Interesting Stuff: BF Heroes Delayed, EA Selling PC’s, and more

Another day with a lot of stuff going on.  Here’s what I found interesting:

Battlefield Heroes gets delayed – “We decided to increase its focus on some of the social networking features,” Riccitiello said in a conference call with Shacknews.  Bummer.  I wanted to play this summer.

Tiberium may be delayed until 2010 – UGH!  Oh well.  This one needs to be ‘really’ good so a delay is acceptable.

EA is going to sell PCs that are Crysis ready – Now this is a really cool idea.  According to this blogger, EA reps at Comic-Con said “… the rigs will come in various configurations, which will correspond to Crysis Warhead’s levels of graphical detail, with a likely price range being $600-$800″.  I would be interested in hearing more because for a pre-built system that’s a fantastic price.  EA would be stupid to sell computers that run Crysis poorly or on low settings so you can expect at least some level of quality there.

Perhaps this can go further.  If developers want to start pushing the boundaries of hardware then they need to do something like providing the hardware at good value.  Additionally this would be a fantastic way of keeping the PC market afloat if these publishers or developers are worried about it.

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  • I’m amazed I haven’t seen the “EA to sell PCs” info anywhere else. For that price point, for a graphically compelling game, I would expect an uproar to be occurring somewhere.

    I’ve always believed a large game company could do two things to help PC gaming tremendously:

    a) an open source Game Operating System that cuts the craps and gets to the game

    b) work towards unifying hardware platforms (aka inexpensive, but quality pre-builts that force hardware vendors to stop ripping us off)

  • I’m looking forward to BF heroes as well. I actually didn’t know about it until reading your blog a few weeks back.

    I was a HUGE BF1942 fan. I dabbled with the other BF series a bit, but 1942 was something I played on and off for years.

    This one looks like it’d be just as if not more fun. Can’t wait!

  • Holy moly! $600-$800?!?!! Now, I am no slouch when it comes to computers, the one I use I built myself and did so for $700.00 with an eye for future upgradeability. *actually planning on a new processor in the next couple of weeks* But a system that will run the new crysis? Mine did an admirable job on Crysis but what are they going to sacrifice to make these systems that inexpensive? Or are they going the Sony/Microsoft route in taking a hit on each system they sell hoping to make up for it in software sales?

  • They are talking about Crysis Warhead, isn’t that tweaked to play on lower systems than Crysis?

  • Wait a sec, wait a sec.

    I recently read an article that discussed the difference between Crysis Warhead and Crysis. Two different games. Two different hardware requirements.

    There is no way a $600 rig will play Crysis maxed out. the article I read said you can play Crysis Warhead on a low-end system.

    So we’ve got apples and oranges here. Personally, I would never buy a computer from a game company. Buyer beware.

  • @singlematt: Hmm not so as far as I’m aware. Crysis Warhead is the same engine as Crysis and is an expansion pack/stand-alone expansion for the original. The difference in graphical requirements is purely down to the code optimisation and tweaks that have gone into Warhead due to the backlash from gamers @Crysis release meaning the hardware needed to run the engine has been lowered. However, due to the fact that patch updates have stopped for Crysis it’s unlikely these optimisations will ever benefit the original game. On the same machine Warhead will run better than Crysis.

    The caveat though is at what resolution can a $600 machine run 30-35fps on max as Yerli has never stated that. Chances are even with optimisations, not very high at all.

    I do agree though people should be extremely skeptical about even considering buying a PC from a game company.

    @Tiberium delay: Not unexpected at all and expect further delays across a slew of EA titles over the coming months. The financial markets are aware that EA is going to be posting big losses in the near future which will result in release dates being pushed back and possibly even some titles being scrapped altogether.

  • missed it 1st time round.

    @Battlefield Heroes delay: again no surprise, another EA title.

  • I had not heard that Crysis Warhead was dumbed down graphically at all, just that it had undergone tweaks to improve performance that the first one lacked.