Once upon a time, Crysis was the cutting edge of gaming. A PC game with graphics so advanced, that getting to run the title at all was a mark of recognition for your rig. Of course, gaming tech and graphics have advanced long since, and Crysis’ allure has worn off (more so in light of the sequels that followed, both of which were deemed disappointing), but the game has its fair share of fans still.

If you are one of them, or if you have never played any of the three games, there’s some good news: you can now, on Xbox One. All three Crysis games are now playable on the console via its backward compatibility program, as Microsoft’s Larry Hryb aka Major Nelson confirmed on Twitter. Of course, the Xbox One can run all three of them properly (in fact, they’ll even be enhanced compared to the Xbox 360 versions of the originals)—running Crysis is, sadly, no longer a badge of honor like it once was.

Xbox has been getting a lot of classic games added to its backward compatibility list of late, with Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 both being added to the library recently. Microsoft’s initiative to to achieve library continuity is laudable.

https://twitter.com/majornelson/status/1052227951922561024?s=21

After the shutdown of multiplayer service GameSpy, there was trepidation over which games would eventually continue receiving support for the same. Publisher EA, which has a number of online titles that were affected by the GameSpy closure, has now revealed a list of 50 games that will stop receiving online and multiplayer support from June 30th onwards.

These include a number of top-tier titles and their expansions such as Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 2 for PC, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (PS2), Battlefield 2142 for PC and Mac, Battlefield Vietnam for PC, Bejeweled 2 (Wii), Bulletstorm (PS3), Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (PC/Mac), Command & Conquer: Generals (PC/Mac), Crysis 1 and 2 for PC, Crysis Wars and many more.

Some titles like Star Wars: Battlefront 2 will continue on thank to third party support but what about the rest? It’s still possible that some of these games could continue but certainly not all of them. Thoughts? Let us know in the comments.

As GameSpy servers shut down on May 31st, bringing many older games’ multiplayer to a halt, Crytek has revealed that Crysis 1 and 2 for PC will be joining a similar fate. Both games will have their multiplayer go offline once GameSpy shuts down and Crytek isn’t moving them to a new location a la the Battlefield series.

Posting on the official forum, the developer stated that, “The single-player campaigns in both games are unaffected by this transition, and the multiplayer mode in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Crysis 2 remain playable.

“We’d like to thank everyone who has taken up arms in Crysis and Crysis 2′s multiplayer modes in the last few years, and apologize to the small but dedicated community of PC players who are still actively competing against one another.”

You can check out this Reddit list to find out which games are unaffected, which are likely to be affected and which are confirmed to be affected when GameSpy shuts down. Stay tuned for more information.

Those who pay more than the average price will receive Battlefield 3 and The Sims 3 Starter Pack, with all titles being supplied via Origin. Some titles can also be picked up from Steam though.

The highest payment has been made by a user named “alex82” who contributed $1,300, with two other contributors – a bootstrap theme design company and credit card payment company – offering more than $1,000 for the bundle. Head here if you want to help contribute to charity and get some awesome games at great deals.

Crysis 3 is going to be a really vital game for Crytek, and they know it. They also make graphic engines and they need to showcase that well by creating impressive games for other studios to license it, and considering how Epic Games have a strong grip in this area with their Unreal Engine 3 tech, it’s going to be a very hard task for Crytek to showcase CryEngine 3 effectively.

But they have a major problem on their hands… not a lot of people care about the Crysis franchise anymore. How did I come to that conclusion? It’s simple, isn’t it? Crysis 3’s meek reception, specifically to the new gameplay trailer doesn’t bode well for Crytek. How did it get to this stage  in the first place?

Crysis was a crown jewel of PC gamers, and a game that raised the ceiling so high when it comes to sheer visual fidelity that it was a daunting task for any studio to meet or exceed it.

That all changed with Crysis 2, however, and the announcement that it was going to be on the consoles changed the perception of PC gamers -their core audience- towards the franchise forever.

