Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Crysis 2′s Shocking Tech Compromise: Proof

By John Walker on March 29th, 2011 at 1:06 pm.

It's just hideous.

Having played Crysis 2, the latest from the former technical innovators at Crytek, I have to express that I’m not only horrified, but also shocked, at the paucity of graphical accomplishments in what should have been a groundbreaking game. It’s quite clear that massive compromises have been made in order to keep the console market happy, meaning the PC version of the game is crippled to the point where it’s literally impossible to look at without feeling physically sick. I have put together some detailed analysis of the differences between CryEngine 2 and CryEngine 3, to prove that the developers have let everyone down.

First of all, let’s take a look at the technical range.

Crysis, built in the CryEngine 2, was capable of a 32.2m pixel spread across a 12 joule range, displayed in a dynamically generated four-part volumetric resource buffer. This meant a broad spectrum resonance in the upper 40s, with significant occlusion.

However, when we perform our benchmark tests on the CryEngine 3, it registers only 32.1m pixels in the 12J, reducing the BSR to a measly 43, with almost negligible ambience.

Clearly we've rounded down here.

But it gets worse once you include the Verticle [sic] Sync Module. CryEngine 2 was praised by for its revolutionary VSM, significantly upscaling especially on NVidia chipsets. When we take a look at the CE3 VSM figures they reveal a significant drop in upscaling, and a worrying trend demonstrating an increase in downscaling.

This doesn't take into account but we believe significantly increases for the end.

So how does this translate in real terms? Well, let’s take a look at a simple in-game object, a basic crate model. In order to remain impartial we’ve selected boxes appearing in darker areas. Here’s Crysis:

A wooden model.

And here’s Crysis 2:

And a cardboard model.

At first glance the textures in Crysis 2 may look improved, with the appearance of more detail, and a slightly more realistic look. Certainly if you were only to run past them that may be the impression you’re left with. But let’s take a closer look at what’s really going on here.

Here’s the Crysis texture:

At a 45 factor.

And here’s the reality of the Crysis 2 texture:

Also at 45, but with deliberate smoothing.

As you can see there’s absolutely no comparison, the Crysis 2 “cardboard box” barely featuring a fifth of the parametric mesh generation of its predecessor, unquestionably as a result of the PS3′s weaker OpenMP.

That’s at a micro scale, but the same deficiencies appear on a macro scale. For instance, let’s take a look at a scene from near the beginning of Crysis:

The full scale retro-backlighting really shines here.

And now a scene a similar distance into Crysis 2:

Just a complete failure of occlusion.

Immediately you’ll notice not only a downturn in colour (almost 32.3% by our benchmark), but also a significant reduction in flora. It’s quite clear that the development of CryEngine 3 for the consoles has led to a devastating effect on the in-game environments, lowered ambient conditions for both AI and NPCs (inevitably as a result of the 360′s eDRAM chip), and a raise in carbon production by over 300%. With Crysis having supported DX12, and Crysis 2 not even shipping with DX11 support, it’s nothing short of a disgrace.

At the time of writing Crytek have refused to respond to any of the points made above, and it’s pretty obvious why.

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386 Comments »

  1. 29/03/2011 at 13:10 bleeters says:

    Pitchforks and torches time.

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:23 sneetch says:

      The first man takes a pitchfork, the second man takes a torch. When the man with the pitchfork dies the man with the torch picks up the pitchfork. The first man takes a…

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:27 President Weasel says:

      Time to Crate metric for this story – depends how fast you read, really, and if you’re skimming it or following hte important technical details. Let’s call it 40 seconds. THIS IS A TERRIBLE ARTICLE.

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:35 Lars Westergren says:

      Pitchforks indeed! I am one of two people on this planet with EIGHT graphics cards on a motherboard. I DEMAND Crytek validate my purchase by optimizing their engine to take FULL advantage of this! Anything less would be the greatest injustice in human history.

      People these days don’t seem to understand what makes a game good. *shakes head sadly*

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:41 Hoaxfish says:

      I think Crysis has its own exploding barrel metrics

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:43 Imbecile says:

      Don’t you understand?! Its not about whether the game is any good, its about whether its notably better than the console version. That, and the CE3 VSM figures

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:45 Maltose says:

      I didn’t know we were both hipsters and gamers.

    • 29/03/2011 at 14:23 Hanban says:

      It’s not really about if it’s better than the previous game, or if it’s better than the console versions, at all. It’s about the fact that it’s multiplatform. Which is HORRIBLE.

      (I don’t think it is, I like Crysis 2)

  2. 29/03/2011 at 13:11 c-Row says:

    Uh… what? Is it April 1st already?

  3. 29/03/2011 at 13:11 Chufty says:

    The funniest thing is, people actually think like this.

    And some didn’t get the joke at all.

  4. 29/03/2011 at 13:12 Mr. Mojo Risin says:

    Interesting analysis, although I guess maybe not that surprising unfortunately. Modders will enhance the textures and whatnot like they did with Crysis 1 though? A shame that usually modders nowadays mean so much to the PC Gaming community (*cough* would I have spent 150h on Oblivion without mods? *cough*) and they don’t get enough credit.

  5. 29/03/2011 at 13:12 Hallgrim says:

    Crysis 1 and Crysis 2 use the same pixel size? UNACCEPTABLE!

  6. 29/03/2011 at 13:12 MaXimillion says:

    Sounds legit

  7. 29/03/2011 at 13:13 ZIGS says:

    Checkpoints. That is all

  8. 29/03/2011 at 13:13 terry says:

    Also it installed something called a Voodoo 2 driver, does anyone know what that is?

    EDIT: It won’t run at all now. It keeps asking for the Workbench disk.

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:19 The Colonel says:

      It only works if you have two drives. Boot into DOS and type A:/Setup, but you have to have the second disk already in the B:/ drive.

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:32 terry says:

      It played the theme to “Yie Ar Kung Fu” and crashed. I hate this game!!

    • 29/03/2011 at 16:56 Lars Westergren says:

      Did you try typing
      load “*” ,8,1
      ?

      You should definitely get The Final Cartridge 3 and plug in though. You can use it to add an extra vertex edge to every voxel spline, Crysis looks amazingly better with it, better than DirectX 11 even. I don’t know why it wasn’t included from the start – probably the programmers were lazy or if they just dumbed it down for the consoles?

  9. 29/03/2011 at 13:13 Astalano says:

    Not sure if serious…

  10. 29/03/2011 at 13:13 Dominic White says:

    Oh dear. Woke up on the wrong side of the bed?

  11. 29/03/2011 at 13:13 Bats says:

    Crysis 2 also punched a baby, something Crysis 1 never did, and I saw it!

    In other news, quit bitching, it’s still a damn good game, and I daresay it flows and is way more invovling than the first one, which was a mess really. Hopefully they’ll release that DX11 patch soon enough so I can actually take advantage of my video card.

  12. 29/03/2011 at 13:13 sana says:

    Heh. Heh.

    Someone ate a clown for breakfast, eh.

  13. 29/03/2011 at 13:13 Nighthood says:

    Although this is a silly article, it’s interesting to see the way that Crytek have made Crysis 2. For a start, the default FOV is 55. Fifty five. If you manually change it to something respectable, like 75 or 90, you get hideous amounts of clipping and see through bodies and things. It’s really not right that a game apparently made for PC should have such a console-based setting like that.

    Also the fact you have to download a separate program to modify graphics settings. That’s never good.

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:22 Monchberter says:

      Fifty FIVE? That’s like opening the ends of a cereal box and mounting it on your face.

      Shite.

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:22 Bantros says:

      It uses vertical FOV not horizontal, so it is actually 80. Putting in 90 is actually the equivalent to 120…

      Also you don’t have to download a program, yes it maybe be easier but true PC gamers know how to use the console

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:33 ceebux says:

      Ban this sick filth!

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:57 Shatners Bassoon says:

      @Bantros. Ahh I thought I shouldn’t be getting bloody fisheye at those numbers. Time to use the BFBC2 FoV calculator then! Huzzah! So people don’t have to go looking here are some resolutions. Console command “cl_fov #”

      Desired FoV – Input FoV
      85 – 55
      90 – 59
      95 – 64
      100 – 68

      You get the picture.

    • 29/03/2011 at 18:09 oceanclub says:

      Ah, that makes sense. I wondered why, when I changed FOV from 55 to 90 using that third-party app, it seems like I was looking thru a fishbowl.

      Am still too early into Crysis 2 to give a real judgement, but I think it looks great _and_ runs extremely well. Even with my new 460 Ti card, Crysis 1 still runs like a dog on medium settings. Super-large textures are all very well, but not if only a fraction of the gaming population benefit from them while the rest suffer.

      P.

    • 29/03/2011 at 18:17 benjaminlobato says:

      You all realize that Mr. Walker was making fun of discussions like this right?

    • 29/03/2011 at 23:28 mwoody says:

      You’ll have to excuse us if we appear nerdy while trying to avoid feeling queasy playing computer games.

  14. 29/03/2011 at 13:14 The Colonel says:

    Bored, John?

  15. 29/03/2011 at 13:14 Diziet Sma says:

    Pffft…… :D Nice.

  16. 29/03/2011 at 13:14 Kaira- says:

    My eyes bleed, such ugliness.

  17. 29/03/2011 at 13:14 Longrat says:

    I smiled

  18. 29/03/2011 at 13:15 Greg Wild says:

    This… This is an outrage!

    Fuck Cameron, it’s Yerli we should all be breaking out the balaclavas and bike helmets out for.

  19. 29/03/2011 at 13:15 Mungrul says:

    Thank you John, that gave me a good chuckle, especially your “Start to crate” homage :D

  20. 29/03/2011 at 13:15 alh_p says:

    An argument handsomely and classily substantiated.

    Very good John. I like your graphs.

    You strike me as a man with his head screwed on right. I could do with a man like you in my biofuel plant. How do you feel about getting handy with some bovine excrement?

  21. 29/03/2011 at 13:16 Dominic White says:

    This article made me laugh.

    This comment thread quickly confirmed to me that Crytek have this near-mystical ability to turn almost everyone into grumpy fun-hating curmudgeons. Like some kind of horrible internet-borne midas touch. What hath science (and graphics card technology) wrought!?

  22. 29/03/2011 at 13:16 fionny says:

    Im confused….

  23. 29/03/2011 at 13:16 BrendanJB says:

    How are you people taking this seriously hahah?

    Brilliant article is brilliant.

