EA provided a firm release date in its announcement about Albert Hughes' "The 7 Wonders of Crysis 3" cinematic video series. The company said that Crytek's upcoming sandbox shooter will invade North American shores on February 19, 2013 followed by a European invasion on February 21.
According to EA, the upcoming video series sets the stage for the new Crysis title, introducing weapons, enemies, and gameplay features new to the franchise. The videos will also showcase the "stunning" visuals, dynamic environments of the urban rainforest, and intense adaptive warfare fans.
EA said on Wednesday that Hughes was "intimately" involved with the development team at Crytek, writing the scripts, storyboards and shot plan for each CryEngine 3-based video. Using Crytek's CryEngine 3, Hughes created "emotional stories" using only in-game props and characters.
"The challenge of producing something intensely human without ever seeing a human on screen was incredibly compelling, and the technology of the CryEngine that Crytek developed enabled me to do that and venture into a completely unique medium of storytelling," Hughes said.
Hughes crashed the Hollywood scene at the age of 20 by teaming up with his brother Allen to write and direct Menace II Society in 1993. He then went on to co-direct Dead Presidents (1995), From Hell (2001) and Book of Eli (2010). His latest directorial project is Motor City although there's currently no estimated release date. It's supposedly about a recently released felon that seeks revenge against those who framed him.
The first episode of "The 7 Wonders of Crysis 3", entitled "Hell of a Town", will debut on December 12, 2012.
As for Crysis 3 itself, EA recently updated the game's website with three sets of system requirements. Whichever PC gamers may choose, they'll definitely need a DirectX 11-compatible GPU like the Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 or the AMD Radeon HD 5770. Minimal requirements also include a dual-core CPU and 2 GB of RAM (unless you play on Team Vista with requires 3 GB).
"Crysis 3 will already ship with hi-res textures, advanced graphics settings, tessellation and DX11 support," said Marco Corbetta, Technical Director on Crysis 3. "Additional tech areas that have been enhanced since Crysis 2 are: AI navigation system, animation system, water, fog volumes, cloud shadows, POM, AA, cloths, vegetation, particles, lens flares and grass."
February can't come soon enough.
