Crysis Reviews (Wow! GS - 9.5, IGN - 9.4, 1up - 8)

koneko

That sounded harsher than I intended it (re:Crysis), I am really looking forward to playing the game, downloading the latest GFW podcast atm. I just think FarCry has gotten more praise than it deserves, but pretty much everyone says Crysis is better so far, so that's promising.

Also, lol giant chickens!
http://shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=652

Krieg

Anyone care to comment on the multiplayer?
Im genuinly interested to see how that fairs out.

Fizman

humanji wrote: »

No. If you have Vista, you can use DX10, otherwise you use DX9.

Did I not read somewhere on boards that XP can be configured for dx10?? (maybe just 64bit)

sebastianlieken

Fizman wrote: »

Did I not read somewhere on boards that XP can be configured for dx10?? (maybe just 64bit)

yes it can be, there links all over the place by this stage!

im really stuck on one level, (the one with the aircraft carrier)....where the hell do i get the TAC cannon to take that big mother of a yoke down????

Ciaran500

Fizman wrote: »

Did I not read somewhere on boards that XP can be configured for dx10?? (maybe just 64bit)

Nope, DX10 is Vista only. But some of the features that where touted as DX10 only in Crysis will run in DX9.

Snake Plisken

-TK^Creator wrote: »

is it not out tmz? the 14th?

hehe this is a game that i would bother to Oc my quad core to get best out of it too

Have my QX6700 overclocked to 3.2ghz (so far), with 3gigs of OCZ Platinum memory and will use my overclocked OCZ GTX profile and see how we get on, hope they release the patch for the quad sooner rather then later.. Won't need any heating on whille playing this fecker

sebastianlieken

jus finished it there...farcry > crysis..... crysis = meh (in saying that, farcry is my all time favorite PC game)

still good, jus not mindblowing......storyline sucks.

i really rushed thru the game tho, (college is eating me alive, it needs all my time).

it very re-playable tho in the sense of freedom and the nanosuit. theres a huge number of ways to approach most missions. id definatly play it again a few times, but id really have to have the time to dedicate to it.

didnt like the ending, it woz bollox

Tusky

sebastianlieken wrote: »

jus finished it there...farcry > crysis..... crysis = meh (in saying that, farcry is my all time favorite PC game)

I really fail to believe how anyone can rate Farcry as their favorite pc game ever. I find that to be an astonishing statement. Farcry wouldnt even be in my top 50 pc games ever. It was pretty. It was also pretty average. (see what I did there?)

Paddy@CIRL

Has anyone begun to sell this early ?

First PC game I'll buy since last Christmas !

humanji

Auvers wrote: »

New Nvidia driver out for Crysis Version: 169.09

This driver:

* Adds SLI support for Crysis
* Fixes a water reflection bug in Crysis
* Adds Control Panel anisotropic filtering support for Crysis

With this driver, SLI will deliver 40-50% speedup over a single GPU for Crysis. In addition, Crytek will release a patch in the next week or two that will improve SLI performance further.

XP 32
XP 64
Vista32
Vista64

FYI, the Vista 32 and 64 links are mixed up

Azza

I be another that would rate Far Cry well above Half Life 2. Thus I'm really looking forward to Crysis.

What puzzles me about some of the criticism about Crysis is that after a while Crysis reverts to a more linear gameplay approach with less open ended gameplay which gives me deja vu as I remember that is exactly what Far Cry got criticized for.

This would seem like a fair comment as I have always believed open ended gameplay makes the best type of FPS game. But why do games like Half Life and Halo get away being with being so damn linear. I can't recall a single review of Half Life and Half Life 2 that mentioned how completely linear those games are. The game play of both is simply Point A to point B to Point C lead by an invisible hand of a narrow path, its not like valve had a great story to tell by you doing this as Half Life barely fills in any plot gaps. It brought nothing new to the genre except a decent physics engine. Now I'll admit the Half Life games are still excellent games overall, with good atmosphere, good gameplay, and good graphics but I don't believe except in once instance does it match the satisfaction of Far Cry's jungle combat. Its not that Far Cry was totally open ended even in the out door early levels but the sense of space and freedom to try different paths makes it a superior game in my opinion and probably a substantial minority as well feel the same way.