  24. 29/03/2011 at 13:17 kastanok says:

    So is this a rip at a specific article or a general attitude?

  25. 29/03/2011 at 13:18 Warth0g says:

    Heh excellent…

  26. 29/03/2011 at 13:18 Bantros says:

    Fantastic, you should write for Digital Foundry.

    Having seen countless threads like this I am glad this pressing matter has gotten the attention it deserves!

    Although it would’ve been sweeter if you had told Cevat Yerli to choke on his flaccid member and demanded your money back like a well known tech site did

  27. 29/03/2011 at 13:18 weego says:

    This clearly would never have happened if the Government gave tax breaks to games companies. This is big. No bigger than big… Huge. And it’s been blown open like a clowns changing room door.

  28. 29/03/2011 at 13:19 MadMinstrel says:

    I don’t get why it’s suddenly so fashionable to ridicule people who are genuinely interested in technology. These are the same people who actually write your games. It’s understandable that most gamers don’t care about buffers, occlusion, etc. – they just want their games to look pretty and run smooth. I totally get that. But to make fun of people just because they can actually understand what those things are and want to have some fun analyzing the newest high-end engine and perhaps learn something along the way is going a bit far. I find this joke article to be in poor taste.

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:29 Schmung says:

      I took it more as a jab at the kind of people who winge on about this sort of thing and drop in all these terms without any clue what they’re talking about rather than a a dig at the likes of Digital Foundry.

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:39 gganate says:

      You’re a little thick, buddy. They’re not making fun of programmers and tech oriented people; they’ve lambasting the kind of folks who freak out about some irrelevant feature that they’re sure was left out just to spite them. For example, the whole “crisis” over why there’s no DirectX 10 or 11 in Crysis 2. Does it really matter? It’s obvious the game looks at least as good as the original.

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:40 Alec Meer says:

      Digital Foundry is the blacksmith of the future, and a hero. This is not related to that.

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:50 Ergates_Antius says:

      Also, “poor taste”, really? Really??

      Jokes about drowned Japanese people, or murdered womenwould be in poor taste.

      Either you need to learn a sense of perspective, or you need to learn the what poor taste means.

    • 29/03/2011 at 14:12 Tyshalle says:

      I really don’t understand why people are so eager to play the victim that they’d completely misconstrue the point of an article just so that they can take offense to it.

      The article has nothing to do with tech people. It has everything to do with the fact that Crysis 2 is a beautiful, beautiful game, and the nerds who try to justify naysaying this do so with a whole lot of unconvincing jargon that can be completely ignored in favor of just looking at some pictures.

    • 29/03/2011 at 17:22 Zogtee says:

      No, I sort of agree with the OP and if you read it without your RPS fanboy glasses on, it’s just not funny. The Onion would have binned it.

    • 29/03/2011 at 18:34 Ergates_Antius says:

      No. The OP is wrong not because he didn’t find it funny (humour is obviously very subjective), but simply because he mis-identified the target of the joke.

      It’s not about people who understand the tech, or about articles that do in-depth analysis of the tech. It’s a dig at the people who go into frothing mouthed rage about such things, and declare games ruined or unplayable due to some barely perceptable setting they think should have been done differently.

  29. 29/03/2011 at 13:19 Inph says:

    What is this? The Onion!?

  30. 29/03/2011 at 13:19 Anarki says:

    Very funny and all but a bit dismissive of the good work Digital Foundry do, I actually find their articles really interesting and useful…

    If anyone else is interested Digital Foundry did an article about Crysis 2 here http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-tech-comparison-crysis2

  31. 29/03/2011 at 13:20 ShiftyParadigm says:

    I care.

    I don’t want to miss out on any broad spectrum resonance!

  32. 29/03/2011 at 13:20 Imbecile says:

    Nice :P.

    I’m still a little bewildered that some pc gamers are getting quite as involved about the changes in Crysis.

    I’m guessing its because for a long time Crysis was a benchmark for PC graphical superiority, and arguably still is. You needed a ridiculously high end pc to play Crysis initially, and I guess the sort of person who owns that kind of uber machine, might be the sort of person who gets very upset about any kind of technological compromise?

  34. 29/03/2011 at 13:23 Navagon says:

    It’s good to see that crates are back at the forefront of testing a game’s quality.

  35. 29/03/2011 at 13:23 darthmajor says:

    This is wonderful, i love you RPS.

    @ the “DX11 patch soon so I can actually take advantage of my video card.” crowd
    Cause right now you gpu is just chilling. And how DARE the game look so well without taking ‘advantage’ (meaning it uses at least one of the barely/un-noticeable effects) of your video card! You payed good money for . So what if it’s one of the neatest looking games on the market atm, it sucks without DX11!

    I don’t like the “it doesn’t use xyz so it must look like shit (even if it doesn’t)” people :(

    • 29/03/2011 at 16:43 Milky1985 says:

      Erm funny you mention that cause theres a rumor gonig around that crytek are backing out of the DX11 patch as theres something about it being delayed on eurogamer – its beeing made a bit more credible by a lack of proper denial by EA (who could have just said “theres been no offical annoucement”, you would expect them to say “the dx11 patch is coing out soon but we have no offical date” if they were going to do something)

      http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-03-29-crysis-2s-directx-11-patch-in-doubt

  36. 29/03/2011 at 13:23 Mr Pink says:

    I’m not sure I can imagine a more perfect first reply to this story :D

  37. 29/03/2011 at 13:24 Jajusha says:

    Does it have powerup crates?

  38. 29/03/2011 at 13:24 Tei says:

    I hope Crysis 2 has a “normal texture resolution” pack, with textures in PC resolution.
    The game has ben released with half the Crysis 1 texture resolution.
    Or maybe I am making a joke.
    Postdata:
    Relevant thread on the HardOCP forum

    Postdata2:
    Ugly graphics

  39. 29/03/2011 at 13:24 sonofsanta says:

    So what more pressing work are you avoiding this time?

  40. 29/03/2011 at 13:26 Man Raised by Puffins says:

    I’m not sure why you’ve focused on Occlusion based metrics here, John. The most alarming aspect of CryEngine 3 is that it increases Disillusion by 97.894% in 8 out of 10 surprised Koreans.

  41. 29/03/2011 at 13:27 thepaleking says:

    Yes I had to stop playing the game, and promptly vomited, when I realized there were only 1021.3 pixels per liter of 23rj xRam. I didn’t buy 5 GPUs and 6 monitors to play a console game.

  42. 29/03/2011 at 13:27 Bhazor says:

    @ Simon1987

    Hmm… not sure if serious or trolling.

  43. 29/03/2011 at 13:27 Inigo says:

    Crysis, built in the CryEngine 2, was capable of a 32.2m pixel spread across a 12 joule range, displayed in a dynamically generated four-part volumetric resource buffer. This meant a broad spectrum resonance in the upper 40s, with significant occlusion.

    However, when we perform our benchmark tests on the CryEngine 3, it registers only 32.1m pixels in the 12J, reducing the BSR to a measly 43, with almost negligible ambience.

    You’re supposed to reverse the polarity.
    Duh.

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:57 Matchstick says:

      You’re supposed to reverse the polarity.
      Duh.

      That only works of you have a neutron flow in the first place and being a shoddy console port Crytek didn’t bother.

    • 29/03/2011 at 14:30 Hanban says:

      Don’t forget to mention that you must increase the electron capacitor flow to turn on the metaelectrical spectrometer machine so that you can get some sweet sweet particle effects from the sun.

      I’m sorry I didn’t understand a word you wrote! :(

    • 29/03/2011 at 16:11 Gonefornow says:

      They jettisoned the standard neutron flow capacitors and went straight for the Flux capacitor.
      It triples the amount of god beams, you see.

  44. 29/03/2011 at 13:27 tomeoftom says:

    So, so, so good. Thank you John Walker.

  45. 29/03/2011 at 13:28 Emperor_Jimmu says:

    I like the unit-less toothpaste advert/Daily Mail graphs, nice touch.

  46. 29/03/2011 at 13:29 crainey92 says:

    “Sickly enjoying watching the comments car-crash” says Alec, teehee.

  47. 29/03/2011 at 13:29 VA1N says:

    It’s hilarious how people are getting out their pitchforks without realizing the point of the article. I guess they missed these lines: “Immediately you’ll notice not only a downturn in colour (almost 32.3% by our benchmark), but also a significant reduction in flora. It’s quite clear that the development of CryEngine 3 for the consoles has led to a devastating effect on the in-game environments, lowered ambient conditions for both AI and NPCs (inevitably as a result of the 360′s eDRAM chip), and a raise in carbon production by over 300%”

  48. 29/03/2011 at 13:31 runbmp says:

    Maybe we can do a part two on physics and AI in Crysis 2? ah hell, just let the shit game die already.

  49. 29/03/2011 at 13:31 DeanLearner says:

    You’d think after years of development there would be some change in this, but my studies show that.

    Number of sides of a cube that can be shown at once.
    Cryengine 1 : 3
    Cryengine 3 : 3

    Quite laughably it is still 3.

  50. 29/03/2011 at 13:32 ceebux says:

    Woosh.

  51. 29/03/2011 at 13:33 gorgol says:

    Even though this is a quite funny WTF/troll/joke article, Simon1987 is 100% correct in his assesment of both games.

  52. 29/03/2011 at 13:33 cybernomad says:

    I find it quite shocking, how many people feel in all seriousness insulted by crytek trying to get the same look & feel on all platforms. I am glad they abandoned the crysis 1 appoach of incredible graphics for elitist gamers with enough money to buy the newest gaming rig every year. Sure, they could have put in some optional higher resolution textures in the pc version and some more options to individualise the experience. But I think we should be glad, that crytek didn’t abandon the pc as platform (like so many high budget developers) and instead tried hard to get the same game at the same time in the same quality on all plattforms. So, thanks for showing how ridiculous this technical detail shit really is and how it says nothing at all about the quality of a game as a game.

  53. 29/03/2011 at 13:33 Kefren says:

    This is more serious than people realise. That broad spectrum resonance failing is likely to lead to a resonance cascade scenario.

  54. 29/03/2011 at 13:34 Stevostin says:

    It’s a joke, right ?

    - 32.2 to 32.1, is that really a big difference ?
    - the zoom on crates – does it really show anything ?
    - “less vegetation” made me really think “ok, JW is playing with us”.

    If it’s not a joke, I *strongly* suggest beefing up the argument. But really, I thing it’s a joke ;-)

  55. 29/03/2011 at 13:35 WMain00 says:

    On a 1 to crate review system, how good is Crysis 2?

