Hey PlayStation Nation! We’re a few weeks away from the release of Crysis 3, the premier sandbox shooter of 2013. In order to give those fans that can’t wait any longer a preview of what’s to come, we’re launching a worldwide cross-console beta. The Crysis 3 beta will be available for download on PlayStation Network on Tuesday, January 29th and lasting until February 12th. Get ready to suit up!

The beta is designed to give you a taste of the full Crysis 3 multiplayer experience, and help the development team collect your feedback. Read on for answers to some common questions regarding the Crysis 3 Beta, and for more information visit www.crysis.com.

What modes will be playable in the beta?

Hunter Mode: This multiplayer game mode is all about survival of the fittest. There are two teams, initially comprised of two permanently cloaked “Hunters”, and up to 14 CELL troopers awaiting extraction. Each trooper slain respawns on the Hunter team to prey on their former allies, building to a frenetic climax. If any of the troopers survive the round, the hunters lose. Whichever way you play, Hunter Mode delivers a heart-pounding test of strategy and survival.

Crash Site Mode: This multiplayer game mode is the ultimate King of the Hill-type experience. An Alien dropship deploys a pod at random around the map. Players on each team must remain near the dropped pod in order to capture the zone and accumulate points. Each alien pod holds two shields players can utilize defensively as weapons. In addition, each Crash Site map will have a “Pinger,” a CEPH-constructed walking weapon of mass destruction. But be careful: other players can hijack the Pinger while you’re inside!

What maps will come with the beta?

Museum: Roam the dark Ruins of Museum in downtown Manhattan and use the verticality to your advantage.

Airport: Close to the financial district, nature has taken over buildings and planes in this open fields area.

The full game has 10 more maps and six more game modes that are not to be found in the Open Beta.

How do I install the Open Beta on PS3?

The Open Beta will be located for download and installation on PSN in the demos section.

Where do I go if I have a problem, comment, or question?

The Crysis 3 forum at MyCrysis.com is your first stop. There will be threads for each problem as well as for comments; please post in the correct forums. You may find the answer to your problem already posted by someone else in the community or answered by one of the developers. When posting a new problem, please include as much detailed information as possible in order to help us understand the issue and resolve it.

What state is the game in? How close to final is the code I am looking at?

This is an Open Beta, which means most areas of the game are nearly complete; however, we are still looking at balance and polish. Feedback is always welcome.

Do my comments about balance or gameplay matter?

Absolutely. We will read every post. Keep it constructive and keep it civil, but keep it coming!

Is there single-player content in the Open Beta?

No, the Open Beta is only multiplayer content. The goal of the Open Beta is to serve as a final testing of the game’s backbone and features, and to give fans and the curious out there a chance to play the game before it is released.

It is very exciting for me to be able to say that the original Crysis is coming to the PS3! Some of you may be wondering how we are going to bring the large open environments that Crysis is known for to console. The expansive jungle sections, the pure white sand beaches, the open vehicle levels… maybe you’re shaking your head that it cannot be done. I’m here to tell you that we’ve accomplished this and you will be able to experience the remastered, single-player campaign for Crysis on October 4th in North America and October 5th in Europe.

So how did we do it? As Egg Shen said, it wasn’t easy! Without the power of the CryENGINE 3, we would never have attempted it, but with fully deferred lighting, a PS3-specific rendering pipeline and SPU-enhanced physics code, together with more efficient memory layouts and more intelligent algorithms, we brought the experience of Crysis to consoles without compromise.

With that said, we didn’t just want to port the game straight onto console; we wanted to make sure we tailored the experience to suit it. We’ve brought the Crysis 2 Nanosuit and controls into the console version of Crysis and we have greatly improved the ease with which players can perform their Nanosuit powered exploits. The Nanosuit gives players options on how they want to play Crysis – from stalking your prey like a stealth predator, to hurling yourself into battle like the Hulk – with the intuitive Crysis 2 controls, nothing gets between the player and the impressive action. We’ve also rebalanced all the combat and weapons to suit the DualShock 3 controller and made improvements to the AI. Also, if you have a 3D capable TV, you can immerse yourself in the beautiful Crysis world with fully integrated stereoscopic 3D support!

For those of you who missed Crysis the first time around, this experience delivers intense, stealth-action and furious battles in large, open jungle environments with jeeps, tanks, boats, helicopters and intelligent AI. If that isn’t enough, you also take the fight to an unknown alien race and board their ships where the laws of physics no longer apply. When you finally emerge, a shocking surprise is awaiting as you discover that the world you once knew has undergone a dramatic alteration.

Crysis comes to PS3 on October 4th in North America for $19.99. On behalf of everyone at Crytek, I really hope that you enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed developing it!

Recently I spoke with Executive Producer Nathan Camarillo about those trademark Crytek visuals, and about the new multiplayer demo, which just hit PSN last night.

PlayStation Blog: We know Crytek can produce on the PC. How do you utilize the PS3 to live up to the high PC standard?

Nathan Camarillo: It’s the core of CryEngine 3 that’s able to scale appropriately and we can adjust per platform exactly what we wanna get out of it. We want the exact same gameplay experience, the same fun, the same intensity, all the same visual information that you need to understand and play the game appropriately. It’s just a lot of under the hood magic.

PSB: One recent IGN article said Crysis 2 didn’t look very good on PS3. CVG/PSM disagreed. What’s your response?

NC: I’ve gone on the record saying that if you stick PS3 and 360 side by side I would challenge anyone to find any meaningful difference. I don’t see it at all.

PSB: Talk about 3D implementation Crysis 2 on the PS3.

NC: In Cry Engine 3 we have a really tricky implementation of 3D – we’re able to generate the 2nd image with little to no impact. We don’t lose visual quality, we don’t lose resolution. You get the same experience as you get in the 2D game, except it’s in 3D, which is better. It’s more immersive, it feels better.

The 2nd part of our implementation is: we don’t throw things out of the screen at you. We start at the TV screen and then push in. This avoids eyestrain and eye fatigue, because we want you to play this for hours and hours. If you’re playing single player it’s easily 10-12 hours for a good gamer to get through the game.

PSB: What should PS3 gamers be looking out for in the demo?

NC: In most games you’re mentally programmed to stick on the ground. If you wanna go one level higher, go find a ladder, go find some stairs. It takes until people see someone jump in front of them that they realize they can jump there. You gotta break the habit of being ground-constrained like in other games.

If it’s one story high, you can jump there. If it’s a story and half, you can jump and pull yourself up. So it really changes the speed and pace of multiplayer. I can’t wait for PlayStation 3 owners to get their taste of crazy, insane nanosuit multiplayer action.

That wait is now over – the Crysis 2 multiplayer demo is now available on the PlayStation Store, featuring two game modes on two maps. Try it out and share your thoughts in the comments.