Crysis 2

[tehsam016]

I was personally hoping for it to be set in the jungle again, but it appears it wont be. Favorite part of the video was when he tossed the guy off the walk way :). Far Cry 3 will more than likely be better though.

[ninzza]

Thanx tehsam016 for that youtube vid. I actually watched a gameplay only video at www.incrysis.com but you have to log on to watch that vid.

When Crytek revealed the  new setting for Crysis 2, I was a bit disappointed because I prefer the jungle much better city settings. I love nature evry much.

[Art Blade]

The original FarCry convinced me with its tropical island scenario, and I always liked the jungle bit just as I liked the bit with beaches and palm trees. Crytek did a little of that in the original Crysis, but it was not the same. Ever since, the sequels haven't interested me (apart from FC2 which is a stunner). The only thing close to the old FarCry and perhaps better than FC2 for me is JustCause2 which I love :)

[JRD]

B33 ENN`s Crysis Warhead rating got me wondering how much changes we can expect to be made in Crysis 2 in order to address all complaints regarding the first installment... I got this from IGN

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EA and Crytek actually showed us Crysis 2 a few months ago, if you'll recall, where they debuted its urban relocation to New York, along with its streamlined nano-suit options. Perhaps most surprisingly, Crytek also chose to show press the game on the Xbox 360 rather than PC. At this year's E3, Crytek has the same demo on hand, but press are finally getting the chance to play the game, and also to see its just announced debut in 3D.

After spending some time playing Crysis 2, the most striking difference from the first game is the overwhelming verticality on display. Where the first game largely involved large horizontal spaces in which to engage enemies with the nano-suit's various abilities, Crysis 2 appears to be predicated on death from above – whether you're dishing it out or avoiding it.

My demo started in the now familiar highrise corridor with a blown out wall, ostensibly sheared open by a crashing vehicle or alien weapon. Looking down onto the city below is dizzying; there's a real sense of physical space in Crysis 2 that didn't seem as evident in the crowded jungle environments of the first game, and looking 30 stories down inspired a bit of unexpected vertigo.

The possibility for Crysis 2 to play as a more thoughtful shooter was present in the ability to reconnoiter enemy posts in the nano-suit's new tactical mode, but at this point, it's hard to fully grasp exactly how encounters in Crysis 2 will evolve from last time. Enemies act similarly to the Korean soldiers from Crysis, though they seem much easier to kill now (even though all the soldiers I encountered were wearing off-brand nano-suit knockoffs), which is nice, but there wasn't enough combat to get a feel for the AI. From my brief time with the game, the dual tactics/dual suit modes juxtaposition was a bit disorienting, but I'm reasonably confident that this will become second nature after more time with the game.

After taking out a number of nano-suited PMCs, I was captured and locked down in a helicopter. After a moment of flight though, a number of alien... somethings attacked and knocked the helicopter out of the air, forcing me to fight them on the ground. While fighting the new alien enemies was more interesting than the assorted PMC troops from the first section of the demo, there were some weird AI hiccups present that lead me to believe that Crytek is still working out the kinks in enemy behavior.

Of course, the biggest question on everyone's mind is how the notorious PC benchmarking juggernaut looks in its transition to console, and the news is mostly good. Image quality is excellent. As mentioned before, there's a great sense of physical space in Crysis 2, which is largely because of great lighting and color correction, as well as the particle effects from smoke and destructible environments and well implemented motion blur. That being said, the game still looks a ways off from release; there are a number of textures that look like placeholder assets and the framerate is all over the place. The sound design is coming along nicely however, with strong gun feedback that compares favorably to games like Bad Company 2.

Crysis in 3D is... well, it's still Crysis. In 3D. I don't mean to sound reductive; I was impressed with some of the tricks Crytek displayed to make the 3D version of the game more immersive, including layering and subtle movement of the HUD over the game world, and the sense of verticality and height in particular were heightened by the effect. Meanwhile, there was no perceivable performance decrease with 3D mode active, and perhaps more surprisingly to some, this was all running with no issues at all on the Xbox 360, a quiet refutation of Sony's nascent push to lay claim to the technology in the public conscience.

But – of course there's a but – 3D didn't make the game better, really. It's the same game, and Crytek doesn't appear to be making the mistake of designing heavily around the 3D element. While it's a neat addition, I haven't yet seen anything to convince me to buy into the required ancillary hardware, be it a new TV and/or active shutter glasses (though Crytek has been kind enough to announce support for the three current forms of 3D tech, and my demo used passive polarized glasses similar to those used for 3D screenings of last year's Avatar). And for some players, it actually made the game worse, as the 3D made a number of members of the games press nauseous, including our own Hilary Goldstein.

