Crysis for Windows (Electronic Arts)

This game is the long awaited follow up to 'Farcry' (one of the best FPSs of 2004). We now finally get a look at this newest offering. Here are some of the things that I've liked in the single player mode... 1.)This is a FPS in which your nano armor gives you special 'skills"; these 'skills' include enhanced speed, strength, armor and invisibility; and you'll need them all to survive. 2.)Graphics that are smooth and flowing...plus... excellent audio; both add a spooky, creepy ambiance to this jungle based horror game. 3.)The ability to use and control vehicles (on land, at sea and in the air), as well as the mounted weapons on these units. 4.)Generally good (but not great) enemy AI! Although some will just stand out in the open, there are some that will sneak up on you or hide behind cover; also they must reload empty weapons. Due to their larger numbers and the fact they're usually spread out, will necessitate your using your special 'skills' and the surrounding environment to defeat them. This is the basic, reoccurring challenge for this game. 5.)Easy, anytime save/loads with F5/F9 respectively, as well as game generated checkpoint saves. 6.)If your taking a beating (or find it too easy), you can change the degree of game difficulty anytime, as you play; you don't have to start a new game. This is a nice feature! Cons: 1.)I've had a couple freeze ups, requiring reboot; also some minor video fragmentation (after extended periods of play). 2.)I found the controls on flying the VTOL (vertical take-off & landing) craft were difficult to operate (the plane just didn't seem to respond to commands quickly) with the result of frequent crashes. 3.)There was one extended section where you were floating (in either space or water), that I found confusing, tedious and boring. I was lucky it was very linear, or I might never have gotten out of there. 4.)A high end system is preferable. Although playable on XP, Vista can use Dx10, and combined with good hardware and a high end video card, it does make a difference in being able to run a lot of the 'extra' graphic details. Conclusion: All the pre-release hype made it sound as if this game would easily qualify for Game of the Year honors; I don't think so. Graphically it is beautiful and it is a good game, but it's not a great game! If you liked 'Farcry' then you'll probably like 'Crysis'. Was it worth the wait...probably, but somehow I was expecting something more. Over all, I liked 'Farcry' and its gameplay a little more. However, still worth a 4 1/2-5 Star rating. more

I love this game, and mostly I agree with the high rating that the game has received. The other reviews have pretty much touched on all of the things I love about it and normally I wouldn't think of chiming in just to pile on more of the same, but I feel there are a few points that were missed . . . points that I think others should know before buying this game. I have a dual boot computer that runs both Windows XP and Windows Vista Home... Premium. (2 SLI linked Nvidia 8800 Ultras, 4GBs of RAM and an AMD Athlon 64 FX-62) I have run the game on both OS's and have found that, all things being equal--using the exact same settings on the same computer with only the OS being different--that the game runs significantly better on XP. I've tried this comparison with quite a few recent titles--titles that run both DX 9 and DX 10--and Crysis shows, by far, the biggest slow down when switching between the two OS's. (I've checked around and it seems that I'm not alone in this discovery) This seems a shame. I kind of expect some problems with Vista--that's the reason I kept XP on my system . . . But I guess I'm willing to cut Crysis a little slack because it IS such an ambitious game. But then there's another bit of hanky-panky that isn't so forgivable: This is the fact that the game won't let you turn the video settings to "Very High" on XP. At first everyone thought, quite naturally, that this was due to some difference between the relative abilities of DirectX 9 on XP and DirectX 10 on Vista. But it turns out that the limitation is purely artificial. (For those who want to circumvent this, it's an easy fix; simply cutting and pasting a few lines in some config files allows those higher settings on XP. Look around on Google, it's out there . . . ) This isn't to say that there IS no difference between DX 9 and DX 10, only that someone tried to make the difference seem even greater than it really is by inserting an artificial limitation. All is not lost, the Crysis people are coming out with their first patch in a week or so and I have no doubt that they'll have the game running well on Vista in no time. Maybe they'll even give up on the artificial limit in XP . . . but I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. Still, I give it four stars. more

