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Crysis 2 |OT| This is what happens Larry...

NotTarts said:
Either way, Crysis was still set in a corridor (albeit a very large one). I don't see how anyone can deny that. The harbor level (forgotten the name) is probably an exception to this, though.

By corridor you mean whole island. Portions of Crysis 1 were a corridor yes, but much of the game was open and let you approach situations from many different angels and lots of freedom of movement, especially with the use of vehicles. You could ignore objectives and wander off and fight random patrols or do secondary target objectives, you could just explore if you wanted to.

Warhead sadly cut down on the freedom and was much more of a corridor shooter.

No one is saying Crysis was a free roam open world game, but it gave you more freedom than majority of FPS on the market. Let's try not to downplay it
 

Sh1ner

Member
Crysis 1 players need to get one of the AI mods, makes the game so much more challenging and fun. Each fire fight is full of tension, especially when the squads aggressively drop down cover fire for their team mates while moving on your position.

AI still fails at extreme sniping ranges tho. Sometimes they spot you and its all good. Most of the time they don't, its great when they do and use smoke cover to come shove their foot up your ass.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Either way, Crysis was still set in a corridor (albeit a very large one). I don't see how anyone can deny that. The harbor level (forgotten the name) is probably an exception to this, though.
Yes, and it was brilliant. The type of structure Crysis provided is my very favorite. You still maintain the framework of a linear game but offer a significant amount of freedom between objectives.

Sandbox games are simply too aimless and open for my tastes and tend to deliver watered down experiences in order to provide freedom. Stuff like Crysis offers plenty of freedom without sacrificing the polish and experience of a linear game.

On a smaller scale, this is similar to stuff like Metal Gear Solid where each area was a scenario that offered the player a wealth of options within a linear framework. Same deal for many PC classics such as Thief and Deus Ex. Open ended linear experiences.

Crysis 2 appears to be following this very same mold.

These games are completely different from the likes of Call of Duty, which focuses on delivering tightly scripted experiences without any deviation. The games are completely linear at all times.

AI still fails at extreme sniping ranges tho. Sometimes they spot you and its all good. Most of the time they don't, its great when they do and use smoke cover to come shove their foot up your ass.
Thank god they remain less than aggressive at long distance. That was a HUGE problem with Far Cry.

Take out one guy from a distance in that game and one "I'm gonna shoot you in the face" later you've got the entire encampment up your ass even from a mile away. They would know EXACTLY where you were and focus on your position. It was ridiculous. There was no alert state or anything like that, they were either on or off.
 

Kydd BlaZe

Member
Call me crazy, but I never understood how some folks are insatiably analytical about a game's framerate. I suppose it's because I don't have an eye for such things, and barely notice any stuttering. As long as the game doesn't drop frames nearly as bad as the original Mass Effect or Perfect Dark 64 (even with the massive frame dips, these are still two of my favorite games of all time), I don't even notice any stuttering to be honest.
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
People do seem too nuts about framerate to me as well. I notice it in Torchlight and it does bug me, but in the MP demo I noticed nothing, nor have I in any of the videos I've seen.
 

CozMick

Banned
Kydd BlaZe said:
Call me crazy, but I never understood how some folks are insatiably analytical about a game's framerate. I suppose it's because I don't have an eye for such things, and barely notice any stuttering. As long as the game doesn't drop frames nearly as bad as the original Mass Effect or Perfect Dark 64 (even with the massive frame dips, these are still two of my favorite games of all time), I don't even notice any stuttering to be honest.

Gaf needs something to compare, this thread would be dead if it weren't for these "people" :lol
 

-PXG-

Member
Well, I was able to play the PS3 version. I wrote a review, which may or may not be used. I finished the campaign, but did not get substantial time with the multiplayer. There are a few small spoilers, but nothing major, In anyway case, here it is:

For many, Crysis has become the benchmark for video game graphics. Several titles have attempted to surpass it, but nearly four years since it came out, none have succeeded. With the release of the Crysis 2 multiplayer demo and a leaked, unfinished build of single player campaign, many fans felt underwhelmed and disappointed. Perhaps the developers had lost their touch. Since the game was also being made for consoles, maybe they compromised development, eliminating time and sacrificing content that could have been used to make the PC version better. After playing the game start to finish, I can safely say most doubts can now be alleviated. I am pleased to announce that Crysis 2, not only continues Crytek's graphical superiority over the competition, but offers a coherent, well rounded gaming experience.

