Way optimized. You need about half the machine to run Warhead on High settings (called "Gamer" in Warhead) that you needed for Crysis. And it looks a little better to me than Crysis did.

It doesn't. At least not as far as I can tell. The optimizations are pretty slick, but they do come at a price. Overall texture sharpness is down by quite a bit, and there's a TON of Automatic Quality Control (I'm not sure what it's really called, that's what X used to call it) going on. You'll run up to a shack, and it'll be all blurry and fuzzy like you're playing at 320x200, then suddenly it shifts into the sharp texture in two rather jarring jumps.

And I feel they've rather heavily overdone the HDR. I've never seen every single pixel of an entire sky be lit up by the sun, Crytek.

That said, it's a fun game. The AI is better. I've not run into a single AI that's just blindly gazing off into the sky or running into a mountainside. They very actively track your last location or last sounds you've made. They seem more observant of laser pointers (as they should).
If you kill one silently, the others around him will now start actively searching to see who's firing at them.

They still don't coordinate very well, though and Cloak still rules the day. The AI just can't really deal with it. I counter by trying to avoid it as much as possible, but that does limit the gameplay a lot.

I'm in the latter part of mission 2 where you have to escort a pilot to a pickup point while you're both driving armored cars, which is a ton of fun. Kind of reminds me of "River" from Farcry.

All in all, without the DRM bullshit, I'd absolutely recommend it to everyone. With the DRM shit...

Creston

Hopefully they'll backport the changes to the original.

Yep. I remember reading Yerli Crevat say that Crytek might optimize the original in the same way if Warhead sold well enough. Pretty shitty of them to put an ultimatum on it, but at least they're considering it.

Limited installs? That's horrific.

The online activation actually worked fine, I think my disc is just defective. I am pretty pissed that I didn't find out about the limited activations until after I bought it though.

The game itself is good, certainly a tighter experience than the original. The engine is considerably faster; I can play in "Gamer" (aka "High") at 1920*1200 on a 8800GTS 512, though auto-detection wanted me to run "Mainstream" (Medium); a bit smoother, but has a lot of irritating popup. Hopefully they'll backport the changes to the original.

Way optimized. You need about half the machine to run Warhead on High settings (called "Gamer" in Warhead) that you needed for Crysis. And it looks a little better to me than Crysis did.

I'm sad that I can't play it until after they remove the DRM. I'm willing to buy it on steam if they remove the DRM that checks each time you install. No way, no thanx. Not ever.

Has it been optimized to run faster since the Crysis Demo or is it wishful thinking?

Way optimized. You need about half the machine to run Warhead on High settings (called "Gamer" in Warhead) that you needed for Crysis. And it looks a little better to me than Crysis did.

http://kotaku.com/5036817/crysis-warhead-system-specs

I can't find anywhere the actual specs required for the this game - (i went to their website but it doesn't seem to help). Has it been optimized to run faster since the Crysis Demo or is it wishful thinking?

Well I just got home and installed CW...

SecuROM NOW CHECKS TO MAKE SURE THE GAME DID NOT BREAK STREET DATE.

"The release date check was successfully completed. Please click FINISH to complete the process."

Limited Sales & Lots of Torrent Downloads.

Pull your heads out EA it's not going to happen.

Crysis Wars (multiplayer portion) has no activation limits.

So how do we buy just this one? (And pay less)

I imagine someone pirating it and then telling all their friends "it's an utter piece of crap, dont bother" is a bit more damaging to sales than someone going "Oh, not sure. Never played it."

I suppose piracy + negative feedback is worse than not playing the game at all...

So the absolute worst thing you can do is pirate the game and then tell everyone how awful it was.

There is still the possibility that many people who pirate it with this same philosophy will like it and this may encourage others to buy...

I still think having people play your game, for better or worse, is a hell of a lot better than no one playing your game.
This comment was edited on Sep 18, 17:05.

Official word has been released, 5 activations for Crysis Warhead, Crysis Wars (multiplayer portion) has no activation limits.

http://www.crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=36974

Piracy still benefits the game publishers/developers more than not playing it altogether does.

I imagine someone pirating it and then telling all their friends "it's an utter piece of crap, dont bother" is a bit more damaging to sales than someone going "Oh, not sure. Never played it."

Hell, I hated Crysis and couldn't care less about this game, and I'll still be downloading a copy, just to give EA the middle finger and to pass along to friends...

Fuck em...

I don't blame you for wanting to do this, but keep in mind you're still helping them by playing the game.

The best thing you can do is just walk on by with regard to this game. The biggest obstacle any companies face is that people just won't care about their product. If people bitch and moan about things but still find a way to see, experience, or buy that product, the company still profits.