    That’s what’s important to me.

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:48 HermitUK says:

      Crysis 2 has expanded the original game’s already ample selection of crates and containers. Wooden packing crates, cardboard boxes, explosive barrels and ammo boxes are all present and correct. Add to this all new biohazard containers and the wide variety of smaller boxed products such as cereals, and I think you’ll agree Crysis 2 hits the Crate mark right off the bat.

      Where Crysis 2 really innovates in the crate department, however, is through its use of shipping containers. These are crates big enough for you to STAND INSIDE. The scale is impressive. What’s more, there’s often smaller crates stored inside these metal colossi. Crates inside crates, my friend. It’s a thing of beauty.

    • 29/03/2011 at 15:36 KuroHayabusa says:

      Crateception!

    • 29/03/2011 at 15:47 MajorManiac says:

      I always had crate expectations for this game…

    • 29/03/2011 at 18:51 tomeoftom says:

      Seems Crytek have really crated something special with this one.

  56. 29/03/2011 at 13:36 dray says:

    Crappy tech aside, it doesn’t hide the fact the game is mediocre at best. What I don’t understand is the amount of gushing reviews it’s receiving, it’s a waste of time and money, and a by the numbers console linear experience. I downloaded a “copy” to see if it was worth buying, after forcing myself to play it for a couple of hours to give it a chance I had to uninstall it, my hdd space would be better spent on Myst.

  57. 29/03/2011 at 13:38 cmi says:

    pure win.

  58. 29/03/2011 at 13:39 godgoo says:

    @… oh hang on i’m not comfortable writing that

  59. 29/03/2011 at 13:39 Phoshi says:

    I actually disagree, crysis was a decent game. Better than most of the generic manshoots of the day, for sure.

  60. 29/03/2011 at 13:40 dangermouse76 says:

    Personally I see consoles as an element of the gaming market and therefore the evening out of the visual experience for parity between formats ( Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation etc ) to be a function of the market.
    I am more worried about decent AI development and a compelling narrative. If it’s dedicated to the PC and uses all the bells and whistles it can bring then that’s great. I read a piece by the Todd Howard ( Bethesda ) saying every iteration of there Elderscrolls series they try to treat as a separate iteration from the previous one.

    He was talking at this point about the game-play, graphics and UI approach at this point. I believe he was saying that we don’t try to make the same great game every time we try to make a new game in the series.

    I think this will inevitably split opinion ( which is normal ). For me Crysis 2 is a different game to Crysis.
    I like Crysis having played Crysis 2 , for me the AI is a bit scuppered but it’s a good FPS.
    The graphics element does not bother me at all. It would of when I was younger. I would have felt they have betrayed everything that ( the fans made them into blah blah etc etc ) made the game / company / ideology so strong.

    I don’t work like that anymore. I see company’s that feel they need to develop multi platform to make money and this is there implementation of that.
    PS, fun article.

    • 29/03/2011 at 14:26 thebigJ_A says:

      7. Man, I’m losing faith in humanity here.

    • 29/03/2011 at 14:58 dangermouse76 says:

      Your right I could be wrong do you have the time to convince why I should care. Please convert me with your glistening tech prose………

    • 29/03/2011 at 15:01 dangermouse76 says:

      Yes it’s a joke. I am not replying to the writer but outwardly to graphics whores.
      YOU don’t get it seems thanks well done.You are part of the great ” It’s on the net whats the context ” live audience participation program.
      Here’s your Blankety Blank cheque book and pen.

  61. 29/03/2011 at 13:41 mitor says:

    I think the main problem (except for the obvious humour failures) is that people can’t accept:

    a) Crysis 1 was a good game that was over-shadowed by it’s own graphics similar to Quake 1

    b) Crytek felt that the PC platform was no longer enough due to piracy, partly with reason.

    c) It’s a far safer bet to program for consoles

    and

    d) The real down side is that the game is much more linear. The graphics are broadly comparable; after the roasting that Crysis got from some quarters, it seems likely that Crysis 2 wouldn’t have been as demanding even if it was a PC exclusive.

    We may have to wait to the next gen of consoles to see a massive increase in scope and graphics.

    Oh, and does anyone know why there is a ‘press to start’ screen on any machine? It bugs me when I’m playing on consoles as much as the PC. What the hell is it for nowadays?

    • 29/03/2011 at 14:37 Hanban says:

      Mine says press Enter. If you’re referring to starting Crysis 2

    • 29/03/2011 at 14:54 subedii says:

      Pretty much agree with points A, B, C, and especially D.

      The sad thing isn’t the graphics, it’s that they’ve moved away from the awesome gameplay template that the original had.

      Still, I guess a lot of people hated that template, judging by the comments and the reviews.

  62. 29/03/2011 at 13:41 gganate says:

    my biggest complaint with Crysis 2 is that it didn’t allow me to continue my genocidal rampage against the Korean people.

  63. 29/03/2011 at 13:43 Symbul says:

    I’d probably be more upset if I knew what any of those numbers really mean.

  64. 29/03/2011 at 13:44 Oak says:

    Disappointingly, Crysis 2 features a mere 5,000 polygons per krundle.

  65. 29/03/2011 at 13:45 Lambchops says:

    Walker “I swear that Richard leadbetter bloke looked at me funny in the pub last night . . . I’ll show him, What the hell is a Digital Foundry anyway? What happened to good old fashioned metal. All games should be made from bronze computers in the future . . . maybe I wont talk about that they might think me mad!”

    I’ve got nothing against these styles of articles, I tend not to read them as I’m not part of the technically minded target audience. The problem with them is neither are most of the people who comment on them and they just become fuel to the fire of console wars or justification for needless whining from folk with over inflated senses of entitlement.

    Anyway, nice parody, made me giggle, esecially the graphs. Graphs are important.

  66. 29/03/2011 at 13:45 WASD says:

    “At the time of writing Crytek have refused to respond to any of the points made above”. But you had pictures and words and everything!?

    “Immediately you’ll notice not only a downturn in colour (almost 32.3% by our benchmark), but also a significant reduction in flora.” : )

    Good stuff John.

  67. 29/03/2011 at 13:45 gganate says:

    Reading the comments, I think maybe 50 percent of this site’s readership is completely humorless and/or terribly confused as to what sarcasm is.

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:46 WASD says:

      I was just thinking that! : )

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:53 dangermouse76 says:

      I have only been reading at this site for about a month or two ( my bad ) but it definitely took me till near the end of the article to think ” oh wait a minute “.
      Once you know someones humor and writing style it’s all gravy.

    • 29/03/2011 at 13:59 Ergates_Antius says:

      There are far more comments from people criticising others for not getting the joke than than are comments from people who have actually failed to “get it”.

    • 29/03/2011 at 15:00 subedii says:

      Yeah I don’t understand that either.

      There are actually very few comments that missed the point, and yet lots of people raging against a multitudinous mass of phantom posters who are actually taking this article seriously.

      I mean are some of these posts getting deleted or something? Is that why I’m missing them?

    • 29/03/2011 at 15:06 The Colonel says:

      It seems to me that the people who are deriding others stupidity for “not getting it” are the ones failing to realise when other people are being sarcastic and playing along with the joke. Additionally, many of these comments are going off on related tangents rather than talking about the article, so don’t treat them as such.

  68. 29/03/2011 at 13:46 skinlo says:

    Pff, noobs all of you, I got Crysis 2 to run on my calculator just by overclocking it a little.

  69. 29/03/2011 at 13:46 Eclipse says:

    wait, it’s not 1st April isn’t it?

    Good trolling anyway, I was like “WTF” for the first three rows, then “Ah ok it’s fake” and skipped to watch the pictures, lolled at that “Verticle Sync” stuff

  70. 29/03/2011 at 13:46 Perrin says:

    As a game developer I’m very offended by this article as I feel the author’s personal bias has led him to misrepresent the numbers. I notice the initial caption shows only 34 degrees of occlusion which looks like a reduction from the level of occlusion in the original Crysis. However as any game developer knows occlusion is measured in radians, not degrees and using a more appropriate scale you can see that there is actually more occlusion going on than before.

    I demand a correction!

  71. 29/03/2011 at 13:50 faelnor says:

    That was nothing short of hilarious. Thanks to you, John Walker, anyone who feels the need to criticize Crytek’s stance on platform importance and multiplatform compromises will be thoroughly mocked, as they should. Much needed.

  72. 29/03/2011 at 13:52 mondomau says:

    Never stop trolling, John. I love you for it.

  73. 29/03/2011 at 13:52 Flint says:

    I disagree as well, Crysis was an excellent game and I find it a great shame that even today its technical properties hog all the attention from its excellent gameplay.

  74. 29/03/2011 at 13:56 Muzman says:

    Thank you for speaking up about this travesty. The other sites are all corporate lackeys too pissweak to tell the truth of the matter.
    CrySomeMoretech have completely sold out to M$ and the XBucks. They’re so removed from the PC scene now I bet they don’t even understand the specs of the latest in video card tech (picking up two of these to SLI in April)

    • 29/03/2011 at 14:31 thebigJ_A says:

      Oooh, good one. So good I very nearly counted you as nine. Then I realised, and clicking confirmed. it. “Dingle-arm” lol.

      Bravo, sir.

    • 29/03/2011 at 15:03 dangermouse76 says:

      thebigJ_A says:
      March 29, 2011 at 2:31 pm

      Oooh, good one. So good I very nearly counted you as nine. Then I realised, and clicking confirmed. it. “Dingle-arm” lol.

      Bravo, sir.

      Ouch that’s a bad one though. ( bites knuckles ).

  75. 29/03/2011 at 14:00 Mephisto says:

    lol the PC is carp. My Xbix consul 4eva m8.

  76. 29/03/2011 at 14:01 Tyshalle says:

    Pretty damn funny, though.

  77. 29/03/2011 at 14:02 Alextended says:

    Yay, RPS is turning into Destructoid for PC, awesome. Crysis 2 looks like Crysis at best, a four year old game. So, no, it didn’t do what the original did in technology, scale, or even gameplay thanks to the limited environments.

    People who call Crysis boring probably couldn’t understand how to play a game with little handholding, hence they love the more Call of Duty esque experience of 2.

    There’s nothing wrong with that, but I see no reason to mock people who don’t.

