Today's other big release was supposed to the be the official demo for the most eagerly awaited PC game of the year: Crysis. Electronic Arts and developer Crytek had for some strange reason selected Halo 3's mega launch date to release the demo, but word came recently from Crytek that the demo will be postponed until Oct. 26. While the Crysis beta is currently being enjoyed by many a PC gamers (including two of our own at Tom's Hardware Guide), the rest of the world will have to wait a whole month to get their hands on this precious gem. However, the news wasn't all bad this week as Crytek announced a little something special for the game.
Crytek announced that the big surprise that was to accompany the single player Crysis demo is the CryEngine 2's Sandbox 2 Game Editor, which of course will allow players to tinker with the game's content and create their own levels. This is a welcomed announcement and nice counter-punch to Halo 3's Forge and Theater features, which give Xbox 360 players the ability to insert game objects into maps and also record films of single player and mutliplayer games.
It would have been nice to have the Crysis demo released today alongside Halo 3, if only to further accentuate the differences between PC and console gaming. Plus, I really, really wanted to play it. The single player demo includes the entire first level of the game, which has been previewed at previous conferences and events like CES and E3. There's no doubt that Crysis is the big ticket for PC games this holiday season, and I'm eager to see if the game holds up to the hype.
Unfortunately, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli said the developer need a little more time to polish the game (read more on Shacknews). "First, I am sorry for the bad news - the Crysis single player demo will now be available everywhere on October 26th, 2007. We are taking some extra time to make sure you that you have an amazing experience but also we did not want to risk the release date of Crysis at this stage. To get the game into your hands by November the 16th, we had to make this call."
While the mere mention of risking the official launch date sent shivers up my spine, I'm not too worried about the full version of the game being delayed; I still think Crysis will ship on time, and I'd rather have Crytek take the extra time to get everything right. Lately, there have been too many PC games that feel like they were rushed out the door with some rather obvious bugs that publishers felt were fixable down the road with a bunch of patches. Personally, I hate that. So take another month, Crytek, and get it right.
Here's more stuff on Crysis from Tom's Games:
A video comparison between Crysis on Windows XP/DX9 and Windows Vista/DX10
Comments (3)
lately theres been a rush to delay games in the name of quality.
then still release games that need patches.
Posted by mike | September 26, 2007 3:26 PM
Posted on September 26, 2007 15:26
Mike:
Sounds like you played the Battlefield series. :)
Lets just hope the extra time is well spent.
Posted by Gary | September 27, 2007 1:57 AM
Posted on September 27, 2007 01:57
I bought BF2142 when it came out and it had lots of c2d(crash 2 desktop) bugs, hopefully the extra time spent will make it worth the money on release
Posted by Jake | September 28, 2007 12:50 PM
Posted on September 28, 2007 12:50