I'm in the Warface beta, Crytek's new f2p browser-streamed AAA shooter, AMA.

Posted by hvglaser on March 13, 2013 07:53 am 1

First of all,

NOPE, I CAN'T INVITE ANYONE!

Sign up for beta yourself at beta.warface.com. I don't know how many people have been let in so far.

I got an e-mail yesterday from Crytek, inviting me to play their new game Warface and the related social service, Gface. here is a Polygon article.

Here is what i know so far:

  • You start by signing up for Gface, their social platform. It looks really slick and seems to have a lot of nice features without being bloated. A cool feature i noticed was the ability to minimize the game into a tab in the interface, so you can post stuff or check out profiles without getting booted from the game.
  • While the game is "streamed", there is a minor installation process. You start by installing a 500kb Gface plugin for your browser, followed by about 10-15 minutes of installing. You don't have to choose any directories, and the interface never leaves the browser.
  • Initially, the game runs in a lightbox window in the browser. This is where you manage your character, buy stuff with CryPoints or whatever and join games. When a game starts it goes into full screen, and everything works like a full screen shooter.
  • You make money playing the game, and you can buy stuff without paying, thought it seens some items can only be bought with some alternative premium currency, bought with real money or awarded to top-performing players.
  • The game has a really strong PvE part, with different difficulties, minibosses and strong team-oriented play. Weekly PvE challanges award a coin prize, and new unique levels are generated often.
  • Many items run for a limited time only, like 14 days. This kinda makes them more desirable.
  • There are not a lot of graphics settings. You can adjust resolution, anti aliasing, and fullscreen or not. the rest seems to be dynamically adjusted.
  • Crytek boasted cross-platform play, even supporting phones and tablets. As of now, Warface only supports Windows Xp/Vista/7/8, and the Gface Website does not seem to be optimized for mobile.
  • The game boasts it's scalability, and i am happy to say that my almost 6 year old old GT8800 runs it fine at 720p, with choppines at 1080p. It's quite beautiful, with lots of foilage, detailed shadows and godrays.
  • I have experienced no lag at all on my modest dsl connection. It has been completely smooth.
Feel free to ask me any questions :)