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Crysis moves on up to console territory

I think I’m going to Cry… Yes, bad pun, but this week’s Official Xbox Magazine showed me the future… A future which includes maximum strength.

That’s right, the world’s first photo-realistic, frame rate guaranteed below 10, North-Korean busting, alien blasting (I move away from the keyboard to breathe in), physics enabled totally delicious game your PC will never run in a million years, CRYSIS… has a sequel. Even for your Xbox.

Crysis was the brainchild of the makers of the near legendary Far Cry, Crytek (If you haven’t seen the pattern yet you should see a therapist.), and featured some of the world’s first looks at totally photo-realistic gaming. Water runs off the character’s display visor, distorting the picture as it goes, lens flare and blooming effects are abound and multi-layered particle effects perfectly re-create the tropical paradise setting the game had to offer… and all the while your beloved PC slowly overheats.

With the beautiful visuals also came an interesting new set of game mechanics… a step forward, which also seemed like a step back. While your average Master Chief, sprints a mile a minute, jumps seven metres into the air, takes a whole magazine of enemy fire to his man-face and turns invisible all at the same time, the protagonist of Crysis, aptly-named lone wolf Nomad, seems to lack the ability to multi-task, as the game’s designers only allow you to choose one superhuman ability at a time.

You can select at any time, in real-time, whether you want to maximise Nomad’s strength, speed, armour or engage a cloak with the mouse, and the same pop-up menu also allows you to add scopes, flash lights or grenade launchers to your bullet-throwing instrument of choice. Each action uses energy contained in the character’s high tech Nanosuit, and once it’s gone it needs to recharge over time. The term ‘Modular Gameplay’ was coined to describe this feature, and boy does it make for tense frenetic action… anyway, on to the sequel.

Not much has been revealed, but we do know Crysis 2 takes the player to war-ravaged New York, virtually sans populace due to alien attacks. The player’s Nanosuit is also armed with 4 re-tuned enhancements.

• Power mode – Enhanced speed and strength.
• Armour mode – Energy is drained instead of health when damaged.
• Infiltration mode – Player’s footsteps are softened. An invisibility cloak can be activated, which will drain energy.
• Tactical mode – The weapons enemies use will be named, the cause of death and names of corpses will be shown, and items of interest will be highlighted.

Also, players will be able to explore the ruins of NYC on either ground level, or three storeys up and down… meaning some exciting basement or rooftop action.
Looks like it’s shaping up great, and console users will get a slice too, as the game (Finally…) comes to Xbox and the Playstation 3, and returns to Windows around November or December this year.

Medal of Honour…? Again?

So, Medal of Honour appears to have returned, after a long period of absence and the odd useless Wii incarnation. But this time, it seems that over at EALA, something has been brewing that sets the franchise on a thoroughly different course to all the previous incarnations.

Set in the most foul parts of sunny Afghanistan, Medal of Honour has been reborn into a modern and polished modern shooter. The current demo looks like it will include a balance of sneaking and action, with some pretty polished effects to boot, with vehicle action too and Call of Duty style zooming in ironsights.

In keeping with the traditions of the franchise, the game was also built to be historically accurate and realistic to a high level, with actual US military Seal teams on hand with their own level of creative control on the project, meaning the developer team could incorporate authentic military tactics into the game. In fact the Seals themselves said the only thing that they’d change is the fact That characters communicate via speaking – real Seals keep noise to a minimum.

The game is set to ship this autumn, and looks like a safe bet for a good chunk of fun. It will most likely contain decent multiplayer too, to keep you deathmatch fans at bay. But will it rival almighty COD?

Top games this week…

Another slow week for games after the releases of BF Bad Company 2 (for the online gamers) and Final Fantasy XIII (for the RPG gamers) so its a bit of slim pickings for the releases, but many will be happy with the Xbox live arcade release of Perfect Dark, and re-release + visual update of the N64 classic, which will ensure a split screen frenzy over the coming weeks.

Perfect Dark on Xbox Live Arcade

Also on release was Metro 2033, a Horror-themed shooter with a hint of fallout 3′s post apocalyptic despair, its available on Xbox 360 and for the PC where you Travel the subway system under post-apocalyptic Moscow as you seek to help the remnants of humanity stave off a mutant threat.

Metro 2033 on Xbox 360 and PC

And finally Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening for PC, Xbox 360 and Ps3 is the first expansion to the award-winning single player RPG, Dragon Age: Origins.

Dragon Age: Origons Awakenings on Ps3, Abox 360 and PC

And finally…

Rockstar games have released a new gameplay trailer for Red Dead Redemption…..ohhh Nerdgasm

Tags: 360, arcade, Gaming, Live, metro 2033, nintendo, playstation 3, ps3, red dead redemption, weekly, wii, xbox