It’s no secret that I dislike both Crytek as a company, and the Crysis games they create. The founder of Crytek, one Cevat Yerli, rubs me the wrong way. As for their games? Well, I just don’t find them very original. Having said that, Crytek is incredible at one thing: graphics. They have by far the most beautiful looking graphics engine I’ve ever seen, and today you’ll have a chance to see a whole lot of it.
What you’re about to watch is a presentation by a fellow named Sean Tracy. He was scooped up from the Crysis modding community, and given a job at Crytek to do, well… whatever it is he does there. For today at least, he’s showing us the many amazing new features of CryEngine 3, and I assure you… they really are amazing.
CryEngine 3 Presentation 2013
The video weighs in at a lengthy 25 minutes, and Sean Talks about a great many new features. He does a much better job than I do, but a few of my personal highlights are pixel displacement mapping as a faster alternative to tessellation, dynamic caustics (looks fantastic), and a much improved vegetation system.
Now as I mentioned earlier, I can’t say I’m all that excited about playing Crysis 3 (though I’ll give it a chance, of course), but the graphics… man oh man. I believe that in the hands of the right studio, we could see one incredible game using CryEngine 3. The type of game that is both beautiful, and at least somewhat original on the gameplay front. I know that many consider that a tall order these days, but I know that it’s possible. I mean, just look at say, The Witcher 2. Now that’s a team that has their shit together.
Crysis 3 Release Date
If, despite my ranting, you’re still interested in picking up a copy of Crysis 3, then you can either pre-order it online for $59.99 USD, or wait until February 19th to pick up your very own copy in stores. At the very least you’ll have an exciting new piece of technology to play around with. If you’re into modding games, then this might be just the thing to justify picking up a copy.
