E3: EA announces Crysis 2

By Robert Purchese Published 1 June, 2009

Crytek's first console title.

EA and Crytek have announced Crysis 2 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

It's not only the first console game made by the developer, but also the first title to be built using CryEngine 3. Crytek sees the sequel as a "major stepping stone" for the studio.

There are no other details.

Crysis was released in 2007 to critical acclaim and remains a benchmark for PC performance, both in terms of what can be delivered and how much you need to spend to see it.

Head over to our Crysis review to find out more.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (57) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Inquisitor #1 3 years ago

    Strange that they're releasing the sequel over the original on consoles. Must have taken them a while to get the tech ready, maybe easier for them to develop a new game keeping the consoles in mind than to retro fit the first as well.

  • thesombrerokid #2 3 years ago

    ^not strange for EA, see bad company 2 for example.

  • Ryuken #3 3 years ago

    Neat, though I am more interested in what all those other Crytek studios are up to now, doing their thing with this engine. I secretly hope they're trying out other genres.

  • AphoticCosmos #4 3 years ago

    As long as CryTek keeps it coming for the PC, I'm happy.

    Playing through Crysis again at the moment, great game. Me is happeh ^_^

  • bad09 #5 3 years ago

    Cool now I can play crisis!

    My poor old PC looked at me at said "No bloody way don't even attempt it pal" when I thought of getting the original! Maybe we could get a console version of the original to, hang on wasn't PS3 getting one or something? I'm sure I read that somewhere....

  • bluem4gic #6 3 years ago

    PC version for me

    PS3 one will look decent

    X360 is anyone's guess

  • ChrisOTR #7 3 years ago

    After skipping Warhead (because of the limited activations), it'll be nice to revisit Crysis. Absolutely loved #1...

    Just hope they don't try the limited activations nonsense again.

  • cyacomini #8 3 years ago

    You should see some of the comments about this over on N4G - it's a veritable fanboy fiesta!

    [edit]

    Oh i see they are here too ;)
    Edited by 1 at 01/06/09 @ 12:41

  • Wastelander #9 3 years ago

    I think I'll get it on console too.
    There's several books I could be getting on with whilst it loads the next sections.

  • TheTingler #10 3 years ago

    Wow, so it will look worse than the original? Great!

    On the other hand, this means more people will actually play it... on PC.

  • ChaK #11 3 years ago

    please more viets, and less aliens :D

    1 & addon were a blast, I loved'em, and still play user made maps from time to time

  • UncleLou #12 3 years ago

    Let's hope they still push the technical envelope with the PC version. We need devs like that as well.

  • Widge #13 3 years ago

    Well, now I have a meaty enough PC for Crysis. IF its awesome, I would prefer it in the front room on a console though.

  • Darren #14 3 years ago

    While it is definitely great news to see Crysis finally headed for the consoles, I'm not holding my breath that it'll be anywhere near as good as the original, PC to console ports seldom are. That said, it won't matter to anyone who hasn't played the PC version.

    I'm kind of expecting a cut-down Far Cry Instincts (Xbox) vs. Far Cry (PC) type port myself, i.e. it'll capture the look and feel for the most part but the levels and visuals will be scaled down in size. I'm happy to be proven wrong though but the consoles only have 512 MB of memory in total and their graphical abilities are nowhere near those of a hgh-end PC so it is going to take some serious coding to get everything from the PC version in there, all running at a silky smooth framerate. Good luck to whoever is coding it. :)

  • Darren #15 3 years ago

    P.S. Crysis is, IMO, the best FPS by far to come out in the last decade. Nothing else comes remotely close to it in terms of gameplay, scope, atmosphere or visuals.

  • Widge #16 3 years ago

    Crysis or Warhead, which is better?

  • mashk #17 3 years ago

    'PC version - not enough money in the world to make it run at anything more than minimum detail'

    Not true, Mr Farticus Maximus. Just spent 200 quid on an upgrade which allows me to run Crysis in high details @ 720P and medium/high @ 1080P

    That said, Crysis 2 on consoles! Fuck yeah!
    Edited by 1 at 01/06/09 @ 13:02

  • Widge #18 3 years ago

    Yeah, my new card was £97 for a 4870, which should see me through for a bit at 1680res. Actually £50 cheaper than my old card (x800GTO2), which was a year old when I got it! New monitor = upgrade necessary.

    ATi prices have been in collapse recently. Yay for us consumers though. I hear rumours that they might start to go up instead now, so grab em while you can.

    If I have the option, I will always get it for the PS3 for 37" TV action, leaving the PC for PC only games and 360 exclusives.

