Crysis 2; Regular infointerviews

[X-RayXI]

http://www.vg247.com/2010/04/19/interview-crysis-2-exec-producer-nathan-camarillo/

 

Interview: Crysis 2 Exec. Producer, Nathan Camarillo

 

Crysis is a tough act to follow. Three years on, the Crytek shooter is still considered to be both a PC graphics benchmark and a hardcore darling, so bringing the IP to consoles raises some obvious questions: will the PC version be crippled? Will the console versions be choppy? Will Crytek manage the transition from PC-only to multi-plat without imploding? Will a comet ever destroy life on earth?

They seemed obvious to us, anyway. We asked Crysis 2 executive producer Nathan Camarillo for the answers. Apart from the comet one, obviously: we’ve all seen Armageddon.

[interview by Patrick Garratt. This chat took place the day after Crysis 2's formal reveal in New York earlier this month.]

 

VG247: How was the reaction to the showing?

Nathan Camarillo: We’re very pleased. It seems like a very positive reaction from everyone. We’re more than happy to show the software to everybody. We’ve been wanting to do that for quite a while, and the team has been dying to get the product seen, because they’ve been working really, really hard on it for the last couple of years. We’ve played our hand very close to our chest, because this industry is very competitive right now. We’re on the leading edge of technology and graphics, and anything we show has a risk of being adopted in other titles that will release in the same window. We’ve been holding back for a little bit longer than is typical.

Why did you show the game on 360?

Nathan Camarillo: For a lot of people in the community and press, that was the concern. “What will they be able to do? Will they be able to do this type of game on console or not, and what will it looks like, and will it be fun, and will it be hamstrung? These are PC developers.” We wanted to show console hardware, show the game running on 360, get it out there and get people talking about it in a positive way.

How have you found the transition from being a PC developer to doing multi-platform?

Nathan Camarillo: It’s been relatively easy. I mean, it’s not without its difficulties. It’s not the hardware aspect; it’s your mentality of being a console developer versus strictly PC. In a lot of ways it’s really good for us, as we already had really good tools with CryENGINE 2. The goal of CryENGINE 3 was to make an engine that would run multi-platform, that would run on console. That was the goal from the beginning. It forced us to optimize a lot of the technology and the systems that we have, and also improve our work-flow to be multi-platform while keeping everything in as small an iteration as was possible. From a work-flow and technology standpoint it was extremely positive, and from a game-design and development point of view it was extremely positive as well, because you can’t just keep raising your minmum spec. You have a closed platform and you only have so much to work with, so you have to be more efficient and smarter about what you add to the game and how you do it. That doesn’t necessarily mean doing less of some things; in some cases you’re doing more. You’re just not adding as many tiny, one-off things. Everything is more systemic and more nested, and has more interactions across layers. In the end I think it’s made us a stronger developer all around, not just [in terms of] technology but also the quality of the gameplay that we’re going to get out of Crysis 2.

I asked Cevat yesterday why you were bringing the game to consoles, and he said it was because there were more gamers there and it was going to give the IP a broader reach. Realistically, do you think that going multi-platform was a necessity for Crytek as a business?

Nathan Camarillo: That’s probably a better question for Cevat because he’s the CEO of the company, but yeah, it’s only a positive thing for us to be multi-platform. If it makes better games, that’s always an extremely positive thing. We do license our CryENGINE technology, and it gives us a broader reach not only with our gaming audience, but with licensing. Part of that is enabling other developers to make better games as well. I think it’s inevitable that we would have wanted to be multi-platform anyway.

There are concerns in the community, obviously. Crysis was a PC benchmark, and was very much a hardcore game. It’s USP, eventually, was that it was incredibly heavy on technology. There are concerns that, because it’s being moved to console, the PC experience will be wound back in some way. It’s the same game on PC, 360 and PS3, and the PC version will end up being…

Nathan Camarillo: Hamstrung?

Yeah.

Nathan Camarillo: I think this is going to be a hotly-debated topic until we show a lot of gameplay footage on the internet, all three versions, and people are then able to make comparisons and see for themselves. There’s nothing to be worried about. The powerful thing about CryENGINE 3 is that it’s scalable, and it’s scalable for platforms. In the end, 360 and PS3 owners will probably get a very identically experience both visually and technologically. PC gamers shouldn’t be worried. We’ve said this a lot before in other interviews, but it’s really honest that we consider Crysis 1 to still be the pinnacle of PC visuals, and us and gamers and everyone else still tend to agree that, three years later, [people still say,] “Can it run Crysis?”

It’s true.

