Warhorse Studios’ Kingdome Come Deliverance is an upcoming and ambitious role playing game for the PS4, Xbox One and PC. Given the massive scale and scope of the game, there is some concern among the gaming community that the game’s ambitious visuals might be held back on the PlayStation 4 and PC since the game is also being developed on the Xbox One.

“Not at all,” Warhorse Studios’ Jiří Rýdl said to GamingBolt. “We are always targeting the most advanced graphical enhancements in CryEngine, we want Kingdom Come: Deliverance to be visually attractive no matter the platform you use to play. Of course there are differences between consoles and PCs from the point o view of graphical features and computing power.”

Jiří also revealed that the Xbox One version in fact looks similar to the PC version. “On the other hand when we were testing the Xbox [One] version on the same monitor as a PC version, no one was able to say, what version we are just looking at :-]”

Recently we had reported that the title is already up and running on the Xbox One version at 17 frames per second in just three weeks of porting so hopefully the Xbox One port will be as good as the PlayStation 4 one. Kingdom Come Deliverance currently does not have a release date, however it may release next year on the PC with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions possibly following up later.

Stay tuned for our full interview with Warhorse Studios in the coming days.

Warhorse’s upcoming medieval RPG, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, looks absolutely amazing. It’s been a while, though, since we last heard about it, so today’s newest update comes as a bit of a surprise. Warhorse updates us on the state of the game, while also discussing the issues with game development that crop up when a small, indie game developer rapidly expands.

“Warhorse has doubled in size in the last two months from less than 30 people to 60 of us. The new recruits came not only from our own little country, but also from the US (even from Bethesda), Poland and Sweden. So theoretically we can now do twice as much work. The problem, though, is that work on a game is based on the design document. Naturally, our original plan was to write the design as we went along. According to the design, the core features were supposed to be designed first and as the designs gradually expanded we would take on more people as needed,” they said on their website.

“The new people have to be trained, we all have to get on the same page, write the design in the same way, set up a system of work and define patterns of how we will write so that other people apart from us will be able to find their way in it, and all of that is demanding. Especially when, like me, you have to roll in front of you a massive boulder of backlog stuff.

“Don’t get me wrong. Our design runs to several hundred pages – we don’t pull the game out of thin air. Most of the features are described down to the minutest detail. Only then a situation come along where you are desperately trying to write the last few missing, but quite important features for the programmers, the designers meanwhile are working on lacking craft mechanisms and in the middle of it all ten new graphic and concept designers are asking for assignments. But to assign work to the graphic guys, you first have to read and comment the crafting design from the designers, which after two weeks of work by six people “surprisingly” runs to a hundred pages, and that you cannot read in five minutes.”

In spite of all of this, we are assured that the development of the game is coming along just fine. Hopefully, we get to see more of the title in the coming week, presumably at E3.

Crytek’s successful free to play first person shooter Warface, which began as a Russia-only release, is finally available for Xbox 360 through Xbox Live. Head on over to the Marketplace and you should be able to download it, completely free of charge.

If you took part in the recent beta, you won’t need to download the game again. The beta will simply update to the full title and everything you’ve purchased and unlocked will carry over. Though Warface is free to play – which means you don’t have to explicitly purchase anything in-game – you will still require and Xbox Live Gold subscription. On the plus side, Crytek will be releasing new missions each day to add to the value.

Warface is already for PC players in the West and has managed to attract 25 million players on both PC and Xbox 360 since its initial release. Let us know if you’ll be downloading the Xbox 360 version in the comments below.

"Performance-wise, Ryse does great. The game isn’t even locked at 30 frames per second, but the frame rate barely dips or rises more than a few frames"

So yes, the controversy dogging Ryse regarding its visuals can be put to rest. Even at 1600×900 resolution and running at a 30 FPS variable frame rate; even with CryEngine 3 (which was created for current-gen hardware), Ryse has a certain visual splendour to it. A lot of this comes from Crytek’s own custom solutions to common problems such as high end anti-aliasing.

Starting with the environments, you won’t find a lot to complain about. Crytek has spent a lot of time intricately detailing Rome, from storming great bridges to fighting across wide open landscapes and laying siege to forts. Catapults rain down fire from the skies, while legions of Roman troops defend against a barrage of arrows in a scene straight out of 300. The physically-based lighting model and shading mean that you’ll see more realistic depictions of shadows in real-time with the overall look of the game standing out from the pack.