  • kangarootoo #19 3 years ago

    @mashk

    "Not true, Mr Farticus Maximus. Just spent 200 quid on an upgrade which allows me to run Crysis in high details @ 720P and medium/high @ 1080P"

    Can I ask how much you had already spent on the system into which the upgrade was placed? :)

    Crysis doesn't even run that well on my work PC, so this is top news for me. I rather liked the game (until it went all stupid and monster filled... you would think they would have learned from FarCry on that front).

  • Darren #20 3 years ago

    @Widge - Warhead is tighter, shorter and more action packed but, IMO, the first Crysis is the better game. Warhead feels a little scaled down and low budget compared to the first one - it is afer all an expansion pack in effect - although I actually prefer Psycho from Warhead as a character over Nomad, probably because of his awesome Cockney accent! :)

  • AphoticCosmos #21 3 years ago

    @ Widge:

    Hard to say. I think that Crysis was a more coherent game, but Warhead definitely looks better [in 1080p it's just incredible] and has more awesome packed into less space.

    Also, Psycho > Nomad.

    I hope that they take the best of both games and put it together. More Psycho would be a good thing, as well as those nicely optimised but still beautiful graphics.

  • Widge #22 3 years ago

    Crysis is still making £200 cards blush nowadays to be fair, I bet you were looking at SLi 8800's at £150+ a pop. I would expect to hit all settings on high, 1680res but with AA/AF turned off with the card I'm getting. 35fps perhaps?

    I don't mind the lack of AA, I have a PS3.

  • space_ace #23 3 years ago

    nice, console cry2is. where are they taking it, tropical weather in london? :p

  • mashk #24 3 years ago


    "Can I ask how much you had already spent on the system into which the upgrade was placed? :) "

    Don't know. I can tell you what I bought for my upgrade though. I only kept my hard-drives, case and PSU unit from the old machine.

    A processor, memory, graphics card, motherboard and DVD writer. All for the princely sum of 200 quid. So, the only things I'd require to bring it upto new computer status would be a case, power supply and hard-drive. Which would be approximately 100 quid. So, for the princely sum of 300 quid, you could build yourself a PC capable of playing Crysis. Which isn't exactly the extorntionate sum people are claiming is needed to play Crysis.

  • AphoticCosmos #25 3 years ago

    @ Everyone

    For the record, I invested in a £2.3K rig last week with a GTX 295, 6GB of 1600MHz triple-channel DDR3 RAM and an i7 @ 2.93GHz, pretty much only to play Crysis since I could run every other game at high on my old PC, and Crysis looks impossibly good. Definitely the best looking game so far this generation. I hope that you console folks appreciate how amazing Crysis 2 will inevitably look :)

  • skillian #26 3 years ago

    £400 will buy you a PC from scratch that can play Crysis on medium/high.

    It's kind of annoying that they've scaled backthe graphics (I assume) now that suitable hardware is finally affordable. Would have made more sense to release Crysis 2 a couple of years ago and original Crysis now.

    But still, more Crysis is a good thing no doubt and if it stays true to the feel and flow of the original then I'm sure console players will love it. I'll certainly be picking it up as long as the PC version still feels like a PC game.

  • Slabbathepave #27 3 years ago

    This is great news, however you choose to slice it. Crysis deserves a larger audience. I hope the sequel is more like the expansion in terms of its pace.

  • AphoticCosmos #28 3 years ago

    I don't know why people think that CryEngine 3 is bad:

    [link url=http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=u85sf_ARiW0
    ]http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=u85sf_ARiW0
    [/link]

    Looks pretty amazing to me, and it runs a lot faster, too.

  • Buran #29 3 years ago

    farticusmaximus said: "360 version for me

    PS3 version will have terrible framerates and no antialiasing

    PC version - not enough money in the world to make it run at anything more than minimum detail."

    Your post is a joke. With a 100 €/$ 8800 GT my PC was running Crysis, Warhead and Crysis Wars in "Gamer" settings at 1680 x 1050 with average 35 solid fps (no AA). With my new GTX 275 (230 €, cheaper than a Wii) I'm running the game in "Enthusisat" settings at more than 40 fps average. The actual mid range graphic hardware is eight times powerfull than 360/PS3 systems, and the game runs smoothly maxed:

    <a href="http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=2fXMkbW--sg
    ">http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=2fXMkbW--sg
    </a>

    And you will not see antialiasing in the console vanilla versions, even with high-end hardware the impact in performance is big -but doesn't matter a lot because the big native resolutions usually played in PC.
    Edited by 1 at 01/06/09 @ 13:49

  • UncleLou #30 3 years ago

    Crysis being unplayable or needing a PC that cost an arm and a leg when it was released is one of the sillier rumours. No wonder farticus, clueless as always, perpetuates it.

