Are you still consoling your PC every night, saying its inability to play Crysis is okay? All the while, you know you're lying to both yourself and your poor rig, just wishing you could sneak out and buy a better machine and feel the sweet embrace of Crytek's excellent game. Well, there's no need to tell the PC you're "just going for a jog" anymore.

The supposedly less hardware-intensive Crysis Warhead is ready to show you what it's made of and will supposedly run quite well on a €600 rig. It may not be as stunning as Crysis, but it won't require a second job to keep happy either. Check out the first screens below and a new trailer after the break.

It's always a little ... awkward explaining to guests that the "modern art" in our living rooms are actually PCs melted by playing Crysis on its highest settings. Thankfully, Crytek has heard our whimpering and is working to make Cysis: Warhead play more nicely with mid-range gaming rigs.

Voodoo Extreme was kind enough to translate an article on German gaming site PCGamers.de which states that the PC-exclusive Crysis folllow-up is being designed to run at a locked 30fps on a roughly $600 system. Now, compare that to the original game, which was sluggish even on a PC costing three times that much and ... you have happier PC gamers. If Crytek's programmers can actually pull off such a formidable feat, we sense a stalling in the PC upgrade market come the game's release.

Crytek is known for cramming high-end graphics into titles that are just as capable to give your PC a hernia as they are to entertain. However, with the Crysis developer now done with PC exclusives, the company has adopted a new strategy, one that apparently includes the PSP.

A new job posting on the developer's official website notes that the company is currently seeking a PSP programmer with multiplatform experience to work out of its Budapest office, suggesting that Crytek's next project following the recently announced Crysis Warhead will target Sony's handheld. Of course, nothing is known about the developer's PSP agenda or whether that includes plans to somehow squeeze its CryEngine technology into a more bite-sized format. That leaves us wondering if we'll someday be playing Crysis on the go, or if Crytek has something entirely different up its high-def sleeves.

We'll be honest: when we read about the recently announced PC-exclusive Crysis Warhead, we were a bit confused. Didn't Crytek pres Cevat Yerli just say, "I believe we won't have PC exclusives as we did with Crysis in future"? If that was his belief a whopping thirty-six days before announcing a major, AAA PC-exclusive like Warhead, we'd second guess arguing politics with the man, if we were you.

But lo, what's this? Here comes Crytek's Harald Seeley to explain that Yerli "was referring to any new projects [Crytek] will start in the future" and that "all new franchises [they] develop in the future will be created with a cross platform strategy in mind." Speaking of that cross platform strategy, Crytek's engine wizards have been busy squeezing the ship-sized CryENGINE 2 into a console-sized bottle and their efforts thus far have made the engine "even more scaleable" – an accomplishment that should be on display in Warhead. We'll see how they did when we try to run Crysis Warhead on our trusty 486 this fall. Scale that!

EA and Crytek have officially announced the development of Crysis Warhead, "a parallel story" to hardware-taxing tropical shooter, Crysis. Built by Crytek's Budapest studio atop an optimized version of the CryEngine 2 technology, Crysis Warhead sees players squeezing into the nanosuit of Sergeant Sykes, affectionately dubbed "Psycho," and learning that "life on the other side of the island is even more intense and explosive than they ever could have imagined." Given all the eyeball-melting events in Crysis, we reckon they're capable of imagining quite a bit.

Crytek president and CEO, Cevat Yerli, found the original game's reception by gamers and the media to be quite pleasing, but noted to the studio's intention to raise the ol' bar. "With Warhead, we are focusing on refining our storytelling and game performance, while also delivering more of the visually stunning graphics and immersive, free-roaming gameplay everyone loved in Crysis," he said. Expect more weapons, more vehicles and more multiplayer content when Crysis Warhead nukes lesser computers this Fall.

Developer Crytek recently gave fans of its FPS Crysis some bad news, confirming that it had not only abandoned work on a dedicated Linux server for the game, but that the shooter's forthcoming 1.3 update "almost certainly" won't be released.

Beyond stating that "there is a good reason," Crytek has offered little in the way of an explanation for its decision to abandon the expected updates, adding only that "...we hope you understand when you hear more about the reasons why in the very, very near future." The developer broke the news as part of a series of updates concerning its plans for Crysis, though considering the mood left in the wake of this latest offering, we're left wondering what exactly Crytek has planned for an encore ... killing kittens perhaps?

[Via Big Download]

Crysis developer and PC gaming evangelist Crytek may soon fly the flag of multiplatform solidarity, as company president Cevat Yerli revealed in a recent interview that the studio will no longer create games exclusively for the PC due to poor sales and game piracy that he says is "encompassing Crysis."