One of the biggest complaints about the Xbox One has been eSRAM it employs. It’s a given by now that this limits the resolution of most games to 720p or 900p in Ryse’s case (at least until a solution inevitably arrives, like on the Xbox 360 for its eDRAM). In order to maintain the sharpness of the visuals and characters, Crytek has employed the use of SMAA 1TX, which combines morphological anti-aliasing and smarter temporal anti-aliasing that smoothens out any jaggies apparent. The use of “bokeh” depth of field, directly related to the aperture of the apparent camera present. This leads to a blurring with smaller aperture, with the SMAA avoiding any issues that may arise from typical temporal AA such as signal changes, “ghosting” of transparency and shadows, etc.

"In order to maintain the sharpness of the visuals and characters, Crytek has employed the use of SMAA 1TX, which combines morphological anti-aliasing and smarter temporal anti-aliasing that smoothens out any jaggies apparent."

Combined with dynamic soft shadows, motion blur in the surroundings (such as when projectiles rain down) and the use of screen space directional occlusion for a more uniform occlusion in a global lighting environment (which results in a lesser amount of dynamic light sources), Crytek achieves a look that is scaled back but nonetheless visually rich style without having to worry about jagged edges.

To further aid the cinematic effects, Crytek has also implemented film grain into the proceedings. It may be subtle but in conjunction with the bokeh depth of field, helps give Ryse that much classier an appeal to go with its shading.

Of course, problems do arise. Contrary to expectations, the entire game isn’t rendered in real time (cut-scenes are pre-rendered and played back rather than rendered on the fly) and for all of its implementation of advanced cloth and dangling objects, Ryse suffers from some serious animation snafus. One minute you could be executing some fool and moving on to your next target, while the next, you could suddenly be transported in front of the latter. It’s a jarring effect, one that is replicated across the battlefield almost as much as the character models.

When a game like Dead Rising 3 can boast of no two zombies looking alike, it’s a real shame to see Ryse’s enemies look like carbon copies of each other. Yes, there may be up to 85,000 triangles per model, but the suspension of disbelief is somewhat interrupted when you encounter the same dude you just killed two minutes ago. Thankfully the facial animations and expressions are incredibly realistic, and animation holds up perfectly during cut-scenes.

"Ryse has a certain visual splendour to it. A lot of this comes from Crytek’s own custom solutions to common problems."

Performance-wise, Ryse does great. The game isn’t even locked at 30 frames per second, but the frame rate barely dips or rises more than a few frames. When you consider the amount of chaos happening on screen at any given time – from slow motion kills to dozens of soldiers falling into line behind you and mobs of enemies rushing towards you – it’s a pretty stellar achievement.

One thing that probably suffered in the exchange was the interaction to one’s environment. Rocks and stone structures explode and shatter into pieces during gameplay, but you’ll never be interacting with these pieces or having them roll around when you engage an enemy near them. Flaming arrows that become embedded in the ground quickly dissipate, though corpses do take a tad longer. Again, nothing that will significantly take you out of the experience and you’ll be preoccupied enough with the battles to not notice.

Ryse: Son of Rome is without a doubt one of the most visually splendid games of the new generation, even with a few glitches here and there. It’s especially impressive given the vision Crytek tried to achieve, even if understanding of the hardware isn’t as efficient at this point. Ryse may be one of the shabbier launch titles in terms of gameplay, but we can’t wait to see what Crytek achieves in the coming years for the Xbox One.

We asked Read how difficult it was to get CryEngine 3 working on the Xbox One and whether any compromises were made along the way, he responded that, “Given the amount of work we put into our previous titles in pushing PC hardware to its max, we were more than ready for what the Xbox One had to offer. There are always a number of challenges and compromises from many different areas when working with new technology and ways of doing things, but nothing that our team hasn’t been able to handle. One thing people tend to forget is that there are a lot more moving parts with this from us developing an engine, alongside a game, mixed in with new hardware, and new development tools to support that.

