Warface closed beta sign ups are now live! If you're interested a chance to check out Crytek's upcoming, CryEngine powered, free-to-play shooter with the silly name then you can head over to Warface.com now and enter your details into the empty fields on the right. You'll also be able to sign up for a "Gface" username, but you'll have to be quick if you want to take "W4rF4ceIsAS1llyN4m3" before anyone else does. In fact, I'm on my way in to do just that. Let's race.

Yesterday we gave an overview of some of the DirectX 11 features we can expect to see in Crysis 2 in the next update. The patch will add advanced "parallax occlusion mapping," and improvements for shadows, water, particles, depth of field and motion blur.

There will also be additional DirectX 11 compatible tessellation and high-res texture packs, which can be downloaded separately to improve world geometry and surface detail throughout the game. The Crysis forums bring word that we can expect all of these updates to hit next week, and a report on Shacknews suggests Monday June 27.

To get an idea of what the new features will look like, check out these side-by-side comparison shots, found by forum member Vivec. You'll find the full 1.9 patch notes below.


Added Contact Shadows
Added DX11 benchmark level
Added DX11 support for Crysis 2 (the following features only work when downloading the optional DX11 package here):
Tessellation + Displacement Mapping
High Quality HDR Motion Blur
Realistic Shadows with Variable Penumbra
Sprite Based Bokeh Depth of Field
Parallax Occlusion Mapping
Particles Motion Blur, Shadows and Art Updates
Water Rendering improvements and using Tessellation + Displacement Mapping
Added Realtime Local Reflections
Added support for Higher Res Textures Package
Added various new console variables to whitelist
Fixed bullet penetration, which had been broken by a bug introduced with the DLC 2 patch
Fixed issue in MP where player stats weren't always saved at the end of a game
Fixed issue in MP where player stats would sometimes randomly reset
Fixed issue with MP time played statistic, which would sometimes be too low on leaderboards and in stats
Fixed issue with JAW rocket not firing through window's containing broken glass
Fixed rare issue where a user could not access MP with a valid CD key if they had previously used an invalid CD key
Improved advanced graphics options menu
Improved anti-cheat measurements: fixed exploit which could prevent vote kicking working against a user
Improved multi-GPU support
Improved Tone Mapping
Re-added possibility to enable r_StereoSupportAMD via config file (unsupported)

 

Maximum music. That's what the ten winners of the Crysis 2 soundtrack giveaway will be receiving shortly. If you missed out on the initial post, might we recommend that you "Like" us on Facebook? You never know when we'll give something away on a whim, especially if it involves forcing the intern to draw a laughably-bad music sheet for a sight gag. Read on to see if you won, and what Nano the winners want to see in the Crysis universe.

Congrats to the following 10 winners! The winners will be contacted shortly—soon they'll be jamming to some soundtrack goodness while they wistfully dream of their Nano inventions becoming a reality. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Josh Collison: Nanopig, maximum bacon.
Samuel Hyde: Nanofacepalm. Invisible, extra strong, and extra fast. Perfect for parties with idiots.
Sean Lincoln: Nano banana. Shortened to Nanonana
Dan Lee: Nanoburger. That cloak will prevent it from being stolen by my asshole roommate.
JJ Hernandez: Nano-Toothpaste, Maximum Freshness.
Corbin S.B.: Nano-PEZ dispenser, because nothing says wasting the military defense budget than a device that gives out candy and can also cloak.
Austin K. Ballard: Nano-segway. Raaammming speeeeeed!
Alexander Florian Steciuch: Nano pogo stick. There I said it.
Harris Goode: Nano tube socks.
Nicholas Reid: Nano glowsticks for maximum brightness

Available to preview at GDC was the latest version of Crytek's CryEngine 3. It joins Epic's next generation tech, and Battlefield 3 on the list of 'stuff you should probably consider upgrading for. No sign of a game it's associated with just yet, but that funky looking trike suggests a military based shooter set sometime in the near future. Possibly with aliens.

