crysis months before release to begin to work on Crysis 2 and a port to PS3 that will include aspects of the sequel - but a new structure, environments, weapons and enemies will feature on PS3.

By John Gaudiosi

MONTE CARLO—Cevat Yerli, co-founder, president and CEO of German game developer Crytek, recently was a featured speaker (for the second year running) at Imagina 2008, the annual 3D technology conference in Monaco. Following his discussion on the lessons learned from developing Far Cry and Crysis on CryENGINE and CryENGINE 2, he spoke about the changing face of game development.

Today's landscape has fewer independent game studios, especially on the heels of Electronic Arts acquisition of Bioware and Pandemic. Along with Epic Games and id Software, CryTek remains one of the top independent game makers in the world today.

"The challenge is in the balance of creativity versus funding," said Yerli. "The increasing budgets, more demanding platforms and customer behavior makes it difficult to sustain as an independent company. However, at the same time, new opportunities arise such as in casual online games, but also on games that are on simpler platforms such as Nintendo Wii, Xbox Live or Playstation Networks in the form of smaller game experiences, including but not limited to arcade experiences. I believe (digital distribution) is an opportunity to sustain independence and successful titles through these channels may even be more commercially lucrative than titles released through traditional retail business."

Other opportunities for development include mobile platforms and the professional modding communities. Yerli said the mod community for Crysis (www.crymod.com) is quite active. He added that "if a team would excel with a certain quality development, we would consider it as a professional product."

The advantages of being independent in today's game world is having full creative ownership of one's intellectual properties and the ability to be flexible with which direction to explore next, according to Yerli.

When asked if Crytek would be open to being acquired by a big publisher one day, he responded, "If it were a cultural fit, yes, but we would have strong requirements in addition."

But at this stage, having founded the studio in 1997, Yerli said he doesn't really think about leaving his independent state, although the studio has been approached numerous times since releasing the hits Far Cry and Crysis.

In addition to creating original IP, Crytek is building a business around its technology, but at a slower pace, at least for now, than companies like Epic Games and id Software.

"CryEngine 2 is actively being licensed, but at a lower frequency, intentionally, to fulfill our obligations, to learn from this and to sustain a qualitative landscape," said Yerli. "With GDC we will start looking into a multi-platform offering of CryEngine 2, which was the biggest demand so far and the single biggest difference between us and the competition. With CryEngine 2 now running on multiplatform, we offer the most complete 3D engine qualitatively and productively."

After spending three years developing Far Cry and learning a lot from the process, Yerli is looking forward to the new game from Ubisoft, which is being developed in Montreal.

"I honestly love the game Far Cry 2 and its development, even though the only relevance from Far Cry to Far Cry 2 is its name," said Yerli, referring to the new game's realistic setting in Africa and the absence of any sci-fi elements. "Everything else seems to be a new game, which I am looking forward to play."

Far Cry will also be heading to movie theaters—likely in 2009. Controversial film director Uwe Boll has wrapped the film version of Crytek's original game. Yerli said that licensing the film rights to fellow German Boll was the right business decision at the right time and they had good talks with the director.

"Unfortunately, we have not been involved in the film since very early when it was a script," said Yerli. "However, I think the script changed and improved radically since then, at least I hope it has, since I can't wait to see the movie. It will be so exciting to watch the Far Cry movie."

When asked about Boll's other videogame adaptations, Yerli said he has mixed opinions.

"Most importantly, I would say he is financially successful," said Yerli. "Critically, sure, they're not the best movies, but he knows that, too."

Since story was such a strong part of the development of Crysis—something Yerli admitted was not the case for Far Cry, which he said had a B-movie story line, the translation of Crysis to the big screen should be easier.

"A Crysis movie is definitely planned," said Yerli. "We are in active talks already. I think we will close this topic before the end of this year."

As a developer, Yerli said the goal is to mature into a multi-team studio with innovation and quality at its core. Currently, the team is looking into new challenges and also is evaluating Crysis 2, but nothing can be said and announced officially.

Given the fact that Far Cry took three years to make and Crysis four years, Yerli joked that the next game from the studio will be released in five years.

"No seriously, the biggest lessen learned from our previous games is to focus on efficiency in your organization," said Yerli. "The deployment of this efficiency is critical. I believe we will release our next game quicker than Crysis, so I estimate a two to three year cycle."

