Crysis 2 Message Board older than one year ago

After establishing a reputation for cutting edge graphics with the original Crysis, many PC gamers were disappointed with the fact that Crysis 2 did not support DirectX 11. It left their high-performance rigs feeling underutilized. Well, that underutilization comes to an end today, since Crytek officially released two free upgrade packages that will push video cards to the limit and cause you to overdose on eye candy.

After upgrading the game to v1.9 via automatic update, you can download and install the DX11 Ultra Upgrade, which adds features like tessellation and displacement mapping, realistic shadows and more. To amp things up even further, grab the Hi Res Texture Pack, which includes impressive graphical improvements whether you're using DX11 or DX9 (64-bit OS and at least 768 MB of video card memory required). Check out the trailer after the jump to see what's in store.

Download the Crysis 2 DirectX 11 Ultra Upgrade (545 MB)
Download the Crysis 2 Hi Res Texture Pack (1.65 GB)

Developer Crytek today released the Crysis 2 Ultra Upgrade patch for PC, giving gamers DirectX 11 support...

One of the most highly-acclaimed first person shooters of 2011 is getting a facelift. Today, EA and Crytek will be releasing the Crysis 2 Ultra Upgrade, giving PC gamers full DirectX 11 support. Enhancing the Crysis 2 gaming experience on PC, the Crysis 2 Ultra Upgrade delivers higher quality visual...

#pc As predicted, Crysis 2's Ultra Upgrade hit today, giving PC gamers full DirectC support for the shooter. More »

Woo, fancy! It’s here.

When using the new “Ultra” spec, DX9 platforms will benefit from real-time local reflections and contact shadows. The owners of DX11 platforms, in addition, will be able to enjoy hardware tessellation (requires the installation of the “DX11 Ultra Upgrade”), parallax occlusion mapping and several improvements for shadows, water, particles, depth of field and motion blur.

Phwoar, eh readers? (You probably want to download the hi-res textures patch on the same page, too.)

Speaking with Gamasutra, Crytek bossman Cervat Yerli had this to say about the Crysis games: “Crysis 1′s intention was, if I were to play it three years later, it looks great. And it does, actually, it fulfilled that. But it made it difficult for entry-level players. So with Crysis 2, we took a different direction, and it backfired a little bit.” Yerli explained that the forthcoming high-end 1.9 patch for Crysis 2, which will introduce clevers such as tessellation, realistic shadows with variable penumbra, parallax occlusion mapping, and “Sprite Based Bokeh Depth of Field”, is a “gift” to the PC high-end community. “It lifts up Crysis 2 and gives a sneak peak of how PC gaming will evolve in the future,” says Yerli, “If you support a high-end preference.” I totally support a high-end preference. That sounds like some kind of innuendo, right? Eh? Guys? Mm.

The high-end patch is out next Monday, June 27th.

#sorry The first Crysis was tailored directly towards the glorious PC master race. So the fact the sequel pared back the hardware demands in favour of something that would run on a console did not go down well. More »

#masterrace If you can handle it, that is. More »

Crysis 2 was removed from Steam last week over a DLC agreement--and it's still not back.

I've been just as frustrated as you about the lack of clarity from Electronic Arts and Valve over Crysis 2's removal from Steam. Then, when EA said it "appreciates Steam's decision" to allow Alice: Madness Returns on Steam, things became more confusing.

I have some answers.

Alice: Madness Returns was not pulled down from Steam--it wasn't there to start. As others pointed out to me, EA has a habit of placing its games on Steam at the last second. Alice: Madness Returns was the latest, but there was a similar situation with Dragon Age II.

As for why Crysis 2 is no longer on Steam, an EA spokesperson explained to me that Crytek had brokered a deal for another digital distributor to host the game's downloadable content. Because Steam could not distribute the content, Steam took the game down. It's still not available.

"EA had nothing to do with Steam's decision to drop Crysis 2," said the company in a statement.

