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Crytek and DeNA partner for F2P mobile game The Collectables
Crytek, a company best known for graphically stunning first-person shooters, is joining forces with DeNA to join the free-to-play mobile game space with The Collectables. Using a modified version of the Crytek engine, The Collectables is what you'd hope for from a Crytek game: "intense combat, extreme gunfights, 3D battlefields and classic larger-than-life action heroes to bring players an unparalleled mobile game experience." Those who pre-order the game will receive access to an in-game character equipped with special limited-time-only gear. There's currently no word on when The Collectables should debut, though Crytek and DeNA hope to have it out at some point during 2014.
Joystiq Streams: Ryse Son of Rome, Dead Rising 3, Killer Instinct [Watch the replay!]
Update: The live stream has ended. Watch the replay above. If you've read our reviews for Ryse: Son of Rome and Dead Rising 3, you may want to learn even more about two of Xbox One's biggest launch games. Your pals at Joystiq are streaming them both in a special edition of our Joystiq Streams feature, right here at 4:30 p.m. Eastern. Xav and Richard will be there to answer your questions while they murder barbarians and/or zombies. Be sure t jump into the chat on the official Joystiq Twitch stream page!
Ryse: Son of Rome review: Tedious maximus
We'll be rolling out Xbox One review coverage all the way through launch on November 22. Read all of our news and reviews right here! Ryse: Son of Rome is, graphically, a stunning game. It's a real marvel to watch gorgeous locales get flooded with hordes of barbarians jostling toward our hero, Marius Titus, who fights them off with expert swordplay and brutal executions. At first, the experience definitely has the power to enrapture. But then, a few minutes go by and the seams start to show – and split. Combat never changes, offering all of its tricks up front. Execution animations repeat again and again, despite your ability to unlock new ones as the game progresses. The same enemy types appear ad nauseam, pitting Marius against a world-record series of twins, triplets and so on. If Crytek's Xbox One action game is to be believed, the history books have it all wrong. The reason for Rome's fall wasn't decadence, economic problems or social division; it was sheer boredom.
Ryse: Son of Rome trailers take a tour of the empire
The Roman empire spanned a vast amount of land in its heyday. The empire stretched from Rome, Italy to York, England, over to the ... haunted swamps of the north? Okay, Ryse: Son of Rome may be taking some creative liberties with that last one.
Stick and Rudder: How to be an informed Star Citizen
Massively's podcast fielded a listener question about Star Citizen and various other Kickstarters a couple weeks back, and while I answered it on our weekly show, I'd like to expand on it in more detail here. Call it a public service for people who are mildly interested in Cloud Imperium's space sim but not interested enough to scarf up the considerable amount of news flowing out of the studio these days. The question, in a nutshell, was how can a 30-person dev team make a triple-A title. There was more to it, including the usual concerns about crowdfunding, trust, and bits about investing vs. donating, but the dev team portion is the portion that I want to highlight.
Clobbering time again and again in Ryse: Son of Rome
There's a certain point where each execution in Ryse: Son of Rome stops feeling like a vicious byproduct of war and starts feeling like just another Tuesday in the legion. Violence is treated with such a casual tone, I found during my two hours sampling a near-final version of the game at Microsoft's Xbox One showcase in San Francisco last week, that it seeps into every corner of Ryse, dulling the impact of all conflict and narrative. Why should I mourn the death of a story character after I just killed 412 barbarians in the last 20 minutes? Ryse: Son of Rome feels like all sizzle and no steak. It's a procession of CPU-controlled warriors lining up to fall on protagonist Marius' sword in a stylish slow-mo ballet of blood and dismemberment. Killing enemies feels less and less triumphant with each strike, which is kind of a problem when the main focus of the game is seeing just how high you can stack the corpses.
Machinima to premiere live-action series based on Ryse: Son of Rome
Crytek and Machinima have partnered to produce a live-action webseries based on Xbox One game Ryse: Son of Rome called "The Fall." This four-part story will explore the character of Marius Titus, who is also the main character in the upcoming game, and will be stabbing its way to a computer near you on November 5. Martin McCready, a British stage actor, will take on the role of Titus, while Brian Beletic directs. The trailer, which you can check out above, shows no signs of the game's infamous QTE executions. You can decide for yourself whether you are or are not entertained by that.
Ryse $20 season pass grants access to four DLC packs
Microsoft announced a season pass program for Ryse: Son of Rome today. The $20 season pass will give players access to four DLC packs over the course of multiple months following the Xbox One exclusive's November 22 launch. Ryse's four pieces of DLC will feature a new mode, 14 multiplayer maps, six new skins for players, a new equipment tier and level events. The season pass is a 25 percent discount on the combined, as-yet-unannounced individual prices of the DLC packs, and will also come with a sword and shield exclusive to season pass holders. The Crytek-developed game will include 11 multiplayer maps at launch and an extra one specific to the Day One edition.