    There was a certain line under which Crysis started to look crap, but on my at the time midrange system, it ran well on a mixture to medium to very high settings and still looked better than aynthing before it (or after it, for that matter). Too many people whacked the sliders all to the right and then complained that it "wasn't optimised".

  • Entity #31 3 years ago

    God damn! Xbox will win this one imho, AA issues, single core, blah blah, gonna go buy me an eigth 360 -.-

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #32 3 years ago

    On my PC (Athlon dual core 4800, about four years old now, and with 2gb RAM, think my card is GeForce 5600) Crysis was unplayably slow and looked far, far worse than, say, Half-Life 2 (which runs like shit off a shovel on my 1.6Ghz laptop).

    I'm not trying to pick sides or whinge about anything, but there are - I imagine - quite a lot of people who don't have a PC that'll run Crysis, especially as I have the fastest PC of anyone I know.

    But then my PC is fine for the games I do play on it, and for all the work I do on it. Meanwhile, a console Crysis appeals to me...

  • hiddenranbir #33 3 years ago

    So...CryEngine 2 abandoned?

  • AphoticCosmos #34 3 years ago

    Yes, but CryEngine 3 looks amazing. It's just that the first video they showed looked shite.

    Look at the one I posted a few comments up. Beautiful, no?

  • BadBoyBonner #35 3 years ago

    Crysis runs very well on PC's costing less than the price of a PS3.

    http://ww w.eurogamer.net/forum_thread_po... to a few of us discussing just such a PC.

    512mb 4870 at sub £100 is a steal for anything less than 1080p res gaming.

    To get even more performance out of Crysis - consider the CCC 2.21config and Time of Day mod [link url=http://www.incrysis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=23117 ]http://ww w.incrysis.com/forums/viewtopic...[/link]

    For a look to see what it is like here's the first 10 min's of the game running on that very setup (only at level 4 but still looks stunning and could easily manage level 5 when Fraps recording isn't canning the system).

    http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=-q7z6AQfUjM

  • Wastelander #36 3 years ago

    To be fair, the 5600 was total crap even when it first came out.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #37 3 years ago

    @ Wastelander

    I thought it was, actually. When I bought the PC I didn't bother spending money upgrading the GFX card coz I assumed I'd buy a new one within a year. But with stuff like HL2 running so well, and my new 360, never really saw the need.

    Now I'm thinking, might as well buy a new PC.
    Edited by 1 at 01/06/09 @ 14:46

  • AphoticCosmos #38 3 years ago

    @ Britesparc - yeah, if you're going to upgrade then go for a new PC. You can only upgrade your old rig so much.

  • BadBoyBonner #39 3 years ago

    And just for BritSparc

    Here is an Athlon x4200 running Crysis with the CCC 2.21 mod on an ATi 3650 at Level 5 of the cutom config - at 1024x768 i.e higher than Call of Duty on the PS3 & 360 (which runs at 1024x600).

    And a link to an ebay for the 3650 Card which costs £30 [link url=http://cgi.ebay .co.uk/SAPPHIRE-HD-3650-512MB-DDR2-DUAL-DVI-HDTV-PCI-E_W0QQi temZ310145856407QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Computer_Com ponents_Graphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW?hash=item4836223397&_trks id=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A2|39%3A1|240%3A1318|30 1%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50
    ]http://cg i.ebay.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-HD-3650-5...[/link]
    Edited by 1 at 01/06/09 @ 14:51

  • BadBoyBonner #40 3 years ago

    FarticusMaximus

    Legal System - erm Windows 7 is available right now from MIcrosoft for FREE for Over a year

    Here's the link http://ww w.microsoft.com/Windows/windows...

  • BadBoyBonner #41 3 years ago

    Free - Case use your old one
    £17 - 650 WinPower PSU
    £57 - e5200 dual core CPU 2.5ghz - easy overclock to 3.33 - 3.5ghz on stock cooler
    £37 - Motherboard Gigabyte GAG31M-ES2L - auto changes all voltages for stable overclocking
    £38 - 4 Gig of ddr2 800mhz - dual channel (do not add to old memory, buy dual channel matched for stability)
    £41 - 500 Gig SATA drive (or old one if possible - format for fresh install)
    £14 - Dual layer DVD burner (optional)
    £97 ATi 4870 512mb - will run Crysis at 720p CCC 2.21 Level 5 with Ease.