EA did not make that point completely clear in its previous statement about Crysis 2's removal.

"Steam has imposed a set of business terms for developers hoping to sell content on that service," it said last week, "many of which are not imposed by other online game services."

The reasons for suspicion over EA's relationship with Steam come from the launch of Origin, EA's new distribution platform revealed at E3. Origin will be the exclusive home to the digital version of Star Wars: The Old Republic. The question that lingers: what about Battlefield 3?

"No new information on BF3 or what Steam will decide to do with other EA titles," said the company. "We are glad they chose to post Alice on Steam."

Steam does list some upcoming releases, but not many. While Battlefield 3 is not listed, Rage, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, and Dead Island are, and can be added to a Steam wishlist.

Earlier this week, Videogamer reported a rumor that the next generation of Microsoft hardware would be unveiled at E3 2012 and that Crytek already had its mitts on it, supposedly developing TimeSplitters 4 -- which would also be shown off at next year's annual trade show. However, according to the latest Crytek newsletter, it's all baloney.
"Relating to the recent rumours, Crytek do not have any next generation hardware from Microsoft, nor do we know when Microsoft may announce future hardware or what that hardware will entail. Crytek are working at pushing the boundaries of what current technology can bring, including our focus on DX11 which will be released shortly as an update for Crysis 2, and we believe this work, added to our estimations of what the new hardware will provide, set up CryENGINE as a next generation engine for all consoles." Besides, it wouldn't make much sense for Microsoft to announce a new console when it's all gung-ho on Kinect right now -- unless the new console uses Kinect. You guys, we think we just figured it out!

Crytek is denying a report from earlier this week that Microsoft plans to reveal the successor to the Xbox 360 as early as next year and that the studio posses next generation hardware...

The launch of Origin may have something to do with the weirdness between EA and Steam.

The confusing back-and-forth between Steam and Electronic Arts continues. Crysis 2 and Alice: Madness Returns listings all disappeared from Steam earlier this week, followed by a statement from EA stating certain business terms had changed.

The change violated an existing agreement Crytek had regarding Crysis 2 with another company, EA said, thus forcing Crysis 2 to come down from the store.

That didn't really explain what happened to Alice: Madness Returns, though.

Alice: Madness Returns returned to Steam today. EA sent me an odd statement explaining why.

"EA Partners and Spicy Horse Games appreciate Steam’s decision to sell Alice: Madness Returns," said the company. "The game is also available on several other download services including Amazon, Gamestop and Origin.com."

This doesn't answer several questions: why isn't Crysis 2 back? Why was it "Steam's decision" to allow Alice: Madness Returns back into Steam? Will Battlefield 3 ever show up? Does this impact future EA releases? What business terms changed that prompted this in the first place?

At E3, EA launched Origin, a proprietary digital platform for serving up EA content. Though neither company has said so, there's reason to believe these moves have to do with Origin.

I'm asking all of these to try and learn more. When (and if) I hear back, I'll let you know.

Did you buy the Crysis 2 ‘Retaliation’ map pack last month? Then you’ll probably be pleased to know that a second one, the ‘Decimation’ pack, has just gone on sale. Once again it’ll cost you $10, though this time you’re getting five new maps (instead of four) and two new weapons- the FY71 assault rifle and smoke grenades.

Tell you what, no video game smoke grenade will ever top the ones that were in the unpatched release of legendarily buggy 2004 soldier sim Söldner. Every so often you’d throw one that didn’t run out of smoke. Ever. It would just sit there, slowly filling the entire level with an opaque fog for minutes on end until the rendering engine crashed.(more…)

Featuring five all-new maps.

More maps, more guns, more near-future action.

