crytek posts

GDC10: The expo in pictures

by Seraphina Brennan Mar 17th 2010 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Galleries, Events, real-world, Massively Event Coverage

We have a saying around the Massively offices -- "When we go to a show, our readers go to the show." We hope you guys have really enjoyed our crazy coverage of GDC10 as much as we enjoyed running around the show like crazy people grabbing all of that information.

But, while we were running around, we got some great photos from the show for you! Now you too can live the experience of running from booth to booth, passing legions upon legions of companies explaining their newest technologies and how they can improve your gaming experience.

So come along with us for a whirlwind trip through GDC! Trust us, it's exciting.

Gallery: GDC10: Pictures from the floor

Crafting from your iPhone: The Fallen Earth app

Tags: aion, ar-drone, career-pavillion, cryengine-3, crytek, expo, frogster, gamebreakr, gdc-2010, intel, moscone-center, moscone-center-photos, ncsoft, neurosky, nintendo, nvidia, photos, playstation-move, sony, tamat

The Digital Continuum: A week with Aion

by Kyle Horner Oct 19th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Opinion, The Digital Continuum

After spending a week playing Aion over every other game in my library -- a feat considering I've got Brutal Legend and Uncharted 2 -- I'm feeling ready to discuss the game in a meaningful fashion.

It's hard to gauge what kind of game you're dealing with when an MMO launches, largely because the reality is that, often times, much of what an MMO is designed to be will change over the course of its first half year or so of development. With Aion, we're dealing with a deliberately designed concept that's been mostly well executed on -- more on that later.

Tags: aion, crytek, crytek-korea, featured, gladiator, ncsoft, opinion, pizza, pve, pvp, pvpe, theme-park, themepark

Crytek's CryEngine in UK classrooms

by Brooke Pilley Sep 12th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Aion, MMO industry, Consoles, Academic

Students of video game design in the United Kingdom should be doing back flips after hearing that Crytek is donating their CryEngine free of charge to all universities in the country. CryEngine is most famously known as the graphics engine behind visually stunning titles such as Crysis and Aion.

This is really big news because only the priciest universities tend to license high quality software for their students to learn on. They're the only ones that can afford it. It's also great for students to dream up pie in the sky concepts for games, but knowing what's practical in the real world is essential. "Universities are looking to foster creativity and send people out into the industry who have lots of ideas, but it's also about that practical hands-on training so that they know what the limitations are," says Managing Director of Crytek UK Karl Hilton. "It's very easy for students to come out of the academic world and not have a grasp on the realities of making a video game."

We hope more MMOs are released with CryEngine due to its stellar performance and scalability and it would be great if other graphics engine companies followed suit to increase the options in our genre.

Tags: aion, cryengine, cryengine-3, crysis, crytek, game-design, karl-hilton, ncsoft, university

Planet Calypso, formerly Entropia Universe, converts to CryEngine 2

by Seraphina Brennan Aug 15th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Entropia Universe, Business models, Economy, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, Launches, MMO industry, Patches, Server downtime, News items, Virtual worlds

In just two days, Planet Calypso, formerly Project Entropia and Entropia Universe, will be shutting down for a major patch of epic proportions. The game will be undergoing a graphical refit, moving from their old graphics engine to the new CryEngine 2 -- the same engine that powers Crysis and upcoming virtual world Blue Mars. Old and busted, meet the new hotness.

The new version of the client, version 10, is now available for download before this whole conversion process takes place. The servers will be shut down on Sunday night/Monday morning at midnight UTC as version 10 is deployed to the servers. The servers will be unavailable for a few days, as the First Planet Company does a full diagnostic on the servers to make sure everything is good to go.

Tags: breaking, cryengine, cryengine-2, crysis, crytek, entropia-universe, event, first-planet-company, patch, planet-calypso, project-entropia, server-downtime, update, version-10

Blue Mars beta and launch dates disclosed

by James Egan Nov 17th 2008 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Business models, Launches, News items, Blue Mars, Virtual worlds

When it comes to virtual worlds, Massively's main focus to date has clearly been on Second Life, but we're also interested in some of the other choices that are becoming available to residents in virtual spaces. Blue Mars from Avatar Reality is one that's caught our eye -- it's a sci-fi themed virtual world, set on a terraformed Mars in the year 2177 AD. The potential is there to have some stunning visuals, as Blue Mars is built on CryEngine2, best known for giving Crysis its look.