    There’s also nothing wrong with expecting a company like Crytek and EA who have more than enough resources to make the best of every platform their product will appear on. Battlefield 3 will try to, so it has little to do with compromises made for consoles and everything to do with compromises made specifically against the PC.

    It even goes beyond the main game itself with the lack of mapping/modding tools (some of which were available in the leak, so it’s not that they didn’t have time to do them) in favor of only allowing paid DLC made by themselves. That’s just not right folks, DLC sells even when there’ s fan made content while the latter helps the main game sell as Valve products proudly showcase.

    Personally I greatly enjoyed the campaign, aside from things like AI glitches and horrible bugs that should have never made it past QA on any platform.

    I’m most saddened by the multiplayer which is just Call of Duty with nanosuit powers (and has annoying match finding and starting interface, very console like despite the inclusion of dedicated servers), by the lack of modding tools (fans could have expanded on the campaign fun in many awesome ways) and by the lack of customisation as I honestly think with a few more tweaks here and there I could get a little better performance & quality ratio on my modest PC.

    Oh well, maybe the patch will help a little, if it arrives before the momentum dies.

    • 29/03/2011 at 14:23 mondomau says:

      Your post is almost is almost as incomprehensible as Walker’s article. I hope it, too, is a joke.

    • 29/03/2011 at 14:33 thebigJ_A says:

      tl;dr. therefore I’m counting it as 9.

    • 29/03/2011 at 15:08 Centy says:

      It’s why I so rarely read his articles

    • 30/03/2011 at 14:13 Milky1985 says:

      “How could John saying that Crysis 2 is “literally impossible to look at without feeling physically sick” not clue you into the joke?”

      Because this is the language people sometimes use if they feel strongly about something :p

      “Serious news site? Did you miss yesterday’s extended dissertation (and 100+ comment thread) on biscuits?”

      Did you miss the part of my comment above where i said (inc. the spelling mistakes) “it tends to bea pesudo serious new site”

      Never said fully serious mate, ironic that your comment was below a comment about reading stuff fully :p

  78. 29/03/2011 at 14:03 Scorch says:

    At first I thought I was on /r/VXJunkies. Brilliant article.

    Though the screenshots of the crates brought forward another thought comparing Crysis 1 to numero 2. The environment destruction is nowhere near the level of Crysis 1. That gives me a sad, but expected when you have a multiplatform game. I have yet to see a game on a console that included the level of physics destruction that Crysis 1 (or even Half Life 2) had.

  79. 29/03/2011 at 14:04 Octaeder says:

    Good of you to point this out…

    I was initially confused by all the laughing I did.

  80. 29/03/2011 at 14:04 dux says:

    Please don’t feed the trolls.

    Seriously.

  81. 29/03/2011 at 14:11 KilgoreTrout_XL says:

    I think your POS019 values are way off.

  82. 29/03/2011 at 14:11 gorgol says:

    dux: the only people trolling in this particular comment thread are John and you.

  83. 29/03/2011 at 14:13 itsallcrap says:

    It’s kind of depressing to see how many RPS readers failed to immediately realise this was a piss-take from having seen any of those stats.

    The pattern is so unreadable, you might as well draw in a chain of fox-heads on sticks.

    • 29/03/2011 at 14:19 Ergates_Antius says:

      Is it really? Count the number of comments from people who have genuinely failed to realise this was a joke. (I count 4 definately and 2 unsures).
      Also, if you needed to check the stats to realise this was a pisstake then you have failed. If title and header picture weren’t enough of a clue, the first 2 sentences should have given it away.

    • 29/03/2011 at 14:21 James G says:

      I think references to the pattern were more an excuse to make a Brass Eye reference than anything else.

    • 29/03/2011 at 16:52 Milky1985 says:

      The problem comes from a lack of expectation of a joke, it tends to bea pesudo serious new site (with mores focus on the news), but also i think it comes from the use of random numbers that people don’t understand so just take at face value (and the fact that the conclusion drawn is correct just has bollock numbers to back it up in this article :P )

      When I saw the graphs and stuff I assumed it was real as it had stuff i knew about (occlusion) but mixed in with stuff i didn’t so assuming it was just in more depth and technical (that and reading it when i shouldn’t be reading it so glacing back and forth), i assume a few other peopel would have been the same until they saw the comments (and the screenshots use to compare make it a bit more obvious to a skim reader that something is up!)

    • 29/03/2011 at 18:37 benjaminlobato says:

      I’m convinced that many of those who comment on RPS (not only on this article), just barely skim the article before posting their comments. How could John saying that Crysis 2 is “literally impossible to look at without feeling physically sick” not clue you into the joke?

    • 29/03/2011 at 18:39 Daiv says:

      @Milky1985: Serious news site? Did you miss yesterday’s extended dissertation (and 100+ comment thread) on biscuits?

  84. 29/03/2011 at 14:18 HermitUK says:

    The alt text on the images is priceless.

  85. 29/03/2011 at 14:21 Keza MacDonald says:

    This is exactly what I see when I read any tech comment article, because I am stupid and only ever understand maybe about 20-30% of the words on the page. Thankyou for letting me know I am not alone.

  86. 29/03/2011 at 14:24 Yargh says:

    ‘Just a complete failure of occlusion’
    Thank you John, never stop doing this.

  87. 29/03/2011 at 14:25 Latterman says:

    But does it make me coffee?

  88. 29/03/2011 at 14:27 HelderPinto says:

    ah ah ah, best evar!

  89. 29/03/2011 at 14:32 Laurentius says:

    Funny, especially occlusion :)

    PS. Still making fun of Digital Foundry because thay are smarter then you, a bit low…

    • 29/03/2011 at 14:35 John Walker says:

      Poor Digital Foundry! I look upon that with the same sort of confused reverence I do an article about wave-function duality. As fun as it would be to tease, it’s not the target here at all!

    • 29/03/2011 at 14:41 Laurentius says:

      @JW

      Certainly DF may not be butt of a joke here but graphs shows they are made fun of too..

    • 29/03/2011 at 15:07 Nick says:

      Pretty sure graphs have been used by people other than Digital Foundry. Including John in some of his other not so serious articles on this very site. Shocking I know, but graphs have actually been around for quite a long time!

    • 29/03/2011 at 15:16 shoptroll says:

      I doubt it’s less aimed at DF and more aimed at the people who are arguing about technical points like they’re the only things that matter and without understanding what those technical things mean. In other words, angry internet people.

    • 29/03/2011 at 15:32 Oak says:

      Digital Foundry invented graphs in 1754.

    • 29/03/2011 at 15:56 Unaco says:

      I use graphs. A lot. In fact, I’m learning about Bode graphs today. This means that you are mocking me Mr. Walker? Shame on you! Expect to hear from my attorney! I think he wants to play Golf with someone.

    • 29/03/2011 at 16:03 Laurentius says:

      @…
      Oh c’mon, of course it’s partially directed at DF, why so much denial…it’s like a little mocking and teasing DF style would be oh so horrible but that’s not what i said (and JW actully confirmed). I just think that joke would be much better if person making fun of DF style knows the stuff theses guys write theirs articles about…

    • 29/03/2011 at 17:57 Nick says:

      Is Digitial Foundry the only hardware site that uses graphs? Or do all of them?

    • 29/03/2011 at 19:08 dysphemism says:

      Other sites are allowed to use graphs, but Digital Foundry collects a 45% escalating royalty on all profits from the use of graphs.

      Also, this is not enough polygons per krundle!

  91. 29/03/2011 at 14:33 Nim says:

    There seems to be a tag missing but that would give it all away, wouldn’t it.

  92. 29/03/2011 at 14:41 Urael says:

    *nominates thebigJ_A as Hero of the Thread*

  93. 29/03/2011 at 14:43 The_B says:

    What about the goggles, do they do anything?

  94. 29/03/2011 at 14:45 Grygus says:

    Perhaps he meant it was even funnier.

  95. 29/03/2011 at 14:46 EthZee says:

    Hahaha, I like this. This sort of attitude gets my goat; almost as much as those people who complain about the quality of story in games.

    “Oh, this character doesn’t make sense!” “This person should be more sad!” “This cheapens and makes light of the human suffering implicit in war!” Please, John, write another article which skewers these cretins. They take shit too seriously. Sometimes you just want to blow a hole through some person’s face with a double-barreled shotgun, or slap some babe on the arse, without worrying about the “oh no story is bad” people.

  96. 29/03/2011 at 14:47 kuddles says:

    Regardless of his original intentions of that comment, he’s summed it up. PC gamers bitched endlessly about the high requirements of the first game, and now they’re bitching about the lack of them for this one.

  97. 29/03/2011 at 14:48 Centy says:

    Digital foundry do a great job at what they do and I find all these kinds of things interesting and as has been pointed out many times only those of weak character try to make fun of those who are smarter. While DF wasnt a target it was more about people who enjoy the tech side it’s still a poorly aimed piece.

    To trash people who care about the tech of the engine on a PC site was just foolish. The fact that the game does cut corners and such is quite important for people who like to hear about it and that’s a fair sized amount of people who game on PCs.

    Personally I slate the gameplay itself for being to consolified but that is my opinion the tech being consolified is a simple fact which if you could understand any of it you would know.

  98. 29/03/2011 at 14:52 Jamesworkshop says:

    http://tf2chan.net/vg/src/129528950913.jpg

    Perfectly summed up by this image

  99. 29/03/2011 at 14:57 Nick says:

    funnier than you think.

  100. 29/03/2011 at 14:59 int says:

    Those crates look like something from minecraft. Jesus Christ, they really nerfed the graphics to fit consoles!

  101. 29/03/2011 at 14:59 Maykael says:

    This reminds me of the Sokal controversy in post-modern philosophy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair

    Here’s the original (meaningless and funny) article:

    http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/transgress_v2/transgress_v2_singlefile.html

    Well done, Mr. Walker, once again!

  102. 29/03/2011 at 15:00 Acosta says:

    Man, I was smiling and laughing at that peace and then I go to check the comments expecting people to follow it…

    “OMG RPS way to overblown it, your arguments are weak”

    “You are unfair to Digital Foundry!”

    “Technology is serious, don’t mock technology!”

    Hell people, where is your sense of humour? At this rate the hivemind will have to write like PRs to avoid offending anyone.

    Anyway, great text John.

  103. 29/03/2011 at 15:00 Groove says:

    I actually wasn’t sure if this was trolling or not until the second to last paragraph. I think that makes it good trolling. Nice one.

