Crysis 3: The best-looking game we've ever seen

New York has gone to shit. Beautiful, beautiful shit. In Crysis 3, the speedily developed sequel to 2011's near-future shooter, Mother Nature shows Lady Liberty how to properly dominate a skyline.

It's the best of both worlds: Crysis' organic greenery butting heads with the sequel's towering skyscrapers. Sunlight pierces thick patches of canopy, flooded streets swell into raging rivers, vines scratch and claw at buildings and wildlife flits about your face. This is less urban jungle and more urban rainforest.

And you call it home.

It's 2047, 23 years after US army major Prophet slapped on his Nanosuit 2.0 and took to the quarantined, alien-invaded Big Apple - but this time something's taken a big old bite of it. Namely, C.E.L.L. (Crynet Enforcement and Local Logistics), a private military company under US government mandate. They really, really want your exoskeleton and will do anything to get it - like erect a multi-mile Nanodome over the city to lock you down.

UNDER THE DOME

It's all a bit The Simpsons Movie, but the 'Liberty Dome' is a compelling idea. Under its transparent cover the city splits into districts known as 'The Seven Wonders', another bit of propaganda it seems as there's nothing wonderful about them. The story - the one they've fed news stations and the public anyway - is this citywide structure is there to protect the population and rid the planet of remaining alien forces.

But you know the truth. Biomedical company CryNet (parent of C.E.L.L.) wants your suit and the Earth-invading Ceph want you dead. They're all overlooking one thing: you're not locked in with them... they're locked in with you.

This is more paradise than prison, and Cabela's Dangerous Hunt presumably proved developer Crytek's inspiration in the way you track and stalk through thick vegetation. (We're joking, of course. Or... are we?) It's a sprawl you've slaughtered through before, but this New York is different. In a word, it's stunning. In two, it's absolutely stunning, and looks set to continue Crysis' lineage of hardware-defying graphics.

Rasmus Højengaard, director of creative development at Crytek, had this to say when we tracked him down at the preview event: "Obviously we're limited by things such as memory, but we have brilliant R&D guys and they're able to do things that no-one has done on consoles before." Fair point, but will this be a tale of two cities - the better being the PC version? "What's important", says Rasmus, "is the experience doesn't change."
Regardless of platform, this is surely a contender for best-looking game of all time. CryENGINE 3 is a fierce reminder Crytek are among the best in the business at both squeezing juice out of ageing platforms and putting the frightening power of newer ones to dazzling effect.

But something's got to give.

In this preview version, framerate is the casualty, silky smooth when demoed to us on a presumably NASA-donated PC (never-dipping under 90 frames-per-second) but likely the main concession for now six-year old consoles. Like Crysis 2 it'll churn and struggle during intense moments of debris-scattering mayhem, and the fire and lighting effects alone look too gorgeous not to send consoles to a crawl, but Crytek have ways around that. Bow, meet arrow.

BOW STREET RUNNER
The bow and arrow are key to less CPU-straining stealth, a pointed example of your new survival skills. The go-to weapon of ancient conquerors maybe, but Sun Tzu never customised his with explosive arrowheads, fire modes and scopes. Rasmus coyly alluded to different ammo types too: "There's going to be a variety. They don't all just do damage."

Your Meccano-like bow is ultra-customisable and packs a punch: a cam that tracks your kill-shots to their gruesome conclusion looks like something straight out of Hollywood, and frag arrows make a more accurate alternative to vague grenade lobs. When all else fails? A trusty knife and a close-up execution. However, you're not the only one with expensive new hardware.

The Ceph are licking their wounded tentacles since the hydraulically-powered kicking you gave them in the last game, but they've returned locked and loaded. Flamethrowers, plasma mortars and stealth-disabling cameras swell their space arsenal and sit comfortably alongside massive Ceph tripods (think AT-AT's designed by Hideo Kojima) and hulking Devastator Units. And they're not alone.

You've also got to watch your space-age-fibered back against C.E.L.L. soldiers, who wield near-future tech like the returning SCARAB rifles and Jackal shotguns. Both factions represent different threats, different angles of attack. The Ceph are faster, bigger and stronger, but humans have tanks, jeeps and turrets. If it's anything like the last two games you'll be able to drive them all.

If the two come into contact? They'll fight each other, recalling heart-in-mouth moments from Crysis 2 where the Ceph took aim at tanks by flinging giant arching balls of white plasma during a night siege. The core powers of your suit are once again the focus: armour, stealth and power mode, along with your visor's heat vision and tracking binoculars - open different avenues for combat.

Crytek wasn't willing to be drawn on how the suit will differ from its predecessor, other than it will be "enhanced", but we know already that, through the suit, you'll be able to hack into alien turrets and control extra-terrestrial weaponry. The bigger fun for some, however, is shooting real people in competitive multiplayer.