Regardless, my time with Crysis 2 only has me more interested in the game. After years of promises, Crytek has finally put its money where its mouth is with a playable, good-looking console Crysis game, and given how much more time they have before Crysis 2 ships late this year, all signs indicate that it should be able to more than hold its own with the other big shooters regardless of platform.

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And another, more recent review, also promising!!!  :)

When I last previewed Crysis 2 back in June, I mentioned how striking the sheer verticality of the environments were. This week I got to spend another half hour with the game in an entirely new level (labeled "Semper Fi or Die") late in the game, and Crysis 2 had a new surprise in store for me: enemy AI that took advantage of all that space - and a reason to use it myself.

The level started out with Crysis 2's nano-suited protagonist regaining consciousness as a team of marines fend off an attack from the game's alien enemies. Once the threat was taken care of, I was given a handgun and set off with the squad into the wreckage of a park area destroyed during the invasion of New York.

This all sounds innocuous enough. Plenty of games have used the idea of "wrecked city areas." But none have done it quite the way that Crysis 2 is doing it. This city park - which bears a passing resemblance to a pair of fairly major park areas in real-life New York City - isn't just littered with overturned trashcans or benches, it's been completely destroyed. There are giant tears in the ground leading all the way to the sewer levels of the city, which in turn lead to a variety of routes and approaches for attack.

That last part seems like the thing in Crysis 2 that's really starting to click as I spend more time with it. In the last game, much of the size and scale of environments seemed a little gratuitous. In Crysis 2, there's a sense of intention present in the level design thus far. Environments aren't designed around being impressive, they're tailored to specific combat scenarios, and it's really working to make playing it more interesting.

The enemy AI also seem markedly tweaked to make enemies fun to fight. The alien soldiers are agile and fast and can take a fair bit of punishment, and more importantly, they use their mobility to avoid you just enough to make it fun to catch and kill them. This is complemented by the previously mentioned level design. After watching a developer play through the level for a bit, I took the controller and played out the situation completely differently, using a combination of cloaking and sniping and in-close melee attacks to handle combat situations. I was aided in that by the nano-suit upgrade system, which allows you to purchase new abilities to customize your approach to Crysis 2.

I'm going to say something that may irk some of you, but I mean it in the best way possible: Crysis 2 seems to have taken some pages from the Halo series' design manual. The idea of strung together combat sandboxes is all over the place, though the sandboxes in question are enormous, and the organic feeling AI evoke Bungie's influential series. Clearly, Crytek has a number of tricks of their own in store for the game, but the comparison isn't hard to make.

I was also aided by significantly improved game-pad support in Crysis 2. I was playing the PC version of the game with a wired 360 controller, and aside from the raw visual splendor on the screen - and seriously, I'm not one to to fellate the original Crysis's graphics, since I found them a little boring, but DAMN is Crysis 2 looking amazing on PC - it played very smoothly. Crytek has thrown in some snap-to targeting on the left trigger and a bit of aim assist to boot, and configurations are customizable, a major change from the last game. Switching between powers might actually be easier on the 360 pad than on the PC; pulling off manuevers like taking aim, quickly uncloaking and firing, then cloaking again are pulled off quickly using the bumper to phase in and out.

Unfortunately, while my recent time with the game has reassured me that Crysis 2 will translate perfectly well to console controls, I'm left with more questions than answers as to how the game will fair technically speaking. To be blunt, I'm not quite sure how Crytek will be able to pull off the enormous combat environments on the Xbox 360 and PS3. We haven't seen the console versions of Crysis 2 for months; in fact, we've never seen the PS3 version at all. With just a few short months of development time left, I'm growing more and more curious about how Crytek's first foray outside of the PC space will end up.

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[B33 ENN]

As a Crysis "fan" I'd like to be optimistic and promote the C2, but...

So far from what I know of the game, this is just a vehicle to get CryTek a place in the console market. It is first and foremost designed within the limits of those platforms.

I've heard the CryEngine 3, as sophisticated as it is, won't be offering the same depth as the island scenario in order to get around performance issues. Essentially the City setting is the standard way to reduce draw distances and number of onscreen object.

Non of that is really an issue for me though if the gameplay and theme are strong - after all, other games have been doing it for a long time. What worries me is the point of the story. The new "aliens" I've seen look like robot men, sort of Section 8 meets Halo (as the review says). I don't know if the squid like flying ones will still make an appearance, but Crysis 2 is starting to feel "hyped" again now but without the originality, and that is a worrying sign.

I doubt it'll flop, as the anticipation of their first multi-platform release will no doubt give that burst of sales, and console sales alone will blow away the need to care what PC gamers think.

Bit-Tech Preview on Crysis 2 (General)

Bit-Tech Preview on Crysis 2 (xBox)

[Fiach]

It will have to be VERY good, it is so easy to flop in the console market (for we are a fickle bunch :)), so many console games that get excellent reviews, just will not sell if they fail to capture the imagination, I dont know why this is, it could be marketing, the price versus PC titles, having to pump out 2X worth of copies instead of just one for PC, but consoles can bankrupt companies.