The year is 2023. New York City has been invaded by a bipedal, mechanical squid-like race of aliens known as the “Ceph”. Additionally, military and medical personnel are struggling to thwart a virus that is rapidly spreading throughout the city. You are “Alcatraz”, the silent protagonist and a United States marine. Nestled in a submarine in the Hudson River, you and your squad are instructed to find and rescue Dr. Nathan Gould, a scientist who has essential insight and knowledge on Ceph. Shortly after your briefing, the invaders attack your submerged vessel. On the verge of death, you swim to shore and greeted by “Prophet”, a lone soldier donning an advanced body armor called the Nano Suit. Being infected with the virus, and his life waning, and you unconscious, Prophet drags you to an abandoned warehouse. To make his situation worse, PMCs have been ordered to kill him on sight. He's essentially a dead man walking, which becomes a common theme throughout the story. Knowing his demise is looming, he gives you his suit, in hopes that you will finish the mission he was unable to complete. After a brief monologue, he shoots himself in the head. You eventually wake up and get back on your feet, with Prophet's corpse before you. With a pistol in hand and after few basic tutorials, you're outside. From this point on, it is now up to you to find Dr. Gould, discover why the Ceph have come to New York, stop the invasion as well as cure those infected with the alien virus. After your eventual rendezvous with Dr. Gould, you learn about the severity of the Ceph incursion as well as the critical role the Nano Suit plays in stopping it.

The story itself is fairly basic and easy to follow. There is no need to have played the first game to understand what is going on. There are a few references to the events from Crysis 1, but nothing so significant or in such detail that will confuse the player. Basically, you are a marine who has unexpectedly been appointed the task finding some scientist and killing a bunch aliens in New York City. Aside from the occasional painful groan, Alcatraz is mute and has no dialogue. Every character, both major and subliminal, play their role the way one would expect them to. For instance, military personnel exhibit the typical gung-ho bravado, which is a common personality trait exhibited in most first person shooters. Dr. Gould is a nerd. He is wordy in his diction, verbose and gives you more information than you need. Most of the time, whenever interacting with other characters, he is either cut off or completely ignored. Besides the Nano Suit's AI, Gould, as well as other characters you meet, serves as your personal dispatcher and informant. He'll tell you where you need to go or pick up the pace if you're not going fast enough. He may remind some players of Otacon from Metal Gear Solid, but with a hint of Jeff Bridges and Woody Allen. Overall, the dialogue is solid, but nothing that is exceptionally memorable. Fellow marines are full of expletives, but absent are the witty one liners that will have you rolling on the floor or repeating to your friends the next day. There is a plethora of action, people dying and stuff blowing up. Things pan out in one of two ways in Crysis 2: Matters either don't quiet go according to plan or situations are turned completely upside down, just when you thought everything was alright. The odds are always against you, and you always seem to be short on time. But in the end, everything works out.

Between action, there are much needed segments to give the player a breath of relief. Crytek put a lot of thought into the game's pacing, giving you moments to regroup, reload and find out where to go and what exactly is going on. By the end of the game, you will have a firm understanding as to why the Ceph are in New York and what your purpose is. You will finish Crysis 2 without having questions that will cause you to lose sleep at night. With that said, the developers created a marginally compelling story, but avoided making it painfully basic. It's nothing remarkable, but the plot isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination. To put it in simpler terms, Crysis 2 isn't trying to be something that it's not. It's a video game version of a proper Hollywood Summer blockbuster. The story is okay, but the action and eye candy make up for what the plot lacks in substance. Again, that isn't a bad thing. Just don't expect anything deep from this game. Thankfully, you won't experience convoluted ideas or morals, annoyingly, being shoved down your throat.

Controls for the game have been streamlined and modified in order to cater to console gamers. R2 (I played the PS3 version) enables invisibility. Press the L2 button to activate armor mode to temporarily decrease physical damage and enhance aiming capabilities while getting shot. Pressing the left stick (L3) will make Alcatraz sprint. Tapping the circle button (B on the 360) during a sprint will make you slide, which is useful for getting under low obstacles in a hurry. If you press down on the d-pad you will turn on your Nano Vision, which is basically comparable to wearing thermal goggles. Cold objects are either gray or blue and warmer ones are indicated with various yellow, orange and red hues. This is useful in dark places or areas where enemies tend to blend in with the surroundings.

You are able to pick up virtually any object you see. Being a super soldier, you're capable of tossing objects (and unfortunate enemies too) with incredible velocity and distance. A simple press of the X button will make you perform a massive vertical jump. All of these abilities use energy, which is indicated on the right-hand portion of the HUD. Once energy is depleted, you will have to wait for it to recharge. In spite of having a powerful suit, Alcatraz is still human. He will take damage and he will die. However, your abilities are balanced in such a way that you feel strong, but not so much so that makes you over powered.

