Crytek Announces, "We're in a League of Our Own."

At GDC 09, the HipHopGamer had a chance to talk with some members of the Crytek development staff team. Watch as he asks the questions that matter to you the gamer. Also hit the link to read the full article along with the video.

[ape007]

nice exclusive interviews hhg,keep it up man,your site is becoming unique and intersesting every single day :)

[snipermk0]

Crytek have always been saying that they're on a league of their own. They said it 2 dozen times before Crysis came out. So, I don't see whats the "announcement" here.

[lolol123]

yup theyve said it before and i still laugh. any developer can make ridiculous looking graphics but the hard part is making it run on modern hardware. crysis couldnt run on most PCs for about 3 years. Crytek developers are really just mediocre. pulling something off like Killzone 2 or Uncharted 2 that runs great on modern hardware, now THAT takes skills.

[gaffyh]

And we thought Sony was arrogant.

[JsonHenry]

Yes, they have said it all before. But the reason it is so special THIS time is because a black man is doing the interview.

That is called historic journalism! /sarcasm

I love Crytek for pushing the visual standards. But their games are not exactly the best scripted or voice acted. (with the exception of Warhead)

[MNicholas]

He did a great job disarming the Crysis rep using theatrics then used pointed questions to elicit involuntary responses. Clever and fun. That's smart journalism.

[PrimordialSoupBase]

That isn't journalism, it's a circus act.

[Montrealien]

some could argue videogame journalism is a circus act, just looking at the N4G comments section there are mostly monkeys (enthusiasts) jumping to the tune of their respective ring master(console maker).

[PrimordialSoupBase]

That isn't journalism either.

[Montrealien]

videogame journalism? you're right.

[MNicholas]

and discovering what goes on behind the scenes rather than blindly repeating company press releases. In that regard, HHG is far more of a journalist (based on this video) than IGN, Gamespot, etc... who are little more than advertising outlets.

[crazy-eyez-killah]

Wow, no question mark in the title..

Still a rather misleading title in my opinion. Crytek hardly announce it.. The way he asks the question they are hardly going to say anything else are they.. Would they say "no, there's loads of better devs out there than us" also the employee is obviously saying it in a fairly jokey way, wouldn't really call it an arrogant answer. He's finding it hard enough keeping a straight face at the fact he is actually being interviewed by this guy..

[ToastyMcNibbles]

such an exciting time for the game industry... cant wait to see how the cryengine is utilized in future games

[Qorious]

Wow, HipHopGamer is on a role! First Jeff, then Crytek! I wonder what else he has in store for us!?

[Blackcanary]

Good HHG very good can't wait to watch your show 2morrow.

[mac4u10]

Hang on wasnt u the one dat was hating on him the last time im a bit confused here!!!

[no-spin]

Welcome to the console world, where you cant use the latest Power PC available and are limited to the console specifics. Now STFU and deliver, you have done nothing on consoles, so maybe that "league of your own" does not hold much prestige. Less talk more games

Edit:
Very good interview

[Grandreaper9999]

uh huh.

I wanna see them pull off another much larger farcry 2, maybe add more cityscape to its not all cheap foliage strewn about. deliver it on 1 disc, and blow everything else out of the water with little to no loading times and AI that's more realistic than anything else out there. On both consoles. Or just one. But deliver it on one disc. I don't think they could whip up a game in less than 3 years that does that. They've yet to prove they're in a "league of their own". They're the only company retarded enough to invest in a game that 99% of pc owners (their only consumer-base for the title) can't even play. That's... wow, yeah.. being in a league of your own for sure..

[-GoD_-oF-_WaR-]

Keep it up HHG. Keep doin ur sh*t. Fuk wut all these people say

[DARK WITNESS]

lol, so we are all loving his show again..

great, wow, nice show, your the man...

until he says something negative about the ps3. Then it will be back to being a fanboy writting crap and we will all be wondering why your stuff gets approved.

[silvacrest]

so its news to you that gamers are fickle?
in fact everyone is

as soon as your enemy switches sides hes your new BFF

[DARK WITNESS]

not really news... its just fun pointing it out. lol at the disagrees, i give it 2 weeks

[morganfell]

well that isn't the case. I think we all know what he is now. Because of that I won't turn around and mistakenly applaud some accidental actions. Give him a week and he and his crew will be right back to the same thing.

[cmrbe]

This article is not praising the PS3 and yet you single out PS3 fans as liking Hiphop gamer again.

Isn't it possible that people in general are happy with HipHop Gamer in this instance because this is a good interview?. Get a grip.

