It seems the shenanigans involving the single player demo of Crytek's upcoming PC-intensive shooter have no end.

Fansite inCrysis now reports that the demo, which includes the Sandbox 2 real-time level editor, will not be released for public consumption until Saturday, October 27. However, it will be available for download today to those who pre-order the game from the online EA Store.

Crytek delayed the demo in late September mere days before it was originally scheduled to arrive. At the time, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli promised gamers "the Crysis single player demo will now be available everywhere on October 26th, 2007."

While you're waiting, we recommend you check out our recent chat with Crytek about Crysis and its technology, and maybe read over those suspicious system requirements one more time.

Since its announcement, Crysis has been heralded as the new benchmark for real-time video game graphics. Of course, that visual splendor comes with system requirements, which developer Crytek recently released.

Having played Crysis both in single-player mode and in multiplayer, and with the game's demo scheduled to arrive tomorrow, I delved deep into the technical side of Crysis with Crytek boss Cevat Yerli. We discussed system requirements, scalability, mod support, multiplayer, and much more. How will your system stack up? Read on.

Shack: How scalable will the game be; that is, how much of the "full experience" will users be getting on a machine that is more towards the minimum requirements?

Cevat Yerli: The overall answer on this is difficult, but let's think it scales you one generation back, providing you lower visual fidelity and ambiance, with the core gameplay being the same effectively. However you will perceive the core being less impressive if you experienced the high or very high setups, but not vice versa--e.g., if you didn't see Crysis on high or very high before, you will have a great experience with your machine.

EA's Crysis website has a community Q&A up, asking Crytek's Cevat Yerli, Eric Lagel and Felix Leyendecker about the game.

An Audience with Crytek on Computer & Video Games offers another Crysis Q&A, asking Cevat Yerli about their new game, developing for the PC and the success of Far Cry.

Much to the dismay of the wallets of many a gamer whose PCs teeter on the edges of obsolescence, developer Crytek has released the official system requirements and recommended specs for its upcoming PC graphical powerhouse shooter Crysis (check out our recent single-player and multiplayer coverage).

At the bare minimum, gamers must sport an Intel Pentium 4 at 2.8GHz, an Intel Core at 2.0GHz, or an AMD Athlon 2800+--with the clock speeds upped to 3.2GHz, 2.2GHz, and 3200+ respectively for Vista users--and 1GB of RAM, or 1.5GB for Vista. Video cards must have 256MB of memory and be at least of the NVidia GeForce 6800 GT or ATI Radeon 9800 Pro chipsets, with Vista-owning ATI users requiring at least a Radeon X800 Pro. Finally, Crysis will consume 12GB of hard drive space.

Those who have played the Crysis multiplayer beta may find their minds boggled by the claims made by the above requirements; though admittedly not final software, the beta suggests that the listed requirements are, to say the least, impractical for playing Crysis.

As far as what Crytek recommends: an Intel Core 2 DUO at 2.2GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+, 2GB of RAM, and an NVidia GeForce 8800 GTS/640... Read more

GameSpy has the latest Crysis preview, offering their multiplayer impressions.

Shooting For Perfection: The Cevat Yerli Interview on Game Informer offers a chat with the Crytek CEO about --what else-- Crysis. Questions are about DirectX 10, console possibilities, Ubisoft doing FarCry 2 and more.

Console gamers and the world at large might get a taste of Crytek's beautiful shooter Crysis after all, as a version of the game could be coming to consoles--in a downscaled form, of course. Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli told Game Informer the development of a console version of Crysis would depend entirely on the game's success as a PC title, which will render 90% of the computers in existence obsolete when it retails November 16.

"What happens next we haven't decided yet, because first we want to see how the game is received, publicly and critically, ratings wise, et cetera. We believe it will be received at least as strong as Far Cry. I hope personally a 5% average increase," Yerli said. "That would give us an argument to, 'OK, let's see how we can bring Crysis to consoles.' The engine right now is running on consoles so there's no reason why we couldn't."

Crytek has not begun any development of a console version on any platform, but Yerli said these "derivative" renditions would certainly not have the graphical fidelity of the PC version. "You cannot get Crysis as it is on PC on any console," he said. "What you would have to do is compromise the design and the level design--in order of the PS3 and Xbox 360 regards you have to fulfill the memory constraints."

For more on Crysis, check out Shacknews editor-in-chief Chris Remo's recent single-player and multiplayer hands-on previews.