The comments were made as part of an interview with Croatian magazine PC Play, during which Yerli stated that "I believe that's the core problem of PC gaming, piracy ... It was a big lesson for us and I believe we won't have PC exclusives as we did with Crysis in future." He added that while the company will continue to create games for the PC, these titles will not be released solely for that platform.

Of course, this brings into question not only the oft-rumored PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ports of Crysis, but also the game's planned trilogy of sequels. While Yerli wasn't asked as to the fate of subsequent games in the Crysis canon, he did comment that bringing Crysis "as we have seen" to consoles would be "impossible," and that the game would have to be "largely changed" to be brought to either the PlayStation 3 of Xbox 360. We continue to dream of playing the game from the comfort of our couch, though Yerli's remarks that the company's focus "is not linked to bring Crysis to consoles" has a single high-def tear running down our cheek.

[Via Team Xbox]

A glib response from a Crytek representative may have revealed that Crysis is coming to the Xbox 360. The rep reportedly told Primotech that the Xbox 360 version was being shown behind close doors to "prospective publishers" at last month's Game Developers Conference.

This is far from a confirmation; the Crytek rep may have misspoken. Furthermore, we'd be surprised if Crysis PC publisher Electronic Arts didn't have the foresight to secure rights to the console game as well. We do know that Crytek planned on showing off a console version of CryEngine 2 (which runs Crysis), and although the assets were likely Crysis, perhaps the prospective publishers were just looking for a game engine.

PSW got one thing right, and that's our collective: Huh? The UK magazine would have us believe that Crytek's "hard-worked" code monkeys have confirmed -- "in many interviews" -- that Crysis is coming to PS3 later this year. Not true. But we can count this latest report as another adherent of the 'Crysis 1.5' theory, which here evolves into rumor of a hybrid-port that combines aspects of the original PC Crysis and its sequel into "almost 50% new game." Assuming that a Crysis-brand product will eventually land on PS3 (what else is the console version of CryEngine 2 good for?), we'd be curious to know how much of the alleged 'newness' would translate into better gameplay. Are we really talking Crysis 1.5 -- or just Crysis Lite? (Remember, Far Cry's leap to console had plenty of 'new,' just not any better.)

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Crytek recently whipped up a tech demonstration for their haughty, hardware punishing software, CryENGINE2, to show off at GDC. Mimicking an unforgettable ad for the Sony Bravia, the demo turned quite a few heads -- but how did the visuals of the ball-droppin' doppelganger compare to the original advertisement? Never one to miss an opportunity for a video comparison, Gametrailers whipped up the above video. What do you think -- are video games nearing photorealism? Or were your discerning, pixel-counting eyes not fooled?

In yesterday's investor call, Electronic Arts confirmed that sales of Crysis have gone platinum, meaning that over 1 million units had been sold since its launch. That figure marks a drastic improvement over earlier indications that consumer interest in the game was, well, in crisis.

At this month's GDC, developer CryTek will be showing off a console version of CryEngine 2, although a console version of Crysis itself has not been announced. Of course, EA could pull a "surprise" announcement -- dun dun dun!

[Via inCrysis; thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

According to CVG, Crytek will unveil a cross-platform version of its CryEngine 2 at next month's Game Developers Conference. The CryEngine 2 is best known for making PCs across the planet chug in pain attempting to run Crysis at high settings; this new cross-platform engine will be unveiled running on the Xbox 360 and PS3, but no word on what game will be shown. Crytek will also show off "how well the fully optimized" engine runs on a PC costing around $600.

Although the implication of this news is that Crysis is making its way to consoles after a less-than-stellar PC performance, the latest rumors talk about a Crysis 1.5 for PS3. This would be very similar to what Crytek already did when its first game Far Cry was altered for consoles.

The latest whispers down the lane from Crytek sound something like a Crysis port bound for PlayStation 3, but not Xbox 360, at least, that's what PlayStation World UK is hearing (reposted by Games Radar). "Technical reasons" are cited for the lack of Xbox love, but with money kinda tight these days, we're guessing the gang hasn't turned its back on Microsoft's console just yet. (Heck, Ubisoft managed to shovel some semblance of Far Cry onto the original Xbox.) You can bet EA's got a few tricks up its sleeve too.

We've reached out to the publisher for the customary "no plans" comment. We'll keep y'all posted.

[Thanks, Eugene]

We can't tell you how many sessions of Crysis were ruined for us by the rampantly unclamped water tessellation. Of course, the primary reason for that may be that we actually... don't know what water tessellation is. It has been thoroughly clamped though!

So say the notes released alongside the 139MB Crysis 1.1 patch, now available for download. Other issues dealt with (listed after the break) include improper water droplets, motion blur, FSAA optimization, animation bugs and memory leaks. If you've been having a blast with Crytek's visually stunning first-person nanosuiter, be sure to grab the first patch for tomorrow's game today.