Crysis 2

[ninzza]

New Road Rage Gameplay (Xbox 360 version):

Crysis 2 Road Rage Gameplay Trailer

[Fiach]

I played half of C2 on the 360, I hated it and as I played it, I couldn't understand why, I actually had to play another FPS (Fear 2), just to check if it was just the fact that I am not a big FPS fan, or was it the game Crysis 2 itself.

The game is getting 9/10 scores all over the place, so I guess I'm missing the point somewhere along the line, so this is my experience of the five hours I did play (full campaign is about 10 hours apparently, though some claim to beat it at less than 7 hours).

The pacing is crap, I dont know why I feel like that, but after playing Fear 2, which is just more exciting and focused, it feels like there is no great momentum in C2. The story is mainly told between levels with people talking while DNA strands and other nonsense act like screen savers as the next level loads. Very few cutscenes and only OK voice acting dont really convey any depth or emotion to drag you into the storyline. I didnt see any great alien presence unti 5 hours in, where you get to see the "hive", but I was too bored to continue.
The levels are quite big, but there is bugger all in them, you will spend most of the time searching an area while avoiding patrols ... or engaging them, looking for some small exit to the next section.

Missions usually take the following format
1. Go to the mark on your map.
2. Damn that way is locked, find another way around that checkpoint.

Thats it.

The graphics, well I played it on a 360, so, meh, thats not a great example, but I have seen better looking FPS games on the 360.

AI, it is absolutely non existant in Crysis 2, when you see the enemies in Fear 2 flanking you, leaping through windows to get to cover, coming at you from many different angles, using melee attacks on you when you get too close, then you see the enemies in Crysis standing around, in a group, maybe one or two will come look for you, then get confused or stuck in the scenary .... actually I couldnt snipe a couple of enemies as they were stuck in the scenary and jerking to and fro like a punk rocker on a pogo stick, trying to move away :)


There were a number of bugs that annoyed me and they are official bugs, not just in my game, the sound not matching your gun firing, not being able to pick up ammo, ammo count going into negative figures etc.

In the end, I traded it in for Killzone 3 and I havent even played Killzone 2 yet lol! :)

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy Crysis more than I did, but I highly recommend Fear 2 :)

Fiach ...... yada yada yada :)

[Art Blade]

That's about what I had the game expected to be: boring. The fact that bugs add to it doesn't really make me want to give it a try.

Fiach, here, take a good swig of this and wash it down  :-D

:-))

[Fiach]

For medicinal purposes only of course :)

[Art Blade]

of course. Um, is there any other purpose to it? :-()

[deadman1]

I´ll wait for the DX11 patch before I consider buying this game, hopefully they´ll have fixed the bugs by then.

[ninzza]

I bought it day 1 and finished after over 11 hours, it's  pretty long for an FPS. The graphics are very nice, I'm especially impressed with the lighting, it looks very realistic. IMO it's easily on par with PS3's best looking games like KZ2 and Uncharted 2. The naosuit is great, it allows you to use many tactics to fight enemies but a pity, in the second half of the game, where you mostly fight the Cepth, the game is extremely linear like COD or Halo, Killzone which is very disappointing although the fightfires are intense. The AI in this game has many glitches like running into walls, stuck in walls/rock, standing still doing nothing,  running on an invisible treadmill, just look at the player ... The AI is not terrible, if you make some noise they will get suspicious and go searching you, slide to cover ...

I'm replaying missions in the first half because it's much more fun: the level are relatively open and I like  the C.E.L.L soldiers better than the aliens. If the aliens looks like the Halghans and the levels are more open then the fighting agisnt them would be much more exciting.

I played both FEAR and FEAR 2 but IMO, FEAR 2 was a letdown, it's not as good as the original. The Replicas in FEAR were much more interesting they yell or screm when you shoot them with shotgun or kick, melee attack them. The environments in FEAR 2 looks more interesting and varied but it lacks the atmosphere in FEAR.

[Art Blade]

FEAR(1) was awesome. Not a game I'd typically play (I'm not so much into horror) but hell, it was a great experience. Even the MP aspect of the game was good, the fights were mostly fun because of the crazy weapons and the resulting carnage  :)

[ninzza]

I was very excited for this game, and the first playthrough was fun but now I think the gameplay of Crysis 2 is not great. I thought the nanosuit was cool idea but the cloak makes the game too easy hence it's not fun. The cloak is overpowered compared to the original, since you now can cloak and fire a sillenced weapon without decloaking.

And the AI, yes, I agree it's the dumbest in the FPS genre. Don't compared it to FEAR, even the AI in any other FPS could destroy the AI in this game. It's too buggy, too many times I've seen them trying to walkthrough walls or objects or just stand there do thing although I stand next to them!  ;D :D Other times they do return fire but they react far too slowly.

[Binnatics]

Hey, didn't find this topic yet, allready started another topic about it in the action-shooter part. I guess I'll have to agree with the AI. They aren't too smart. But the graphics are really great on pc and I didn't find any bugs so far, but that from time to time, after a cutscene, my weapons have dissappeared.
The story is crap, as well as the level build-up, I agree with that. But damn these graphics... really fantastic. Didn't see better so far.
Hope to get some more joy out of multiplayer after finishing the story. Guess these 10 hours are far too short for me, playing on tough difficulty takes me much longer.

