Crytek has released a patch for Crysis Wars, the multiplayer component of its latest shooter Crysis Warhead (PC). Included are a number of bug fixes and even more balance tweaks to make the game more competitive.

The patch, the second since release, weighs 104 MB and is available now on FileShack.

For a full list of changes, look below... Read more

The free weekend for Crytek's multiplayer sci-fi shooter Crysis Wars kicks off today, allowing PC gamers to play online for free from now until Sunday night.

To play, simply grab the Crysis Wars executable from FileShack. While you're waiting for all 5GB to download, hit MyCrysis to register for the free key that enables online play.

Within the 5GB Crysis Wars download, you'll find:

• Three diverse multiplayer modes including InstantAction, TeamInstantAction and PowerStruggle
• 21 maps ranging from large battlefields to smaller, more intimate battlegrounds with a diverse array of settings ranging from beaches to graveyards
• All weapons and vehicles released within the Crysis Universe

Available from FileShack now are the Crysis Warhead files you'll need to play the Crysis Wars during the upcoming free multiplayer preview weekend.

In order to play Crysis Wars during the October 10 - 12 trial period, you'll also need to sign up at mycrysis.com to generate a game key. Once you have the key, you can start playing the game over LAN right away, and at 1PM Central on Friday you can go online.

Crysis War is the multiplayer component of the recently released Crysis Warhead (PC), and includes the following

• Three diverse multiplayer modes including InstantAction, TeamInstantAction and PowerStruggle
• 21 maps ranging from large battlefields to smaller, more intimate battlegrounds with a diverse array of settings ranging from beaches to graveyards
• All weapons and vehicles released within the Crysis Universe

Publisher Electronic Arts and developer Crytek have announced that gamers will be able to play Crysis Wars (PC) for free between Friday, October 10 and Sunday, October 12. Included in the recent release of Crysis Warhead (PC), Wars represents the newly-debuted multiplayer component of the open-island sci-fi shooting series.

Registration begins Monday, October 6 at MyCrysis.com and will provide users with a unique registration key. Though online play will only be available from October 10-12, players will be able to experience Crysis Wars via LAN across the week of October 6.

"We have been extremely pleased with the reception we have received from gamers and press for Crysis Warhead," said Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli.

Team Fortress 2 developer Valve has repeatedly noted the sales boosts that free weekends can bring for multiplayer-focused titles such as... Read more

When Crysis Warhead released on September 16, it lacked the SDK--the tools needed to make modifications or new levels for Crytek's PC first-person shooter semi-sequel. That issue will soon be rectified, Crytek has announced.

"As most of you will already be aware we have not included our Sandbox Editor or MOD SDK with the disc for Crysis Warhead or Crysis Wars," reads a post from Crytek community manager "Eddy" on the Crymod forums.

"We wanted to make sure that people received the best game play experience in both single and multiplayer, so as such we decided to focus all of our energy and attention in that direction originally," added Eddy.

"We are now working on the Editor and SDK solution for Warhead," continues the post. "We are definitely aware that the community is eager to get this software, and we will provide it as soon as it is complete and available."

EA Games president Frank Gibeau promised to revamp and further loosen the controversial DRM requirements in recent releases Spore (PC) and Crysis Warhead (PC). His statement was not without a few backhanded comments in the direction of the very vocal anti-DRM community.

"We're extremely pleased with the reception Spore has received from critics and consumers but we're disappointed by the misunderstanding surrounding the use of DRM software," Gibeau wrote in the statement on MTV Multiplayer. He also announced that Spore would soon gain the ability to be authorized on five computers instead of three.

Gibeau reminded Multiplayer that the coming deactivation capability is still in the works. It was separately announced today that Crytek's EA-published Crysis Warhead would get the same deactivation program.

"We assumed that consumers understand piracy is a huge problem... Read more

A common theme began to emerge over the course of my conversation with Crytek producer Bernd Diemer: this company has learned a lot since the release of Crysis.

Crysis Warhead, the result of Crytek's accumulated knowledge, will be released on Tuesday, and already the game is receiving high marks from critics.

