Genre : FPS
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Crytek Studios
Release Date: Q1 2007

Crytek, the makers of Far Cry, are back with another $2,000 first-person-shooter for the PC: Crysis. It promises intense action, amazing physics, and the kinds of graphics that'll make you shell out for a new video card.

The idea behind Crysis, according to Crytek's CEO Cevat Yerti, is to show "the most credible - not realistic, but credible - alien invasion ever." You'll shoot plenty of humans in this game, but you'll also take on some of the largest opponents I've ever seen in an FPS, like an enormous insectoid tank that's about the size of an aircraft carrier..

More importantly, Crysis is an improvement on Far Cry. That game was Crytek's first project, and with Crysis, they're trying to fix everything that they weren't satisfied with in the first game. There'll be "more choices, more options, more consequences," and while they're at it, they've promised to fix the "crap" network code that made multiplayer Far Cry such a pain.

The hero of Crysis, an as-yet-unnamed badass, is decked out in a configurable suit. Its musculature can be redesigned on the fly to allow for one of three different arrangements: greater strength, greater speed, or greater defense. You can also customize every weapon in your arsenal, with scopes, silencers, laser sights, and more, as well as the ammunition they fire. In so doing, Crytek claims the game will actually force you to think more tactically and to fight smarter.

For instance, in the gameplay video that we saw at EA's headquarters in Redwood City, the hero began in the hold of a burning aircraft carrier. First, he switched to maximum strength to move a piece of debris and use it to block a door, and then used maximum defense to clear a burning stairwell without serious injury.

When he made it out onto the deck of the aircraft carrier, the hero encountered the giant alien exosuit - imagine a large spider with a laser beam - I mentioned earlier. At this point, he turned on maximum speed to make it easier to dodge its blasts, and loaded up his assault rifle with powerful incendiary rounds.

The other stage on display was a huge jungle, where gunfire and random grenade explosions were tearing the hell out of the landscape. You can even knock trees over onto people to take them out.

Right now, Crysis is slated for release this winter, exclusively on the PC, with a 12-hour single-player mission (and a huge plot twist promised for the last 15 minutes). The moment we know more, we'll tell you more about it.