[DARK WITNESS]

well ya, people are happy with him again because the topic in this instance is more neutral, so everyone loves him. as soon as he says something specific to one console or the other, the other side hates him and wants his head on a plate.

sorry if it sounds like i am singling out the ps3 guys, it just sprung to mind because the last time i saw people bashing this guy it was something he wrote about killzone 2. don't get me wrong, i know the 360 fans are just as bad at it. i remember them bashing him constantly because he said he like the ps3 more.

then when he had something negative to say about the ps3 or any of its games, he became their Hero while the sony fans were crying for his articles to be banned... then he says something about a 360 game and he is the ps3's hero.

i just found it funny the way people were giving him props and the last time i was on people were going on about how tired they were of him and his news should not be allowed on this site. thats all.

kudos to him if he has found a formula to keeping both sides happy.

[Chapulin]

You alway hating on HHG just go away fly. No one wants you trolling.

[morganfell]

That's right. All of those HHG articles that failed were reported by my 70 or 80- accounts.

[Chapulin]

You spend an awful lot of time on articles you hate.

[HDgamer]

He's pretty much official.

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

He's actually not that bad of an interviewer. He likes having fun and he doesn't interrupt the person being interviewed.

Those were also good questions.

Crytek is fantastic! I really hope we see Crysis on consoles. That game is just incredible!

[Crazyglues]

It would be amazing to play that on the consoles.

[cliffbo]

mmmmmmmm... i'm not sure they are right actually. having seen KZ2s in city graphics and the Cryteks, i can honestly say i think KZ2s look better... then you have GOW3 and Uncharted2. big words indeed. now match those games on DVD

[xabmol]

Keep 'em rollin HHG.

That belt thing is a bit corny, but hey as long as you're there asking questions it could be a Chiquita fruit bowl hat for all I care. lol

Will HHGS be going to E3? Better be!

[MrJack]

They are still being outdone graphically by 3 different studios, and yet claim they are the best?

[i_like_ff7]

such as?

[moses]

I'm pretty sure they made a little game called Crysis: Warhead on PC a while back. And that's still on top.

[morganfell]

On top of what? Their lighting engine is not the tops. Run Crysis in 1080p and on a level field it doesn't look as good as several other console engines. Their console tech demo the other day looked far worse than some current engines as well as some coming titles from which we have already seen gameplay. We have seen zero, ZERO gameplay from Crytek 3.

Remember, the Crytek 3 demo was a TECH demo. They can afford to overload the engine because the system isn't having to handle any scripting, any AI, any music, etc etc etc. And it still doesn't reach the level of Killzone 2, Uncharted2 or even Uncharted 1 in many areas. Their animations are simply horrid. And their AI? What AI? It's easy to reduce the CPU load when your NPCs all have moron routines from a 1998 era game. Strike that, there were games in 1998 that definitely had better AI.

[i_like_ff7]

Morganfell you couldn't be more wrong. Several things you said are plain false.

"Run Crysis in 1080p and it won't look as good as other console games"

Pc's been doing 1080p for a long time now. I run crysis at 1920x1200. A higher resolution makes the game look better not worse.

"We have seen zero, ZERO gameplay from Crytek 3."

What da heck is crytek 3? Its cryengine 3. The footage was running off ps3 and 360 not pc. Crysis the original game looks better than that footage.
http://i363.photobucket.com...
http://i363.photobucket.com...
http://i363.photobucket.com...

Animation i agree isn't the best

Ai has never been good in an open world game. Name one game with good ai that is open world. There's just too many variables to consider.

[morganfell]

The point you are missing (for your own convenience rather than fact) is you are pitting an engine run a higher resolutions against an engine running at a lower res. For shame. Drop Crysis to 1080p and see how it looks. End of argument.

And thanks for making my argument for me. Glad you are on my side. IT IS PRECISELY WHAT I MEANT ABOUT ZERO GAMEPLAY FROM THE LATEST ITERATION. IT'S A LITTLE TOO EARLY TO CROW ABOUT SOMETHING BEING SHINY WHEN YOU ARE ONLY LOOKING AT RENDERING. A game engine is so much more than a graphics engine. One is a subunit of the other.

That says something good about the graphics portion of a game engine and says absolutely zero about the other 80% of the game engine. If all you have to crow about are looks then in the game world your engine is an airhead 50 IQ supermodel among a group of researchers that have brains and beauty.