“There is no silver bullet to developing a game and the challenges we face here only help to put us in a forefront position in understanding the new pipelines we’ll be dealing with in the next generation.”

We also asked Read if Ryse would be taking advantage of SmartGlass, Microsoft’s companion app for Xbox, and how. He replied, “There is a SmartGlass component that will be available for Ryse that taps into the cloud content sharing and menu capabilities. There has been a huge step up from the time Smartglass was introduced until now.

“One example is that it now provides experiences like full menu integration. What you see on the menus in game is replicated in the Smartglass app giving you the ability to see your own and your friends progress, manage inventory, and upgrade your character and abilities whether you’re playing the game or not. In addition, all of this information is stored on the cloud allowing you to perform this functionality regardless of whether you’re in your living room or on the road.”

Crytek hasn’t necessarily seen the smoothest journey since debuting Ryse for the first time at E3, only recently being involved in a controversy on Twitter regarding crunching time for development. Nonetheless, Ryse: Son of Rome is still one of the bigger exclusives to be launching with the Xbox One on November 22nd across 13 territories.

Warface has been one of the dark horses of the free to play realm, finding huge success in Russia before moving to China and then being earmarked for release in the West. It features four classes and prominently focuses on competitive multiplayer with teams. Developed using CryEngine 3, Trion Worlds is responsible for bringing Warface to the United States, New Zealand, Turkey, Australia, and Europe.

To sign up for the beta, simply head here and look for the “Sign Up” link. Hopefully, with the success of the PC version, we’ll be seeing Warface on next generation consoles sometime soon.

The third person action adventure starts off with a general Marius Titus motivating his troops before descending into an utter mess of chaos, with multiple battles taking place all around the player and fire raining down from the skies. Commands to put your troops into different positions and roles, such as hitting LB to get your troops to capture a catapult or commanding archers to attack a crowd of enemies.

The gameplay also seems able to shift fluidly between attacking and defending with several buttons for taking down foes, sometimes finishing off multiple enemies at the same time. It is gruesome, and not at all unappealing.

Ryse will run on CryEngine (the third iteration we assume) and will be exclusive to the Xbox One. And yes, we’re still surprised how good that looked.

Update: We have added the trailer below. Check it out:

Screenshots:

This will give Xbox One game developers an advanced toolset required to achieve high quality visuals for their games.

“We offered assurances over two years ago that CryEngine 3 was ready for the next generation of consoles, and time has revealed that promise to be true,” said Carl Jones, Director of Global Business Development at Crytek. “As developers begin to create new games for Xbox One, our technology and unparalleled support will ensure CryEngine 3 users remain at the forefront of the industry now and well into the future.”

What do you guys think about this? Will we see a new Crysis game or will we Crytek’s Ryse getting announced for Xbox One soon? Let us know in the comments section below.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more news and updates.

First Next-Gen Monster Hunter coming to China. Monster Hunter MMO is being powered by CryEngine 3 and is only going to be available in China. Those who are seeking a true next-generation Monster Hunter experience else where, will have to wait.

When will Capcom release a true next-gen Monster Hunter for North America? That remains to be seen.

This project was joint by Capcom and Chinese media group Tencent, Monster Hunter Online is going to be free-to-play and will include all of the monsters that the franchise had throughout its history since the beginning of the PlayStation 2 era. This new Monster Hunter game will even have beasts that will require 24 players to kill them. There will also be battles that will occur while players are riding motorized water-crafts.

Stay tuned on GaminBolt for more information on Monster Hunter Online. Hopefully a West release will eventually happen. Leave any comments you have down below.

Monster Hunter Online’s release date is unknown. Check out the trailer and screenshots below:

Screenshots:

In State of Decay, as the world goes to hell in a hand-basket, players are able to create their own outposts and fortified areas to survive. From there, they must make raids for food, supplies and ammunition. Of course, you’ll have to make a stand sooner or later, for which there are plenty of vehicles, melee weapons and guns to help. There will also be other playable survivors who can lend their skills to your cause.

Of course, given the dynamic nature of the game and the procedurally generated content, the number of zombies will only keep growing. So it will be interesting to see what sacrifices must be made to survive the onslaught.

State of Decay also has a more concrete release date – it will be arriving on Xbox Live Arcade this June.