  104. 29/03/2011 at 15:08 wootles says:

    You know. Take a step back and look at the broader picture. What does all of this matter? It’s tearing our friendship apart in these end times. I love you guys and no Crysis is going to keep me away from that, so let’s all just get in a nice group hug and do some Crying so we can merrily jeer at each other for the next outrageous hat to come out in TF2 all the while trying to put the thought out of our minds that 2012 is coming and it’s bringing Earth^2 to our little home in the universe. I know it to be true, didn’t you guys watch the History Channel? Quality Programming.

  105. 29/03/2011 at 15:11 Tuor says:

    I never thought I’d see a resonance cascade, let alone create one!

  106. 29/03/2011 at 15:14 shoptroll says:

    *golf clap*

    Well played.

  107. 29/03/2011 at 15:21 Daniel Klein says:

    Occlusion, occlusion, occlusion, occlusion!

  108. 29/03/2011 at 15:24 TheTourist314 says:

    So I’m a engineer and I have no idea what the hell a “pixel spread across a 12 Joule range” means nor what “broad spectrum resonance in the upper 40s” is for that matter.

    Can you explain it?

    • 29/03/2011 at 15:34 dangermouse76 says:

      Tis a joke friend. He is trolling graphics whores and people that want everything as good as the last one ( don’t change my precious game ). Shit unless your joking,it’s getting hard to tell ( I don’t trust myself even ).

    • 29/03/2011 at 15:40 EthZee says:

      Wait, isn’t it a reasonable expectation that a sequel will look, if not better than the sequel, then at least the same?

    • 29/03/2011 at 15:53 dangermouse76 says:

      They made a different game. I don’t rate the difference ( graphically ) that highly. To clarify by good I mean dont change the format or gameplay style and narrative.
      The first games graphics were great but not the main draw for me.
      As for the gameplay I am playing Crysis 2 as an FPS game and enjoying it. It’s not the first game. They have made a different game and I enjoy it on that basis. I dont get that upset anymore when development houses change their IP away from a direction I want.
      I take the game as a standalone and enjoy it for it’s game play and narrative. It’s a fun game ( crysis 2 ).
      Everyone else is fully entitled to have there own criteria. Seriously though the article is poking fun it’s hardly saying we must burn people at the stake.
      It’s light hearted really. I cant get that self righteous about this stuff any more.
      I mean no offense is what I am getting at.

    • 29/03/2011 at 17:59 Nick says:

      What sort of engineer doesn’t know what broad spectrum resonance in the upper 40s is? I doubt your credentials.

    • 29/03/2011 at 18:42 TheTourist314 says:

      http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y7o8FbGCR9U/0.jpg

      Damn, damn, double damn and BLAST!

      You’re right, I need to go do some more schoolzin’.

  109. 29/03/2011 at 15:28 Stranglove says:

    Also, the HUD on Crysis was better than the one on 2.

    Is it odd that I enjoyed Crysis as a gaming experience as well as a tech demo? I did like sneaking past entire armies, ’twas rather fun.

  110. 29/03/2011 at 15:35 JohnnyMaverik says:

    O.o

    Is this a joke?

  111. 29/03/2011 at 15:38 frozenbyte says:

    This has to be one of the nerdiest articles I’ve ever read. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

  112. 29/03/2011 at 15:48 Joshua says:

    Love you now RPS.

  113. 29/03/2011 at 15:49 Cooper says:

    MORE THAN 6005 POLYGONS PER KRUNDLE!

  114. 29/03/2011 at 15:56 brulleks says:

    Mr Morris! Come quick! There’s a games journalist here trying to steal one of your graphs!

  115. 29/03/2011 at 15:59 Unaco says:

    I think, this whole thing would have been funnier to a factor of 3, if you had spelt Sync as Sink. But that’s just me.

  116. 29/03/2011 at 16:04 lucasdigital says:

    This article made me smile. Well, it encourage me to smile with its satirical highly baked faux tech review. Bravo John Walker for your cheeky stab at certain quarters of the gaming press. Crysis 2 rocks, but every time a PC-only gaming franchise goes “cross platform” the world edges closer to the apo-console-ypse.

  117. 29/03/2011 at 16:09 MajorManiac says:

    Reading the comments thread makes me proud of my fellow RPS readers. Looks like nearly everyone took this article the right way. And for those that didn’t thats fine too, as no-one disgraced themselves.

    This makes up for the infamous “Hey Baby” article last year. *Lights fuse, retreats to safe distance whilst giggling mischieviously*

  118. 29/03/2011 at 16:15 AbyssUK says:

    Sir a funny read, however you should never be allowed to make charts ever again!

    I am revoking your GCSE in maths.

    Also..

    http://xkcd.com/833/

  119. 29/03/2011 at 16:25 passingstranger says:

    I’m sensing there are some non-frequent RPS readers here…

  120. 29/03/2011 at 16:26 Tyshalle says:

    Well wait though, guys. He said: “not so funny *as* you think”. So maybe he’s saying that if you’re too distracted with thoughts of global politics or proper grammar, then this isn’t all that funny. To which I think we can all agree on. Whenever I listen to standup comedy, I do find that I laugh much less if I’m also talking to my girlfriend and not really paying attention.

    It’s a good warning, honestly. But I think we can all agree that this is definitely at its most funny when you’re not thinking about anything else while you read it.

    Thanks frightlever!

  121. 29/03/2011 at 16:37 DJ Phantoon says:

    We tried to warn them!

  122. 29/03/2011 at 16:38 the_fanciest_of_pants says:

    As soon as I saw it was Walker making a technical post I knew it was a gag.

  123. 29/03/2011 at 16:41 vader says:

    Are those graphs DX9!? I have to express that I’m not only horrified, but also shocked at the paucity of graphical accomplishments in what should have been groundbreaking graphs.

  124. 29/03/2011 at 16:43 Zoolooman says:

    Hahaha, excellent Walker, excellent. The chaps over at SA are loving this one. :)

  125. 29/03/2011 at 16:45 Foosnark says:

    Crytek should have just licensed the Minecraft engine.

  126. 29/03/2011 at 16:47 drplote says:

    Everyone knows that the real benchmark is how many polygons per krundle you’ve got.

  127. 29/03/2011 at 16:55 DevilSShadoW says:

    This is the first time in a very long time that I’ve genuinely laughed myself to tears. Well played Mr. Walker, well played indeed.

  128. 29/03/2011 at 17:03 rivalin says:

    Despite missing the joke, he’s right that Crysis 2 is a bad console port, and frankly RPS’ whole, “aren’t we cool because we’re not like the nerds who actually care about the complete lack of respect that major publishers and developers show for the pc as a platform” attitude is getting a little tiring.
    I don’t care about Crysis 2 looking slightly worse (and it does, it just has better artists to cover up deficiencies in the tech) what I do care about is that it runs worse on my computer than Crysis 1, it is not well optimised and it is clear that despite Crytek’s dishonesty about still having any focus on the pc, it received no more attention than any other very basic port.
    What I do care about is the staggering laziness displayed by Crytek, the “adjust the brightness on your tv” and “press start to begin” statements, which any pc gamer would have picked upon on immediately.
    What I do care about is the requirement to manually edit your config file to give yourself a decent field of view, or fix mouse acceleration so that it’s possible to actually aim straight without a 2 second lag, because Crytek couldn’t be bothered to spend the ten minutes it would have taken themselves.
    What I do care about are the compromises made to gameplay to accommodate consoles, which in effect turns the game into a call of duty clone dressed up as Crysis.
    What I do care about are the ridiculous compromises made for the lack of intelligence of the new player base; the fact that EVERY time for the entire game, that you perform a common action you need a prompt “press V to melee” “press space to vault” blah blah blah. Or a visor that needs to actually tell you your “tactical options” because you are too stupid to perceive them yourself; when there’s a tank parked next to me, I don’t need to be told that “driving it” is one of my “tactical options”.
    What I do care about is that a four years later sequel uses an older API than its predecessor, how silly of me, should I applaud the paucity of ambition and mercenary attitudes that mean technological development has not simply halted, but moved backwards? Oh what a terribly uncool little nerd I must be.
    This article mocks a lot of people who have reasonable and valid concerns about the state in which the game was released.

  129. 29/03/2011 at 17:16 sinister agent says:

    I love you, Walker :-D
    This has cheered me up immensely. So very predictable that this kind of joyless spoddism is so common that a lot of people didn’t get it, but who cares.

    Worryingly, some of the image texts sound a lot like emails my boss would send.

  130. 29/03/2011 at 17:29 trjp says:

    I just want to be in a thread which is, quite clearly, a brilliant trap designed to catch everyone who doesn’t read stories and/or has no common sense…

    “Do you listen or wait to speak” in Internet terms “Do you read or just post a comment based on a word in the title”…

    Can we tag every account in here who took the article seriously/used it as a way of venturing their own agenda with the honorary prefix “Dingleberry”?

  131. 29/03/2011 at 17:30 Urthman says:

    Mr. Walker, thank you for giving a proper response to the people who have been calling for RPS to do an in-depth review of the technological failings of Crysis 2. Now no one can say RPS is ignoring the issue or not giving it the attention it deserves. Well done.

  132. 29/03/2011 at 17:39 The Army of None says:

    WOT A SHAME. Etc.

  133. 29/03/2011 at 17:41 Malawi Frontier Guard says:

    The textures don’t have enough polygons anti-occluding the meshes.

  134. 29/03/2011 at 17:42 Branthog says:

    I’m still waiting for them to fix the issue with multi-GPU cards and multi-card setups, which both render an unplayable game, due to eye-killing flickering. As I mentioned somewhere, before, it’s hard to feel optimistic about gaming on the PC when I bought the game on release day (for the console game price) and am still waiting for it to be playable, while the console version could have been purchased on release day, played, beaten, and jumped into mulitplayer for plenty of hours in the amount of time spent trying to get it working on the PC. And with none of the hassle of dealing with all the troubleshooting bullshit, only to discover that the current solutions are none-too-satisfactory. (Live with the flickering or run the game on only one GPU).

    They didn’t just sacrifice some fidelity on the PC for a more general experience across all platforms — they sacrificed the entire PC experience for a great number of players. I didn’t play the first Crysis, but I jumped on this second one because I was to understand from my fellow gamers that it was such a pinnacle of PC achievement that I couldn’t pass it up. Instead, it’s just a reality-stick beat against my head, countering the recent PC-gaming-optimism I uncharacteristically have been lulled into.