I would also point to all the praise heaped on the ending of Half Life 2: Episode 2 which many regard as the series finest moment which was not only really tense with the time constraint but the most open ended in terms of freedom of movement in the entire Half Life series history.

tba

The thing with HL is that it is brilliant because of its linear nature, not despite it.

Azza

Well thats a matter of opinion I suppose. I'm not saying linear gameplay is a totally fatal flaw in any game, the Call of Duty series for example is extremely intense and fun to play in its linear and scripted form and but I believe it is still inferior to freedom of choice games such as Far Cry, Oblivion and the godly Deus Ex which offer a more rewarding gameplay experience as well as a higher replay value.

Half Life has other weaknesses I would contend as well though. Its too easy even on the highest difficulty levels. Its story telling technique of telling us bugger all is annoying. Their is so many gaps in the storyline for example, why in Half Life 2 are the vortigaunts now humanity's allies and why do they speak English, wheres Sheppard from Opposing Force gone?, the central villain your suppose to already know but don't (Dr Breen) why did the G-Man want Alex to get to White Forrest alive when you could of done everything she did when you finally arrived there. I could go on a lot more but hopefully you get the point I'm trying to make. A lot of explanations do exist but they actually exist on websites on the net and not actually in game.

Gameplay wise its still good fun but I was bit underwhelmed in certain contrived sequences where combine troops kept using the endless amounts of exploding barrels as cover (why is their like a zillion exploding barrels in City 17:eek:) Both Half Life's have poor endings with the Zen platforming annoying most people in the original Half Life and then the meh ending in the second one where the supped up gravity gun makes things way too easy and the complete lack of a proper final battle subtract from the overall package.

The AI in Half Life was really good for its time but Half Life 2's AI was nothing spectacular (not terrible either). I can say the human AI of Far Cry was superior to that of the HL series that and the fact the guns where more satisfying as well made the combat more enjoyable and combined with the open ended gameplay and beautiful graphics made Far Cry such a joy to play. While I admit the second half of the game is weaker (I still enjoyed it though) and the plot is silly and voice acting cheesy I believe its merits outweigh that of the Half Life games which I will accuse of being a one trick ponies in offering only linear scripted gameplay, while Far Cry and from what I hear so far Crysis will offer both linear and open ended gameplay.

sebastianlieken

Azza wrote: »

Well thats a matter of opinion I suppose. I'm not saying linear gameplay is a totally fatal flaw in any game, the Call of Duty series for example is extremely intense and fun to play in its linear and scripted form and but I believe it is still inferior to freedom of choice games such as Far Cry, Oblivion and the godly Deus Ex which offer a more rewarding gameplay experience as well as a higher replay value.

Half Life has other weaknesses I would contend as well though. Its too easy even on the highest difficulty levels. Its story telling technique of telling us bugger all is annoying. Their is so many gaps in the storyline for example, why in Half Life 2 are the vortigaunts now humanity's allies and why do they speak English, wheres Sheppard from Opposing Force gone?, the central villain your suppose to already know but don't (Dr Breen) why did the G-Man want Alex to get to White Forrest alive when you could of done everything she did when you finally arrived there. I could go on a lot more but hopefully you get the point I'm trying to make. A lot of explanations do exist but they actually exist on websites on the net and not actually in game.

Gameplay wise its still good fun but I was bit underwhelmed in certain contrived sequences where combine troops kept using the endless amounts of exploding barrels as cover (why is their like a zillion exploding barrels in City 17:eek:) Both Half Life's have poor endings with the Zen platforming annoying most people in the original Half Life and then the meh ending in the second one where the supped up gravity gun makes things way too easy and the complete lack of a proper final battle subtract from the overall package.

The AI in Half Life was really good for its time but Half Life 2's AI was nothing spectacular (not terrible either). I can say the human AI of Far Cry was superior to that of the HL series that and the fact the guns where more satisfying as well made the combat more enjoyable and combined with the open ended gameplay and beautiful graphics made Far Cry such a joy to play. While I admit the second half of the game is weaker (I still enjoyed it though) and the plot is silly and voice acting cheesy I believe its merits outweigh that of the Half Life games which I will accuse of being a one trick ponies in offering only linear scripted gameplay, while Far Cry and from what I hear so far Crysis will offer both linear and open ended gameplay.