In our lengthy interview, Diemer went over the changes made to the Crysis formula in Warhead, whether Crysis itself will be patched to bring it up to speed, the importance of the new Crysis-branded PC, and the future of the Crysis franchise. Read more

Bernd Diemer: We want to cover [high-end graphics], but in Crysis, looking back, the focus was a bit off. Because we from the beginning focused on the highest range, and then over the development we scaled it back. So what we did here was focus on the mid-range, on the High setting. Not Medium, but High. We're Crytek, so it's not Medium, it's High. [laughs] Read on..

As the September 16 release of Crytek's sci-fi shooter Crysis Warhead (PC) approaches, Valve and Crytek today announced that both Warhead and the original Crysis will soon be sold through Valve's digital distribution client Steam.

Said to go up for pre-order this weekend, Crysis and Crysis Warhead are slated to hit Steam by mid September. No price points were provided. Faylor's Take: Opening up Crysis and Crysis Warhead to the Steam audience is a smart move for Crytek, especially given the low overheads of digital distribution.

However, don't get too excited about the idea of Crysis publisher EA bringing its major games to Steam. As with Valve's own The Orange Box, Crysis and Crysis Warhead are published through the EA Partners program. Going by the announcement's wording, the Steam debut of Crysis seems to be more of a Valve and Crytek, not EA, thing.

Electronic Arts has released a set of new screenshots from Crytek's stand-alone shooter Crysis Warhead (PC), showing off a section of the icy area. The game will be split between jungle and ice areas, though the majority of events will be set in warmer territory. The company also passed along the official specs of the Crysis Warhead PC, also known as the Ultra Optimized PC by Ultra PC. The game was developed using a PC with the same specs, with a target of 30 FPS on "Gamer" settings. The computer will sell for $699, and include the following hardware:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 2.66 GHz 3M CPU
• NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT 512MB GPU
• G31 mATX Motherboard
• 2 GB RAM... Read more

Following up on word that publisher Electronic Arts was readying a line of Crysis-ready PCs, more details, including pricing and system specifications, have surfaced.

Priced at $699, the one and only Crysis Warhead PC was made with the involvement of EA, game developer Crytek, hardware maker Nvidia, and system builder UltraPC. It will launch alongside Crysis Warhead on September 16, and pack the following:

• CPU: Intel Core Duo e7300 (@2.66GHz)
• Video card: Nvidia 9800GT
• RAM: 2GB

The system actually represents the internal benchmark Crytek Budapest used when developing the stand-alone Crysis expansion, and is said to run Warhead with High settings at an average of 30 frames per second. "For us as a team, that was really valuable," franchise producer Bernd Diemer told Chris Remo. "We... Read more

While some argue that piracy can increase game sales by letting players take a "try before you buy" approach, Crytek business manager Harald Seeley isn't one of them.

Based on downloads of the last Crysis patch, he argues, there were "a lot more active [Crysis] players than there were unit sales."

And since those pirates are still playing the game months after release, Seeley reasons that "then they were a sale that didn't happen but probably would have had it not been possible to obtain the game illegally."

Crytek, the studio that created the hardware intensive Far Cry and Crysis games exclusively for PC, has repeatedly stated that the upcoming Crysis Warhead will be its last PC-only game due to the abundant piracy of PC games.

But just because Crytek is no longer developing PC exclusives, that doesn't mean the company will abandon the platform. "We want to continue to provide our... Read more

With Crytek's open-world sci-fi shooter Crysis Warhead (PC) due out September 16, publisher Electronic Arts' online store has pulled back the curtain on the standalone expansion's minimum system requirements.

The specifications are nearly identical to the minimum requirements of the original Crysis, with the only significant difference being a 3GB jump in required HDD space. However, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli has repeatedly noted that the game-powering CryENGINE 2 has been "optimized to run better on a wider range of PCs."

• 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... Read more

Crysis Warhead (PC) and its multiplayer mode Crysis Wars will ship to North American retailers on September 16 and head to European stores on September 12, publisher Electronic Arts announced today.