It’s not like the PC gamers didn’t give them a chance, they did. But Crysis 2’s reception among critics and gamers left a lot to be desired. It has reached such precarious position that Crysis 3 has to prove a lot to win back the audience Crytek have lost.

So what really made Crysis great? Was it the visuals or the semi-sandbox world that allowed gamers to do whatever they wanted and tackle each mission in a way they desired? I think it’s both. The latter was missing in Crysis 2 and it was strictly a linear game, and the design decisions implemented by Crytek in the game left a sour taste in many people’s mouth.

For example, why didn’t the game launch with Direct X11 support out of the box? Was it developed for the consoles first and then the PC? If you remember, the ‘press start button’ prompt on the PC version infuriated many. I, and many others, strictly believe that the Crysis franchise is mostly associated with the PC and for good reasons.

I mean, Crytek can expand their audience all they want, but ignoring their core audience which was based on the PC — was the biggest mistake they did with Crysis 2. Isn’t 3 million sales enough? Why didn’t they respect the people that bought the original game in droves and gave them a true leap, and a worthy successor that they so desired?

There is nothing wrong in putting their game on various platforms, but treating the PC version as a second-class citizen was ultimately a very bad move by Crytek. Let me get this straight, Crysis prompted a lot of people to upgrade their systems.

It gave a reason for people to upgrade, and hence, indirectly increasing the sales and popularity of the game too. Sure, it got pirated, but when they announced that it sold 3 million on the PC, I don’t think there’s any point in blaming piracy.

Now, I don’t know how much Crysis 2 sold. Recent reports from EA are that it shipped 3 million, which is great. It may have done a lot on the Xbox 360, considering the exclusive beta and what not, and considering the fact that the Crysis 3 gameplay trailer consists of choicest quotes from Xbox magazines, it looks like they are, again, targeting the same audience.

Crytek is not only a game developer, but they also create engines for other studios, so I can see why consoles are vital for them, but that doesn’t mean they have a reason to ignore the PC version like they did.

I loved Crysis 2, I’ll admit that. I felt the visuals were spectacular, especially the lighting and getting it running on consoles was a tremendous achievement only few developers can achieve. The fault here is the downgraded gameplay resulting from the smaller level sizes, and we all know why that happened.

Inspite of being impressive visually, the downgraded gameplay meant that Crysis 2 was just another generic shooter, and when you look at the original game and Crysis: Warhead, I can imagine why it is a huge disappointment to many.

The muted reactions to Crysis 3’s gameplay trailer which shows nothing new (well, a little bit), should be taken seriously by Crytek, and they should release a proper trailer or a gameplay video showing the game’s scope and informing gamers that, “Hey guys, Crysis 3 is indeed different and we’re going to show you things that you have come to know and love from this franchise”.

This is vital and just because you give a bow to the main protagonist doesn’t make him cool, and they can’t possibly expect to grab people’s attention this way.

Crysis is known for its visuals and gameplay (yes), and while they have a firm grip on the former, they need to convince gamers that the they have done a lot of improvements to the gameplay mechanics and that the fans of the original Crysis have a lot to look forward to.

When the game comes out in 2013, the hype for Sony and MS’s next-gen consoles will be through the roof (after all the tech demos), and Crysis 3 simply can’t impress anybody unless they give the PC version the respect and attention it deserves.

They will also be unable to make other studios adopt the CryEngine 3 en masse, unless it can match the new Unreal Engine in cost and features. Believe it or not, Crytek is headed for irrelevancy and they don’t have much time to change it around…

…but they can and hopefully should, as they’re one of the best developers the gaming industry has ever seen.

Catch the author on Twitter: @meisadragon.

After it was revealed that Crysis 2 was the most pirated game of 2011, having been pirated on the PC almost 4 million times, everyone was shocked. But on one more so than, quite obviously, Crytek.

Crytek’s director of creative development, Rasmus Hojengaard feels it’s flattering and upsetting at the same time.