In spite of having to run the game on med-low resolution settings I found the game to be excellent. The story flows very well and you never get bored with it. The graphics are excellent, characters are well played for the most part, and the final battle is epic. Even the escort mission (the achillies heal of most games) felt realistic and worked well. So why 3 stars? I'm taking off .5 because for some reason it won't allow me to map... the flight functions to my joystick (wingman extreme). Not that big of a deal since the mouse keyboard does actually work in the game but not very well. Now for the big hit. I'm taking off 1.5 stars because of the length. I just don't get games these days. They make them with flashy graphics, hopefully a good story, and if it's a really good game it feels epic. However, they make them so short that it just leaves you feeling empty. After the final battle in Crysis I was sitting there waiting for the next section to load when the credits came up. I sat looking confused for a few minutes before I turned the monitor off in disgust. It's like if they had released Deus Ex and it ended the game after you retrieved the virus or System Shock after you got to the second level of the station or Far Cry after find out about trigens. I brought the game home Friday, played from about 7pm-11pm. Got up the next morning and played from about noon-11PM. I finished the game just after 11PM and I was playing on the hardest difficulty level, took breaks for meals, and ran out to the store to pick up snacks. It used to be that when you bought a game, you expected to get at least a week of play out of it. Are we now reduced to less than 24 hours? Personally, I'd give up the years worth of work on graphics flash that they spend, for more game time in the story. The multi-player doesn't make up for this either as that's a common excuse. I loved the game (what little of it there was), but I can't go any higher than 3 stars. more

FAR CRY was one of the best FPS games ever sold. It created such a following that can only be compared to that of UNREAL and the original HALF-LIFE. CRYTEK, the developer of both FAR CRY and CRYSIS, clearly did not rest on its laurels. CRYSIS is an *EVEN BETTER GAME* in many aspects. And toping FAR CRY is NOT an easy task... Graphically the game is GORGEOUS! (Both DX10 and DX9 compatible). Moving in the jungle is just unbelievable: the natural... foliage, the game of light and shadow, the clear flowing water...The weapons are exceptionally well designed (familiar shapes but mostly futuristic) and their muzzle flashes add to the game realism. Replenishing your ammo is almost never a problem, provided you are frugal with your snipper bullets. A nice cross-genre touch: most weapons are enhanceable with targeting-lasers, sniper-sights and silencers. The "weapon" you will enjoy more is, of course, the nanite-muscle-suit, a kind of augmenting exoskeleton that serves as both armor and turning you into a super-human. Throwing your enemies over the tree tops can be really fun - and their limp movements and shouted insults are totally realistic! Speaking of realism, wait to reach the zero-gravity levels: the weapons' kick will propel you backwards - as it should! And, very important, all these great graphics with steep yet not exorbitant system requirements! CRYSIS is much more stable than, say, FEAR-PERSEUS MANDATE or BIOSHOCK, although graphically clearly superior. The sound has also been well worked on. There are a number of moments where sound clues are the warning you will get. The sound of an enemy crawling towards you is not a good omen...So get rid of those old headphones and plug in a good set of speakers. The levels are beautifully designed and the AI PHENOMENAL! I had a group of enemies flank me as I was engaged with their comrade who was left as bait! Shoot an enemy from cover only to watch him seek cover as well - until he or one of his comrades spot your position! Overall, the gameplay controls is very similar to that of FAR CRY (and most FPS nowadays). I do have to point out that movement is precise and effective. Running is fast whereas crouching is stealthy. For longer distances, vehicles become available. The game also sports a multiplayer - although it may require lowering the video specs to avoid lagging. Now, this game (being an EA release) sports ...SecuROM. Usually I subtract at least two stars from games burdening us with such dangerous security routines. However, I liked the game so much I felt torn - and decided to make an exception. So, if you are boycotting SecuROM games, be warned, otherwise: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! more