Now we wonder if UT3—another anticipated PC title which also flopped in November '07—has made the same sort of comeback.

Crytek GnbH will be showing off their CryENGINE 2 and Sandbox 2 game editor on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 at this year's Game Developers Conference.

The company will also be showing how a computer that can be made for less than $600 can run their fully-optimized engine. I suspect that might, just might be because of their PC-crushing game Crysis. It will be interested to find out what sort of tweaks they did to the engine to get it to run on the 360 and PS3, and more importantly if they tweaked each version differently to help play to their individual strong suits.

Crytek to Feature Cross Platform CryENGINE®2 at GDC

Frankfurt, Germany, Jan 29 - Crytek GmbH will demonstrate their multi award winning CryENGINE® 2 game development middleware and their Sandbox 2TM game editor again at this year's Game Developer Conference on February 18 - 22 in San Francisco. First publicly shown at last year's conference, and recently released as the technology underlying their critically acclaimed PC game, Crysis, this year's engine will be shown for the first time running on multiple hardware platforms such as the PS3 and Xbox 360, to a select audience. In addition, there will be a public demonstration showing how well the fully optimized engine can perform on a budget PC which can be put together for around 600 dollars complete, including keyboard and mouse. Visitors will be able to see for themselves the extremely high quality that can be achieved on relatively inexpensive consumer hardware today using the CryENGINE® 2.

Cevat Yerli, Sten Hübler and Bernd Diemer will host a GDC session entitled "Crysis in the Making", providing a behind the scenes look at the challenges of developing Crysis and the CryENGINE® 2. Other highlights of the show will be various conference talks and discussions involving key Crytek technical staff including Chris Evans, Technical Art Lead, Tomas Neumann, Crytek's Audio Programmer, and Tiago Sousa, R&D Graphics Programmer.

In addition, Crytek will once again be hosting a series of public presentations at their booth #6611 in the North Hall, where the topics to be covered will range from live demonstrations of rapid level creation using the Sandbox 2 editor, working with the next generation features of the CryENGINE® 2 animation system, adding immersive sound and interactive music to your game, to a discussion of the overall CryENGINE® 2 design, graphical pipelines and overall architecture. These presentations will be lead by many of the leading members of the Crytek's game development and engine teams. For the first time, Crytek will also be joined at their booth by some of their many licensing partners, which will also show the CryENGINE® 2 being used for architectural visualizations and serious games applications. Seating for the presentations is on a first come, first served basis, and likely to fill quickly. Each of these presentations will repeat twice each day; no appointment is needed to attend.

Anyone wishing to make a private appointment to discuss licensing opportunities, or to arrange for a showing of the console versions of the engine, should make their request by emailing gdc2008@crytek.com, including details of who would me attending the meeting and the purpose of their requests. Meetings can also be arranged during the show by contacting the booth receptionist, provided a time slot is still available. As the time for meetings is quite limited and slots fill quickly, it's recommended to make booking requests as soon as possible.

It is amazing how people can look at two weeks of sales (in our case) in one single territory in the busiest Xmas sales season the industry has ever seen and come to the conclusion these titles are doing "badly". I don't think either title is doing so badly.

Crysis probably has 3-4x the marketing budget of UT3 and more mindshare because it is a PC-only, high-end, single-player oriented game. This isn't the fastest selling UT title ever but it's doing pretty well and we're going to support it with some pretty cool things to help it keep selling over time.

Mark Rein answers your questions! [via cvg][image: gettyimages]

We know that the company was on the hunt for a PS3 know-it-all in the Spring of last year, but the Crytek folks have been mum since. They probably didn't want any thunder stolen from the PC version, we're guessing.

PlayStation World now says that they're hearing the PS3 version of the very pretty shooter will come packed with extras, dubbing it Crysis 1.5. But what about that rumored Xbox 360 version, listed by certain retailers? The mag puts a damper on that possibility, claiming "technical reasons." Oh really? We're staying out of that one.

Consider it rumor, but given that Crytek hasn't exactly denied such a thing exists, even saying it's "possible", we're keeping our fingers crossed that they'll announce something soon.

Crysis: No need to panic... if you own a PS3 [GamesRadar]

[the escapist]

Their hardware plan follows.