In large, open areas, pressing up on the d-pad will highlight points of interest on your HUD, and will help you decide on what course of action you may want to take. Maybe you want to use your cloak, dispatching your foes, one by one with stealth. Perhaps you want to ascend, jump to higher ground and take out enemies with a sniper rifle. Or, you can just run straight in, with guns blazing. For most scenarios, players can navigate obstacles and vanquish enemies in whatever method they see fit. Although abilities and weapons seem limited, there is good deal of freedom embedded within the game.

Upon death, Ceph will drop floating clouds of sparkling energy called “Nano Catalysts”. They are most commonly found in increments of 100. There are smaller ones of 20 and larger ones of 300, 500 and 2000. This is what you'll need to collect in order to upgrade your suit's abilities. Press SELECT and Alcatraz will lift his left hand into center view. Each finger is assigned several abilities, each with their own cost. Obtain enough catalysts to make your footsteps quieter, or give yourself the ability to perform a powerful downward punch during a jump. Personally, I found most of the abilities to be quite useless and mere novelties. There are only a couple abilities that have any significant application.

Crytek made an attempt to expand the scant arsenal by giving guns multiple skins, as well as the ability to customize them. Holding (not pressing) down the SELECT button will raise your weapon into the middle of the screen. From here, you can add on various scopes, silencers, laser sights and grenade launchers to your gun. You can carry up to two weapons of any type, a rocket launch and C4. Ammunition is scattered everywhere. It is unlikely, if ever, that you will run out of ammo. There are special, rare weapons which you will encounter, such as the MIKE, that fires a concentrated microwave beam. Also, you can detach mounted turrets to give yourself more firepower, but at the cost of your mobility.

All but a few small parts of the game take place in Manhattan. You begin the game right outside Battery Park and make your way through famous landmarks such as Grand Central Station and Times Square, with finale taking place in Central Park. Crysis 2 boasts open areas that allow the player to advance in several different ways. These areas are connected by linear segments or are pieced together with a cinematic. The passage of time and your transition from location to location is logically smooth and never seems sloppily implemented or without a purpose.

Several techniques were used to help immerse the player into the game. The bottom portion of the of the screen is blurred, in order to simulate the effect when objects are in close range to your eyes. The HUD is curved and even has a slight (adjustable) bobbing effect. Guns are loud, (accentuated with lovely cracking echoes) muzzle flares are bright, recoils are intense and motion blurs give you a fantastic sense of speed. The exquisite orchestral score (by Borislav Slavov, Hans Zimmer and Tilman Sillescu) fits well with the whatever mood is being portrayed on-screen.

On the most part, enemy and friendly AI is relatively smart. There are occasional hiccups where allies (or enemies), will get stuck in a wall or forget how to fire their weapons. Players will find the Ceph to be more fun to fight against than human PMCs, mainly due to their incredible speed and acrobatic abilities. They will roll, dash and leap over debris and tall objects to either hide or get a better angel at you. Larger adversaries require keen usage of your Nano abilities, precise tactics, as well as more firepower in order to take them down. Crysis 2 offers a fair challenge, without ever being too easy or frustrating to the point where you want to throw the game out of a window. There are four difficulty settings, all of which can be chosen when you first start the game, or at any time during the campaign.

Now, this being the sequel to arguably the best looking game ever, what do I have to say in regards to how it looks? I'll just get right to the point: Crysis 2 has the most impressive visual fidelity I have ever seen in a video game. I must hand it to the talented staff at Crytek, who put a remarkable effort into making sure that this game looked nothing short of amazing. I once doubted that Cry Engine 3 would be properly optimized for three different platforms, especially consoles with limited memory and horsepower. Although the framerate drops on occasion, it never stutters or gets to the point where it's comparable to a slide show. Characters, objects and scenery are extremely detailed, without falling into the dreaded uncanny valley of video game pseudo realism. No matter where you are looking, highlights and shadows give everything a splendid visual pop, and create a wonderful range of depth. Even during lulling moments between action, there is still an excess of visual goodness. Your eyes will neither get bored, nor be fatigued from all of the activity displayed on-screen. Crysis 2 will impress you from start to finish. As good as it looks in all forms, words, still images, animated .gifs and videos cannot do this game proper justice. You must play it, to believe it.

Crysis 2, like its predecessor, has set the graphical benchmark yet again. Crytek may not have revolutionized the first person shooter genre with this game. Honestly, it doesn't really do anything new. The story may be average at best. However, one cannot deny both the superb visuals and the overall, thoughtful presentation. It will give you a well rounded gaming experience, with enough challenge and unlockables to keep you entertained. Whether you buy it immediately, or wait for it to go on sale, at some point, it would be wise to add Crysis 2 to your collection.
 

mxgt

Banned
My PC version has just been dispatched from gameplay.co.uk, awesome.