.....what he said

couldnt agree with you more, although i would go as far to say that half-life although in its earlier days was immensely impressive, the half-life series is getting stale and repetitive with improvements in graphics and new engines becoming merely a gimmick. to be honest, i found the graphics in far cry appeasing, but not so much so that the graphics stood out prominently as the main highlight of the game, in fact farcry never struck me as a game with graphical godliness. it was simply the storyline, the environment, the atmosphere, and the bloody good sound of the guns that earned its place as number 1 for me.

although i do like crysis, i think farcry still reserves that number 1 spot for me, i just find crysis ....lacking... in a few areas.

tba

Most people like either far cry or Half life, fact is they are very different games, one is a storybased shooter, the other is a tactical shooter. One has a first class script with subtle clues to the plot and the other is like getting slapped in the face by an exploding childrens dictionary.

One emphasises its gameplay and pacing over pure visuals allowing low end machines to run it, one puts uber graphics to the front relying on emergent gameplay, while crippling all but the best machines.

One is **** one is good.

Azza

I like both but I prefer Far Cry. They both are FPS games so direct comparisons can be made.

Half Life 2 does not have a first class script not even close. The story is deeply lacking.
Subtle clues ??? You referring to those Breen Casts (which are merely good mood casters and rarely give away much relating to the plot) and that one (note the one) clipboard in Eli Vance's lab with reference to the seven hour war which I missed on my first play through. I found that really lazy storying telling from Valve. They could of fleshed out the Combine a lot more, how they where able to conquer earth so quick and what their connection is to the original Half Life aliens. Its not like I have not seen 1,000's of movies and played through lots of games. I got those subtle clues you refer too (except the afro mentioned clipboard) but they still don't add up to anywhere near a complete storyline even if it is the middle chapter in a trilogy.

As I said about Far Cry that plot is retarded but it did give me one or two giggles. But I'm willing to forgive that as I'm having so much fun playing the game. Its gameplay easily match its visual qualities.

True Half Life does not require a beast of a machine to run and still looks good. But at least Far Cry players did not have to put up with requiring a net connection (which was an issue for many Irish players), problems with steam and the unfixed looping sound bug that prevented me from finishing episode 1.

If I was to be really cynical about the HL franchise I might say that this episodic content system from Valve is a pure money maker for them. Instead of paying for one Half Life 3 game (which is what exactly the 3 Half Life 2 episodes are, valve even said that) they can charge us for 3 games while not have to bother developing a new graphics engine and only make minor cosmetic changes and extremely minor gameplay changes. As the Escapist review and Sebstainlieken pointed out above the series is starting to repeat itself quite abit.

L31mr0d

soooo.... ? .... anymore reviews of Crysis? Those who finished it or are playing through it at the moment, is it as good as we expected? Is it as good as Far Cry or just more of the same?

How are the weapons?

Dcully

Not fussed over single player in games,anyone got comments on multiplayer?

humanji

I'm playing it now. Can't be arsed with MP, but the SP is pretty good. The AI is better than I thought. There's been a few good firefights so far. They get quite intense, and where as in other shooters, you tend to take everyone out and then move on, I found myself being heavily out numbered and just turning invisible and legging it.

The maps are pretty cool, and give you a bit of variety as to how you get to your waypoints. But this variety in basically, go in the front, or go in the sides (and occasionally, you get to go in from the rear.

It really is an updated Farcry, which is good news for some and not so good for others. It looks amazing and plays great, but it really is pretty much the same type of thing. And what kind of went against it (and it can't really be blamed for it), was the fact that last week I was playing Call Of Duty 4, so going from that to Crysis was a bit of a let down. COD4 is so much more fun and Crysis' more subdued playing style kind of bored me a little.

But it's still fun, and I've yet to feck around with the editor

Ardent

humanji wrote: »

I'm playing it now. Can't be arsed with MP, but the SP is pretty good. The AI is better than I thought. There's been a few good firefights so far. They get quite intense, and where as in other shooters, you tend to take everyone out and then move on, I found myself being heavily out numbered and just turning invisible and legging it.