Warface launches in Europe and North America
Warface. Warface launched. Warface launched today, and so did the requisite Warface launch trailer. As you can see, the word Warface never, ever, gets old no matter how many times you type it, say it aloud, or roll it around in your brainpan. I thought seriously about filling this entire post with 100 instances of the word Warface, but I figured you'd probably like to know that the title is now live in both Europe and North America. As for what you can expect, Warface is a free-to-play class-based multiplayer FPS powered by the CryEngine. Aw heck, just watch the video after the break, will ya?
Crytek CEO: F2P games catching up with next-gen production values is 'just a matter of time'
North America and Europe welcome Warface on PC today, a big step for a game that is itself a big step for its developer, Crytek. Warface is the company's first free-to-play game, the first step in a planned journey that culminates in the Crysis and Ryse studio going fully free-to-play within five years. At the recent DICE Europe conference, CEO Cevat Yerli spoke about closing the visual gap between cinema and games, and how Crytek is using advanced lighting and modeling effects to make Xbox One historical adventure Ryse stand out. Afterwards, I asked Yerli about the difficulties in marrying F2P with the studio's reputation for high-end graphics. "It's just a matter of time," Yerli said. "We already introduced with Warfare a much higher quality relative to the current generation of gaming, and Ryse is [our] first game that launches a next-generation experience. Going forward, I expect free-to-play games to catch up with next-generation offerings as well. So it's really just a matter of time."
Ryse trailers include plenty of screaming, stabby Romans
Ryse: Son of Rome: Brother of Sparta: Cousin of Madagascar receives two new trailers today and some screenshots. Neither video is narrated by Linda Hunt. Both videos should be narrated by Linda Hunt. All things Roman and/or referencing revenge with Gods should involve Linda Hunt.
Crysis dev's free-to-play shooter opens to the public on October 21
Crytek's multiplayer shooter Warface will go live to the public on October 21. The PC game went through a couple of closed beta periods, and the final one commenced in August. Players can sign up for the game ahead of time on its official site. Warface is expected to pave the way for Crytek's free-to-play ambitions, as CEO Cevat Yerli said in February that the developer and GFace service provider plans to go fully free-to-play within five years. To help its cause, the developer is bringing Warface to Xbox 360 in early 2014, where online play will require a paid Xbox Live Gold subscription. Crytek also opened an Istanbul studio in January to support its free-to-play mission.
Jukebox Heroes: Tracy W. Bush opens up about WoW, Dungeon Runners, and DCUO
Odds are that even if you don't know who Tracy W. Bush is, you've allowed him to pipe music from his mind directly into your ears at one point or another during your MMO gameplay. Bush has contributed to tons of MMO soundtracks over the past decade-plus, including World of Warcraft, Tabula Rasa, Dungeon Runners, Auto Assault, and DC Universe Online. It was actually this column's discussion of the Tabula Rasa soundtrack that prompted Bush to write in (fun fact: Blue Turns to Grey was the first track he wrote for the game, but the team held off putting it in until the very end), and I asked him if he'd be open to chatting about his collective work here. That didn't take much arm-twisting, no sirree. So with that, I'm going to turn the mike over to Tracy Bush and let him share with you what it's like to create soundscapes that echo so powerfully in your memories.
Development to begin on PS4 version of Timesplitters Rewind, just in case
The ragtag team of fans constructing Timesplitters Rewind is poised to start development on a PlayStation 4 version of the game, project lead Michael Hubicka told Gaming Blend. The move is preemptive, as Crytek has yet to approve the port: "We're actually going to go ahead and start development [of Timesplitters Rewind] on PlayStation 4," Hubicka said. "We're pretty confident Crytek's going to say go ahead and do it. But we don't want them saying go ahead and do it when we're caught with our pants down and we're like halfway through development, and [then] start something for the PlayStation 4." Crytek has approved the game's PC incarnation, which was announced back in March. Alpha testing for the PC version is slated to begin sometime between the end of this year and late 2014, according to a post on the game's official blog. The development team is also investigating the possibility of cross-platform play between PC and PS4 versions, should Crytek's legal department sign off on the console port.
Crytek's Warface coming to Xbox 360 in 2014
Crytek's online first-person shooter, Warface, will launch on Xbox 360 in early 2014. The game will retain its free-to-play model in the move to the Microsoft console, though the online play will require an Xbox Live Gold subscription. The PC version of Warface recently entered its final closed beta phase, which players can still apply for on the GFace site. The game will launch later this year in North America, Europe and Turkey. Crytek's free-to-play ambitions don't end with Warface, as CEO Cevat Yerli said in February that the company hopes to better support the free-to-play model within the next five years.