    Windows 7 - Free

    £301 with everything
    £229 if using old burner, memory, HD and PSU.


    Edited by 1 at 01/06/09 @ 15:04

  • BadBoyBonner #42 3 years ago

    Crytek have stated the PS3 runs slightly better on intensive physics scenes and 360 runs slightly better when filtrate is more important.

  • Waldo #43 3 years ago

    Awesome, another game to pirate!

  • skillian #44 3 years ago

    Bah, even using 'ignore poster' can't keep you away from farticusmaximus.

    Perhaps he needs his own 'ignore all posts that mention farticus and scrub the internet clean of his witterings' button?

    DO NOT FEED THE TROLL.

    For myself, I ran Crysis on a 3 year old Athlon X2 4400+, 2 GB DDR RAM and a 512MB 9800GT (currently about £75). That running at 1680x1050, settings on mostly medium/some high and no AA at around 30fps.
    Edited by 1 at 01/06/09 @ 16:13

  • Feanor #45 3 years ago

    No Wii version?

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #46 3 years ago

    Sounds like my big stumbling block has been graphics card, although I never bothered patching it since I first got it; basically installed it, it patched itself, I played it, it ran like crap, I uninstalled it. I've still got it, so maybe I should give it a whirl again.

    Cheers for the advice peeps.

  • roz123 #47 3 years ago

    i brought a pc in november for just under £600 with a sweet 22" monitor and windows vista64. Crysis on this rig puts everything else to shame (except crysis on a better rig). + mouse and keyboard>>>>>>>>>autoaim + analogues. Crysis warhead runs even better.
    Crysis had a massive audience the only problem was that only a minority paid for it.

    PC will and always be the ultimate for gaming, now with internet and tvs becoming more integrated and the consoles reaching their peak its a better time then ever to invest in a sweet rig.

  • Waldo #48 3 years ago

    PC will and always be the ultimate for gaming, now with internet and tvs becoming more integrated and the consoles reaching their peak its a better time then ever to invest in a sweet rig.

    Why? So you can play console ports that don't look any better on a monitor than they do on a TV?

  • skillian #49 3 years ago

    So you can play console ports that don't look any better on a monitor than they do on a TV?

    But it does though :/

    Dead Space PS3
    Dead Space PC

    In fact, even on a TV the PC version still usually looks better. That's not just fanboy pixel-posing, it's an accepted truth.
    Edited by 1 at 01/06/09 @ 16:55

  • roz123 #50 3 years ago

    Monitors can reach better resolutions then tvs. So yes they do look better, but I was trying to point out its easy to plug a pc into a hd tv and it looks and works great for games and HD videos and its less restrictive then consoles.

  • IneptPercy #51 3 years ago

    I recently built a PC for a friend which played crysis at 1080p on very high settings, but it could drop frames badly at points, at 720p it runs like a dream.

    That was £595 including a legit OS.

    But a PC costing the same as PS3 will outperform the PS3, the 360 on the other hand can't be beat on price.

  • skillian #52 3 years ago

    The best thing about plugging a PC into my 720p TV is that I can run at the native res of the TV - 1360x768 instead of 1280x720.

    To this day I still don't understand why 720p TVs don't actually use a 720p resolution - console games would look much crisper if they did, judging from my running games at those resolutions.

  • BadBoyBonner #53 3 years ago

    Skillian

    "The best thing about plugging a PC into my 720p TV is that I can run at the native res of the TV - 1360x768 instead of 1280x720."

    And obviously if you have a VGA lead for the Xbox 360 you can do the same.

  • skillian #54 3 years ago

    And obviously if you have a VGA lead for the Xbox 360 you can do the same.

    Yes, but the game is actually running at 720p, so either way the TV or the Xbox is doing some upscaling. With a PC you can run the game at the native resolution of the TV, making the picture noticeable crisper.

  • BadBoyBonner #55 3 years ago

    Trying to guess which games do what on the 360 is probably a job for Digital Foundry - all I would add is that not all games are scaled to that res, some are indeed scaled from 720p and some are scaled from noticeably less - becomes very obvious if no antialiasing is involved - scowls at Halo 3's jag fest.
    Edited by 1 at 01/06/09 @ 17:35

  • skillian #56 3 years ago

    The 360 does do a good job of upscaling though, I'll give it that. If it was left to the TV it would look a lot worse.

  • ChthonicEcho #57 3 years ago

    Is this one going to be a proper game, or another tech demo?