Nathan Camarillo: It’s still a visual benchmark, and we’re not going to let Crysis 1 kick Crysis 2’s butt in terms of that benchmark. We’ll set a new benchmark for Crysis 2.

It actually says on EA’s game-page at the moment that Crysis is the best-looking FPS game. So, Crysis 2 will be the only game that’s better-looking than Crysis 1?

Nathan Camarillo: Exactly.

I like that.

Nathan Camarillo: I don’t think people will be disappointed. There will be some technological features unique to PC. We’re not going into details on that now, but in the end it’s all quality per platform. We want the best PC game, we want the best PS3 game, we want the best 360 game.

You’re going to face some very vociferous comments about which platform is actually best.

Nathan Camarillo: [Laughs]

In terms of framerates and similar benchmarks, which platform to you expect to excel at the moment?

Nathan Camarillo: I think equal.

Literally the same?

Nathan Camarillo: Very close. There might be some very minor, nitpicky differences. If people want to go in and look at one screen and…

That’s the internet for you.

Nathan Camarillo: And that’s fine. But it won’t… It’ll be really, really close. We have two really strong internal teams on the programming side working on 360 and PS3 all the time, and they’re always in competition with each other. If you think “the internet” are going at each other about this, internally our developers are doing this as well. For a week or two PS3 will look better, then the 360 guys go, “No, no, no, we won’t have that,” and they make the 360 version look and play better.

An internal console war?

Nathan Camarillo: Oh yeah. Butting heads. In the end, fine, go at it. It’s going to make a better game all round for everybody, so we have that internal battle.

What about multiplayer? Obviously, Xbox Live and PSN are very different to the PC multiplayer environment. What are you plans for the different versions?

Nathan Camarillo: We’re not talking about multiplayer at this event, sorry.

No problem. In terms of gameplay, then, what are your biggest concerns?

Nathan Camarillo: For us it was really about accessibility and keeping the Nanosuit-style gameplay unique in the Crysis space. We offer a style of gameplay – not only in the sandbox but also with the Nanosuit in that sandbox – that’s unique to all other IPs, console or PC. That’s our IP, and that’s what we want to protect, and that’s also what we want to promote.

We also want to stay ahead of everyone in that regard. That’s the biggest challenge; trying to figure out how to have the Nanosuit, have the broadest appeal, and fix some of the problems from Crysis 1: it was great, it was innovative, but it wasn’t perfect. Just as an example, the Speed and Strength modes in Crysis 1: people discovered that they could sprint, then really quickly switch to Strength, then do a power-jump and really maintain their momentum. It was a hard move to pull off, even for really good PC gamers. Single-player or multiplayer, it didn ‘t matter; it was a really hard thing to do, but people really wanted to do it, and if people want to do that kind of activity all the time, it’s just better to give that kind of mobility feeling, to just be more manoeuvrable overall.

There was a refinement on the Nanosuit gameplay that happened between Crysis 1 and Crysis 2, and we did a lot of internal experiments on different control layouts for keyboard and mouse, different controller set-ups on console. What feels good, what’s the best kind of gameplay, does this make the Nanosuit more unique in its space, does it make you feel more powerful? I think getting that right has been our biggest production challenge, because it is so important for us to nail that.

It’s very difficult to maintain position in the triple-A action space. Which competitive products are you watching in particular?

Nathan Camarillo: I’m personally a fan of all games. I’ve been playing games since I was 4-5 years old. I’ve spent tens of thousands of hours playing games. Every game has its space. It’s hard to look at a game like Crysis, which is unique, and directly compare it to something else, because they’re unique in their own way.

But we’re in a really comfortable area where we’re military in theme but we’re a little bit in the future, and we go a little bit further with future technology but don’t go so far as science fantasy with being way in the future, or being in space or fighting tons of aliens from a different world. But we do have aliens. We’re a more contemporary setting and we’re a future you can understand, and we give you tools that you kind of want to play with. So, if you like using conventional weapons, they’re in Crysis 2. If you want to use more sci-tech weapons, we’ll have those in Crysis 2 as well. It’s a really unique fictional space. It has a broad appeal.

So you’re not Halo: Reach, and you’re not Call of Duty? That’s basically what you’re saying.

Nathan Camarillo: [Laughs] Yeah, yeah. Or any other [iP]. We’re not exactly Battlefield or Medal of Honor, or Ghost Recon or anything else. We’re kind of like some of them but we still feel unique. In a similar way, they all feel unique.

Do you feel more comfortable that you do have those differentiators rather than having to go head-to-head with some of those products? Are you glad that it’s differentiated in that way?

