>I got my hands on Crysis 2 for PC yesterday. I was very excited having seen it and played it on multiple machines at PAX East several weekends ago. It came on one disk, which was good in regards to time to install, but I’m still impressed by GTA IVs 2 DVDs / 18G worth of textures and data.

I started it up and it was 4:3 by default… no one plays in 4:3 anymore, so straight to the options I went. The first thing I noticed was the lack of settings, though with some further reading I have heard that the display config file is editable. You can change the resolution, and the quality, so Low, Medium, High, and Ultra – though they all have their own special names like “Gamer” and “Extreme” for the top two.

I went realistic and set to 1920 x 1200 (basic 1080p at 16:10 aspect ratio) and Extreme, figuring I’d need to set it down once the game started. I have an AMD Phenom II x4 @ 3.2ghz, Dual Channel DDR3 @ 1600mhz (don’t get me started on available SLi / TriChannel ram options for AMD chipsets) and 2 x EVGA 285GTX FTW 2G cards so based on the previous games (Crysis, Warhead) I assumed I’d still be a little behind the curve. That was not the case, all in all the game worked at a steady 60+ fps, no vsynch at 1920 x 1200 and a good 45fps at 2560 x 1600 in the Extreme setting.

I started the game and was treated to a phenomenal opening sequence, followed by a brief gameplay escape which cut to the intro credits and the initial introduction video. It set the scene for an ominous situation in the NY of the future (complete with completed Freedom Tower, I noticed) plagued by a widespread alien infection.

You start inside, murky warehouse windows, moderate light shining through. No light beams, and moderate grimy textures, nothing specifically too impressive, though it all looked good. You get outside pretty quickly and realize you’ve emerged onto a seaside warehouse roof with the city skyline in front of you. The ocean, trees, and ship in the dock is all obscured by heavy ansiotropic filtered light, a major part of the effects.

Another point I want to note was my test of the artifacts, the bullet holes and debris left by explosions. I shot a car, I didn’t see any bullet holes, I got a bit closer… they appeared in strategic locations, not in others – there was nothing on the car window, or the back of the mirror, but there was several in the door. I shot them again close up, some appeared but as I backed up to (a virtual) 5 feet away, they went away. I shot the tire, it popped, stayed popped. I shot the hood with a smiley face pattern I didn’t even get to half the smile before the eyes disapeared. This is on Extreme quality, mind you – that sort of stuff should be no problem to leave, especially for me with 2G of video RAM (with SLi you only get the video ram of 1 card since it uses the same amount for both cards). I then shot at an awning that was swaying in the breeze. I was impressed that the bullet holes appeared, cloth ripping is not really new, but physx is normally an afterthought – Batman uses it well with the cape, cloth tearing and uses it for some immersion. This was no physx. The awning moved again in the breeze and the bullet holes went away, as soon as the “cloth” breezed back to the 0 degree Y plane, the bullet holes appeared, and disappeared again as it breezed past it. I know I’m being picky, and this may pass on consoles but not for PC, especially with many other games that show it can be done well.

All I keep reading regarding the PC reviews about this game is “what do you mean, this is the best looking game to date!” Maybe for a console, but this is on PC – we’re used to ports on PC, we put up with them, but this was originally a PC game and more is expected. EA bought it, pushed it for the money maker and this is what we get. My only hope is the hubbub about the DX 10/11 post-release patch. I don’t know as that’s going to do anything for the textures, but it seems silly that they’d limit the textures as (I’ll use GTA IV in this example) other games have 2560 x 1600 textures to start, and they’re reduced in size for the console version, and even the lower quality texture tiers on PC. This results in a better image overall because if you design the detail, reducing it actually smooths it out as well as saves GPU power / memory.

The story is cool so far, the gameplay is cool – nowhere else can you get a FPS that plays like this. It’s truly gratifying to run up on someone in cloak and slit their throat, break their neck, or kick them in the back… sneaking, cloaking, shooting, and cloaking again is a little harder as it’s designed so your energy has not regenerated enough in most cases so you still need to have some cover. Speaking of cover, there is a new method of cover I have not seen in any other game, counters and corners allow you to hold a key (or a mouse button) and move the mouse to “look” around the corner, it’s more of an arc around / over the obstruction, which is very very tactical.

Story: Excellent
Sound: Amazing
Gameplay: Impressive
Graphics: Excellent for DX 9 / a year ago, low quality textures (above 1920 x 1080)
Technology: No x64 (yet?) no DX 10 / 11 (yet?)
Multiplayer: Broken (not available on launch day) – EA – Estimated Availability

All in all I have to fault it for the graphical shortcomings but I’ll be playing the shit out of this game.

Here’s some movies / screenshots: