Zero Punctuation: Crysis

[BonsaiK]

He did say it was a "game for sightseers" so it's only a recommendation for people with more money than brains who like 'teh pretties', really. I'm just glad that he didn't go ga-ga for it like most of the PC magazines have. Seems reviewers across the board are so sucked in by graphics these days that it's a total embarrassment to gaming culture, that they think we're as superficial as they are.

 

[blizzardwolf]

First let me say that I've yet to play Crysis in any form. As such, I'm not going to pretend to be an authority on it, or act like my opinions are beyond reproach. All I have to go on about this game is what I've seen, heard, and read.

That said, Crysis seems to be little more than a slightly above-average shooter, with a fantastic and expensive marketing campaign behind it. I don't see anything particularly innovating about Crysis beyond it's PC-melting graphics. Which, were I the developer, I'm not sure how proud I'd be of having made a game that only a select few can enjoy as intended.

I mean I laud the graphics, but they can't be a game's only noteworthy point. Because eventually, just like Yahtzee and others found out, people are going to get over how fantastic the game looks and actually play it, and they'll find a game that is a choppy, stuttering, mediocre shooter which they've played before. This is the equivalent of bringing a McDonalds salad to a salad BAR, and then charging the owner $1,000 for the labor. There's just nothing the game seems to offer that wasn't already there.

Are mind-boggling graphics really enough by themselves to justify $1,000 in upgrades? Especially when it seems that's all you're buying? Crysis just seems so... generic to me. Like a shooter that was rehashed and given better clothes. Just to name a few games with which Crysis shares some striking similarities: F.E.A.R., Call of Duty 4, and Jericho. Right off the top of my head. Crysis does some things better than these games, but nothing so vastly improved or original as to warrant all the attention and money its received.

It's almost as if the developers of the two major PC games this year, Bioshock and Crysis, had a personal bet amongst themselves to see who could create a game with the most ridiculous system requirements. Clearly Bioshock lost, but in lieu of requiring a computer submerged in liquid nitrogen, they focused on an original, highly captivating storyline, (Yahtzee's review of this game notwithstanding. And as compared to Crysis anyways) sympathetic characters, balanced and fun gameplay mechanics, and increased accessibility to the whole experience. Crysis may have won for graphics, but to flog a dead horse a little bit more, graphics are all it has going for it. Had the game been made even two years ago, before it had access to the visual technology it does, had it looked simply like Half-Life upon its release, I can't see too much about it to have made it memorable.

Of course as I said, I also haven't played this game, and due to cost, won't any time soon. So if there's something I'm mistaken about, something I got wrong and just don't see, let me know. Maybe there is something to put the shine on this game, and it's something I'm just not aware of.

 

[XaVierDK]

He did say it was a "game for sightseers" so it's only a recommendation for people with more money than brains who like 'teh pretties', really. I'm just glad that he didn't go ga-ga for it like most of the PC magazines have. Seems reviewers across the board are so sucked in by graphics these days that it's a total embarrassment to gaming culture, that they think we're as superficial as they are.

I'm gonna have to disagree with you there...
Crysis is a game for people who like to think for themselves, even when they've got high-tech equipment in their hands... I've said it before in different places, I'll say it here again:
If you're not having fun in Crysis, it's your own fault entirely... If you can't have fun playing super/Hollow-man, then that's your problem... Crysis is THE shooter right now, who offers the most choice as to how to do things... And it's not just in the visuals, unless of course by visuals you also mean physics...
And the AI isn't that bad, how would you react if your camp was fell upon by a seemingly unstoppable super-soldier? I agree they're not always the brightest, but not a lot of games (shooters mostly, many others as well) have what could be defined as truly beliveable AI... (and if you mention COD4 as a good game in aspects that Crysis excel at, solely because it runs well on your 3 year old PC, I'm gonna rip you a new one)

And trust me, if you take just 15 minutes of your precious time to find which settings work for your PC, even a PC with less than stellar hardware can play Crysis and enjoy the visuals at the same time... A few pointers though:
1. Keep physics above "low", as it turns off destructability.

2. keep Shaders at "high" as anything below that disables HDR-lighting.

3. shadows and textures are two good things to turn down if you expirience slow performance, it won't hurt the image quality too much, and you'll see a reasonable performance gain.

