Crysis 2 Beta Invites Going Out, Still Xbox 360 Only

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It appears that invites are being sent out for the Crysis 2 multiplayer beta, which was promised back in August. The beta has not started yet, but the email says it will be kicking off "very soon" (via Kotaku).

The first salvo of invites appear to be limited to those who signed up for the Crysis 2 community site. In August, Crytek and EA detailed the beta, which was to include two modes: "Crash Site"--a capture and hold gametype--and "Team Instant Action"--a standard team deathmatch offering.

The email details the beta as a "tech test" and reaffirms that it is Xbox 360 only "this time around". Let us know if you've received an invite in the comments.

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  • reply
    October 13, 2010 4:02 PM

    Hope they didn't kill Crysis by making it cross-platform.

    I mean it was pretty much the epitome of a "PC enthusiast FPS", right up there with Half-Life. After watching the tripe that gets banged out on consoles month in month out, you have to wonder...

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      October 13, 2010 4:08 PM

      Yeah, and the footage they have shown has been massively underwhelming. Essentially Crysis in New York with more restrictive level design and explosions. I also still can't figure out why the aliens look completely different than in the first game. It's like they are going back on the first game and making a reboot.

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      October 13, 2010 4:13 PM

      It was the epitome of a PC enthusiast FPS at the wrong time. They were drowned out by CoD4, their game was notorious and infamous for needing either an insane machine or details turned down to Far Cry 1 levels to play in the 30 FPS to 60 FPS range, and the gameplay was mediocre halfway into the game.

      It's possible that Crysis' failure was part of what steered FPS developers away from the PC, aside from the obvious draw of more unit sales on 360 and PS3. Now we're stuck with games that are either two-weapon "roller coaster rides", or giant sandboxes with RPG stats, and almost nothing in the middle. Very few developers are trying to make an FPS game that aren't either a Call of Duty ripoff or a Far Cry 2 ripoff.

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        October 13, 2010 4:30 PM

        Here's a quick list of upcoming PC FPSes that are unfortunately mired in this pair of unfortunate FPS segments:

        Medal of Honor (yeah, I know it released yesterday): Call of Duty ripoff, but the reviews point at how the scripting in the single-player campaign is broken, and there's a bunch of other technical things wrong, along with some weapon animation that looks funky.

        Call of Duty: Black Ops: Call of Duty ripoff franchise game. We'll have to see where Treyarch takes the Call of Duty formula, if they go to outlandish and annoying Stern-esque places with it, and if the gameplay suffers. We'll also have to see if it can do better than 6 hours of gameplay in single-player.

        Fallout New Vegas: First-person RPG, following the Fallout 3 formula. Odds on mouselag of over 50 milliseconds are 3 to 1. Fallout 3 fans will probably like it, but I got bored of Fallout 3's grind and ended up having more fun spoiling the storyline on the Wikia page than actually playing through it.

        Crysis 2: We've seen it: two weapons, two suit modes, regenerating health, roller-coaster gameplay progression, Baysplosions, ultra-tough aliens, the whole nine yards.

        Bulletstorm: Two weapons, quick-time events, regenerating health, and probably a forgettable storyline. The upside of those are that these are the elements that would bring a breath of fresh air to a Painkiller-esque game. Hopefully they don't ruin it by feeding the "kill to skill" gameplay into an achievement system mandating Games for Windows Live.

        That leaves the few games that I'm actually hopeful for, but unfortunately they're a long ways out:

        Deus Ex: Human Revolution
        Brink
        Rage
        Portal 2

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          October 13, 2010 4:32 PM

          I almost forgot Yahtzee's FPS lament, which I heartily share:

          ...just PLEASE let me play another shooter where I can have more weapons than eyeballs! Where if I get bored, I can clear out a room with a transfunctionating cyber-blasty-bollocks-cannon I was saving for the next boss fight! Where I can run out into the open with the tactics of a suicide bomber and suffer no damage that can't be fixed by Sellotaping a first aid kit to my chest! I'll be glad when the modern warfare bubble blows over and we can end the tyranny of "realism"!

          http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1546-Battlefield-Bad-Company-2

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          October 13, 2010 4:41 PM

          Postal 3 ought be a nice break from the norm, if they ever ship it. ... If you're into that kind of mindlessness. :)

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        October 13, 2010 5:54 PM

        Crysis sold 3 million. Not many 360 and PS3 games sell that many.