That engine will take significant hits once they start taxing the system with all of the other game requirements. You can take a great many game engines and crank up the graphical effects when you do not have any other requirements running that are normally needed for a game. I listed those above. Go back and look only this time I suggest reading as well.

That the heck is Crytek 3? What the heck is 'da'? Don't point fingers on language usage as you will only poke out your own eye.

If you take a gander around the web and talk to a few devs you will see the term Crytek 3 used liberally. If your lack of knowledge about common usage is the only nail you have to hang your coat on then be prepared to pick your clothes up off the floor.

[moses]

If anything the goal is to run at a higher resolution, so if you can, why not? You also seem to disregard the fact that the Cryengine 2/3 are full fledged engines that are the most complex and advanced in the industry thus far. Not every game is going to look at polished as Killzone 2 in the end when you are making a game to scale from running on a 6600GT to a GTX 295 rather then making a game for one set piece of hardware. Also, what the modding community has done with the Cryengine 2 has been pretty remarkable.

[morganfell]

The goal is to run at a higher res but you can only run at a resolution supported by the television. There are also issues designing a engine that will provide the maximum output on the available hardware. In this feat Crysis failed. Engines like the Killzone 2 engine run on every piece of hardware owned by 100% of the traget audience. Can you say the same with Crysis? No you can't. In that respect Crytek failed miserably because they did not scale to even 75% of the user base when Crysis launched.

I would not call them the most complex the industry has seen this far because as I keep saying and will say again one last time, and game engine encompasses more than just graphics. For example, complete game engines do not rely on middleware AI or animations. Neither the AI, animations, or lighting engine matches Killzone 2. Jack of all trades = master of none.

There are some things the Crysis engine does better than anyone., But they are not lord over 100% of the kingdom.

Also Crytek 3 or Cryengine 3 hasn't been shown yet. Alll we have seen is the graphics demonstration and some physics implementation. A physics implementation that was hardly equal on both machines. (Hint: Pay attention to the grass and think about how winds actually blows.)

To see the the latest iteration we'll have to get a look at the COMPLETE engine and that has yet to occur.

[moses]

Some monitors get up to 2560x1600, there's quite a bit to play around with. As well as your hardware point, I think I addressed that pretty well when I said Crytek had to make a game that scales between so many systems rather then one standard piece of hardware. As for the rest, well that's the beauty of the PC platform. Even if the original Crysis AI isn't good enough, people made better. If people want higher resolution textures, they make them. Also, even Cryengine 2 as it is has better physics than Killzone 2, it's a simple youtube search away, it's quite the behemoth of an engine o_o.

[morganfell]

Well I am out. You just don't get it. Killzone 2 served all of it's audience, Crytek served less than 75% (some say even higher numbers were shut out).

Level the playing field. You talk about cranking up the res, well I say lower Crysis down. It doesn't scale too well does it.

I love how Crysis has the same MP capabilities and VOIP abilities such as proximity voice as Killzone 2. No? Ooops. Lighting? Nothing so far touches Killzone 2. It has it's issues but Crysis isn't end all be all. And you displayed no deftness in avoiding the AI issue. It's one of the reasons that despite looking good Crysis is a lifeless game. And the AI is part of the engine Killzone 2 brings to the table.

It isn't just about looking good and running in hi res. Sad but you miss that. It is about looking good AND serving ALL of your intended audience.

When Crysis hit the bricks NO ONE in there right mind said the engine scaled well. It was get super hardware or forget it. Selective memory doesn't work here. Enjoy your Crysis. The engine is so good it's been used in...how many other games? One? Any non Crysis games after two years? Killzone 2 is barely out the door and already it's engine is pimping a non Killzone 2 title.

[Szarky]

You guys make me laugh. Bickering like a bunch of old ladies about this kind of stuff. Just go play your games! =)

[rrodhaha]

the dev was like this guy is crazy..lol

[Montrealien]

and you watched it and laughed

[wu-stix]

Keep up the good work.

[Phantom_T]

Want to see them fall flat on there face now after that "league of our own" comment.

[JokesOnYou]

HHG asked him a direct question, sure he could have given a "political answer" while still promoting his studio but at the same time if you're in this business you have to strongly believe in your talent and sometimes that also includes telling potential customers how good you are, true or not its called promoting. Its not like he just released a statement or something bragging while downgrading the competition like Greenburg did a week ago.

JOY

[Revvin]

They were a lot less arogant when I met them at E3 '06 and they were showing Crysis for the first time.

[tordavis]

Where are the haters now? LOL

Bubbles to Jokesonyou as always!