Bizarre creations, once the console darlings with the Project Gotham series, after Blur (great reviews) and JB Bloodstone (bad), is up for sale due to lack of sales, Enslaved (critically acclaimed, me meh, boring) sold ..... 85K copies only! Then you have Crysis and its expansion, I dont think they sold well, I dont think Far Cry 1 or 2 sold well, (I know none of my friends thought highly of the far cry series). :(

Now you have a FPS hitting this market, where the two brands main flagship games are shooters, Gears of War, Halo, Killzone, Resistance and then multiplatforms like CoD, Borderlands and all of those are held in high esteem by their fan base, then you have the up and comers, Bulletstorm (this will be huge), Duke Nukem (cannot fail), Homefront (FPS with serious story) and all of these coming out just before Crysis 2.

Then of course ... how will it perform on consoles, people may fear a low framerate (with good cause), bad optimisation and a company with little experience with how successful console shooters "feel".
Lots of youngish players may find Crysis too hardcore if the mouse vs controller debate rears its head, all of this may cause a wait and see effect. If initial sales are sluggish, console players wont buy it at all, as I said earlier, they are a younger audience and tend to go for the next big thing, an awful lot of console forums topics concern a games sales and how many people will be online.

If the game is too "serious" it wont be considered fun to play, Halo and Gow have been described as 10 seconds of fun, repeated over and over again. Bulletstorm has "the circle of awesome" (the more fun ways you kill, the more skill points you get, to buy better gear, to kill in more fun ways). I'm not sure Crysis will tick these boxes (I hope it does, anything that brings innovation and fun to games is always welcome).

There was a top class game released recently called Vanquish, it had very bad sales as people thought it too hard, yet it was fast innovative and made other shooters feel like you were wading in treacle.

I guess for me ut will be a wait and see what happens.

[B33 ENN]

It will have to be VERY good, it is so easy to flop in the console market (for we are a fickle bunch :)),...

Bizarre creations, once the console darlings with the Project Gotham series, after Blur (great reviews) and JB Bloodstone (bad), is up for sale due to lack of sales, Enslaved (critically acclaimed, me meh, boring) sold ..... 85K copies only! Then you have Crysis and its expansion, I dont think they sold well, I dont think Far Cry 1 or 2 sold well, (I know none of my friends thought highly of the far cry series). :(

Now you have a FPS hitting this market, where the two brands main flagship games are shooters... I guess for me ut will be a wait and see what happens.

Very true overview, I relate to many of your points there. I personally though "Blur" was a lot of fun and the creators have a knack for originality like with "The Club", which also flopped. I think what really "killed" Bizarre Creations was Sega ownership, they were doing fine before that.

In fact, even though their funding is important, all these big publishers like Ubisoft, EA, 2K etc do is suppress or stunt imagination and originality in favour of their end-of-fiscal-year bottom line.

Of course they are simply there to milk a saleable product for everything it is worth much like the Hollywood studio system of today; dead and buried is their "golden age" of creativity somewhere back when Elvis was peoples idea of talent rather than Lady Gaga.

[Art Blade]

Interesting and good discussion there, guys :) :-X

For some reason ALPHA Protocol popped up in my mind. A game that I thought was really great and innovative, yet the sales numbers were poor.. so no sequel because of bad sales.

[B33 ENN]

I bought up Alpha Protocol at a  :o sale discount and have yet to play it. But I know the reviews etc slammed it, however I liked the sound of it. Look forward to posting a review eventually  :-X

[Fiach]

Well its a great game, but you have to remember its an RPG, until you level up skills, you are very low powered and innaccurate, so I hope you persevere with it ...... ummm the chicks 'r' hot too :)

I played with pistols and they have some great skills (probably easy mode) and again with assault rifles, very different experience, but again, at the starting level, they are quite underpowered.

Tips :

Be careful what difficulty you select, I havent played i9n a long time, but one sounds like easy mode, It could be called Rookie or something, its actually a precurser to New Game Plus, its not "rookie = easy", its actually a hard-ish mode, where at the end, you keep your skills to replay the game on (i think) Veteran or something.

The first level is an army compound, in one of the high huts is an upgrade for armour camouflage, dont leave there without it as there are (iirc) only 2 in the game.

Some missions are connected, but may not seem like that, but there is one with a Boss that is a coke freak and it makes him very powerful, but you meet a guy in another missions that if you are on friendly terms with him,

Spoiler

he will sell you some bad coke so you can spike his stash prior to the battle

.