I live near the warehouse so hopefully I'll get it tomorrow.
 

Curufinwe

Member
S1kkZ said:
it looks stunning but with that framerate, its pretty useless to me (i am very sensitive when it comes to slowdowns and stuttering). if you dont have a problem with castlevania and torchligh (xbla) (which have the same issues), then you should be fine with c2.

The performance issues in Torchlight haven't bothered me, but it's a hack and slash game. If it was an FPS, then the poor performance would be a definite problem.
 
Emerson said:
People do seem too nuts about framerate to me as well. I notice it in Torchlight and it does bug me, but in the MP demo I noticed nothing, nor have I in any of the videos I've seen.

The first demo ran with 30 fps, the second demo had stutter. Don't know why.
 

JoeBoy101

Member
DaBuddaDa said:
That's a review from a student newspaper. C'mon GAF. Standards! Have them!

From Their Critically Acclaimed and Revolutionary Dragon Age 2 Review:

It takes a lot to get me interested in a fantasy game. There are so many different entries into the genre and the majority of them end up feeling a bit too much like “Lord of the Rings.” Somehow the game developer BioWare managed to breathe new life into the genre with its release of “Dragon Age 2.” The game improves upon the original “Dragon Age” game play in almost every way, while at the same time tells a tale that doesn’t feel like every other fantasy story.

These guys are the anti-reviewer.
 

-PXG-

Member
I think people are being hyper critical and have set themselves up for disappointment. The game looks great and runs fairly well.
 
Because the game being on torrent sites for the last month for PC isn't an issue? Not to mention on every torrent now the PS3 and 360 versions are both up there.

God fucking damn what happened to Crytek?
 
When crysis 2 dx11 patch comes out on PC crytek will regrace their PC fans.

I remember the 64bit patch for Far Cry, it was a complete graphical update.
 

TheExodu5

Banned
-PXG- said:
Well, I was able to play the PS3 version.

For many, Crysis has become the benchmark for video game graphics. Several titles have attempted to surpass it, but nearly four years since it came out, none have succeeded. With the release of the Crysis 2 multiplayer demo and a leaked, unfinished build of single player campaign, many fans felt underwhelmed and disappointed. Perhaps the developers had lost their touch. Since the game was also being made for consoles, maybe they compromised development, eliminating time and sacrificing content that could have been used to make the PC version better. After playing the game start to finish, I can safely say most doubts can now be alleviated.
That seems a little presumptuous, considering you played the PS3 version and don't appear to have any experience with the original.
 

sleepykyo

Member
CozMick said:
Call of Duty 4? seriously?!

Better looking than Killzone 3 but not Cod4? wow, just WOW!

Thanks to you I will never ever listen to a gaffers opinion ever again :(

Maybe he places a really high emphasis on the frame rate when it comes to graphics.
 

-PXG-

Member
TheExodu5 said:
That seems a little presumptuous, considering you played the PS3 version and don't appear to have any experience with the original.

Fair enough. I should have stated that fears regarding the console version should be alleviated. I can't speak for the PC version or it's user base . However, I honestly feel people are blowing things way out of proportion and making issues bigger than they need to be. Again, on consoles, the game looks great and runs fairly well. The FUD is utterly ridiculous.
 
-PXG- said:
Crysis 2, like its predecessor, has set the graphical benchmark yet again. Crytek may not have revolutionized the first person shooter genre with this game. Honestly, it doesn't really do anything new. The story may be average at best. However, one cannot deny both the superb visuals and the overall, thoughtful presentation. It will give you a well rounded gaming experience, with enough challenge and unlockables to keep you entertained. Whether you buy it immediately, or wait for it to go on sale, at some point, it would be wise to add Crysis 2 to your collection.

FUCK YEAH!
 

DieH@rd

Banned
I <3 Memes said:
What a bunch of jackasses. The console version has been on torrent sites for 2 weeks now, does that mean they wont be releasing any versions for review from now on?

Blizzard did the same with Starcraft 2. No early reviews, no torrent leaks before the release day.

In this case console version have leaked ahead of time so i kinda agree with you.
 

Miggytronz

Member
PXG just made me happy in mupants.

PS3 copy getting bought tomorrow!

Would doit today but i just bought a house and need to get paper work together.


Hit me up on PS3 - Mikasangelos
 
Crytek kept the original Crysis close to home, too. That's just how they like to do things, though I'm guessing the console versions went out with the usual EA gush.

At least mine's preloading now - and the PC version's been confirmed to have the original's devmode and command console support. *rubs hands*
 
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