[heyheyhey]

hi!

yeah so he does the odd decent interview.. anyone can ask a few questions

his shows still suck, he makes about 50 baseless rumors a week, his titles on N4G are still mega flamebait... and most of his other articles suck ass

sorry.. HHG is still a failure, oh and his raps are beyond horrible

[JokesOnYou]

@tordavis, thanks bro, I try.

@heyheyhey,^^^^ so anybody can asks a few questions and HHG news is garbage, yet you are STILL following his news and commenting, WHY? I thought his Halo comment was a cheap but hey its his opinion so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. Again same question I will keep asking those who hate him; HOW HARD IS IT TO IGNORE HHG's NEWS?

@Phantom_T vvvvv uhm OK kid sometimes my posts require you to think just a little bit for yourself "Its not like he just released a statement or something bragging while downgrading the competition"

-Yes thats what I said, let me explain this slooow-leeeee, if you read the entire post I already started by saying he answered a direct question from HHG, it was a set question:

HHG: "Do you feel like you're in a league of your own? or are other devs..."

Crytek dev: "No, no we're in a league of our own."

-So this is NOT independently released statement bashing other devs, he answered the question directly= true or not he's promoting his studio. Try Harder.

JOY

edit:vvvvv heyheyhey theres a big difference between giving someone helpful advice on how they can improve and outright bashing them constantly(lol oh my bad you accidentaly "stumbled" into a HHG thread, *AGAIN) ...ya see anybody can ADD something to the conversation by being critical which is what I at least attempt to do, you however all your comments amount to nothing but hate and insults at HHG 'cause your feelings get hurt over a plastic box with a ps logo on it, lmfao who are you fooling kid with words like "most of his other articles suck ass" you are actually *trying to claim you follow his news "innocently" trying to help him out, lmfao pa pa please tell me another JOKE, lolz btw if I try hard not to insult sites but if I ever did you won't see me "stumble" onto that site news thread to say the same thing over and over again.

[heyheyhey]

what?

now i can't voice my opinion on HHG and his work? people get better through feedback you know... maybe if he reads this feedback, he'll make improvements to his work (and believe, there are improvements to be made.. a whole fvcking mountain of them)

maybe next time i see you make a negative comment about something.. il annoy you by telling you to just ignore whatever it is your commenting on?

see basically from now on, if you EVER critsize a publication.. you'll be a hypocrite

and im not "following" his news, i don't got to his site... maybe il sometimes stumble onto one of his articles on N4G, and call him out on it... but i don't follow his news around just to critisize him

have a good day :)

[DARK WITNESS]

exactly what i was trying to point out...

[patterson]

which of course is what this gen needs more of

/sarcasm

[xabmol]

For some reason I am not allowed to agree with you. The Agree/Disagree buttons are still a little glitchy.

Anyway I meant to agree. Not sure about your other disagrees, but at least 1 is wrong.

[Phantom_T]

"Its not like he just released a statement or something bragging while downgrading the competition"

So what does "We are in a league of our own" mean then,exactly?
1) We're better than everyone else.
2) the other developers have no chance of even matching what we do.
3) I still don't like HHG.

[Flare149]

More like Guerilla and Crytek are in a league of their own

[cmrbe]

graphics wise on the PC. Until i see crysis level of graphics on console i will not agree with him. To be honest. Th demo they showed was not very good.

As for HHG. I still maintain that they are hit whores that will sell their own mothers to get hits on their site.

[pixelsword]

You see all of the raging bull that gets posted on this site; unprofessional "writers" spouting invalid opinions about games they hate and poorly masking their angst against rival consoles they "just don't like".

Hip-hop Gamer has interviews and connections with actual developers, and conducts more interviews on average than a reporter at Gamepro or IGN, but he always gets griff from people.

[xg-ei8ht]

Sorry, but Naughty Dog and GG are in a league of their own.

Crytek fall abit short.

Alot of devs with alot of resources and huge pc rigs can make a game that runs like crap on modern hardware, that's without the awful mistake of DX10.(Not my words, but the guy who invented DirectX)

What GG have done and Naughty Dog is to stream nice textures, with mo-cap and blended anims. Naughty dog are in a league of their own telling a story and sucking you into the game.

To the amount going on in killzone to the awesome lighting, debris and tons of fx, to the water in uncharted 1&2. Even the water in killzone2 looks sweet, but it's hardly used ingame.

Could be some very sweet watery levels in KZ2 MP. hmm hmm. GG.