The official Avatar Reality site lists a beta release for the end of 2008, but they've told Eurogamer that Blue Mars enters beta in January 2009. "The first-time developer expects this to last for around three months, before the full game launches in April," Eurogamer's Rob Purchese reports.

Tags: avatar-reality, betas, blue-mars, business-models, cryengine2, crysis, crytek, eurogamer, hawaii, launches, mars, minigames, rob-purchese, sci-fi, second-life, sl, tateru-nino, virtual-worlds

Pages and pages of Aion "Beta 2" screenshots available for viewing

by William Dobson Apr 15th 2008 at 3:30PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Screenshots, Aion, New titles

The Korean closed beta of Aion has silently moved along to its second stage, and AionSource has been able to share a great wealth of new screenshots with those of us on the outside. The game has always managed to impress with its visual style, and the new screens show off various locations in the sci-fi/fantasy MMO (which runs on Crytek's CryEngine 1, the game engine from the Far Cry series, for those that are interested in that sort of thing).

Looking at the pictures, we can't help but be reminded of the previously discussed aerial aspect of the game, with player characters frequently shown well above ground level thanks to their trusty wings -- well, we hope that they're trusty, as we don't want to live in fear of deadly plummeting carcasses. Even still, we're anxious to find out when the rest of the world will get to give Aion a try.

Tags: aion, beta, beta-2, cryengine, crytek, ncsoft

Action MMO powered by Crysis engine? That'll be The Day

by Louis McLaughlin Dec 11th 2007 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, MMO industry, New titles

In the parallel world, all this was caused by a butterfly.

Former employees of NCSoft and Phantagram have created a new studio to design a 'third-person massively multiplayer online action game'? And it's powered by CryENGINE 2, the same game engine used in Crysis? Tell me more.

As it says in the press release: Reloaded Studios are a Seoul-based game company that seem to lack neither experience nor funding. Their first project is entitled The Day, and it aims to have a heavy emphasis on PvP combat plus a unique, immersive storyline involving parallel worlds and the destruction of all humanity. I also aim to solo Illidan Stormrage tomorrow.

The Day joins a growing list of MMOs to use the Crysis engine, along with Entropia Universe and Blue Mars. They're both more virtual world than action MMO, though, and there's a lot of untapped potential in the latter. Planetside never made much of an impact, but games in a similar vein are a market waiting to happen -- even if it isn't a Halo MMO.

Tags: action, blue-mars, cryengine2, crysis, crytek, entropia-universe, halo-mmo, illidan-stormrage, ncsoft, phantagram, planetside, reloaded-studios, the-day

Blue Mars - blurring the boundary between MMOG and virtual world

by Tateru Nino Oct 17th 2007 at 10:00PM

Filed under: Real life, Sci-fi, New titles, Free-to-play, Blue Mars

Does the name Kazuyuki Hashimoto ring a bell? He was Chief Technology Officer for Square USA for five years, was Vice President of New Technology and Platforms at Electronic Arts for 4 years, and spent seven years as the Senior Vice President of R&D at Square where he worked on the CG segments and cutscenes in the legendary Final Fantasy VII.

Along with Li-Han Chen - whose background includes Project Manager (Sony Online Entertainment), VP of engineering (AtGames Inc), Senior Programmer (Squaresoft), Senior Programmer (Dreamworks) - Hashimoto heads up the Honolulu-based Avatar Reality Inc, and their new MMOG, Blue Mars.

Tags: atgames-inc, avatar-reality-inc, blue-mars, cryengine2, crytek, dreamworks, e-for-all, electronic-arts, final-fantasy, kazuyuki-hashimoto, li-han-chen, MMO, sony-online-entertainment, square, square-usa, the-spirits-within, virtual-world