And Crysis is by no means a generic shooter, because no generic shooter has the replayability of Crysis... As I said above, Crysis is about being creative on your own, not always following what the game tells you to do ("take that vehicle" means "you COULD take it" etc.), and you really need to look beyond the graphics to see this (ironically, as it seems people who complain about poor gameplay are stuck with the fact that they apparently can't run the game properly for some reason or other)...

You say you will not pick up Crysis due to cost, I say pick it up regardless... There's more to it than meets the eye (uh-oh, nerd reference).. ;-)

Best Regards

 

[Jinky Williams]

I want to make it last forever.

 

[KurtDunn]

The Alien ship was by far the weakest part of the game for me.

As mentioned above, you don't have ammo. Or, if you follow a game-guide step-by-step or examine every nook and cranny you come across, then you might have JUST enough ammo, and that seems unreasonable to me.

And although the military men were practically ripped from Jerry Bruckenhiemer films, I felt that they effectively conveyed the emotions that were demanded of them (admittedly low amounts), and the voice acting was almost always on point. In fact if it wasn't for the General who takes over after your boss gets snatched from your team, I wouldn't have started playing again after finding myself bulletless in a room full of 8+ aliens, of which you must slay to progress.

Also I'd like to say how realistic the plot is, concerning character decision. Not concerning an alien super-factory, or marooned ship, or whatever, buried underneath an Island off the coast of Korea. But what each character decides to do with the situation, with only a few differences, seems to make absolute sense. It's a decent narrative with solid gameplay to boot.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Flying the VTOL was like trying to beat off a hippo with an oven mitt: messy, frustrating and you usually end up getting stomped on before you succeed.

...this may be the most awesome thing yet said on the Internet.

But yeah. Even though I've only played the demo, I do have to agree with a lot of Yahtzee's review. It felt like Far Cry all over again, with the foliage that only blocks MY view, the ridonkulous AI and... well, I didn't even bother trying to drive a vehicle in the demo, as the horrors of Far Cry's Jeep O' Doom still linger in my mind.

I'm not sure why everyone's complaining about the requirements, though. I'm running a dual-core CPU and an 8800GT- a tad expensive (at $280), but not the $600 monsters the "gaming geeks" drool over. Yet I played the Crysis demo with some rather impressive bells and whistles turned on and still maintained a playable framerate.

(Side note: Did anyone else find it absolutely bizarre that the North Koreans only spoke Korean on the absolute hardest difficulty level? [And don't get me started on that pidgin English crap. I mean, JEEZ.] How often do you have to hear "Open fire!" in Korean before you figure out it means that the hurty time is about to start?)

 

[defcon 1]

ironically, as it seems people who complain about poor gameplay are stuck with the fact that they apparently can't run the game properly for some reason or other

ArchLord, FEAR, and even some console games like Ninty-Nine Nights all made me adore the graphics but I did not have fun playing them for various reasons that overshadowed the graphical aspect. Even if they looked perfectly real, I'd still complain.

 

[Jambe]

/echo the sentiments about no RTS/RTT reviews from you. Great review as usual. Oh, and I peed myself when you mentioned Columbo.

 

[FadeNXC]

would it be possible at all to get these on iTunes?

btw i am a regular viewer and i liked it yeah, just it seemed.....a little....i dont know maybe....just below-avarage...if you see what im saying, not like im talking objects but you know what i mean....it just didnt have that...zing like it normally does, "but all in all it wasnt too bad, not great but it takes the bronze at best" QED said Fade like the over-obsessive nerd that he is.....

 

[zoozilla]

Sadly, my rig is nowhere near powerful enough to run Crysis even on low, probably. It would probably explode at the title screen.

Another great review, though. Does there have to be a nerd getting an erection in every ZP video?

 

[pseud0nym]

Humm.. you actually LIKED this game??? After I got past the "OMG it is SOOO pretty!" I started to realized that all the bad guys were crack shots and that unless you hit them in the head you might as well be shooting paintballs at them cause all it does it give away your position. Then once the bad guys get Nano suits it cranks up the hardness factor waaaaaaaaay past 1000, as it puts you in a swamp with no cover fighting dudes with sniper rifles who hardly ever miss!

Pretty pretty PRETTY game. Awful awful awful game-play. I am going back to TF2 and CSS.

Loved the review BTW, great, as always!

