Crysis Warhead is coming with a little bundled extra: Crysis Wars, a new take on Crysis' multiplayer aspects. This trailer, made from in-game footage, shows that it's looking both nice and fast, but if they don't fix it so the Koreans don't take 1,736 bullets to kill, it'll all be for naught.

Crysis Warhead System Specs

Crysis Warhead Launching Next Month

Well that was relatively quick, wasn't it? It was only two months ago that EA and Crytek announced the development of the next installment of Crysiss, Crysis Warhead, and now they've revealed the game is only a month away from release. Warhead should be hitting retail shelves in North America on September 16th, four days after the European release on September 12th.

“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.

Right now you can pre-order Crysis Warhead from the EA Store for $24.95 - $5 off retail - or pick up both the original Crysis and the new title for $10 off. Be sure to check out GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley this Friday for the exclusive premiere of the new Crysis Warhead trailer, should you be so inclined.

Video Games Live Brings Crysis Music Home

The Video Games Live concert series is adding Crysis to their amazing arsenal of audio artistry, and they'll be debuting music from the title on Crytek's home turf. As with any giant industry event, Tiny Tommy Tallarico's traveling tour event will be hitting the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany next week, where Inon Zur's masterful score will be performed, accompanied by game footage and lighting effects to drive the sound home.

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.

Some new Crysis Warhead screens (along with bigger versions of some old ones) have been released, courtesy of Japanese site 4Gamer. We know they're for Warhead, and not the same-island-same-bad-guys Crysis, because Crytek were good enough to stick Psycho's (the expansion's protagonist) in half of them just to be sure of it. Particularly #s 5 & 6, which should make for a great "spot the difference" print-out for your next children's birthday party.
[Thanks Chris!]

EA Looking To Market Crysis Ready PCs

Now here's an interesting tidbit that came out of Comic-Con this past weekend. Electronic Arts is looking at marketing a line of desktop PC systems to coincide with the release of Crysis Warhead, branded with the Crysis name. The reasoning? More people who don't regularly use a PC to game will pick up a PC branded with a game name simply for the assurance that the system will run the title. They are looking at providing multiple systems at a price tag between $600-$800 to coincide with how well the gamer wants the game to run.

This is a brilliant idea. I've always felt that PC manufacturers were missing out by not marketing directly to gamers. I'm not talking high-end, higher-priced dedicated gaming systems here. Just a PC with a sticker on it that lists the games it will run out of the box - kind of like how console packaging shows popular titles available on that system. I wish EA the best of luck. Perhaps they'll start a trend!

EA wants to sell you a PC [Chris Remo's Remowned via Destructoid]

These aren't from the original Crysis. Promise! They're from Crysis Warhead, Crytek's upcoming sequel/expansion thing. We know, it's the same bad guys, same island, but you'll just have to take our word for it. Also take our word that it's probably best to call this a mission pack, like we used to in the good old days.

Crysis Warhead Sure Looks A Lot Like Crysis

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]

Tucked into a wide-ranging interview with IGN is this nugget from Cervat Yerli, the CEO of Crytek, developer of Crysis:

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.

Crysis Warhead Much Easier On Your Machine

It looks like Crysis Warhead won't be nearly as much of a strain on our gaming PC's as the original title was. In an interview excerpt posted at German magazine site PCGame.de, Crytek boss Cevat Yerli promises that a PC costing around €400 ($620) should be able to crank out a consistent 30 to 35 frames per second, whereas the original Crysis would have the FPS of a View-Master on a similar machine.

Cevat goes on to say that the performance tweaks included in Warhead can eventually be applied to Crysis via patches, but don't go digging out that sad little game disc just yet. The profound changes won't be easy to implement, and Crytek is dedicating their resources to completing the follow-up before any tweaks to the original are addressed.

Crysis Warhead läuft auf einem 400-Euro-PC - In der High-Konfiguration! [PCGames.DE Via Voodoo Extreme]

PSP programmers take note—Crytek is hiring. The developer of Crysis and Far Cry is looking to bring its wares to the PlayStation Portable in some form, looking for experienced PSP developers to relocate to its Budapest studio to work on an unspecified project. Odd choice for a platform, considering Crytek president Cervat Yali said the company was "suffering currently from the huge piracy that is encompassing Crysis" earlier this year, as piracy on the PSP platform isn't exactly rare.

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!]

Crysis Warhead Revealed

EA and Crytek invite PC gamers to go completely Psycho this fall in the newly announced Crysis Warhead, teased yesterday via CrysisTheGame.com. Developed with a focus on story and game performance, Warhead isn't so much a sequel as it is a parallel story, told from the point of view of Sergeant Sykes, codenamed Psycho, probably my favorite character from the first game. He'll have his hands full on the other side of the island while Nomad is doing his thing. New weapons and vehicles will be at his disposal, and the game will also feature new multiplayer content for those of you who enjoy killing each other.

“We were very pleased with the reception of Crysis from both gamers and media after our launch last year,” said Cevat Yerli, CEO and President of Crytek. “That being said, one of the key principles of our studio is to always raise the bar. With Warhead, we are focusing on refining our storytelling and game performance, while also delivering more of the visually stunning graphics and immersive, free-roaming gameplay everyone loved in Crysis.”

The game is the first to be developed at Crytek's new Budapest Studio using an enhanced version of the CryENGINE 2 tech. Hit the jump for the full release!

What's all this then? Awhile back developer Crytek filled for trademarks on a variety of Crysis-related names, among them Crysis Warhead, though back then we had no earthly clue as to what it was referring to. Well now we still have no earthly clue what it is referring to, but we can definitely tell you it is something terribly official if this image, which is appearing on the front page of the official Crysis website is any indication.

Is it one of the planned sequels to the original game? Perhaps a version of Crysis for consoles? A Broadway musical based on the events of the first game? I suppose they'll get around to letting us know when they damn well feel like it. Thanks to everyone who sent in the tip!

Crytek Get All Mysterious Over Future Crysis Support

Far Cry 2 Is Not Ubisoft Trying To Outdo Crysis

Far Cry was developed by PC developer Crytek. Crytek made Crysis, and that game is very, very pretty. But Crytek isn't doing Far Cry 2 — Ubisoft is! The photorealism of Crysis must be somewhat intimidating, even for Ubisoft. But the Far Cry 2 developer is going a different direction. Says the game's art director Alex Amancio:

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]

Your computer would explode. That's what. So let's just play hypotheticals, then, and check out this clip showing what the Imperial City and surrounding countryside look like running on Crytek's CryEngine. The city assets are dropped straight in from Oblivion, but the natural stuff and lighting, that's all new. And gorgeous.
Oblivion To Crysis [Crymod, thanks Will!]

Crysis To - Apparently - Run Real Nice On Console

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.