[Fiach]

Had to make a new post, I find if I make long posts, after a certain length, I cannot see what I am typing (no doubt put there on purpose to control my spammage..... it wont w@&k DAMN YOU!!!!!).  >:D

You can leave a country without completing all missions and start some new ones, so if you come up against a brick wall, you can head somewhere else and do more missions to level up.

Be careful how you react to people, it has huge consequences and its not always apparent how a dialogue choice will affect you, because you dont get to choose what your character will say, you will just get to choose an "attitude", sometimes nice guy works, sometimes bad guy works better, but the game gives no clues how the person responds until its too late. I would suggest you try this..... Before you start, decide on a role and play as if its that character that is answering the questions, eg.... for my pistol guy, I played as a suave James Bond type character and for assault rifles I played as a gruff ex-marine. otherwise you will find yourself trying to second guess outcomes and (well I did) find it quite frustrating.

There is a bang-o-meter in the game, you can .... erm.... liase with the ladies if you speak to them in a manner they like, the russian chick is BONKERS!  >:D

Anyway a very deep game with top replay value, I hope you enjoy it :)

[B33 ENN]

Well its a great game, but you have to remember its an RPG, until you level up skills, you are very low powered and innaccurate, so I hope you persevere with it ...... ummm the chicks 'r' hot too :)
...

...There is a bang-o-meter in the game, you can .... erm.... liase with the ladies if you speak to them in a manner they like, the russian chick is BONKERS!  >:D

Of course, such indications in reviews and trailers had absolutely nothing to do with my snapping the game up. Now, I'd like to secure my Fifth Ammendment rights by proxy...    8-X

Seriously, great coverage there Fiach!  :-X Pretty much in line with the things I read in my research, i.e. RPG, varied outcomes, mix of genre styles and player investment in the character... and exactly why I was interested to try it out.

It's a shame that whenever a dev takes a risk to do something original it ends up given a hard time, and yet the reviewers complain endlessly about unoriginality in the industry and dumbed down games.

Much of the disdain I read centred around the buggyness of the release version, but I've heard the same said of FO:NV and Black Ops, but they didn't get slated to financial oblivion because of it.

Once again, like with Bizarre Creations, SEGA ruins the party, and if they had just backed Obsidian I'm sure patching would be continuing even today.

Instead, these big name publishers seem to be in it only for the buck and if it don't come in first time out, they abandon the team and product rather than stay the course - as such we won't see a Alpha Protocol 2...

[Fiach]

I played FO3, FONV, RDR and Alpha Protocol, all considered buggy games, I played them all without patches.

I never encountered a bug in any of them, well FONV, I had a problem with Caeser, He asked me to do a mission for him, after completion, I went to his island and was attacked, it was officially recognised as a bug, I dunno if it was patched, but it only made a difference of about 10 minutes to me, I was going with the NCR (was that the name?) anyway, so it made no difference to me.

Its amazing how people will judge a game based on other peoples views, I see many posts about castlevania, asking if the broken camera has been patched. The camera isnt broken, the game uses a fixed camera viewpoint, for cinematic reasons.  :D

[PZ]

Its amazing how people will judge a game based on other peoples views...

The worst part is that they often don't even know anything about the person whose judgment they are depending upon - reminds me of people that listen to gossip and treat it as gospel.

[Art Blade]

people that listen to gossip and treat it as gospel.

nice line  :)

[PZ]

Thanks, AB
:-D I hate to be cynical...  :-()

[Art Blade]

same.. so don't be :)

[Art Blade]

erm.. that kind of sounded strange. I meant "just don't do what you don't like to do" and not that you had been cynical :)

[PZ]

 ^+-+

[Art Blade]

 ;D

[ninzza]

SCAR gun looks great:

http://www.mycrysis.com/news/crysis_2/crysis-2-weapon-focus

[deadman1]

Minimum requirements have been released:

Intel Core 2 Duo, AMD Athlon 64 X2 2GHz or better
Nvidia 8800 GT or better
2 GB RAM
Windows XP/Vista/7
9 GB space on hard drive
Internetconnection
Mouseand keyboard or a XBOX 360 controller

[Fiach]

Have minimum requirements ever actually meant anything as regards a games playability, even crysis' recommended requirements fall short of actually playing the game with any fluidity :(

As Crysis 2 will be console friendly I imagine it will have pretty low (but scalable) PC requirements.

[deadman1]

Have minimum requirements ever actually meant anything as regards a games playability, even crysis' recommended requirements fall short of actually playing the game with any fluidity :(

As Crysis 2 will be console friendly I imagine it will have pretty low (but scalable) PC requirements.

They basically let you start the game but you will most of the time have to play wit all settings turned down as low as they´ll go, and even then you´ll get some lag. It´s going to be very interesting to see what Crytek recommends as far as playing this game.

[Art Blade]

I'd like to see the optimum requirements.  :) Clusters, cloud computing..  :-()