Played Homefront? At all interested in the game? Well now you might be interested in the second game as Crytek UK will be responsible for developing it according to Euro Gamer. The game is a first person shooter set in a post-apocalyptic USA where an EMP has devastated the country with there being resistance fighters against a ”Greater Korean Republic” occupation. The game will be made with CryEngine 3. Hopefully a tiny flavour of the old Free Radical magic will make its way through.

Selecting Crytek to take Homefront forward underscores our strategy of working with the industry’s best talent. Homefront’s unique setting and storyline captivated gamers the world over. With Crytek’s industry leading technology and legendary experience in the FPS genre, we’re supremely confident that the next Homefront will deliver that AAA-quality experience that players demand.

Danny Bilson, EVP Core Games, THQ.

We see Homefront as a really strong universe that has a lot of potential and that has been expertly created and marketed by THQ. We believe that bringing our level of quality, creativity and production values to the next Homefront title, creates an opportunity for both THQ and Crytek to deliver a truly blockbuster game.  It’s really important to us that THQ has the faith in giving us a lot of creative freedom over one of its most important properties to allow us to bring the Homefront world to life in a new and innovative way.

Cevat Yerli, Crytek CEO

In the most recent issue of Play Magazine UK there is a discussion with some former Free Radical Design employees. Here are what the employees have said.

Craig Collins, 3D Artist in relation to the TimeSplitters Future Perfect release:

People were pleased but we were starting to worry about where the money was coming from for the next project. There’s a big gap between a game being finished and game scores being revealed.

Tristan Reidford, Lead Artist for TimeSplitters Future Perfect:

Much like other sequels, Future Perfect was made because TimeSplitters 2 did so well, and we still had loads of ideas. TimeSplitters: Future Perfect didn’t perform as well as expected in the shops. Although fun to make, without stellar sales figures a further TimeSplitters game was going to be a tough one to sell to publishers. It’s a hard game to summarise in an easy sentence like ‘car modding racing game’ or ‘third-person stealth game. Then Battlefront 3 came calling. Through all of this, it was always hard to resist discussing ideas for TimeSplitters which, precisely because its not easy to summarise, is a fertile breeding ground for gaming and innovation, and personally I can’t wait to play the next one!

Ben Newman, Lead Character Artist for TimeSpliters Future Perfect mentions some characters which did not make TimeSplitters Future Perfect:

Harry Tipper’s original sabotage-inspired New York detective outfit and a schoolgirl outfit for Jo-Beth Casey

The employes mentioned how Ben Newman was a core individual for the artistic style of TimeSplitters Future Perfect. He is not employed currently at Crytek UK. You can see his blog here (rude pics). As models now have a higher number vertices, the ex-employees speculated TimeSplitters 4 will not be able to have as many characters as previously.

James Cunliffe, Lead Animator for TimeSplitters Future Perfect gives his opinion on TimeSplitters 4:

I think we just felt that the franchise was well received but we had other things we wanted to try before going back to it. We weren’t in any particular hurry to rush into TimeSplitters 4.

TimeSplitters is seen as a risk and harder to market. The differentiation between titles these day is wafer thin, everyone is chasing the same dollar. I don’t dislike any genre, I just dislike the lack of choice. I do think there is a lot more room for experimentation in games, not just wrapping that is the graphics. Do I think there is room in the market? Yes. Who is willing to take the risks when games cost over $20 million? Not many. The industry’s creativity is the casualty of it’s own success.

However, we know TimeSplitters 4 will be coming out at some point. We do not know when but it is on the radar.

I have registered the IRC channel ##timesplitters on freenode. Feel free to come in and chat about TimeSplitters and Crytek UK’s other games.

You can enter the chat by clicking on here.

As according to the Official Playstation Magazine UK, the official development of TimeSplitters 4 should be announced shortly. Hopefully this means Crytek UK have been working on it for some time already and we should start receiving more and more news.

According to the website VideoGamer.com, they have received word that TimeSplitters 4 is being made for the next Xbox console. Apparently TimeSplitters 4 was being shown privately at E3 to insiders and is being built with CryEngine 3.

This is not official and the information could easily be false. I doubt VideoGamer.com would fake the news but the Crytek developer, which they say is their source, may be wrong or was lying.

According to the website, TimeSplitters 4 is being made for the next Xbox console, which apparently will be announced soon and will include advanced graphics capabilities. There is no mention of a Playstation version but apparently Crytek is investing money in development for the next Playstation console. There is a risk it will not be available on the PS3 or Xbox 360.

The website says the game will not be “linear” and rather players will be able to find multiple paths and solutions to levels. The website states this is true to the series but TimeSplitters has not focused largely upon multiple paths and solutions to levels, in the previous games. “sandbox-style gameplay elements” are a “big priority” according to the website. That was not made clear. It could be referring to the mapmaker or perhaps advanced physics in the levels.

How much is true is unknown. Hopefully it is true TimeSplitters 4 is on the way and hopefully it will be made available for PS3 and Xbox 360.

According to a linked in profile, Crytek UK has been working on a single-player game. Perhaps they are working on a few titles and they are also working on TimeSplitters 4 with full multiplayer goodness.

The makers of GoldenEye come together to discuss the development of the game. Dave Doak, Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton and Graeme Norgate are including in this 6 page article.

View it here.

TimeSplitters Platinum, the fan game, has been abandoned because I am focusing on other projects. However if anyone wants to take it over or look at it, the source code is available:

Click here to download the source code.

It was written in Python with Objective-C and C++ extensions. It is advised the code is converted into one fast language and not python. I gave up on the idea that I would convert it to Objective-C and I worked on my iPhone apps instead, including 3D Monkey Curling.

Crytek co-founder Avni Yerli told Develop “I think the gaming scene and the UK scene are going to be very pleased with the new project they’re working on”.

This year’s E3 is scheduled for June 7-9, a mere two months away.

Yerli elaborated, by saying, “I think at E3 this year – or just after – we are going to make a big announcement that I think people will be happy about.”Getting this out of the way quickly, my name is Steve Manning, and I’m a longtime reader of the blog and now a writer. I’m looking forwarding to delivering news to you guys about what Crytek UK is working on and this post is a great way to start.

Crytek UK worked on the multiplayer portion of Crysis 2 which shipped out on March 22, in the U.S, the 24th in Europe, and 25th in Australia. With this off of their plate, many fans and journalists alike are expecting this “big announcement” to be Timesplitters 4.

While no further details have been revealed, Yerli continued by saying, “Crytek UK are an extremely happy crew, I would say,” and that they have ambitious plans for the studio. Crytek UK has reached 85 employees and have been set up in ‘nice new offices’.

As the time until E3 shrinks, we are hopefully getting closer to the announcement we’ll all been awaiting.

Haze 2.