Following my recent look at the Crysis multiplayer beta, I checked out a mission from the single-player campaign of Crytek's ambitious shooter. Though the full game is known to have a wide variety of environments, the level I played was still quite reminiscent of the company's debut effort Far Cry--but that made it no less impressive or interesting.

In addition, please peruse these new multiplayer screenshots and recent single-player screenshots.

So does Crysis live up to the title of most advanced game ever built? It's a weighty claim--and in terms of the game's technical graphical accomplishments, presumably the area of merit for a video card manufacturer, one that is tough to contest. With Crysis, many of Crytek's considerable attempts at recreating reality feel not indiscriminate but instead concerted attempts to work alongside the game's overall design aesthetic and, in a few cases, dispense with some nearly ubiquitous video game abstractions. Read more...

Shacknews editor-in-chief Chris Remo logged onto the Crysis multiplayer beta recently and got a pretty good impression of what this portion of Crytek's shooter will bring to the table when it retails. He also feels terrible about his current PC--which would weep if computers could do such a thing--after having been told by Crysis that it's perhaps more suited to web browsing or spreadsheet work.

I told him if he'd just disable "Graphics" in the video settings it should run on an older computer, even without a dual video card setup. Regardless, to see what Remo thinks of Crysis' multiplayer offerings, read on.

In general, the game demands a lot of coordination to really work. It is not enormously difficult to sidestep most of the game's large scale dynamics and simply go straight for the nuke tank, which is possible for teams earning a lot of money through kills and less ambitious captures. Of course, if your opponents have been doing their jobs, they will have plenty of their own equipment to stop you in your tracks.

There's a Crysis preview on IGN, offering impressions of the multiplayer beta that's currently out.

GameSpy has the latest Crysis preview, offering impressions of the Core level.

In a move that will no doubt bring light to understandably joyless PC BattleTech fans, Microsoft, owner of the MechWarrior license, has granted the MechWarrior: Living Legends mod team the legal clearance to use assets and properties drawn from the BattleTech universe (thanks Landrosradick).

In other words, Microsoft has okayed a fan-created MechWarrior game. Seeing as Cease & Desist orders from property holders are a very common and real threat for mod teams, the Living Legends team has, essentially, dodged a major bullet.

All the more exciting, and at the same time disheartening, is the fact that Living Legends is a mod currently in development for Crytek's upcoming PC shooter Crysis. On the upside, it will most likely look really, really pretty. On the downside, that means that the team has yet to get their hands on the actual code, and with such mods being voluntary free-time projects, it could be a few years out.

Still, lots of excitement to be had, especially with the recent closure of MechWarrior 4 developer FASA Studios, the only internal Microsoft studio to utilize the property. Now to wait.

"Robot boners across America," exclaimed the currently medicated Shacknews founder Steve Gibson as he shook his three different bottles of pain medication. "No wait, the world! Robot boners across the world!"

"Squishy foot hurts," he added.

Gaming Heaven has the latest Crysis Q&A posted. Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli is asked about Crysis engine features and performance.

Bad news ladies. Looks like the much anticipated Crysis demo will not be hitting the internets just yet as was originally scheduled. Word from EA has just come in that the Crysis singleplayer demo is now slated to be released on October 26th. If you're dying for a fix of Crysis though you can check out our recent Hands-On of the Ice level. Here is the note from the Crytek CEO: ... Read more

FiringSquad has another Crysis preview up, offering impressions of the game's Core level. You can also find impressions at IGN, and at GameHelper.

GameSpot has been updated with yet another Crysis preview. This article offer impressions of the Core level and its zero gravity combat.

More 'Ice' level impressions from Crysis can be found at GameSpot and FiringSquad. You can find our thoughts here.

The Shack's own Chris Remo recently got some hands-on time with the previously unseen "Ice" level in Crytek's upcoming supershooter Crysis. Being the first large-scale non-jungle area shown off by the developer, the "Ice" level offers a chilling companion to the tropical locales seen previously. Read why Remo was "blown away."

Yerli noted that this was the DirectX 9 version of the game--and it still looked incredible. "People have been criticizing us for always showing DX10, so we wanted to show DX9 to prove it still looks good enough," he explained. "Good enough" is an understatement.

There's a new Crysis preview on IGN, taking a look at the Ice level in the game. Includes new media.