Ryse, Dead Rising 3 launch editions detailed
Microsoft announced what in-game items will be included in the Day One editions of Xbox One launch games Ryse, Dead Rising 3, and Forza Motorsport 5 today - we already knew about the three-car pack in the Forza 5 Day One box, but the rest is news to us. Crytek's Roman romp Ryse bundles in a sword with "bonus in-game attributes," and a co-op map apparently exclusive to the Day One Edition, but Day One owners can at least invite Standard Edition bearers to join them in it - awwww. As for Dead Rising 3, the Day One box lets you deck out new hero Nick Ramos in some familiar-looking ensembles. Frank West's cool-dude duds come with a "Zombie Slugger" weapon, while Chuck Greene's biker garb has a Paddle Saw accompaniment. Both outfits come with attribute perks, while the West offering also has a custom skill move. As for when these Day One editions are due, well, that'll be when the Xbox One arrives, a date so super duper secret that if a Microsoft employee tries to say it out loud, he or she will spontaneously implode into a tiny dust cloud, drifting into the sky with a soft whisper that sounds something like "November. Just November ..."
Warface hits the trenches today in final closed beta
Crytek's perpetual in-beta freemium shooter Warface has initiated another closed beta run today, open to all who're registered through Crytek's Gface service. This will be the final round of beta testing before the game launches in North America, Europe and Turkey later this year. Warface, a free-to-play online shooter with multiple classes spanning both competitive and co-operative game modes, is a joint effort between Crytek and Trion Worlds. Warface, in combination with Gface, marks Crytek's first steps toward becoming a fully free-to-play company, which it hopes will happen within the next five years.
New CryEngine available, supports next-gen systems
A new version of the CryEngine (Crysis 3, Ryse) is now available to developers, Crytek announced. Simply called "CryEngine," the now-numberless technology supports both current-generation systems as well as Wii U, PS4 and Xbox One. In its announcement, Crytek also noted the merging of its CryeEgine research and development and licensing departments, "a move designed to double the level of one-to-one care game licensees can tap into." The free Cryengine SDK also received an update this week, giving it "a raft of the new features" and lifting restrictions that "prevented users from working offline." The free, non-commercial SDK has been downloaded over five million times since it launched two years ago, according to the company.
Ryse revised: How Crytek altered combat for the better
Many people really latched onto Ryse: Son of Rome's execution system when Crytek showed off the game at E3 earlier this year – but probably not in the way the developer wanted them to. Ryse's executions, which grant the player various in-game perks – and see protagonist Marius stabbing, gouging, slicing, bashing and otherwise maiming barbarians – are performed via short quick time events. Even though the majority of Ryse's combat has an ebb and flow similar to the Batman Arkham games – flurries of attacks sprinkled with timely parries – many prospective players, myself included, worried about the QTE-infused combat getting stale. Crytek has responded to those concerns, and the build of Ryse being shown at Gamescom has a significantly altered execution system. Gone are the garish button prompts. Instead, enemies are subtly highlighted with the color of the appropriate button: Yellow for the shield (Y) and blue for the sword (X). By watching Marius' animations and keeping an eye out for each color, I easily slipped into the rhythm of various executions, something I can't say about the E3 build I played in June. The E3 reaction didn't directly inspire the changes to the execution system, design director Patrick Esteves tells me, but it definitely played a part. "We were already down a course. We already knew where executions were going. And, of course, in game development, we have to figure out what's the best way to do something." "People don't like the idea of a QTE-based combat system. Thank God we're not a QTE-based combat system," says Esteves, alluding to the fact that there is more to Ryse's combat than people may have perceived from the E3 demo. Just as I did in June, players will eventually discover that the combat is more about a dance-like back-and-forth between Marius and foes than it is about executions. "That was the first thing," says Esteves, "and the second thing is, is the communication language good enough for the game?" Crytek decided it wasn't.
'Possible' loss of user information in Crytek security breach
Crytek took down four of its websites due to "suspicious activity" over the weekend. According to a statement from Crytek, the security breach "may have resulted in some users' login data being compromised." "Although it is uncertain whether the incident led to the copying and decryption of email addresses and passwords, it is possible that users with accounts at these websites have had personal data copied," Crytek said. "On Friday afternoon we started to contact all affected users via email and informed them of the potential security breach." The four sites in question, crytek.com, mycryengine.com, crydev.net and mycrysis.com are still offline. Crytek said that "final details of when our sites will be back online will be communicated as soon as possible." Additionally, "no payment information from users was stored at all" on the sites in question.