CPU - Intel Core2Duo E6750
GPU - GeForce 8800GT 512MB
Motherboard - NVIDIA nForce 650i Socket 775
PSU - 600W ATX12V
RAM - 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit
HDD - SATA 250GB 7200RPM
DVD - 20x DVD±R Burner
Case - ATX Midi Tower Computer Case
OS - Microsoft Windows XP Home with SP2

A very quick price out of the above components totaled $875 at reasonable online retailer NewEgg, give or take a few choices, but I typically went for the cheapest option across the board and didn't include shipping or tax. I'm sure that more frugal, more experience component shoppers could do better.

The Crysis dev team captured a handful of videos of the machine in question tackling the game on "high" settings, all of which are available at the link below.

The Crysis Hardware Experiment [inCrysis via NeoGAF]

What follows is a look at what it's like using this particular system, how it feels to have one at your disposal, and ultimately if it is worth spending upwards of $1200+ for a similar set up. What you won't find are benchmarks and technical specifications. If you're into that sort of thing, you already know where to go and most likely can look at the system specs and guess how the AMD Spider is going to perform.

Speaking of which...

The System Specs

- CPU: Phenom 2.4GHz

- Graphics: single Revelation RV670 256mb

- Motherboard: Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe (RD790)

- Floppy: Sony (black)

- DVD Rom: SATA Asus (black)

- DVD RW: SATA Sony (black)

- Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD SATA (150GB)

- Western Digital SE16 500GB SATA

- Power Supply: SEASONIC M12SS-700HM 700WATTS

- Chassis: Lian Li PC-7B Plus (Black)

- Heat Sink: AMD validated B3 model AJIGO MF091-096 CPU COOLER

- Memory: Corsair CM2X1024-8500C5D (2x1GB = 2GB total)

- Operating system license (Vista Ultimate 32-bit - OEM version)

Initial Impressions
The system came preloaded with Windows Vista Ultimate, so installation merely consisted of the usual plugging in, turning on, and waiting for Windows to do its mystical Windows setup thing. Gathering data, making me type in tiny numbers, etc.

Once the system was up and running, I set about downloading the latest drivers, updating the BIOS, and downloading a few choice applications that I cannot operate a PC without (Firefox, for instance.) In standard Windows Vista the system is as smooth as butter, sliding through the interface like a hot knife through said creamy goodness. It certainly put my other Vista computer - a dual core Pentium laptop - to complete shame, but laptops are of course a whole other animal. Now I know I said I wouldn't be dropping any technical specs, but the built-in Vista system performance tool hardly qualifies as technical. It does give a pretty accurate gauge of performance, however, and the Spider system hit the max of 5.9 across the board. The max definitely needs to be upped.

Once I felt comfortable with the PC, I started packing on the gaming goodness.

Crysis
I feel kind of bad using Crysis as a test point on any computer really, but AMD provided it and I felt compelled to put it through the wringer. At medium settings—which is what Crysis automatically set me to after scanning the system—the game performed...okay. The frame rate was hardly smooth, and there were definite stuttering moments throughout. Lowering the settings seemed to smooth things out somewhat, but overall I was not too impressed with how the Spider handled things. My usual PC, which is a low-end dual core Pentium with an ATI Radeon x1950 Pro installed in it, seemed to get much better performance out of Crysis at similar settings. Not a good start.

Stranglehold
The Spider fared much better with John Woo Presents Stranglehold from Midway. I had played the game on the Xbox 360 and not been too impressed, but on this system, with settings maxed and resolution at 1650x1080, the game ran perfectly smooth, and I found that I enjoyed the mouse and keyboard controls much better than the Xbox 360 controller when it came to controlling Tequila. An excellent experience.

The Witcher
Atari's action RPG barely taxed my normal system, other than with the recently patched loading times issue, so it was no surprise that the AMD system performed admirably in tackling the massive game. Details seemed much sharper than when I had played the game previous, and overall my frame rate saw a massive improvement over my dinky little dual core.

World of Warcraft
Let's face it - if your computer cannot handle WoW at 60 FPS in a nearly empty newbie zone, it is time to purchase a new system. Thanks to my renewed interest in healing, I spent the most time on the Spider leveling a newbie Blood Elf priest, and I had a blast. Upgrading to a shiny new high-end system is the best thing for rekindling World of Warcraft lust, and the AMD Spider had me grinding up a storm. A triumph.