“It’s very flattering and upsetting at the same time,” he told CVG. “Obviously you miss so much revenue, it’s so clear that a lot of people want to play your game but they don’t really want to pay for it, which is unfortunately really disappointing.

“It’s also a little flattering because people are willing to bother download these 10GB files or whatever the game takes because they think it looks great. We obviously want to avoid that this time, but even if we can convert 25 percent of those gamers into paying customers [you have an extra million sales].”

Crytek’s director of creative development, Rasmus Hojengaard says having an anti-used games system in the next gen consoles, as it’s been rumoured several time now, would be a great thing from a business perspective. Having second hand games makes “no sense”, he says.

When asked by CVG about what he wants to see in the next gen systems, he said: “The worst thing that can happen is they make something that’s very complex for developers, regardless of how awesome it might theoretically be.

“So getting hardware that allows you to quickly get prototypes up and running, and any kind of scalability they can offer will be great as well, as long as everyone has that scalability and not just a select few.”

When asked about the anti-used games locking system, he said, “From a business perspective that would be absolutely awesome.”

“It’s weird that [second-hand] is still allowed because it doesn’t work like that in any other software industries,” he continued, “so it would be great if they could somehow fix that issue as well.”

Crysis 3 has been in the news a lot recently, and it doesn’t look like that’ll be changing anytime soon. A new screenshot from the game has been leaked, and it hints at the setting, the enemies and the general tone and atmosphere of the yet officially unannounced sequel.

The screenshot shows the Nanosuit-ed up protagonist- possibly the same person we played as in Crysis 2 (looks like him), standing in the post apocalyptic streets of New York. As you can see in the screenshot above, the entire city has been overgrown with greenery (the bad kind) everywhere, and everything seems to have an air of isolation. So probably, the game will be set a long time after some cataclysmic event.

We also seem to have a new enemy in Crysis 3- look at the huge spaceship-type thingie in the background. It looks like New York is under a new alien threat, and it’s much more dangerous and more formidable than ever before.

Crysis 3 was leaked earlier this week, and later again, when the setting was hinted at the first time. The second leak also promised an official reveal on April 16, that is, tomorrow. Read the full report here.

With Crytek beefing up the CryENGINE 3 SDK, you can expect Crysis 3 to have significant upgrades over its predecessors.

Stay tuned for more updates.

[InCrysis (via MP1st)]

Rumours about Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer component have been aplenty, but earlier today, Official Xbox Magazine Australia confirmed that the game will definitely have MP. And now, BioWare producer Casey Hudson has confirmed as well that the game will have online, and that some of those missions will be co-op.

“Yes, co-op MP missions for #ME3: they’re real, and they’re spectacular. Rest assured it’s nothing of what you’ve feared. More soon…” Casey Hudson said on Twitter.

BioWare’s Twitter page reads: “There will be a multiplayer component for #ME3. Full details soon, so wait until then before making your decision. We think you’ll like it!”

Stay tuned to GamingBolt, we’ll keep you updated.

Mass Effect 3 releases on March 6 next year for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Crytek has released the Cryengine 3 SDK to the public. The SDK was rumoured to be available for a long time now after Crysis 2 came out. “With the release of our SDK we encourage creators to try out CryENGINE 3 and hope it will lead to new companies being formed and using our engine. More importantly we expect to increase the talent pool for CryENGINE developers, as well as boosting our online community of users. This SDK contains more toys than we’ve ever released before – it empowers people to create whole new games from scratch, not just mod Crytek’s own games, so we encourage all aspiring and indie developers to try it out.” said Carl Jones, Director of Global Business Development CryENGINE.

“For those who want to make the step into commercial gaming, we’ll offer a royalty-only license model for games made with this SDK, where Crytek require only 20% of the developer’s revenues from the commercial launch of their game.”

This allows modders to do modifications to Crysis 2 and create original content.

Download from http://www.crydev.net and http://www.mycryengine.com

Thanks, Joystiq.