This means The Colosseum Pack which features character skins and arena maps, The Mars’ Chosen Pack which contains yet another character skin and four arena maps, the new Survival Mode; The Duel of Fate Pack which holds yet more character skins and arena maps. There’s also the Morituri Pack which has three new arena maps, two survival maps and five solo arena maps. Lastly, but by no means least is the Ruins Multiplayer Map and the Legionnaire’s Trust” sword which was originally packaged with the special edition of the game.

Director of Business Development, Carl Jones, at Crytek says “We are bringing the Ryse experience to PC, with 4K resolution support. 4K gaming is another leap in graphics quality for PC gamers and Ryse is the perfect showcase for what’s now possible in high-end PC games.  We’ve given our team the opportunity to show what CRYENGINE can really achieve, without compromising quality, thanks to the incredible hardware available now to PC gamers.  Ryse will be a benchmark PC graphics showcase this year and probably for a long time in future.  Our community asked for a Ryse PC version, and we have the means and technology to deliver this title with the highest quality possible.”

Like mentioned above, 4K resolutions support is a huge leap forward in graphical aspects of video gaming. The massive resolution allows for an unparalleled level of detail and atmosphere. What are your thoughts on this announcement? Let us know in the comments section below.

Along with the console, Kinect, controller and a headset, there is a 4K-rated HDMI cable. This is especially interesting because while Sony has expressed an interest in 4K gaming (which essentially involves display resolutions including and above 3840×2160), Microsoft hasn’t really said much about the same. We’re sure Sony’s PS4 will also have a 4K-rated HDMI cable, but it’s good to see that Microsoft is also preparing for the same inevitability.

We’re glad they haven’t done away with the power brick though. What’s better for an enormous system than to also have an enormous power brick, right? Hryb goes into detail about each item within the box, so if you want to know more about each component, check out the unboxing above.

On the other hand Microsoft has revealed basically nothing about the next Xbox. Considering that the PS3 had the advantage over the Xbox 360 in being able to render 720p and 1080p outputs with video games, obviously it would help if the Big M somehow caught up

So, how does 4K gaming actually looks like? Is it really different from the 720p/1080p games we play on our PC and consoles? And most importantly do we actually need 4K resolution gaming?

The above gallery has compressed images. For uncompressed ones, please check out the following: Batman Arkham City, Dead Space 3, Crysis 3, Battlefield 3, Borderlands 2, DiRT 3, Hitman Absolution, Deus Ex Human Revolution, FIFA 13, Metro 2033, PlanetSide 2, Mirror’s Edge, Portal 2, NFS: Shift, SimCity, Skyrim and The Witcher 2.

This images (via Reddit) are from recently released games like Hitman Absolution, Crysis 3, SimCity and more. Obviously they are running on a high end PC.

The above gallery illustrates just how 4K games look. Just as 1080p is meant to represent a 1920×1080 resolution, 4K essentially means an image or video with a resolution of 4096 pixels wide and 2160 pixels high. It can be typically seen in theatres like iMax for projecting an Ultra HD picture. Of course, the sharpness depends on the amount of pixels per inch or pixel density present. For example, most smartphones these days come with 1080p resolution but on a small 5 inch screen, the human eye is unable to tell the difference between these a regular 720p resolution after a point.

It all has to do with the pixels (of course there’s plenty of other technology that goes into a great picture, but that’s another story).

So imagine if you take an incredibly high amount of pixels and stretch it across a large display, say inches, this will allow the human eye to perceive a greater amount of details. It’s like taking a microscope to a real life object – so naturally to be able to showcase all that detail, you need to have a larger than normal viewing area. This is why iMax screens are bigger than typical movie theatre displays.

But here’s the thing: even if a game is capable of running at a 4K resolution, and has been optimized for the same, one with will need an Ultra HD TV display to take full advantage of it. Sure, you can make out an incredible amount of detail already, if the above screens are any indication. But regular TVs that output to 1080p won’t be able to output ALL of that detail – heck, processing it is another thing altogether – and the current crop of Ultra HD screens are expensive. Like tens-of-thousands-of-dollars expensive. We’re still in an era where 3D TVs cost a bomb. So while the next logical step to improving graphical performance is to move to a higher resolution, it’ll take a good long while before the manufacturing costs drop.

As for whether we need 4K gaming: Truth be told, you don’t need great graphics to make a great game. However, with most genres like first person shooters stuck in a rut that only devices like rectify, developers will be focusing more and more on presentation values to immerse gamers. As such, the visuals are still an incredibly important part of gameplay. Nothing says you’re in the game quite like an ultra-sharp resolution – and if you look at games like Mirror’s Edge or Crysis 3, that rely on their visuals to a different aesthetic extent, then the overall number of pixels on display makes a difference.

The best analogy is actually Borderlands 2 in 4K – like clearing away the smudges governing a highly detailed painting. It’s incredible to even consider that the game is actually utilizing a cel-shaded art style when the details are so crisp.

Will there be stellar gameplay experiences to match those details in the years to come? If the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Cyberpunk 2077, Thief and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag are any indication, then the future is certainly bright.

Credit: @BenPeterGriffin

Cerny was a little reserved when answering, stating that, “Personally, I’m very interested in 4K.

“We’re still in the initial stages of supporting 4Kx2K in games. Our focus is to provide for a solid Full HD experience. We can secure the display buffer for Game and OS separately, and can provide for independent scaling of both as well. (Regarding 4K) We can provide an extremely smooth user interface.

“If we consider purely memory bandwidth, with 4K, securing 2 displays worth of display buffer requires 10GB/sec. That just for simply displaying. This is our simple answer for why we’re focusing on just the Full HD experience.”

The long and short is that even before people start investing in Ultra HD displays, there’s a lot that needs to accomplished on the back end too. So wait, watch and be patient essentially.

(As reported by NeoGAF)