Originally planned as a summer release, Crysis 2 has been pushed back to early 2011. According to an EA financial report, the crazily popular FPS sequel has joined many others being released in Q1 2011, the most notable being Bulletstorm and Dead Space 2. No detailed information revealing exactly why this happened has surfaced yet, but be sure to watch this space.

What you’re looking at is Microsoft Game Studios, and Crytek’s newest IP. “Codename Kingdoms” is probably not the final name, considering it has Codename in the title… but what’s most peculiar is how Microsoft showed off this announcement. The VP of Microsoft (who I forgot the name of) introduced the trailer by calling it “Microsoft’s latest exclusive partner.” The trailer detailed a live-action actor talking very grimly about vague topics, the Crytek logo appeared, then the screen cap above. And that’s it, they didn’t talk about it again:

It’s not every day you hear a PC-centric developer say something good about the console market. According to an interview conducted by Stephen Totilo at Kotaku, the Crytek crew believes that making Crysis 2 work for console actually turned out for the better.

Everything I’ve seen of this game so far just blows me away. Not really because of the gameplay itself, which I haven’t seen much of until this trailer, but mainly because of how vastly improved the CryEngine 3 is compared to all other game engines running today. I have a strong feeling that the CryEngine 3 could very well take the place of the Unreal Engine 3 and the strangle hold it currently has on the industry.