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          October 13, 2010 6:22 PM

          But what do people remember of Crysis? "Wow, this game needs a supercomputer to run at 60 FPS!... Damn zero-gravity level!... Damn aliens!"

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          October 13, 2010 7:12 PM

          176.34 million copies lost in sales due to piracy

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            October 14, 2010 2:49 AM

            Love it when people just make up random statistics...

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              October 18, 2010 12:26 PM

              There are 2304923480923840923798 rotten corpses in the ground, including your grandmother.

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      October 13, 2010 4:22 PM

      Where have I seen this before.... series started on PC... xfer to consoles... console only beta... flop. OH yea COD. Pretty sure multi-plat = console game + pc port now.

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      October 13, 2010 4:30 PM

      Too late!

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      October 13, 2010 4:38 PM

      i hate watching gaming taking a step back because of the money on consoles. but i have to accept it. gaming is mainstream now. money is made on the mainstream.

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      October 13, 2010 4:40 PM

      more like breathing life into it. crysis was restricted to expensive enthusiast PC hardware. now nearly everyone can play meaning more money for the developer to make cooler stuff in the future

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        October 13, 2010 4:43 PM

        ...but it looks like an experience about on par with Singularity, except a super suit instead of the TMD. There's not much special about that, except to the Crysis enthusiasts.

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        October 13, 2010 4:46 PM

        Alas, Crytek doesn't solely rely on profits from game development.

        http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/26/crytek-boss-explains-companys-non-game-businesses/

        If you ask me, Cervat is still butthurt over the PC piracy rate of Crysis and now it's payback time!! :D

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        October 13, 2010 4:47 PM

        but pushing technology forward is a good thing isnt it? Crysis is still the graphic king even thought it was released 3 years ago. why arent we seeing a game that trumps crysis 3 years later?

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          October 13, 2010 5:02 PM

          because the market is just now catching up with the ability to run the game competently on a mainstream level. I personally didn't have a machine worth playing it on until 4 months ago.

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          October 15, 2010 4:51 PM

          The answer is the consoles hold back the PC. Since we don't have PC exclusive titles like Crysis being released very often, the PC versions are essentially just consoles versions with better controls and higher resolution textures and AA. You don't see more advanced lighting schemes or whatever. The only game that has really come close to Crysis is Metro 2033, which of course was a PC exclusive.

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      October 13, 2010 5:00 PM

      I have messed with the development kits and you don't have to worry about that. That is the point of the latest engine. You can literally design on the PC, plug in an xbox to your tower, and see it scale itself and play immediately. Nothing is lost on the PC side, the PC still gets the higher res everything, and the console ports are created simultaneously. I literally did just this and was amazed.

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        October 13, 2010 5:01 PM

        The question is whether it will control without lag on the PC, whether there will be mods, the developer console, dedicated servers, and what DRM they're going to use.

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          October 13, 2010 5:04 PM

          Well, i can't speak to that, but messing with the game with a keyboard and mouse, I did not feel anything being lost compared to the first game in terms of control lag. It didn't feel worse than the first game.

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      October 13, 2010 5:55 PM

      My guess is that the PC already killed the franchise, poor sales and piracy blame made Crytek go console.

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        October 13, 2010 7:21 PM

        If PC killed the franchise would their even be a Crysis 2? Couldn't have sold that bad. Crytek is just jumping on the greed wagon.

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          October 14, 2010 12:26 AM

          Crysis sold 1 mil on PC. EA even said it was better than expected.

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            October 14, 2010 12:55 AM

            Crysis had sold 1 million on January 2008.

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      October 14, 2010 1:00 AM

      Following Crytek since geforce tech demo days.... all one has to do is go back to the release of FC1 and then Crysis 1 and see the constant Forum spamming of whiny crybabies complaining about how their x800 doesn't run crysis at omfg 60fps, which btw imho it ran fine at 30fps in sp. Developers have to make money and if all they get is a damned if you do damned if you don't attitude about pushing the envelope then they'll just console port the shit and call it a day.

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