You time, or attention, is what makes game companies successful. If no one stops to give their game the time of day they that is the worst possible scenario for them.

Piracy still benefits the game publishers/developers more than not playing it altogether does.

This was a hard decision to make in the past but there is so much content out on the market now you can fill your time with other games.

That is my advice, just don't play this game in any way shape or form. That will send a clear and strong message to these scumbags.

And admitting on message boards like this that the only reason you don't buy the game is because of DRM issues doesn't hurt the cause.

And for the record I was going to buy this game on:

EA Downloader: Bullshit restrictions on downloading, DRM BS
Steam: DRM activation BS
Circuit City: DRM Activation BS

And now I'm not spending any money, or time, on this game at all and it has NOTHING to do with the content, only the DRM. Thanx EA, you're doing a great job!

This comment was edited on Sep 18, 15:54.

As other people have tried to reason with you. I have backed up my steam games onto DVDs using an inbuilt tool.

Securom and Steam share the same DRM principle. BESIDE THAT, Steam has also some other features, that's right. But irrelevant in this discussion about DRM. And for the record: After re-installing your game from this backup, you have to validate it online once again. With no limits, how often you install it

I do not have to put a dvd into my drive to play. Good luck doing that with your securom games.

I regret to inform you, that with the Securom version, we are all talking about, there is no need for the dvd in the drive.

I can play in offline mode. Will securom games FORCE you to go online when it chooses?

After the online activation, you can play a Securom protected game like Mass Effect-PC offline.

And now to the main difference between Steam DRM and Securom DRM ... after a hardware change or a new install, Securom wants a new online activation. And limits this activation to three or five times. And now, please repeat after me: Besides the limited installs, Securom and Steam share the same DRM principle: Online Activation!

This comment was edited on Sep 18, 15:39.

"Yes, and because of that i said earlier!!!!!, that, besides the limited installs, Securom and Steam share the same DRM principle."

no they do not. As other people have tried to reason with you. I have backed up my steam games onto DVDs using an inbuilt tool. Good luck backing up your securom games. I do not have to put a dvd into my drive to play. Good luck doing that with your securom games. I can play in offline mode. Will securom games FORCE you to go online when it chooses? Who knows - jury is out on that one.

For anyone who's interested, the following page has a list of stuff people can do including an e-mail link that (supposedly) goes directly to EA's CEO:

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/spore

I bought through STEAM and I assure you after a lengthy wait for the game to start AFTER DOWNLOADING a Secure Rom screen came up before the first play. Unfortunately I didn't get to read it because my son clicked out of it before I could really take notice. After both Warhead and Wars was installed on my machine I went to play it later in the night and STEAM said it wasn't installed then I tried reinstalling it and my whole STEAM client got hosed and I couldn't see Text in the menus anymore... WTF is all this about. I never had any issues like this with Steam before. It most certainly is related to the Crytech games without a doubt. I wonder if it's because I have Daemon Tools installed???

For all your Developers/Publishers/DRM pushers that can't figure out why this new DRM is different than steam. THAT IS WHY. Steam works perfectly fine and when you add your new and improved DRM to it (which is COMPLETELY unnecessary you screw it up.)

Steam = acceptable
DRM = Unacceptable
Steam + DRM = WTF ARE YOU DOING!?

I have no problems with pirating EA games anymore...they treat me like a thief, so I'm going to start acting like one.

I wouldn't be opposed to that, except for the fact that if sales are bad, the much smaller Crytek, not the huge mega-publisher EA, would feel the pain. If sales are "bad" (Inexplicably, somehow 2 million units sold of Crysis was deemed "bad"), EA will absorb the loss, make it back up in run-of-the-mill console drek, and close Crytek. Admittedly, this may not make too many gamers shed too many tears, in light of how they dropped support for Crysis. But I personally am always sad to see a developer who makes PC games (and in my opinion, good ones) get punished for the stupidity of their publisher.

Honestly, do we really even need publishers anymore? Any and all developers have a great marketing and distribution platform in Steam, Impulse, and soon many others. If only there was a way to get government grants for game development...

I don't recommend this for everyone, as different people have different thresholds of ethical behavior, but I find that the system that works best for me is to monitor the torrent sites. Games that I want that have available cracked versions, I download.

I have no problems with pirating EA games anymore...they treat me like a thief, so I'm going to start acting like one.

Hell, I hated Crysis and couldn't care less about this game, and I'll still be downloading a copy, just to give EA the middle finger and to pass along to friends...

Fuck em...


edit: Now Dead Space I'm looking forward to. I'll actually play that one once I download it...


------------------------------------------------
http://theslip.nin.com/
"The Bellic boys! Taking over your town, assholes!"
This comment was edited on Sep 18, 14:57.