Our friend and sometime contributor Duncan Harris is obsessed with what he calls real-time art: capturing the beauty of video games in vast, crisp screenshots unblemished by health bars and HUDs. He uses graphics mods, ultra-resolution textures and screengrabbing hacks to squeeze out every last pixel of detail, and nowhere to greater effect than with Crysis.

Below are a few of my favourites - including the best screenshot of mud you will ever see. But grab the whole zip of 100 1920x1080 screenshots from Duncan's site Dead End Thrills for the whole collection. You'll also find some amazing images of the Mass Effect games there, and many more. Can Crysis 2's urban scenes ever measure up to this?

The voice of Duke Nukem himself, Jon St. John, endorses our podcast in the waking seconds of this week's show. Stick around to the end for Evan's mini-interview with the voice actor, sampled straight from the strip club parking lot (seriously) where the chat took place.

Live from our fidelity-capturing, professional podcast studio, Dan, Logan, Evan, Chris, Josh and Intern Anthony chat up the state of League of Legends, F.E.A.R. AI vs. Crysis AI and John Carmack's judo skills. At 40:30, Chris' debuts his segment "Truthiness and Falsity," where provocative statements and latent, unexpressed resentment among editors combine.

PC Gamer US Podcast 259

Have a question, comment or high-definition audio clip of you pouring some kind of liquid? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724.

Quote of the week: "Your videocard will not turn into a pumpkin." -Dan Stapleton

A brave Russian mod team has challenged themselves to port the whole of GSC's survival horror, STALKER, into Crysis' more advanced engine. The project's called Cryzone - Sector 23, and is far along enough for the team to have released a video of the mod in action. You'll find the video embedded below.

The mod is the work of a team called World of Stalker. It's still a work in progress, but famous elements from the STALKER series are already in there, including the bleak landscapes, anomalies, and groups of terse Russian men sitting around campfires.

The video shows off some of the destructability and improved physics that comes with the upgrade to Cryengine 2. The mod plans to add some new features to the game, including a Far Cry 2 style healing system, in which your character must fix wounds by injecting themselves, or removing bullets from wounds. For more information on the mod, check out the Sector 23 page on the AP forums. It's a staggering undertaking, but judging from the video below, the results could be pretty spectacular.

The latest trailer for Crysis 2 seems to be narrated by the mad scientist who created the Nanosuit. He has a good old boast about how it grants his super soldiers "incredible strength", super speed, invisibility, bullet proof skin... okay actually that is pretty badass. Your arrogance is justified, mysterious old dude. The latest footage shows off the crumbling city environment, and also features plenty of aliens exploding. You'll find it embedded below.

The Crysis 2 minimum specs were recently revealed, though today Crytek clarified that they may be subject to change. They'll still give an idea of the level of machine the devs are aiming for. For more on the game check out the official Crysis 2 site, and our preview of the multiplayer. We've also got a multiplayer demo to look forward to before the game is released on March 25.

A new trailer from Crytek showcases some of the fun you'll be having in Crysis 2's multiplayer. You can watch it after the jump.

The footage shows off some death match and Crash Site action (where players must defend drop pods from the opposing team). It does a good job of demonstrating the Nanosuit's various abilities, including stealth kills and kicking cars over. It is, naturally, all very pretty.

Unfortunately for us PC crowd, the final message is a bit of a kick in the teeth: "Xbox 360 exclusive multiplayer demo begins January 25th". Nice one, Crytek. Nice one.

Crysis may be a few years old, but it's still one of the most graphically powerful games you can play. Normally that power is used to render huge islands, armies of panicky Korean soldiers and invading alien forces, but what if you took all of that power, and used it to create the biggest explosions you possibly could? Five brave gamers have done just that. Below you'll find videos of some of the biggest bangs in gaming. One man drops a fleet of helicopters out of the sky, another belly-flops onto a huge tower of exploding fuel trucks, and another man spawns a pile of 3,000 barrels and causes an explosion so ridiculous that he can't look directly into it for more than two seconds without it crashing his PC. You'll find videos of the five most insane Crysis explosions embedded below.

1. Fuel Truck Apocalypse

2. It's raining 'copters

3. 3000 barrels, one bullet

4. Mass demolition

5. Good old fashioned massive nuke