I'll keep posting interesting discoveries on the 'impressions topic' I wrote.  :-\

[ninzza]

But damn these graphics... really fantastic. Didn't see better so far.

I've played it on PS3 and IMO it's one of the best looking games on consoles but many people who are PC-ers have been bitching about the graphics being downgraded so much from the original.

[Binnatics]

I don't know about the original, never played it. But this graphics experience is imo very good. Don't expect them to having downgraded it, I think they have found a better way to visualize their effects. I read about the 'benchmark-value' that should be less then the last one, but that's not what counts for enjoying the game I think. That's more something for the hardware freeks  :-\

[deadman1]

Well apparently those graphics are going to get a boost, since Crytek have announced that they will be releasing a patch that will give the game DX11 graphics. No info on when this will happend so I´ll keep an eye out for it.

[Binnatics]

Dx11 would be fantastic. I played Dirt 2 with dx11, that was an amizing experience.. Somehow the image seems more quite and more detailed. Don't know what it does exactly but I sure recognized the difference.

Hope it will come soon. By the way, do I get a msg from steam when the patch is out? I downloaded the game through steam and I'm not sure how it works

[deadman1]

Dx11 would be fantastic. I played Dirt 2 with dx11, that was an amizing experience.. Somehow the image seems more quite and more detailed. Don't know what it does exactly but I sure recognized the difference.

Hope it will come soon. By the way, do I get a msg from steam when the patch is out? I downloaded the game through steam and I'm not sure how it works

Since you have a steam copy of the game it will be updated automatically when you start steam.

[deadman1]

Well it´s here, the DX 11 patch that is. It comes in three parts, a patch to ver 1.9, a dx 11 pack and for us with a 64 bit system and a graphics card with more than 768 Mb of memory, a special high resolution texture pack. The game has been orderd and I´m downloading the patches and packs as I type this. So with a little luck I´ll be able to give you a review by this weekend  :)

[Art Blade]

Looking forward to reading about it, deadman :) :-X

[Dweller_Benthos]

Where do I get those patches? A week ago or so, it auto-updated and I don't have the steam version, which surprised me. Maybe I'll fire it up tonight, see if it auto-updates again.

[deadman1]

Where do I get those patches? A week ago or so, it auto-updated and I don't have the steam version, which surprised me. Maybe I'll fire it up tonight, see if it auto-updates again.

I got them using this link:http://www.mycrysis.com/dx11. I downloaded them from Filefront, be aware though that the Hires texturepack is 1,65 Gb large, the DX 11 patch comes in at 545 Mb.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Thanks. Yeah, just found them, OK, won't be downloading those at home, that's for sure.

Funny how the www.crysis2.com domain is owned by a cyber squatter in Russia, lol. Buy it for $1,000! I guess EA didn't bite on that one. I figured that would be the place to go, but I guess not.

[ninzza]

I saw a video comparison of DX 11 and DX 11:
Crysis 2 - DirectX 11 vs DirectX 9 Comparison

DX11 obviously looks better but I'm not blown away.

I was very hyped for C2 but it got really boring fast. After I finished the campaign, I replayed some missions then I got bored of it and it's sitting on the shelf collecting dust. I'm considering to trade it for Bulletstorm.

The AI, is terrible, IMO they're the worst in this gen. Other FPS like COD, KZ2 ... although they're not smart but at least they're not as buggy as C2's.

I never played C1 (only watch youtube gameplay vids) but I like it better than C2.

[JRD]

 ???

A big difference... specially in the water... nice find ninzza  :-X

Can you play it maxed out?

Can you, D_B? After seeing your rig I reckon you should

This time they didn`t deliver a game that no PC can run - which is seen as a downgrade from C1 by some hardcore fans  :D

[Dweller_Benthos]

I haven't tried the new DX11 stuff yet, I had it downloading at w@&k last night since it was about 2GB worth of data...... I'll install it tonight and see what all the fuss is about.

[deadman1]

Ok first impressions. I have only played for about an hour but I´m already blown away. I´m able to run the graphics on "Ultra" without any lags and they look stunning with the patches I installed. It looks like Crytek did a better job of optimizing the engine for Crysis 2 than for Crysis. I´ll see if I can´t get some screenshots during my next playsession.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah, it looks pretty sweet, though I couldn't see much change with the high res textures, the DX11 makes quite a difference in the accuracy & detail of the models. Had a hard time getting a screenshot on the PC, since I don't have the steam version, the F12 key does nothing. Well, it gave me a hint, it creates a line in the console something like "r-getscreenshot 2" so I tried r_getscreeenshot 1-9 and the only one that worked was 1. Makes an HDR file that opens in photoshop. I was going to try to stand in one spot and take a screen with each setting, but you have to restart the game to turn them on, so I had to try to get in the same area again, only to find the screenshot function doesn't w@&k under DX11 at all! So I had to run in a window and use the print screen key and paste into photoshop.

Stand next to a brick wall with DX11 and you'll see the difference right away. Only thing I thought was weird were the reflections, it seemed a window was reflecting something that was on a wall parallel to it, not across from it.