Free Radical Design becomes Crytek UK.

Elfmeister. · 5 Feb 2009 at 10:17

Used to work here so been keeping an eye on the place seems that Crytek have bought them out and will be now be know as Crytek UK.

http://kotaku.com/5146707/rip-free-radical-as-developers-get-a-name-change

I just hope they stay based in Nottingham and hopefully a possibility of TS4 being made along with getting my old job back.

da_mic_1530 · 5 Feb 2009 at 10:59

hope you get your job back, nice to hear that there still will be jobs in the UK, no closures etc

Shamikebab · 5 Feb 2009 at 11:11

Interesting news, Crytek moving into console development quite definitely then.

Streeteh · 5 Feb 2009 at 11:14

Shamikebab said:
Interesting news, Crytek moving into console development quite definitely then.

Indeed, they'd be foolish not to; Console game development seems to be where the money lies these days. Whether that be down to piracy or whatever they blamed the low sales of Crysis on is a different matter however.

Alexrose1uk · 5 Feb 2009 at 11:16

Nice to hear someones bought them at least. Only the truely miserable wish for more job losses with everything going on, and despite Haze, there was some decent talent in the team.

You never know, if they have to work on Crysis...they might actually be able to make it good

Would be nice if they could continue working with LA on the BF3 title they were meant to be working on as well, as from what I hear it was meant to look very good.

Shamikebab · 5 Feb 2009 at 11:26

Alexrose1uk said:
You never know, if they have to work on Crysis...they might actually be able to make it good

Are you suggesting Haze was better than Crysis? :eek:

ali825 · 5 Feb 2009 at 11:54

ooo TS4 back on the cards, i love the other they were just so fun, good luck with your job, hope it all works out

Spike_UK · 5 Feb 2009 at 11:59

Great news if you ask me.

There is/was a lot of Talent is Free Radical that would have been a shame to go to waste.

If I remember right, Free Radical is a lot of the old Rare team from the N64 Goldeneye days. All good stuff.

Alexrose1uk · 5 Feb 2009 at 12:05

Shamikebab said:
Are you suggesting Haze was better than Crysis?

Nope, if you re-read I actually commented on Haze being bad! BUT there was some decent talent in the team as was proved by the TS series, and they didnt seem to have too many technical/performance issues with there titles which'd be a nice change for Crysis!

Shamikebab · 5 Feb 2009 at 12:10

Alexrose1uk said:
Nope, if you re-read I actually commented on Haze being bad! BUT there was some decent talent in the team as was proved by the TS series, and they didnt seem to have too many technical/performance issues with there titles which'd be a nice change for Crysis!

I guess, I'm sure Crysis would be fine on consoles anyway if designed for one piece of hardware.

Are we likely to see TS4 from them or does someone else have the rights?

Margaret · 5 Feb 2009 at 12:14

Streeteh said:
Whether that be down to piracy or whatever they blamed the low sales of Crysis on is a different matter however.

and Crysis didn't even have low sales.

Maybe...just MAYBE it was the MONSTROUS requirements to play the game, even on Medium older cards struggled...but they won't admit that!

Shamikebab said:
I guess, I'm sure Crysis would be fine on consoles anyway if designed for one piece of hardware.

Well a toned down version would be most definitely, wouldn't really be hard for them to do.

Crysis was crap anyway, Crysis Warhead was better but they aren't anything special aside from the visuals.

KNiVES · 5 Feb 2009 at 12:16

I really doubt we'll see TS4 as Free Radical is no more, and Crytek would want to do their own thing. I would imagine as Crytek is the enveloping entity, they will want the FR people to work on existing Crytek plans, instead of the other way around.

That, and the fact that I really really hate Timesplitters.

Crysis was crap anyway, Crysis Warhead was better but they aren't anything special aside from the visuals.

Obviously never played it, seeing as Crysis and Warhead brings several unusual additions to the genre.

Shamikebab · 5 Feb 2009 at 12:17

Crysis was far from crap, I really enjoyed it even on medium-ish settings. SO it isn't as good as Half Life 2 or the other top shooters, it's still a high cut above average. Play Haze if you want a crap shooter.

Margaret · 5 Feb 2009 at 12:18

Shamikebab said:
Crysis was far from crap, I really enjoyed it even on medium-ish settings. SO it isn't as good as Half Life 2 or the other top shooters, it's still a high cut above average. Play Haze if you want a crap shooter.

Crysis was quite good at first, but it went pear shaped halfway through.

I liked the way it felt to play but it could have been done so much better TBH.

KNiVES said:
Obviously never played it, seeing as Crysis and Warhead brings several unusual additions to the genre.

Yes I have, but the only reason I spent time on them was because I thought the graphics were awesome, Warhead was good, Crysis was rather boring.

regulus · 5 Feb 2009 at 12:40

I don't know where these guys get their money from to expand so quickly and massively. They have had only 2 great PC games in 6 years, both which was heavily pirated. They also obviously had the console versions of Farcry but I don't imagine that made them millions either. To top if all off, I also don't see many game companies using CE2, so, how do they do it?

KNiVES · 5 Feb 2009 at 12:49

regulus said:
I don't know where these guys get their money from to expand so quickly and massively. They have had only 2 great PC games in 6 years, both which was heavily pirated. They also obviously had the console versions of Farcry but I don't imagine that made them millions either. To top if all off, I also don't see many game companies using CE2, so, how do they do it?

We both know the piracy excuse they used in the past was weak as hell. Nobody was buying it back then and nobody's buying it now. Both games sold millions. The recent inclusion of their games on Steam has helped massively too. When a game you create makes far more money than it cost to develop, it brings you into a position where you can purchase other hard-off studios. It's three games by the way.

regulus · 5 Feb 2009 at 14:50

Oh yea, forgot Warhead. Just been reading on their studios. Got them on Hungary, Bulgary, Ukraine and Korea. I can't imagine developers in these studios being on the same type of money as developers in UK, Aus or the States, so I guess the operating costs are far less. It will be very interesting to see some hard figures with regards to the sales they had with Crysis and Warhead.

Sinny · 5 Feb 2009 at 15:18

I never got the chance to play Time Splitters so hopefully we'll see the original remade for PSN/XBLA and then hope for a new Timsplitters or something hopefully tenfold better than Haze (Never actually played haze).

mmj_uk · 5 Feb 2009 at 17:19

A game using the Crysis engine with the Free Radical team focusing on the gameplay would be excellent.

Elfmeister. · 5 Feb 2009 at 18:15

mmj_uk said:
A game using the Crysis engine with the Free Radical team focusing on the gameplay would be excellent.

+1 for sure, Haze was visually bad, infact terrible, although once upon a time before a certain decisions where made it was better, but as it didnt run at 30fps then, it was modified to do so, thus making it look terrible.

Not sure I should say this but the 'PC' version was 100% better, just ashame it never saw the light of day, although the story was ****, yes Rob if your reading this ****. (I still here the promise hand shouting things in my sleep)

But as far as Haze went for feeling / aiming /movement and handling (bar the vechicles) I thought it was good, just nothing else backed this up.