This game feels more like a long demo rather than a complete title. Just when you think the game is going to move onto the next chapter, the soundtrack builds to a crescendo and the credits start rolling. The game abruptly ends after a few hours of gameplay. It seems to me that this game was more of an experiment with the new CryEngine 2 and DirectX 10 support rather than an actual game. As in "The Empire Strikes Back", the storyline in Crysis... leaves you hanging. It does not end when the game does! The game ends with your squad leader going AWOL and you have to find him. You know they're going to charge you more money later on to find out what happens when you meet up with him. If people pay the full retail price for a game, shouldn't they get the full game all at once up front? Pay $50 now and wait a year to spend another $40 on an "expansion pack" just to finish the game. What kind of underhanded garbage is that? That should have happened in the first place! If it's not finished, don't sell it! The audio is atrocious. It's just bad. I mean, the audio in this game is so unsynchronized with the rest of the game that during an in-game movie, the computer *appeared* to freeze, but was just trying to sync the game up with the dialogue. It took about 30 long seconds of waiting to see if the problem was with my computer or not. This is a recurring problem on many other peoples' computers, even with the latest Sound Blaster cards. There have been many times during an intense battle where the sound of the guns has dropped out altogether, and the dialogue is extremely choppy. EA needs to work on a patch for this audio problem. I ran the game with the -DX9 command line parameter to play the game in DirectX 9 mode, and the audio was *STILL* choppy and full of delays. Please, please wait until the price on this game has gone down. I know you want to see how the game looks with DirectX 10 graphics, but there is a demo of this game available for free online. Crysis is yet another expensive big-name game you can complete over the weekend on the most difficult setting without any cheating (which I did - unless you consider using the quicksave and quickload feature cheating). ************************************************************************* [Now onto the good stuff - yes, there are good things about this game....] I really liked the motion blur, and the shading in DX10 is out of this world. I have not seen a more beautifully rendered computer or video game on the market. Even BioShock, which is supposed to support DirectX 10, doesn't come close to the realism of the graphics in this game. The close-ups with the enemy are breathtaking. If you have all the video settings to "Very High" and are running on DX10, when you go toe-to-toe with a bad guy in the middle of the day while on the beach, and decide to melee attack him, it looks so incredibly real that you might forget you are playing a game. The facial expressions are very detailed and well put together. It's just scary real. There was a time in computer/video gaming where you were doing a great job if you used three triangles to make a nose. This is by far light years ahead of those days (and the rest of the competition, for that matter). The gameplay is good. I love the quick save/quick load feature. I hate when games don't have it. The different abilities of the character's suit are fun, too. Too many bad guys flanking you? Turn the cloak on and retreat. Can't jump high enough to reach that ledge? Use the maximum strength setting and try it now. Need more info on gameplay? Download the demo. There is no way to upgrade your suit or your character's attributes. This is not one of those kinds of games. One major beef I have with the AI is that they can see me through the thick vegetation that is all throughout the game, but I can't see them. Yes, there are more of them, but even when I move around, they keep shooting at me perfectly, regardless of how many trees there are between me and them. The only real way to hide in this game when you're close to the enemy is to use the stealth mode. When you so much as throw a grenade at them, the stealth mode is deactivated and you are exposed. I can understand the stealth mode deactivating itself when I open fire, but lobbing a grenade? Shouldn't there be a distinction? The stealth mode is so incredibly useful when you're floating around in the alien ship. The faster you move, the quicker the stealth mode will expire, so when you remain still, it will last much longer than if you are sprinting. Using the stealth mode, I sneak up to the aliens and get close enough to grab them, then I blast them into smithereens, turn the stealth mode back on and do it again. All in all, a very good half of a game, but we'll have to wait a while to pick up where this game leaves off. Good gameplay, engaging storyline, outstanding graphics, way too short. It'll be a while before we see a Crysis 2. The big wigs are going to milk Crysis by putting out expansion packs, when they should have just made the complete product and sold it all at once. I guess the days of buying a complete game are over (as are the days of getting gas for 89 cents a gallon). more