  135. 29/03/2011 at 17:59 rammjaeger says:

    If you can’t tell guys, he’s taking the piss. I’m a video game developer and programmer, and everything he said was basically mumbo jumbo with some technical words thrown in to make it sound legitimate.

    • 29/03/2011 at 21:09 sinister agent says:

      A valiant attempt, but I think anyone who read “the PC version of the game is crippled to the point where it’s literally impossible to look at without feeling physically sick” and didn’t catch on is beyond all mortal aid.

  136. 29/03/2011 at 18:04 Jimbo says:

    You should do one about the openability of doors!

  137. 29/03/2011 at 18:17 Grape says:

    Why, isn’t mr. Walker being a bit of a sarcastic, obnoxious prick, today.

  138. 29/03/2011 at 18:31 oldestgregg says:

    crysis 3 will be a third person shooter
    “the nanosuit is not pleased with having to shoot at yoos aliens again” ….ahem

  139. 29/03/2011 at 18:38 Malkara says:

    This reminds me of: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=436849

    Which is about twenty pages of an idiotic Shogun 2 modder arguing that resaving all of the game’s 16-bit textures as 24-bit and 32-bit files magically makes them high-definition, and scores of people agreeing with him as a handful of people with brains try to explain with science and pictures that, no, textures don’t magically upscale because they’ve been saved at a larger file size.

    • 29/03/2011 at 18:48 Carter says:

      Oh good grief, thats scary

    • 29/03/2011 at 19:46 Sobric says:

      oh wow. I’d considered using that mod too. That’s incredibly misleading of the author.

    • 29/03/2011 at 20:45 DainIronfoot says:

      What is it with the way posters on TotalWarCenter constantly use the word “mate”? Thanks for that Matey matey mate mate.

      As far as I can tell, the forum is a great big popularity contest anyway, look at the number of people leaping to defend the guys with all the symbols under his name.

    • 29/03/2011 at 22:31 Berzee says:

      It was just the one guy using that word “mate” over and over again.

      HOWEVER — I just read all 16 pages of that thread and can I ever forgive you for linking it?

    • 29/03/2011 at 23:15 Malkara says:

      No, but we can commiserate about how every time you clicked next page you were like, “Certainly he will admit that he is wrong on -this- page!” only to be thoroughly disappointed.

    • 30/03/2011 at 00:56 jaheira says:

      That whole thread was comedy genius. Thanks malkara.

    • 30/03/2011 at 01:32 Mman says:

      Hey guys I took that crate texture John posted and saved it at 100% quality JPG compression five times, now it’s 500% better quality!

  140. 29/03/2011 at 18:43 LostViking says:

    Lol. I didn’t get it until the crate texture comparison :D

    By all means. Crysis 2 IS compromised, but it still looks amazing on the PC!
    The difference is, we wont be able to make it look even better in the future (I runs nicely on high with a GTX470), compared to Crysis which kept looking better as better hardware was released.

  141. 29/03/2011 at 19:04 Bungle says:

    I honestly don’t get it. This article didn’t make me laugh at all. And graphics aren’t the only reason to reject Crysis 2.

  142. 29/03/2011 at 19:06 Rii says:

    rivalin wins, Walker and other RPS hipster-types fail.

  143. 29/03/2011 at 19:11 edit says:

    All this article will do is:

    1 – appear to observers who only see the rss feed title, or skim over the article, as a genuine attackcomplaint about the game from RPS
    2 – appear as a flip-off to those who “get it” but have actual complaints
    3 – possibly earn a few laughs, though it didn’t seem particularly funny to me

    I don’t really have any vested interest in this story seeing as I didn’t like Crysis 1 and therefore didn’t buy Crysis 2, but I can honestly say that I’m much, much, much more in favor of a straight-forward article containing an honest run-down of an issue or a thoughtful opinion than some kind of snarky jab at readers.

    • 29/03/2011 at 19:47 benjaminlobato says:

      If you are looking for a “straight-forward article containing an honest run-down,” there are plenty of other websites for such things. RPS’ humor is part of what makes this site so great.

    • 29/03/2011 at 19:54 edit says:

      I agree, I’ve had many a good laugh on here before and really appreciate the site. Hence I read just about every article and spend a lot of time reading and posting comments. Most of the humor, however, isn’t a jab at the readership over real (if sometimes blown waaay out of proportion) concerns. Anyway, sorry to be a wet-blanket :p .

      On reflection, taking the angle I have may have something to do with my disinterest in consoles and past disappointments when companies I’ve been loyal to have changed their priority from PC to consoles, arbitrarily limit (or badly port) PC versions due to console development, or walk away from the PC all together. From what I’ve seen Crysis 2 looks plenty nice on PC, but I can totally understand a Crysis 1 fan being disappointed by any limitation or regression that is due to console development, when so much of the interest I saw in Crysis 1 (from people I know, anyway) came from the excitement of having a game which could really show what their PCs were made of.

  144. 29/03/2011 at 19:20 My2CENTS says:

    Imagine 2 more years with that dreadful old hardware in both X360 and PS3. Anyone who support consoles by buying games for them should stop and consider the consequences and then get shot by secret police.

  145. 29/03/2011 at 19:22 BobsLawnService says:

    I do miss standing at the top of a hill looking down at the sweeping vista below planning on how best to infiltrate the enemy encampment and then executing that plan perfectly though.

    • 29/03/2011 at 22:15 Jad says:

      You still can do that I’ll note. The vista will be less sweeping, and the sandbox is smaller, but that whole survey-plan-execute gameplay mechanic it is still there.

  146. 29/03/2011 at 19:32 Bantros says:

    Hilarious use of your article to bash Crytek on the MyCrysis forums, also -

    @CRYTEK_TIAGO (R&D Graphics Programmer so knows the truth you speak)
    Best – tech – review – ever http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/03/29/crysis-2-technical-analysis/

    Source

  147. 29/03/2011 at 19:42 bastronaut says:

    Man, this made my day. Beautiful. Those charts – I would have spewed on my screen if I’d been drinking anything.

  149. 29/03/2011 at 20:04 StingingVelvet says:

    God damn Walker, stop being brilliant.

  150. 29/03/2011 at 20:20 Shagittarius says:

    Enjoying the game but technically it really isn’t very impressive. I agree with the dude who said it looks like Call of Duty : Modern Warfare.

  151. 29/03/2011 at 20:22 stahlwerk says:

    This is mostly @Rivalin, but many others in here might take a gander, too.

    Crytek released a game using a brand new engine on three platforms (all of which are totally different to program for) and a multitude of localization markets, a game that is actually lauded for being gorgeous, fun and not the blatant cash-grab we came to expect from modern duty shootygames, and you complain about the Menu-screen?

    Games are a thing that costs a lot of money to make, especially if they take 4 years and an enormous R&D effort (have you seen all these siggraph papers that were written by Crytek et al.?). If the money not spent on diversifying the platform releases leads to a better experience on all of them, can’t we just be a bit, I don’t know, cool about the small inconsistencies that brings with it?

    And Re: complaining about DX9… You know what also went to 11?

    Yeah.

  152. 29/03/2011 at 20:22 noclip says:

    It’s even funnier if you’re a programmer.

  153. 29/03/2011 at 20:29 vash47 says:

    A bit funny but still doesn’t hide the fact that Crysis 2 technical quality is inferior to Crysis 1.

    http://vghq.net/2011/03/28/crysis-2-textures-are-12-size-of-crysis-1-proof/

    • 29/03/2011 at 22:33 Berzee says:

      Without clicking that link I can already see that it says Crysis 2 textures are 12 times the size of Crysis 1 textures and I feel that this is good information to prove the superiority of the sequel!!!

  154. 29/03/2011 at 20:31 AdamK117 says:

    +1 from the satire gods :)

  155. 29/03/2011 at 20:33 Nallen says:

    Oh god I love RPS.

  156. 29/03/2011 at 20:43 DigitalSignalX says:

    I hate you. And love you. Sigh.

    edit: I also find that the inability to realize it’s satire almost immediately is a legit sign of the consolification of game(r)s :P

  157. 29/03/2011 at 20:54 Sarkhan Lol says:

    Jeez you’re not kidding, the graphics in those first two screenshots are TERRIBLE. And don’t get me started on the UI, I can’t even tell what half of those numbers are supposed to mean!

  158. 29/03/2011 at 20:54 Stephen Roberts says:

    Thing is Stahlwerk, the small inconsistencies you see that Rivalin mentioned don’t feel like an oversight ‘oh shit sorry PC gamers we meant to sort that out but it’s dropped to the bottom of our to-do list and will be in the next patch’ and more like a direct ‘we don’t care a shit’.

    Also menu screens are pretty important. Look at EVE Online, It’s one hunnerd percen’ badly designed menu. And it’s about as fun to play as doing some tax returns.

    Rant follows.

    I’m beginning to think PC ports aren’t play tested at all. By anyone. Because any self respectin’ experienced PC gamer that play tested say… Borderlands, might have mentioned the clunky menu support or the giant type face sizes that could be comfortably scaled down for PC so you could actually see all of the stats. Or they would have noticed how the aiming mode in Darksiders actually inhibits your ability to aim. Or they might have noticed how it feels like you are actually merging into the wall you are looking at with the crappy FOV in Bad Company 2′s single player (cfg file edit for multi only, what?). Run out of steam.

  159. 29/03/2011 at 21:00 Metonymy says:

    This is probably intended as a satire of the console vs PC “limited hardware” argument, and not a satire of egoshooters in general.

    But I’m going to be honest, I haven’t seen a truly great single-player FPS since quake 1. Obviously the fallout games were amazing, L4D and bioshock were noteworthy, HL2 was memorable, etc. but the pure ‘action egoshoot’ genre nosedived a decade ago, and there’s been no sunrises since then.

    Let us pray for the coming of Duke.

  160. 29/03/2011 at 21:07 Rasputinator says:

    “With Crysis having supported DX12″

    Wait.. what?

  161. 29/03/2011 at 21:37 canman says:

    is this a satire piece? If I wanted to stare at high-quality boxes all day, id by the highly acclaimed “Cardboard box Simulator 2011″. Seriously, if it looks fine, who cares what the textures look like.

  162. 29/03/2011 at 21:45 Grape Flavor says:

    Yay! Glad to see RPS trolling the “petulant, entitled little bitch with a victim-complex” segment of the PC gaming community rather than enabling it. Bravo, John, bravo!

    And mega LOL at the 300+ posts of butthurt below said article. Get a life.

