Vindictive aliens descend upon New York. A malicious plague cripples the shaken city's human inhabitants, who can only fall backwards into the outstretched arms of a cyborg saviour. (He had to put his guns down for just a moment.)

So, pretty out there material for a video game, but perhaps the gloomy premise could be better explored in an older medium? Set to debut in March 2011 under the Del Rey banner, Crysis: Legion will adapt Crytek's upcoming first-person shooter into a novel, written by Hugo Award-nominated author (and ex-marine biologist) Peter Watts. Watts' characters and tone haven't been known to elicit smiles -- if you want a sample of his dark science-fiction you can read Blindsight online, thanks to its Creative Commons license.

Peter Watts is the second well-known sci-fi author to be associated with Crysis 2, which is being written for the high-definition screen by Altered Carbon's Richard Morgan. Watts will be seen as the real genius, though -- he's getting Crysis to run on a Kindle.