The maps are pretty cool, and give you a bit of variety as to how you get to your waypoints. But this variety in basically, go in the front, or go in the sides (and occasionally, you get to go in from the rear.

It really is an updated Farcry, which is good news for some and not so good for others. It looks amazing and plays great, but it really is pretty much the same type of thing. And what kind of went against it (and it can't really be blamed for it), was the fact that last week I was playing Call Of Duty 4, so going from that to Crysis was a bit of a let down. COD4 is so much more fun and Crysis' more subdued playing style kind of bored me a little.

But it's still fun, and I've yet to feck around with the editor

Good review. That pretty much sums it up for me too. I'll be playing COD4 for a while more before I go back to Crysis, so much more fun. Not ready to play Far Cry 2 just yet.

0ubliette

Far cry was an incredibly average game. Saying its better than HL2 is just madness. Far cry was a graphical showcase and no more. Story sucked, enemies sucked, last few levels were bloody awful, HL2 kncoks it into a cocked hat in almost every single respect. I swear to god if i ever hear those far cry enemies saying 'im gonna shoot you in the face!' ever again, it will be too soon.
Im convinced crytek can make astounding games graphically, but i think their gameplay making skills might need a bit of a kick start.
Having said that, i am also one of the ones whos bitter cause my outdated rig would run it on the bare minimum settings

sebastianlieken

0ubliette wrote: »

Far cry was an incredibly average game. Saying its better than HL2 is just madness. Far cry was a graphical showcase and no more. Story sucked, enemies sucked, last few levels were bloody awful, HL2 kncoks it into a cocked hat in almost every single respect. I swear to god if i ever hear those far cry enemies saying 'im gonna shoot you in the face!' ever again, it will be too soon.
Im convinced crytek can make astounding games graphically, but i think their gameplay making skills might need a bit of a kick start.
Having said that, i am also one of the ones whos bitter cause my outdated rig would run it on the bare minimum settings

wrong wrong wrong wrong WRONG (in my opinion of course, because everyones opinion is unique.....:p)

tba

But why do you like Far Cry? you say you like the atmosphere, storyline and the environment, but what do you like about them?

I really want to know, as I found the environment bland, the story churlish and the atmosphere confusing. It reminds me of a Michael Bay movie.

johnny_ultimate

Say what you will about HL2 -v- Far Cry, but criticising HL2 for a weak story is absurd. Half Life is one of the only series which treats game storylines as game storylines. It doesn't pound you with cutscene after cutscene, but the story unfolds diegetically while you retain control. It's a complex story that relies on subtle cues and hints rather than constant in your face obviousness. It is one of the few games I have ever felt a rapport with some of the other characters, and the emotional punch at the end of Episode 2 (I won't spoil it for anyone yet to play) is extremely powerful and effective.

Few games have advanced storytelling in gaming in a way that is different from cinema. They are both entirely different mediums, and HL2 is one of the few games that acknowledges that, and for that Valve must be applauded for their storytelling capabilities.

Kiith

I loved Far Cry and Half Life 1/2, but theres no way i'd rate Farcry over Half Life. I like my stories, and the Farcry one was laughable. Also, once the Trigens (sp?) appeared, it turned into a pretty crappy game. Half Life's story was (imo) great. I like that everything isnt just thrown at us, and we have to think about some things to know whats going on.

Gonna get Crysis once i finish my exams, and i'll hopefully like it. Just hope it doesnt melt my computer.

Azza

To answer your question TBA about what I like so much about Far Cry is that when I'm fighting enemies I'm actually challenged for a number of reasons. For example I engage a load of enemies in the jungle. I can approach them from several paths. I can engage enemy soldiers in different order. I can attempt albeit with extreme difficulty to sneak by them. Cover plays alot more prominent role in Far Crys combat than in HL2's with the jungle environment obstructing vision. The AI will attempt to track you down. You have to worry about what direction the enemy will approach from. The range you can fight varies alot more in Far Cry than HL2 normally.