  163. 29/03/2011 at 21:52 amishmonster says:

    That’s some damn fine techno-babble, Mr. Walker.

  164. 29/03/2011 at 21:58 Grape Flavor says:

    http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2011/03/25/crysis-2-xbox-360-vs-pc-comparison/1

    Significant difference there, I think. But I guess it doesn’t matter if it genuinely looks better than on consoles. Leave one “Press start to begin” screen in and the “PC Respect Patroll” will be screaming and moaning and calling for your head.

    • 30/03/2011 at 01:13 skalpadda says:

      To be fair, the Xbox screens are very upscaled in those screens and compared to the native output of a very high end PC which makes them look very blurry. Higher resolution is obviously a great thing, but in terms of pure image quality it’s not really a fair comparison.

      I find it more interesting that the only significant difference I see between the different PC screens is more detailed shadows.

    • 30/03/2011 at 04:24 Grape Flavor says:

      @skalpadda
      I agree that if you view the images at their native what, 2560×1600 res, it’s hardly an apples-to-apples comparison.

      But when viewing the images scaled to the browser inset of a 720p laptop, the quality difference is still significant and immediately distinguishable. So I’d say it still would be false to claim Crysis 2 is some straight console port that takes no advantage of the PC’s increased capabilities.

  165. 29/03/2011 at 21:59 Bob says:

    Hahahahahahahaha…*inhales*……hahahahaha. Holy pixilated palpitations Batman.

  166. 29/03/2011 at 22:06 Fathom says:

    How in the holy living fuck did people not get this? Some people are really stupid.

  167. 29/03/2011 at 22:14 wazooda says:

    Great stuff John! This makes me not regret the $2/month you suck out of my PayPal account.

  168. 29/03/2011 at 22:28 pepper says:

    I love you guys! Come here for a hug you cuddly delirious game writers!

  169. 29/03/2011 at 22:46 Mario Figueiredo says:

    Yeah. But why crates? I’m tired of crates.

  170. 29/03/2011 at 22:55 deanimate says:

    I was going to base my ability to purchase the game after reading this article. Unfortunately it was way over my head but my cat caught a glance and after a few paragraphs started clawing the shit into my monitor.
    Phew, that was too close.

    • 29/03/2011 at 23:11 Mario Figueiredo says:

      John’s writing skills are always top notch (except when I don’t agree with him). Well, the whole gang of four are excellent writers (except when I don’t agree with them). But I’m still waiting for the one of these “in-your-face” articles where they keep a straight face all the way to the end and never betray the intent.

      I was enjoying the gag, until it became too obvious.

    • 30/03/2011 at 04:44 Nick says:

      Um, it was obvious from the article beginning. Especially the first screenshot. Come on.

    • 30/03/2011 at 10:38 Mario Figueiredo says:

      Yeah. But it was well dissimulated. I was giggling to myself imagining the less tecky going like “see, this is exactly what I was saying. Crysis is dumbed down”. You can imagine my excitement as I started moving towards the comments section.
      But towards the end… “reduction in flora”, “raise in carbon production”, “DX12″, Jim’s totally gave it away. I wish he hadn’t overdid it. But still, this isn’t April 1st yet, so it’s understandable.

    • 30/03/2011 at 11:58 Dominic White says:

      Even with him COMPLETELY overdoing it, a great many people are still convinced that it’s a serious article. A great many people are very stupid and looking for reasons to get angry at stuff on the internet.

  171. 29/03/2011 at 23:34 Carandiru says:

    Hehe Volumetric resource buffer, I’m a graphics programmer and I was wondering WTF he was talking about.

  172. 29/03/2011 at 23:42 Jim Rossignol says:

    “aren’t we cool because we’re not like the nerds who actually care about the complete lack of respect that major publishers and developers show for the pc as a platform”

    Yes, RPS never does anything for the PC platform. We sank years of our lives into a PC-only gaming site to be “cool.”

    The sense of humour failure from people like you is extraordinary. If you can’t see how much RPS has done to fight the corner for the PC, then you’ve really not been paying attention.

  173. 30/03/2011 at 00:07 clumsyandshy says:

    OMG @ those crate textures!!1!

    The end is nigh

  174. 30/03/2011 at 00:40 Lord Byte says:

    Goddammit you almost had me going, then I noticed that nothing actually made any sense…

  175. 30/03/2011 at 01:20 Retribution says:

    I didn’t realize this was IGN, although it’s nice to see a PC-centric site mocking…PC gamers

  176. 30/03/2011 at 01:40 CarverGeeker says:

    I…can’t quite tell if this is sarcastic/satirical or not…

  177. 30/03/2011 at 01:42 D3xter says:

    Thing is those “nerds” you are scoffing about are the people building game engines for your favorite manshoot and while they (and people aspiring to be such) understand that games made for hardware designed about 7 years ago brings with it a serious set of restrictions and impediments that reach into the very basics of both gameplay and basic game design (and Yerli said so himself in an Interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVsT4D2_VTI ) you seem not to… why do you think the game plays wholly in a city, why do you think the levels are so confined and linear? Why do you think you will never get scenes like these from Crysis 2? http://deadendthrills.com/collections/crysis/
    Personally I can barely wait for those new consoles to hit the market in 2015, because aside of a few select titles (hopefully Battlefield 3) everything else will just be clones of each other… In the meantime have fun with your Killzone 3 clone and I hope you’re looking forward to the next 3-4 Call of Duty games looking and playing exactly the same as their prequels…

  178. 30/03/2011 at 01:58 wazups2x says:

    I don’t care what anyone says, Crysis 2 is a BAD CONSOLE PORT.

  179. 30/03/2011 at 02:40 Retribution says:

    What, you want an actual graphics menu and technological progression? You elitist bastard

  180. 30/03/2011 at 03:16 RemyDuron says:

    Yeah, it’s hilarious that standards for PC games have fallen in order to allow them to be played on dated console software, and it’s hilarious that people care about their hobby and don’t want to see it fall into the morass of mediocrity that is the console FPS market. Hilarious RPS, just damn hilarious. . .

    • 30/03/2011 at 03:30 dangermouse76 says:

      If you have the time ( genuinely ) could you educate me as to what you consider to be morass of mediocrity the console market is dragging the PC market into.

      What has the console market done to the PC market in your opinion and how. Do you believe that the PC market is going to fail or is this simply a blip. A blip that you unfortunately seem to be living in.

  181. 30/03/2011 at 03:32 runbmp says:

    Yeah people should realize that Crysis one is still available to them whenever they need an eye candy fix.
    Crysis 2 wasn’t meant to replace the original, its very pale in comparison as far as a technological advancements.

    Heck the physics alone are still absolutely amazing when compared to Crysis 2.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDRxGxOAx0Q&hd=1

  182. 30/03/2011 at 03:33 noclip says:

    “Just a complete failure of occlusion”

    Pulitzer.

  183. 30/03/2011 at 04:13 DOLBYdigital says:

    I really liked the close up of the crate texture… that really got me laughing :)

    Although I should clarify that I am one of the ‘crazy gamers’ that are upset with Crysis 2 and the direction of the game industry in general. However I could care less about the graphics, I’m not a graphics whore. I still play old consoles and old mods like its my job.

    What I do care about is gameplay and the corners that many devs are cutting lately is getting concerning. I agree with many that I hope with the new round of consoles, devs will be forced to actually create compelling gameplay instead of just rehashing ideas and locking us into linear movies. We seem to be going in the wrong direction, I would say ‘backwards’ but that would be a good thing since games used to be phenomenal in the gameplay department because the focus wasn’t on graphics but on fun… (thank god for modding now a days)

    but I digress… thanks for the nice article although I can see why some are taking it the wrong way, I enjoyed it :)

  184. 30/03/2011 at 04:23 Gvaz says:

    He’s right about the color spectrum and flora though. You can’t really argue with that.

  185. 30/03/2011 at 04:28 luckystriker says:

    If you didn’t immediately grasp:
    a) This was supposed to be a joke
    b) It’s not a dig at people who do tech analysis but at people who rage about tech ruining their gameplay
    and c) John Walker could never, ever, write such an article in earnest

    then I think you need to read RPS for a bit longer before clogging up the response section with, frankly, uninteresting and un-RPS worthy replies.

  186. 30/03/2011 at 04:47 wazups2x says:

    Crysis 2 is a bad console port.

    1. Graphics settings: gamer, advanced, HARD-CORE
    these are the only graphics settings. You can’t adjust individual settings at all. I’ve seen crappy pc ports of japanese games that let you do at least that
    2. The game is blurry as hell, felt like i was running on non-native res
    3. FOV is not adjustable in-game, and guns takes up the entire bottom right 1/4 of the screen it seems
    4. Crysis 1 used volumetric shaders to create realtime clouds in the atmosphere instead of a skybox. this game appears to replace skyboxes and volumes altogether in lieu for a giant bloom hdr spotlight that fills the entire atmosphere
    5 .Aim-Assist automatically on for controllers. Although fixed, it shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
    6. Terrible mouse smoothing or something that is causing mouse lag.
    7. Only one key to change your weapon. Not possible to bind one for Rifle and one for pistol.
    8. Server browser is terrible and filters don’t save
    9. 32 players for Crysis 1 down to 16 players for Crysis 2
    10. Insane bloom to hide the low textures
    11. No DX11 or even DX10. Crysis 1 even had DX10!
    12. No quicksaves
    13. “Press Start”. Another thing that was fixed that shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
    14. Downgrade in physics. You can no longer shoot down trees.
    15. Not possible to change to toggle crouch to hold.

    It doesn’t really bother me that the graphics aren’t a huge step as the original. It’s the fact that they screwed up on so many little but important things.

    Battlefield 3 will blow Crysis 2 away.

    • 30/03/2011 at 10:57 Mario Figueiredo says:

      Note that this game supporting DX10 would be pretty much meaningless. Most game designers in fact entirely skipped that upgrade due to lack of new features or features that were worth having. Ironically enough Crysis 2 (and, I think, Bioshock) were games that were often used as examples of why we shouldn’t care for DX10 (which thankfully we largely didn’t). Screenshots taken in DX9 and DX10 modes would reveal to be near facsimiles of each other.

      As for DX11 no point in supporting it if one isn’t going to take advantage of its new features. Tessellation, or multi-threaded rendering weren’t in the plans of the developers, so why support a version that would ask many gamers to upgrade their GPUs and then offer them nothing in return?