Second Life
Just a footnote, really, since many of you don't consider Second Life to be a game. Kind of a bummer, but it seemed like the system really struggled with the virtual world simulation, with performance marks via the program's built-in utility far below what I normally get with my home system. I was planning on using the Spider exclusively for the testing period, but thanks to this limitation I had to hook up my extra monitor to get my stripping for Lindens on. Most likely a problem with the game itself...generally any problem with SL is a problem with the game itself.

In Conclusion
I'd have to say the best thing about the Spider series system I've gotten to play with, is the fact that it is the complete package. You don't have to worry about compatibility between parts, and most drivers are conveniently located within the same couple of web pages, so staying up to date is a snap. It performed great with most of the higher end games I ran on it, and we can hardly fault a computer for choking a bit on Crysis. The real question I suppose is, "Had I the cash and the need for a new PC, would I feel the AMD Spider system a wise purchase?" I am a bit torn, really. As a PC user comfortable with putting together my own components into a case, I could probably build a faster machine for less. Having said that, if I were not comfortable putting together my own system, I would definitely consider the Spider a fine choice for a complete PC gaming package.

Crysis 1.1 patch performance with Multi-GPU testing [techspot]

Maximum Christmas and a Happy New Year 2008! [Crymod Forums]

Truth be told, I was a complete AMD man until a friend of mine convinced me to ditch my aging Athalon 64 FX for an Intel dual core processor. We'll see if they manage to win me back with what they've packed inside this demo system.

System Specs:
- CPU: Phenom 2.4GHz

- Graphics: single Revelation RV670 256mb

- Motherboard: Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe (RD790)

- Floppy: Sony (black)

- DVD Rom: SATA Asus (black)

- DVD RW: SATA Sony (black)

- Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD SATA (150GB)

- Western Digital SE16 500GB SATA

- Power Supply: SEASONIC M12SS-700HM 700WATTS

- Chassis: Lian Li PC-7B Plus (Black)

- Heat Sink: AMD validated B3 model AJIGO MF091-096 CPU COOLER

- Memory: Corsair CM2X1024-8500C5D (2x1GB = 2GB total)

- Operating system license (Vista Ultimate 32-bit - OEM version)

We want you to play, play, play and tell your Kotaku readers what you think.

While both of these games are likely to have followings for years to come, we can't help but to wonder if Crysis' "this game will melt your antiquated Earth computer" philosophy hurt its initial sales. As for UT3, not that many buyers could have been holding out for the PS3 version...so it's shocking to see the game have such a mediocre launch.

Crysis and UT3 show disappointing November sales volume [opposablethumbs]

The Setup [via gemaga and digg]

This isn't a real-time representation of Crysis' physics engine, but it's a sublimely beautiful one. It explores the impact of tornadoes, trucks, planes and base jumping on a man (and his top hat) fashioned from hundreds, maybe thousands, of crates. Those interested in the technical details behind the clip can read more at the YouTube page.

Crysis - Mass Physics [YouTube]

My opinion on them in comparison to the PC is that I think the PC is always better. Because the PC you can do so many things with, and the console is just there for the gaming... You cannot create characters on a console — you can't run a 3D program from one, as far as I know. You can't play certain strategy games on a console well, like Total Annihilation for example, or at least I haven't seen one, I think it's limiting to certain types of games.

Super Mario Galaxy (WII)
It'sa Mario again... in space!

Assassin's Creed (X360, PS3)
Altair is da man in 1191.

Crysis (PC)
Fight aliens!

BlackSite: Area 51 (X360, PC)
Fight more aliens!

Need for Speed ProStreet (PC, X360, PS3, PS2, WII, DS)
Race around the world in your custom car.

WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008 (X360, PS2, WII, PS3, PSP, DS)
Wrestlemania. Wait, that's something else...

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (X360, PS3, PC)
Co-op killing.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (PS2)
Dragon Ball Z. Still going.

SimCity Societies (PC)
Learn how buildings shape society.

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (WII)
A zombie massacre on rails.

Soldier of Fortune: Payback (X360, PC)
The game based on the magazine based on killing and guns.

Medal of Honor Heroes 2 (WII, PSP)
Invade WWII with your Wii Zapper.

Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (WII, DS)
Rayman's Raving Rabbids return.

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (PSP)
My money is on Aliens because they look cooler.

Crysis Demo [nZone]