 

[NexusBlade]

I COULDN'T STOP LAUGHING.


Srsly, I see where he's going, but I'm one of the 10 on Earth with a low-end PC that can run this SOB.

 

[Axulciex]

good review.
Only thing wrong was the quick save comment about Farcry; there is no quicksave just checkpoints, which is the main factor why its so ball stompingly hard/awesome.

 

[EittilDratsab]

I liked Crysis, but the review was spot on.

btw do CoD4

 

[Doormat]

What I loved about this game is the ability to grab hold of someone
throw them in the air, and playing discus, shoot them with my barrel
shotgun, which will send them twisting and turning like they've
just fallen off the titanic, by the way, love the review.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Well Said, Yahtzee. Although Crysis is spectacularly good looking the enemies must have some sort of bionic, thermal, super vision with weapons that shoot bullets that are magnetically drawn to your head. although the fact that you can grab someone and crush their throat then throw them off a three billion foot high really makes you feel proud of yourself. The Aliens in this were very much like the aliens from War of the Worlds. The weapons may be dodgy and the AI impossible doesn't meen that it suck all-around. The atmosphere is amazing, the storyline may have a few kinks but all together great, and the fact that you can run ninety miles an hour then shoot someone in the ass with a showgun with a laser sight then keep going. Crysis could use a few changes like making the AI a bit less insane and make the driving not so much like riding on a 400 legged horse with down syndrome. Flying can be interpreted as shoving a pogo stick up your arse and then trying to jump over the empire state building. All in all, good review. Now give a review of a more suckier game like Hellgate: London or something. Also to note, my Computer runs it fine....but thats because it isn't ONE computer it is several towers hooked together with four graphics card between them and I can run it on 'so shiny that your eyeballs will jump out of your head and strangle you for being so unbearibly stupid to look at the screen.' All of these Computers either died or came darn close to so I decided to re wire them to all work like some retarded super-computer for the video game obsessed. If you like that you should see my Tv, well it isn't 1 tv it's several but.....

 

[Murian]

But yeah. Even though I've only played the demo, I do have to agree with a lot of Yahtzee's review. It felt like Far Cry all over again, with the foliage that only blocks MY view, the ridonkulous AI and... well, I didn't even bother trying to drive a vehicle in the demo, as the horrors of Far Cry's Jeep O' Doom still linger in my mind.

Pretty much exactly how I felt when I played the demo. Gameplay felt a lot like Far Cry, but the features of the suit was a fun idea, with the wedgies an' all. Otherwise so many annoyances like guns that feel inaccurate whilst your enemies can see and hit you from miles away, despite being stupid. Example: a bunch followed me down to a beach and got themselves stuck against some rocks, until I fired some bullets into the sea nearby (I was trying to take some heads off). They paid close attention to the water spray of each shot... Also the way they generally love to split up when searching the jungle for the hidden killer. Idiots.

The main bit that got me was the fact that you play a rookie. A rookie special forces guy. A rookie equiped with the most advanced technology they have. Think about that...why the expletive would you send a rookie into a mission like that?!? Definately the joke squad...

I'm not sure why everyone's complaining about the requirements, though. I'm running a dual-core CPU and an 8800GT- a tad expensive (at $280), but not the $600 monsters the "gaming geeks" drool over. Yet I played the Crysis demo with some rather impressive bells and whistles turned on and still maintained a playable framerate.

The super graphics are the most hyped part of the game...which extensive examinations by hardware sites have shown that even the top current hardware cannot achieve semi-decent (25+fps) framerates at high/very high... Yahtzee's comment about it being designed for a "hypothetical future computer from space" about sums it up. If your target audience does not have or cannot afford hardware required to run your game, then you've just screwed yourself regardless of how good your game is...

(Side note: Did anyone else find it absolutely bizarre that the North Koreans only spoke Korean on the absolute hardest difficulty level? [And don't get me started on that pidgin English crap. I mean, JEEZ.] How often do you have to hear "Open fire!" in Korean before you figure out it means that the hurty time is about to start?)

Yeah...I thought that too...it's not like what they say is even important, all you need to know is that if they start yelling you're probably in for it...

 

[mrbunny]

hmmm found this review with little depth - however, might be a reflection of the game... errr maybe?

 

[sfried]

I want to make it last forever.

Thank God I'm not the only one who recognized that song...

It would be awsome