Nathan Camarillo: Yeah. It just makes it feel like a unique product. We’re not like that other game. I mean, it’s easier for you to make a comparison between Medal of Honor and Call of Duty, and it’s harder to separate yourself in that space, whereas we’re completely different. It’s easier for us to go, “Hey? Do you want to wear that suit?” Yes or no. If you say “yes,” you want to play this game. Yeah, I do feel more comfortable being unique. It’s a very good thing.

Story’s obviously been a huge part of where you’re going with this. How’ve you found working with an external writer, and how have you find integrating his ideas into the game?

Nathan Camarillo: Working with Richard is great. He’s a member of our team. It’s not like working with most external writers I’ve worked with in the past. He comes on-site all the time, and it seems he kind of lives half of his life in Frankfurt right now. It’s really nice that he wants to do that and he’s enthused to do that.

On his side, it seems that he’s really enjoying the collaboration. He’s an author, obviously, and he works a lot in isolation as most authors do, and to come on-site to a company like Crytek where we’re go-go-go and we have a ton of people working on things all the time, there’s so much energy there for him to feed on and exchange with us collaboratively. He has really awesome ideas, then comes back a week or two later and sees it. He’s like, “Woah”. It comes out of nowhere for him. He’d usually have to go off on his own and write some stuff, then send it to an editor, then get notes back, and work in isolation. It seems like he’s really enthused to be working with us and we’re really glad to be working with him. It’s a very good relationship.

Crysis 2 ships for PC, 360 and PS3 later this year.

[WiZiD]

I know I cant friggen wait!

[Arcanage]

Hahaha why are they competing PS3 vs xbox ... PC DOMINATES!!

[St33l]

Sweet! That's the best interview I've read for the game so far.

[Caper]

Oh hell X-Ray you lost me at crysis wars.... then to even attempt to read that..... hell no. I wont do it.

[St33l]

Arcanage

Hahaha why are they competing PS3 vs xbox ... PC DOMINATES!!

 

Quote from a youtube commentor "In the CE3 Demo, they said that Crysis 2 will look identicle on PS3 and PC, but the 360 version is downgraded visualy and physics-wise considering it's older? hardware. The example of CE3 in this video was probably the 360 version, and the PS3 version will look a lot better."

 

My reply to him: "You're so full of shit"

[Arcanage]

Hahaha well said But I hope Crytek doesn't pander to any console fanboys because I want a Crysis 2 as revolutionary and amazing as the Crysis and CWars!

 

How can you play crysis on a controller anyway? You'd get killed trying to change suit modes xD

[Cobryis_XI]

People need to get COD out of their brains. Just because COD on PC and 360 and PS3 is the same does not mean that Crysis 2 will work that way. They have already explained in another interview that the PC will be reaching new limits while on console it will be reaching each console's limit. PC has its own engine, PS3 and 360 have the same engine, although all are optimized entirely different. PS3 and 360 will not have a GRAPHICS setting like PC anyway, so there is a key difference.

 

@Arcanage, I think playing any FPS on a controller is pretty lame

 

More info:
Frankfurt a. M. (Germany), 22 April 2010 – Today, Crytek is releasing version 3.1 of its CryENGINE®3 SDK. This is the first major upgrade to the award-winning all-in-one game development solution and includes many revolutionary features and innovative tools. CryENGINE 3.1 enhances the CryENGINE® Sandbox® toolset with a new Shader Editor showcased at GDC 2010, improved profiling tools to maximize performance and quality, upgrades to animation tools and the introduction of new features such as Procedural Deformation, Irradiance Volumes and physics-driven animations. All these features can be created with the unique Crytek “What You See Is What You Play” real-time pipeline, simultaneously across all supported platforms. 

CryENGINE 3.1’s Blend Shader eradicates tiling of identical materials throughout games, without the need for large texture sets. A new Visual Budget System lets developers maximize performance and quality in their games, in real-time. Upgrades to the incorporated CryENGINE 3 Asset Browser ensure increased development speed for all designers and artists using CryENGINE Sandbox. Work has also been done to give directors and animators more control over their creations. The cut-scene and cinematic tool, TrackView, has been given a major overhaul, while the introduction of AnimGraph 1.5 not only facilitates access to parameters and blending values, but also features new tools that smoothly integrate animations with audio, particles, game events and effects. 

Aside from the tools improvements, new features such as Light Propagation Volumes further enhance the already-impressive graphics of CryENGINE 3, making stunning interior, exterior and cinematic lighting effects possible in real-time. The powerful CryENGINE 3 Physics System now gives an unprecedented level of interaction with the game world by adding support for secondary damage effects from procedural destruction: deformation of materials in real-time, physics-driven hit reactions for animated characters in games and customized destruction for any material. 