This is all more or less missing in HL2 where you enemies are always triggered in front and 90% of the time will stay in front of you in a confined area. Normally the only way enemies appear behind you in HL2 is their scripted to do so. Sequences in Half Life 2 seem so scripted and set up for you to do a certain way say for example the enemy using exploding barrels as cover, exploding barrels tossed into the water your in which are so easy to avoid. Enemies standing on rickety bridges with exploding barrels under them. Or waiting for the slowest invented elevators ever while you fight off waves of attacks. I mean come on guys how original is that? I find it ironic that you praise HL2's open to be discovered on your own storyline as refreshing and rewarding when the gameplay is the exact opposite narrow as Freemans crowbar.

This is why I rate Far Cry above Half Life 2 because the core gameplay is better which is the most important element of any game I believe.
The atmosphere was great in both games, you got a great impression of an collapsing society in HL 2 and Far Cry had a really stunning jungle island environment you could just stand and gape at.
Story wise I never said Far Cry's story was one of the things I liked. It merely adequate, not terrible but its pretty forgettable.

With Half Life 2 I appreciate the point about the story not being shoved in your face and your free to find out about it yourself with background information.
I just think their is near enough to find out about in the background, their is so much left unanswered, Episode 3 will answer some of these questions but I be fairly certain alot will be left unexplained.

Stories that impressed me while playing games where Deus Ex or Metal Gear Solid 1+3 (not Sons of Liberty :eek:) I'd even rate Max Paynes noirish storyline higher than HL2.

Also valve place alot of weight behind getting the player emotionally attached to the central characters, which in fairness is really hard to do in a video game. I don't think they really achieve this as the characters don't have any great depth. Eli Vance has nothing else to do but be concerned for Alex and does bugger all else in HL2. Kleiner is the moderately effective comic relief. Maugneson is annoying. Barney is the only likable one but he ain't around much. The rest I'm rather indifferent too. I felt no emotional punch at the end of episode 2. But rarely do I in video games.

Don't get me wrong I still like the Half Life games. I'm still impressed with them. Half Life does most things quite well and nothing badly except maybe endings. The physics do add to the gameplay alot. Most of my criticisms are not game breakers. But I believe as Half Life is the PC's killer application like Halo is on the Xbox that it gets away with some stuff simple because it is Half Life.

I also know most people would rate HL2 higher than Far Cy. But if your wondering what some people really do see in games like Far Cry and Crysis the answer is open ended fun gameplay and an environment that really sucks you in.

wayne040576

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Say what you will about HL2 -v- Far Cry, but criticising HL2 for a weak story is absurd. Half Life is one of the only series which treats game storylines as game storylines. It doesn't pound you with cutscene after cutscene, but the story unfolds diegetically while you retain control. It's a complex story that relies on subtle cues and hints rather than constant in your face obviousness. It is one of the few games I have ever felt a rapport with some of the other characters, and the emotional punch at the end of Episode 2 (I won't spoil it for anyone yet to play) is extremely powerful and effective.

Few games have advanced storytelling in gaming in a way that is different from cinema. They are both entirely different mediums, and HL2 is one of the few games that acknowledges that, and for that Valve must be applauded for their storytelling capabilities.

Half-Life 2 did not have a storyline. The Half-Life universe has a storyline, and the first game did, but absolutely nothing is revealed to you in HL2. If you want to know what's going on in that game, you have to look it up from external sources. To be fair, some of the stuff happening behind the scenes in HL2 is stuff you're legitimately not supposed to know, but you are literally told almost nothing through the duration of the game. That a storyline does not make.

wayne040576

Oh and my original reason for reading this thread...
Are there any european digital downloads services offering Crysis? Like Steam or Direct2Drive? I know the ea store has it but it is only available in North America.

Azza

Not sure. But even if their is they won't be able to offer it to you till tomorrow when the game gets official European release.

I'm sure EA store Europe will have it available then.

And I agree with your statement regarding HL2's storyline.

Redshift

wayne040576 wrote: »

Oh and my original reason for reading this thread...
Are there any european digital downloads services offering Crysis? Like Steam or Direct2Drive? I know the ea store has it but it is only available in North America.

I bought it from the EA store which had no problems accepting my irish address and credit card.
I have it preloaded and it unlocks in 4 hours.

Got it here, click on the Irish Flag
http://www.buycrysis.ea.com/