The second entry in Crytek's sci-fi shooter series, Warhead provides a new take on the events of the PC original and carries a $29.95 price tag. The standalone game is said to be Crytek's last PC exclusive due to issues with piracy and sales numbers.

"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," said Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli.

In addition to new singleplayer content, Warhead will pack an expanded multiplayer mode dubbed Crysis Wars. At present, Crysis Wars packs 3 modes... Read more

Several new screenshots of Crytek's next sci-fi shooter Crysis Warhead have popped up over at PC Games, offering more examples of the game's fire and explosion effects.

Described as a expansion pack by publisher EA during a conference call yesterday, Crysis Warhead and its alternative take on the events of the original Crysis will arrive on PC this fall for $29.99. To learn more, hit up our E3 preview.

Publisher Electronic Arts is planning to sell a line of PCs that will be branded and marketed as machines that can handle Crytek's beefy PC shooter Crysis.

The computers will come in several configurations, and will be released alongside Crytek's upcoming stand-alone expansion Crysis Warhead, according to some blogger.

While Crytek has mainly blamed Crysis' modest sales on PC piracy, many have pointed to the game's demanding system requirements as another culprit. Crytek has been working to optimize the engine and increase framerates for the Warhead expansion.

Crysis Warhead is scheduled for a September release.

If you want to play more Crysis levels without having to deal with all the cost of fresh-feeling content, you're in luck.

Where to start? After thirty minutes of playing Crysis Warhead, I saw a couple new guns, some new particle effects, and a new mission. A mission that, outside of a dull scripted vehicle sequence, could have passed as content from the original Crysis.

Don't get me wrong: I very much enjoyed the original Crysis, and the stand-alone Warhead's $29.99 price point keeps the lack of new features from being insulting. Apparently Warhead will include a larger variety of enemies than Crysis, though I saw only the same standard soldiers while playing it. And it will supposedly be better optimized, so a few more of you might be able to run it. There will also be some new multiplayer maps, and a couple new modes.

Did I mention those explosion effects already?

I can at least confirm that there will be no new suit powers... Read more

A listing for Crysis Warhead on publisher Electronic Arts' online store has revealed new details on pricing and new multiplayer features for Crytek's standalone shooter follow-up.

In addition to confirming the game's $29.95 retail price point, the listing notes that Crysis Warhead includes Crysis Wars, described as an "expanded new multiplayer experience" for the title.

Crysis Wars is said to include a total of 21 of maps, seven of which are brand new to the Crysis multiplayer experience. New multiplayer modes will also be included, though no further details were specified.

Set to be Crytek's last PC-exclusive game, Crysis Warhead is scheduled for a fall release.

Electronic Arts has released a few new explosive screens of Crytek's stand-alone sequel Crysis Warhead.

A PC-exclusive, Crysis Warhead is said to follow the exploits of Psycho, a character introduced in the original Crysis. More of an alternate perspective than a direct sequel, gameplay will take place during the events of the first game. More vehicles and weapons--including dual-wielded arms, as shown in the screenshots below--round out the feature list.

Crysis Warhead is scheduled for a fall release on PC.

Publisher Electronic Arts has provided us with the first official screenshots from Crytek's upcoming sci-fi shooter sequel Crysis Warhead, which hits PC this fall.

Crytek chief executive Cevat Yerli offered an assessment of piracy within the PC gaming industry, describing the market as "the most intensely pirated market ever."

"It's crazy how the ratio between sales to piracy is probably 1 to 15 to 1 to 20 right now," Yerli told IGN. "For one sale there are 15 to 20 pirates and pirate versions, and that's a big shame for the PC industry."

Yerli added that he hoped to see some change with the release of Crytek's upcoming shooter follow-up Crysis Warhead. When asked if the game would include anti-piracy measures similar to Electronic Arts' activation protocols in the PC edition of BioWare's Mass Effect, the CEO didn't directly specify but hinted at some new ideas.

"Effectively, if the game isn't an online game or multiplayer game—there are challenges regardless of what you do—the game can be cracked. The effort is to... Read more