With the PC-crunching visual monster that is Crysis now almost a year behind us, we look on to Crytek's next endeavor - Crysis Warhead, the recently announced standalone expansion pack. EA and Crytek are showcasing the game here at the E3 and have demonstrated some of its cool features.

I swear, it wasn't me.

Anybody got a light?

If you have played the original game, you should distinctly remember a few things about it. More than anything, it can beat your PC to its knees. What else do you remember? Well, I'll wager it's the fact that you can blow stuff up, because that's essentially what this game was about. Well, okay and there was the kick-ass Nano suit too, which made things a whole lot more interesting. Now, we have been told that a majority of these things are returning in Crysis Warhead, but in much bigger and better form. Thankfully, the insanely steep hardware requirements are not returning. The developers appeared keen to emphasize that particular facet, as their continued effort to spare our poor PCs. Seriously, they've said that the game is being severely tweaked to suit most systems. As a result, a lot of energy and time was invested into optimizing the engine, in order to make things run as smoothly as possible (smoother than in Crysis, that is). Fair enough, there probably isn't a hope in hell to run it on integrated graphics, but it is going to be more lenient towards modest rigs.

This time around, players are given the role of Sergeant Michael Sykes; a.k.a. Psycho. Playing the single-player campaign uncovers more about his adventures that unfold roughly at the same time as the original game. One of the tasks Psycho will be getting is to maneuver an armored personnel carrier with a pilot named O'Neill. The objective is to keep him safe and make your way along the coastline and through the jungle towards the landing site of a crashed VTOL carrier.

From the get-go, it seemed like the developers are focusing a lot more on heavier action, which denotes more explosions, more destructive weaponry and overall more firefights. It puts less emphasis on stealth gameplay. In other words, makes way for the games new, heavier arsenal, including dual submachine guns (yep, dual-wielding is in), grenade launchers, etc. Don't worry, ammo is in abundance too.

So, basically, the game is going to be action-packed all the way. They also intend to maintain flow of the single-player campaign and the story, which is why they've narrowed the open play to some degree. You'll be piling up enemy bodies a lot more than before. Once again, you can seize Korean troops by the throat and pick up stuff to hurl at them (barrels and the like). You can also pick up -- hope you're ready for this -- a duck (they like ducks...).

The game is already looking gorgeous and more importantly runs a whole lot smoother than its predecessor. Packed with plenty of action, new weapons and a variety of new missions, Crysis Warhead should be a fun ride.

It also appears to be significantly more challenging, with a greater number of enemies to face. Going in line with this, improved AI routines (both for enemies and friendly troops) were incorporated as well. Well, in all honesty, the AI from Crysis calls for a great deal of improvement, so we hope they've done it properly this time.

Overall, if the game stays this polished until its full edition is released, it could offer a solid FPS experience, one that's smoother and easy on your PCs. Expect Crysis Warhead to arrive this September.