CITY ON FIRE
It was an underrated hoot in the last game, combining a CoD control scheme and Brink-like parkour with high-powered armour abilities seemingly straight out of Halo Reach. "You don't even know yet if there's going to be a multiplayer, and you're not going to be able to rhetorically lure me into saying that there is one!" joked Rasmus. Oh come on, what's going on the back of the box then? "We're not talking about that now, but that will be revealed later on." We'll take that as a yes, then.

Nature's reclaimed New York, and Crytek's reclaimed Crysis. There will undoubtedly be framerate issues on hardware less than a few minutes old, and those turned off by Crysis 2's invasion plotline and at times staggeringly dumb AI might find old issues remain - but it's hard to argue with high-tech weaponery, wide swathes of self-enclosed and stunning sandboxes, and do-it-your-way combat that packs a punch.
Welcome to the urban jungle.

Source: Computerandvideogames

Tags: Pc games, Crysis 3, Xbox, PlayStation, PlayStation 4, Xbox 720

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Witcher 2 Xbox 360 review: Darker than Skyrim, sexier than Mass Effect - better than both?

The black sheep of RPGs fights onto console

There's a zinger piece of dialogue during the original Witcher where Geralt of Rivia muses: "Power, sex. Sex, Power. They both come down to one thing - fucking others." It's a brilliant line in a series filled with great lines: where musings of causality and morality sit naturally alongside mucky quips about 'lesbomancy', 'ploughing' and 'whoresons'.

First things first: this isn't Skyrim. Duh. There's no epic sandbox to meander through; narratively it's way more linear. You don't get to roleplay Geralt as a tattooed female elf with a pornstar bosom, nor as some Halfling with an afro. Accept that CD Projekt's take on the RPG is more of a framed experience than the one offered by Bethesda and you're halfway to appreciating this game's manifold majesty.

To arms then, with a speedy plot recap. After an epic opening where Geralt helps gallant King Foltest to subdue a noble uprising, said sovereign is brutally butchered. Suspicious eyes fall on our mutated hero, and he's tossed into gaol to rot. We know the White Wolf (Geralt) is innocent; indeed he's already deduced the true killer is actually another Witcher. So, after a suitably epic act of escapology, Geralt begins his quest for answers... and the true machinations behind Assassins of Kings begin in earnest.

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Rest assured, Geralt's not the divisive character you might be expecting. He's a big, ugly man sure - but there's an incredible depth behind those scary yellow eyes. Similarly, just because you're stuck with the White Wolf as your avatar, it doesn't mean there's not a considerable capacity for independent decision making. Play him as a slimy old git or bastion of heroism - there's room for both.

Geralt's romance with foxy magic user Triss Merigold is particularly well-realised; there's a steamy scene in a rose-smattered Elven bathhouse that captures both the physical and mental sides of their relationship better than any other title this writer can remember. Dialogue is rich and expertly penned, and while the sheer amount of lore being spouted is occasionally disconcerting, it's a boon rather than a hindrance.

Career opportunities

That depth continues through to the gameplay itself, with three significantly disparate paths to plough XP into. Is your Geralt a herbalist, wielder of the magic-alike Signs, or swordsman supreme? Signs like Aard (Force Throw) and Axii (Jedi mind trick) lend the combat a quasi-Force Unleashed feel, while the kinetic swordplay recalls a simplified Arkham Asylum. Both elements are satisfying and sound, if not quite class-leading. There's also a stack of weaponry and armour to purchase/pinch/forge, meaning Geralt's garb feels constantly fresh and - more importantly - badass.

And badass you'll need to be at times; despite a tweaked tutorial and massaged difficulty spikes this can be frustratingly tough. A button-spamming hack 'n slash it is not, and your initial encounters with the likes of Letho and the Kayran will end bloodily and abruptly unless you quickly learn to block and roll- dodge with the best of them. The key lies in preparedness, so ensure you guzzle potions, craft incendiaries, apply any vicious, viscous blade coatings, and don't swear too much when you're occasionally hamstrung by fiddly multi-enemy encounters.




Depending on your choices then, Act 2 plays out in two drastically different ways. We're talking near-totally disparate locations and characters, here - before everything comes together with a (rather abrupt) resolution at Loc Muinne. That said, it's also a rather brave ending in one way - and speaks volumes for the devs' approach to storytelling. The Witcher may look epic, but much of its lore concentrates on suggesting that these 'heroes' and 'villains' are little more than motes of dust in the grand galactic scheme of things. That's really rather progressive when you stop to consider every other title out there is continually trying to out-epic one another...