Further enhancements within CryENGINE 3.1 include optimizations in lighting and HDR, support for more artist-content creation tools, and improvements to CryENGINE® LiveCreate®, which allows real-time and simultaneous development of multiplatform games. Many of these are in response to the needs of the CryENGINE user community. 

“With the rendering power of CryENGINE 3 and the beautiful graphics and realism we showcase on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, it can be easy to forget that the CryENGINE Sandbox tools are also state-of-the-art and the only 100% real-time toolset available today. We’ve always had a vast array of intelligent and efficient tools integrated with our all-in-one game engine and we continually improve these tools for the benefit of our licensees. The latest version of CryENGINE 3 includes some of the excellent work our tools team have produced since October, to make the creation of AAA games easier, more efficient and more enjoyable. At Crytek, we’re confident our tools match our engine power – and are the best in the business. Developers can easily evaluate the new version of CryENGINE 3 through our mycryengine.com portal. Our dedicated support team is ready to help them discover how much fun they can have making amazing games in CryENGINE 3,” says Carl Jones, Director of Global Business Development CryENGINE.

[X-RayXI]

Crysis 2 Will Be a 'Halo Killer,' says EA
Posted May 4, 2010 by James Brightman

While Crysis is considered by many to be the pinnacle of PC shooters, at least in terms of visual performance, a number of gamers would argue that Bungie's Halo franchise set the standard for first-person shooters on consoles when it first arrived on Xbox back in 2001. With Crytek bringing Crysis 2 to Xbox 360 and PS3 later this year, publisher Electronic Arts is confident it can dethrone Halo in the realm of console shooters. That's quite a statement since Halo: Reach is launching later this year too and will be in direct competition with other shooters like Crysis 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops.

 

 

Speaking as part of an in-depth IndustryGamers interview, EA Games label president Frank Gibeau stated outright that his group has been planning to build a "Halo killer" for some time. "...we were trying to craft a Halo-killer, you know a product that would squarely go after what Bungie built with our partners at Crytek. So the Crysis 2 product is spectacular, very high-end, and is going to be a multi-year franchise," he said.

 

 

 

Responding to a question about whether EA approached Bungie before Activision locked them up for 10 years, Gibeau noted that EA Games is already very well stacked in the shooter department. "...so at some point in the portfolio plan you’ve got, when you look at Crytek, DICE, Epic, the LA team building MoH, and then Respawn, you know we got a pretty damn killer team. There’s not a lot of opening positions left on that roster and so that was definitely something that played into how we’ve looked at opportunities out there. But, we’re going for it and I‘ve gotten to know the Bungie guys over the years and they’re a terrific bunch of people, but we’re very pleased and confident with what we got and the franchises in our portfolio," he said.

[Arcanage]

No worries Crytek .. The last COD game is still getting flamed, and the main Crysis playerbase will still be the ultimate, the one-and-only, PERSONAL COMPUTER

 

& YES! I do want that suit

[X-RayXI]

By http://www.gamer.nl and sorry of the lack of translation.

 

Crysis 2 Preview demonstration;

 

It is crisis in New York

 

 

Not the kind of crisis that in recent years dominated the headlines, but a crisis that people running like headless chickens on the street, screaming, stumbling over each other. New York has turned into a war zone.

The streets are removed from everyday bustle. No noise of honking taxis, street vendors and tourists, but only the sound of helicopters flying over, rattling machine guns and the muffled cry of a soldier, where every last bit of life is squeezed by an invisible enemy: You!

The story of Crysis 2 takes place three years after the end of the first Crysis, and is connected to the plot of the first part, Crytek did not reveal how. The aliens who were on the tropical island at the beginning of a massive invasion stood their battlefield expanded and are now preparing to New York wiped off the map. The army does its best to repel the aliens, but New York needs more than that. The city has an alien hero with speed, strength and tactical skill, and that hero is, You!

Nano Suit 2.0

Much more of the attentions goes to the Crysis 2 Nanosuit. This suit in the first part also played a big role and gives you skills that go beyond the human body. Higher speed, resistance against bullets and other projectiles and the ability to become invisible. In Crysis 2 the suit is named to Nanosuit 2.0. Crytek has looked at how players the various possibilities of the pack in the first use and concluded that most players for a combination of power and armor were a combination of stealth and speed. The four choices for your nano suit from Crysis 1 were reduced to two: Armor and Stealth. These two forces are still to refine sub-drivers, making switching between different playing styles should be easier.