THINGS ARE GETTING REALLY STRANGE NOW. Now being outside of UK office hours mean we’re yet to get our own EA response to why Crysis 2 vanished from Steam yesterday, but across-the-ponders have now received one. The upshot? Despite all this ‘only on Origin’ stuff, EA didn’t do it. So: who did?(more…)

The Crysis 2 Decimation Pack including 5 new maps and 2 new weapons is available now! Available on PC and Xbox 360, the Crysis 2 Decimation Pack brings all new maps and weapons to the Crysis 2 universe. Battle in all-new locations and once again prove yourself the master of the Nanosuit. Inclu...

Electronic Arts' new downloadble service, Origin, will host exclusive content for games such as Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3. Digital copies of Star Wars: The Old Republic will be exclusive to Origin. Crysis 2, released earlier this year, was pulled from Valve's digital games service Steam yesterday, fueling speculation EA removed the title...

While the waters around Crysis 2′s sudden disappearance from Steam last night remain somewhat muddy, EA Games prez Frank Gibeau has spilled a few heavily suggestive beans about the big brass balls the publisher has about its proprietary download service, Origin, and how it intends to keep any other download service’s grubby mitts off a few of its choicest games.(more…)

Quite a lot of mod news this week, apparently, even though there’s very little for you to actually play. There’s a long-awaited update from Jurrassic Life, as well as plenty of other gubbins related to Half-Life 2, Crysis, Stalker: Clear Sky, Portal 2 and Dirt 3. That’s a lot of games! Read on to find out what’s what.(more…)

#virtualarmyofone Crytek's CryEngine 3 technology, which we've seen most recently in the company's own Crysis 2, is the driving force behind a $57 million project from the US Army aimed at teaching its soldiers how to fight. More »

Want to jump twice as high, run twice as fast, and shoot bullets that are twice the size of regular bullets? You ... um, can't. But, if you play Crysis 2 multiplayer this weekend, you'll be able to unlock the game's nanomechanical power-ups twice as quickly.

Once again, Amazon has elected to mark down select video games across a number of platforms as part of its Gold Box promotion. Check out the remaining clues after the jump! If you're not a fan of uncertainty, you can also grab Crysis 2 for $35 in Amazon's Deal of the Day.

Level up! Four of them, actually. The Retaliation map pack for Crysis 2 is now available for $10, say EA, presumably for purchase within the game because I certainly can’t see anywhere on the internet to buy it. The four maps, “Park Avenue” “Transit” “Shipyard” and “Compound” all look like they’d make a nice home for an excitable nano-warrior, and you can see all four in the following trailer, which is actually as much of an ad for the new maps as it is for Crysis 2 multiplayer in general. Look at those big men frolic!(more…)

The new Crysis 2 'Retaliation' Map Pack is out. While we haven't made up our minds what we think about it yet, we wanted to help you decide. Below you'll find the descriptions EA provided us for each map, along with some footage we took ourselves. Let us know what you think about the levels in the comments below -- just keep it clean, folks...

Beginning today, gamers can strap into their Nanosuits and return to the streets of New York in Crysis 2 with the brand new map pack, Retaliation. Retaliation features four maps that introduce new iconic locations to the fun, addictive and fast-paced multiplayer campaign that helped make Crysis 2 a critical and commercial success. New maps in Retaliation include "Park Avenue", "Transit", "Shipyard" and "Compound"...

Four new maps bring all-new ways to retaliate against your enemies in Crysis 2 multiplayer.

The cybernetic suits of Crysis 2 will soon leap, slide, shoot, and ground-stomp each other in four new DLC maps: "Park Avenue, Transit, Shipyard, and Compound." They're set to drop on May 17 as the "Retaliation" map pack.

The add-on is coming to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, though its availability on PS3 is dependent on whether or not PSN is back up by next week. No price is given in the announcement, nor the trailer, so we'll try to find out for you.

#blip Crysis 2 is about to get its first piece of downloadable content, in the form of four new multiplayer maps. It'll be out on May 17 on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 (PSN service dependent). More »

Remember Crysis 2? Eh? Bringing it back into our memories is the forthcoming release of a DLC pack of maps, for which the good folks at Trailer Making Inc. have made a trailer. Eyes down.

(more…)