Unlike the heavily-modded version of BioWare's Aurora engine that did for the original title, the RED engine is a bespoke colossus that oozes potential for franchising out. Some naysayers have expressed dismay that the 360 conversion only drives visuals equivalent to a PC's medium spec, yet that still results in one of the most stunning titles on the machine. Flotsam's town square genuinely feels alive, the kind of virtual world we could only fantasise about when tinkering with RPGs like Bard's Tale and Ultima way back when.

It's a combination of art design and sheer engine potency - but whether you're exploring riverside ports, looming forests or army encampments you're continually aware that gaming universes have rarely felt this real. Ally this to haunting Celtic melodies and some bang-on regional British acting chops and you realise CD Projekt's craftsmanship effortlessly compensates for their relatively meagre resources.

Even better, this is far from a straight port. Dubbed the 'Enhanced Edition', 360 owners get a subtle drip of fresh content in the shape of side quests, fresh faces and beefed up cutscenes. The only real surprise is that it's taken this long to come to 360. Ultimately, The Witcher 2 is an outstanding title that offers a uniquely tough take on role playing - standing proudly alongside its more revered peers, and quite possibly gobbing a greenish wad of phlegm in their faces for good measure.

Source:.computerandvideogames.com

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PlayStation 4 'Orbis' could rewrite the rules for used games

Sony is refusing to comment, but according to one new report, a successor to the PlayStation 3 is already in the works, and on target for a late 2013 launch. Citing anonymous sources familiar with the new console, the gaming blog Kotaku has published a preliminary run-down on the PlayStation 4, which has allegedly been slapped with the codename of Orbis.

Among the purported specs on the Orbis: a resolution of 4096x2160, which, as Kotaku notes, is "far in excess of the needs of most current HDTV sets." The Orbis – or PS4, if you'd like – will "also be capable of playing 3D games in 1080p. Some game studios may have already received development kits for the Orbis; "more finalised beta units will be shipped" by the end of the year,Kotaku adds.

But the most interesting revelation has to do with a crack-down on used games. Games for the new console will reportedly be available as a PlayStation Network download or as a disc. But "[I]f you buy the disc, it must be locked to a single PSN account, after which you can play the game, save the whole thing to your HDD, or peg it as 'downloaded' in your account history and be free to download it at a later date," Kotaku writes.

This would, of course, drastically affect the used game market: You can't trade-in a downloaded game, nor would anyone want to buy a second-hand game that's already been "locked" to another account. So is Sony actually considering taking a similar approach with its next console? Maybe, Ian Paul writes over at PC World.

"While these are only claims from anonymous sources at this point," Paul writes, "the idea that console makers are looking to destroy or at least restrict the second-hand gaming and rental market is not surprising. The move could push more users toward using Sony's PSN Store to download game titles."

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PlayStation 4 to be called Orbis, launching winter 2013?

Just in case you haven't seen it, the PlayStation 4 rumours have begun in earnest. US news site Kotaku has posted claims from a 'trusted source' that the next machine will be called Orbis and is set for release next winter.

The console is reported to be built around an AMD x64 CPU and an AMD Southern Islands GPU. The latter is a high-end graphics processor set to appear in the Radeon HD 7900 range of cards – the tech is capable of displaying graphics up to resoutions of 4096×2160, as well as true 1080p stereoscopic 3D. The British edition of the Official PlayStation Magazine has also picked up on the story, sugesting there's more going on here then scurrilous tittle-tattle.

According to the Kotaku piece, the new hardware will seek to control the pre-owned games market. The site's source says that game purchases via Blu-ray disc or PSN will be locked to a specific console which will need to remain online while playing; those who buy second-hand titles may only be able to access a trial version of the content, with the option of paying for a full registration. This reflects rumours of the forthcoming Xbox console, apparently codenamed Durango, which will allegedly also seek to restrict the trade in used titles with similar lock-outs.

The name Orbis comes from the Latin term for 'ring' or 'circle' and both OPM and Kotaku make the connection with the phrase Orbis Vitae, or 'ring of life' – which suggests that PS4 and Vita will be very closely integrated. It's likely Vita will be able to act as a second screen and controller for the console, like the tablet pad that's set to be a major part of Nintendo's Wii U proposition. We're also likely to see lots more cross-platform connectivity, with titles running on Vita able to swap data and game saves with PS4 versions.

So, what do you think? An AMD architecture would be new for the PlayStation series; PS3's GPU was based around the NVidia G70. Intriguingly, the latest Xbox Durango rumours suggest that Microsoft's next machine will also be based on an AMD GPU, though current speculation suggests that it will employ the older 6670 chip.

While both Sony and Microsoft have denied that they'll be announcing new hardware at this year's E3 games industry event in June, neither is likely to want to give its rival a heads-up on roll-out plans. Sony has stated that it has a ten year plan for PS3 – but the company is unlikely to want a repeat of the last generation, when Xbox 360 launched significantly ahead of its PlayStation rival, giving it a major headstart on building a user base.

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