 

Presentation:

In the presentation that we saw was mainly used the stealth capabilities of the suit. On the roof across the street from Crynet soldiers were looking for something. The suspicion begins by implying that they are looking for you. The suit you have on to be exact.

Why the Crynet soldiers there are so keen to find you, were not revealed and some important cutscenes that would reveal too much plot were strategically omitted. What was left was a look at the graphical beauty of New York and scale of the battle area.

New York can describe himself as an urban jungle call. The high, imposing buildings gives the game a certain verticality with him that the player plenty of choice in attack routes gives, similar to the opportunities the mighty jungle the player in the first Crysis offered.

The artificial intelligence of Crysis 2 is again the same high level as we have known to come from Crytek. Invisibility was activated and was able to block enemies from close observation to be isolated as a simple soldier off. It was called the element of surprise lost a fierce battle was the final result. It was a good thing for Immortality liked the presentation because you come under heavy fire. Enemies make smart use of cover and are difficult to surprise. It was so hard that we were finally overpowered and handcuffed were removed in a helicopter.

The helicopter was quickly shot down by aliens and we do open our eyes while lying on the tarmac between the fragments. You yourself can barely move and left you just to watching what is happening around you. A group of aliens lands along the street and attack the soldiers mercilessly. Just in time now the nano suit itself back a bit to recharge you again to enable to defend yourself. With the grenade launcher from a fallen soldier, the player attempts to repel attack. It succeeds, but with difficulty. The aliens are a tough enemy. Unlike the first part, they can now walk on two legs. This makes them easier to estimate, but still worthy opponents.

PC or console

After the aliens off, ending the presentation. It was short, but powerful and gave us a fleeting glimpse of what we at the end of the year ahead. So far, Crysis 2 exactly what we had in mind after the sublime first part. Also graphically the game looks extremely detailed weather with beautiful lighting effects and vivid environments. The version that was shown us, run on the Xbox 360, so we do not have the absolute power of the game on a PC with extreme specifications may contemplate. On the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Crysis 2 pushes the hardware to the edge and tries to play every drop of power from the devices to squeeze.

Players need not worry that the PC version by the appearance of the multiplatform game undervalued, because the PC is still the main platform for Crytek. The developer could not confirm what the minimum recommended specifications for Crysis and 2 would be, but could say that the game time on more PCs will run smoothly than the first part was. Still get the best out of the game by investing a substantial amount in a computer that even NASA would envy, but also on the average PC, the game is a smooth walk.

It's still wait until we Crysis 2 for the first time on the PC may see the platform of choice to take us through the game entirely down to blowing its graphical power. All the elements we have seen so far, artificial intelligence, improved nano-suit and graphical splendor, try our desire for more. The end of the year can not come soon enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[X-RayXI]

[Cygon]

Microwave cannon...  Does that sound new or am I way behind?

[X-RayXI]

Cygon

Microwave cannon...  Does that sound new or am I way behind?

 

Err.... meaning that we get a package of guns and bullets, but before use them we have to warm them up? hehe

 

Click to Open below pictures and read. It's worth to watch :

 

http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/5622/page1and2.png

 

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/7343/page3and4.png

 

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/5571/page5and6.png

 

 

[BudSr]

quit being a pain in the ass ray LOL love ya freind.

[Cobryis_XI]

Yay!

[Cygon]

I was a bit concerned about my beloved nanosuit controls...but after hearing that description I think it will work nicely.  I just hope the balance is ok in multiplayer...the more you change the harder it is to tweak.  Most important thing I read...you can pull up on ledges...bout dang time they bring back the wall jump in an official capacity.

[BlackOp8]

finally an interview that answers the questions we want to know.

 

I am very pleased to here Crysis2 wont be scaled down on the PC. i <3 Crytek

[St33l]

It's just one step closer to crytek taking over the world! Muahahaha! Oh, I mean great cool.

[X-RayXI]

Tune in on Friday!! CLICK

[St33l]

CAN'T WAIT!

[BlackOp8]

X-RayXI

Tune in on Friday!! CLICK

just saw that trailer

 

good to see you back, Ray, we thought you fell down and hurt yourself

[X-RayXI]

BlackOp8

X-RayXI

Tune in on Friday!! CLICK

just saw that trailer

 

good to see you back, Ray, we thought you fell down and hurt yourself

 

Lol, dont worry buddy I was just MIA due to the flu.

And people doing maintenance of my appartment and havent slept much

 

[St33l]

[BlackOp8]

omg. i just saw some crysis 2 gameplay on gttv..i feel like a kid again lol