Naughty dog has the best artists in the industry imo. Handpainted textures, their games look brilliant and work so well.

When i see a full game from crytek running on PS3/360. @ 30fps 720p aa or above. with tons going on, then you'll join the elite.

Those who will disagree with me.

Think about this for a second if you will.

Imagine, Naughty Dog being just a PC game making company. Using the latest tech from ATI/NVIDIA. with Tons of ram. and 8cores.

Damm now that would look unreal.

[Marceles]

Sigh another Killzone 2/Crysis argument. What one game lacks in, the other one makes up in. What Killzone's textures lack, Crysis has it. What Crysis's animation or lighting lacks, Killzone has. They're both great looking games, they both look great in motion...I just want to see what the CryEngine is gonna do on consoles now that Crytek is trying to compete in a field they're not used to. Will it really compete with Killzone or will it just end up looking like FarCry 2...so far I'm thinking the 2nd choice but this was a good, fun interview by HHG. Instead of talking about rumors, he's at the source getting exclusive stuff and bring gaming news. +1 for HHG

[Grandreaper9999]

I think many of his rumors are actually hinting out for things he's already heard from the horse's mouth. i could be wrong though..

[IQUITN4G]

Yeah Halo3 was a let down to me too but having now played it countless times, i will admit to how very wrong my first impressions were

A lover of Halo3 doesn't play the campaign levels some 100 times over if it's no good - yes Halo1 was just pure bliss in terms of how epic it all felt, but Halo3 is actually more fun in so many other ways - play it a lot and you'll soon find this out

Halo1 will always be my most preferred out of the series so far but for sheer gameplay larks, Halo3 is quite a step up

[Chubear]

I'm sure HHGS will have a tonne of GDC stuff for their weekly show tomorrow. Looking forward to it.

[chasegarcia]

nice interview by hiphopgamer

[donnie-2105]

i think with crysis crytec were trying to make a name for themselves in the wider gaming world which arguably they have suceeded at.what is not disputable is that crysis on a high end gaming pc is the most graphically advanced game released to date on any gaming system bar none.whether this make crytec a premium dev instead of just a good one as the game was poorly optimised and needed expensive g/cards.personally i think guerilla games are more talented for the performance milked out of ps3 for killzone2 plus naughty dog for uncharted and epic for the 360s gears 1/2.crysis will unlikely be bettered at full specs till the next round of consoles as we ve yet to get 60fps and 1080p as standard with the current gen.

[poeo]

say what you say about HipHopGamer but he sure is enthusiastic and treats his interviewees like f*cking royalty!

i like his approach a lot. (at least in doing interviews). he asks pretty much the same questions i would ask too. like what genres are Crytek looking at bringing to the consoles... i would LOVE to see them do a third-person open world adventure or something. too bad they're so tight-lipped.

[Thoreau]

much respect to him for actually getting an interview with a awesome game developer. got to give respect when it's due.

[Bladestar]

I'm now a fan of Crytek now.. it seems like Sony leg humpers hate their gutz... simply because there is a possibility that unlike Sony that took like 5 years to produce a game like Kill Zone 2 in terms of graphics... there may be an engine that would make developers match or exceed it... and make a game in half the time on the xbox 360.

[NateDPG]

ALL YOU DISSING CRYTEK HAVE ABSOLUTELY ZERO IDEA

Crysis is much more than just grahics and easily one of the best FPS ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[DNAgent]

I don't know. Crysis itself was a horrible game and the graphics were the only good thing about it. Having the graphics engine on consoles this gen will lower the quality compared to PC. I mean Killzone 2 looks better than the engine they showed for consoles (aside from palm trees; then again Killzone 2 didn't have palm trees to show off).

Playing Crysis on consoles would be like playing Dead Rising on Wii (or Ninja Gaiden 2 on 360). You wouldn't be getting the full experience of the game.

[felidae]

Crysis looks amazing but the gameplay lacks in every aspect.

[Avenged Sevenfold]

I hate c0cky developers. Albeit, Treyarch. "We have the best shooter this holiday season." Pfft! Lol!

[Tyre]

@NateDPG

You're absolutely right! Crysis is the best FPS on this planet...the game is epic in every way and experience worth playing and the gameplay rules/the story is great i love it...at this moment there is no game like it..and the 360 controller and Crysis are a match made in heaven. Same goes for Crysis Warhead! The Original game is perfect for console play, i hope that they will release a OrangeBox like Crysis for the consoles Crysis/CrysisWarhead/CrysisWar s in 1 box.