    • 31/03/2011 at 14:53 Joshua says:

      I’ve seen this list before. Please do a proper port relevant to the article next time ;).

      (And you know, it will probably get answered in the same way).

    • 05/04/2011 at 02:37 Gvaz says:

      This is why crysis 2 blows

  187. 30/03/2011 at 05:28 raggamofyn says:

    I was prompted to register for this lovely website in order to say that this had me laugh very hard. You guys are hysterical! Keep it up!

  188. 30/03/2011 at 05:43 benjaminlobato says:

    @D3xter

    Sorry to disappoint you, but: http://deadendthrills.com/category/crysis-2/

  189. 30/03/2011 at 05:50 BubbaNZ says:

    I have a PC graphics card that uses a dilithium crystal articulation frame to manage occlusion and the atmospheric pressure in my bunker. Will it run Crysis 2? Why doesn’t the article tell me this? It is a CONSPIRACY???

    http://www.startrek.com/database_article/dilithium-crystal-articulation-frame

  190. 30/03/2011 at 07:42 Lars Westergren says:

    @Rivalin

    Oh what a terribly uncool little nerd I must be.

    We are all nerds here, we wouldn’t be on a PC gaming site otherwise. What you DO seem to be is extremely touchy, and looking for things to get offended and outraged by. My suggestion is that you try to lighten up a bit. You will probably enjoy your hobby and your life more.

  191. 30/03/2011 at 08:58 Mister_Inveigler says:

    I am actually quite irritated about this. I remember being awestruck by Crysis and the beautiful, tropical island scenery. Replacing it with a boring city scape simply because it’s easier to render is just cutting corners.
    I hate to see developers cut such blatent corners, especially when they’re capable of SO much more.
    (Looking at you as well Bioware! Stop rushing!)
    Keep up the good work RPS. I wonder if developers will ever take the PC as seriously as they used to? At least we still rule when it comes to RTS games and modding communities.

  192. 30/03/2011 at 09:00 Archonsod says:

    “What I do care about are the ridiculous compromises made for the lack of intelligence of the new player base;”

    Yep, because the new player base are obviously less intelligent than PC owners. Take a wild guess at which idiots log the most support calls because they don’t know how to configure their equipment. I’ll give you a clue – it’s not console owners.

  193. 30/03/2011 at 11:17 mcwill says:

    BEST TECHNICAL REVIEW EVAAAAARRRRR

  194. 30/03/2011 at 12:56 neems says:

    I realise this will get lost in the enormous clusterfuck, but I’m curious about these graphic settings that people keep posting about. Did they change them in the first patch? Is there more than one version of the game? Or are people referring to either the demo or (surely not) the pirate release?

    I ask because my copy of the game does not have Gamer, Advanced and Hardcore as settings, it has High, Very high and Extreme. Obviously they are exactly the same in any way that matters, but it just seems as if there may be people commenting on this thread without actually knowing what they are talking about.

    It’s also worth noting that you can’t deactivate mouse acceleration in the console (it’s already off; you could try turning it on but I don’t recommend it), the FOV is vertical so it’s not nearly as narrow as you think it is (or you could, you know, try looking at the screen instead of the number) and the graphic utility that some clever soul put together, although useful, does not allow you to unlock higher graphic settings.

    Crysis 2 certainly has some issues, but the quality of the graphics is not one of them – although the inability to customise them is.

    • 30/03/2011 at 13:00 Dominic White says:

      There’s an Advanced Config app that lets you change stuff as much as the original Crysis (perhaps moreso), and Crytek have confirmed that DX11 support AND an expanded graphics configuration screen are coming in the next patch.

      But they’ve *clearly* abandoned the PC and hate us all, of course.

  195. 30/03/2011 at 13:23 Songbearer says:

    I too enjoy APB.

    Wait, hold on, what? My eyes kind of glazed over.

    (This was pretty hilarious by the way. Graphic nuts scare me something fierce.)

  196. 30/03/2011 at 17:39 Xan says:

    Why didn’t you wait until April 1st with this?

  197. 30/03/2011 at 18:01 Dr_Nick says:

    I paid good money for that snake oil!

  198. 30/03/2011 at 20:21 wcanyon says:

    I’m ready to say this is BS/April Fools. This sentence sounds like total nonsense to me: “32.2m pixel spread across a 12 joule range”

    Now go read the definition of joule: “is a derived unit of energy or work in the International System of Units. It is equal to the energy expended (or work done) in applying a force of one newton through a distance of one metre (1 newton metre or N·m)”

    Now explain to me how applying a force of one newton thru a distance of one meter makes THE SLIGHTEST BIT OF SENSE in regards to video cards or graphics engines.

    • 30/03/2011 at 22:48 Iucounu says:

      What’s amazing to me is that it’s perfectly obvious that this article is a spoof before the end of the first sentence, and before any of the clearly ludicrous technobabble is deployed. And then the second sentence, what with the ‘literally impossible to look at without feeling physically sick’, might as well have been set in Helvetica Sarcastic Bold.

    • 31/03/2011 at 14:53 Joshua says:

      It’s clear it’s a spoof from the bloody header image!

  199. 30/03/2011 at 22:40 creese82 says:

    Very amusing flame war, here’s a break down in case you missed it or you’re a fanboy.

    The original Crysis was a success but it got pirated so much that Crytek took a huge hit in the profits. Platform preference and fan base loyalty lose significance when they cost you money. Crytek compromised because it’s better they sell more games so they can continue to exist than it is to keep 1 player base out of 3 happy.

    Consoles sell more games because they’re cheaper than a comparable gaming PC thus have better market penetration so any developer with any sense, i.e. wants to make profit and continue to exist, would be interested in reaching that market. And it’s harder to pirate on consoles than it is PC’s.

    Now here’s the cold hard truth of this situation. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108594-AMD-Says-Long-in-the-Tooth-DirectX-is-Holding-Back-PC-Gaming
    PC hardware inevitably out paces console hardware thus surpassing it in performance capabilities. But the hardware variety caused by this is also its curse.

    Consoles are holding back my 4.0GHz, 12GB RAM, 4GB HD 6990 in the sense that any game developed for a console will not take full advantage of the hardware capabilities of my pc. I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to spend that kind of money on a gaming platform but those of us that do are enthusiasts and want to see just what our hardware is really capable of. The original Crysis did that so it should be fairly obvious to expect the sequel to do the same thing.

    So here’s a summary.

    Crytek LIED about specific details in regard to Crysis 2′s PC version so PC gamers are sore for it. Anyone should be able to understand this. This above all else is why there’s a console/PC flame war over this game. The developer lied to PC gamers.

    I can’t hold a grudge, despite being a PC gamer, because in the real world it’s more important a developer maximizes profit then it is they stay loyal to their original fan base.

    All things considered, Crysis 2 is a good game and a highly recommended buy imho.

    • 10/04/2011 at 12:14 RegisteredUser says:

      “I can’t hold a grudge, despite being a PC gamer, because in the real world it’s more important a developer maximizes profit then it is they stay loyal to their original fan base.”

      Personally, I wish that betraying one’s fan base would make profit impossible in the first place.

  200. 31/03/2011 at 14:50 Joshua says:

    Quote: “At the time of writing Crytek have refused to respond to any of the points made above, and it’s pretty obvious why.”

    Yes.

    Very.

  201. 31/03/2011 at 18:21 molten_tofu says:

    console hacks for console hacks – I’m cool with it

  202. 31/03/2011 at 23:08 Maxxgold says:

    What a bunch of crybaby. Waaaaaa. I can’t use my 10 video card setup. Sorry but this game looks great and plays flawless. To much fun to be crying about graphics that look awesome. I’m running 2 580′s in SLI and I could care less that it doesn’t have directx 11. To the people that are crying about this, please jump off a cliff so the rest of us can enjoy ourselves

  203. 01/04/2011 at 09:28 jerubedo says:

    Despite this article being a joke that a lot of you overlooked, I see an arising debate here about the technical aspects of the game. I see a lot of people defending poor optimization and lack of DirectX 11 at launch as well as other basic fundamental graphical options which are missing. What I want to know is when did Americans stop caring about quality? You guys are the consumers! You should demand perfection in the products you buy. And this doesn’t just go for video games, this goes for ALL products.

    There has been an increasing trend of companies and corporations making defective or imperfect products, and an even more-so increasing trend of the customer base accepting these defects and imperfections. Customers shrug these defects off and say “Oh, that’s just how they’re made. It’s ok.” Well, I got news, it’s not ok.

    Older technology, such as, say, portable TV’s from the late 80′s, was made nearly perfectly. Most of those TV’s still work today. They were made sturdily, and there were no imperfections or defects. They were made to last. Compare that to technology sold today.

    TV’s – dead/stuck pixels galore. The customers say “Oh, it’s ok. Dead pixels can be expected in a TV this big, ad it’s in a place I can’t see it anyway.” WRONG ANSWER. Your $2000 TV set should be flawless straight out of the box, no dead pixels. Some companies go as far as to say that dead pixels are a byproduct of production and that they are only responsible if a certain dead pixel ratio is met. UNACCEPTABLE.

    Laptops – faulty hardware, failed hard drives after only a month of use, insufficient/cheap cooling solutions causing hardware to fry, bad firmware causing hardware failure. Customers say “Oh, well, a laptop is just made with cheaper fans, so heating issues are to be expected. Some times firmware has bugs, it happens. I’ll just wait five weeks for them to ship me the new part. Smaller chips and other hardware just aren’t made as well as the desktop versions.” Guess what? The fans don’t have to be made that cheaply, laptop components can be made just as well as the desktop versions, firmware should be tested more thoroughly before being released as to not BRICK YOUR HARDWARE!

    Gaming consoles – Another prime example of how the older technology was made better. I still have perfectly working super nintendos, segas, and fairchilds. Sure, they are expected to fail after a while, but look at today’s tech! Xbox 360- the red ring fiasco! And gamers just sat their and took it like bitches! They all said “Well, Microsoft won’t do anything about it. It’s a powerful system with a lot crammed into it so it’s no wonder it broke. Ah, oh well, it broke one day after the one year warranty, nothing I can do.” NO, NO, NO! Get off your asses, and demand that the units be fixed even if it is out of warranty. An expensive unit like that should last more than a year, and if 70% are failing just after a year, that is a PROBLEM. That is a class action lawsuite. The PS3 also had some problems with melting pieces of the MOBO. UNACCEPTABLE.

    Fine china – imperfections galore. Chips, scratches, bubbles in glass, right out of the box. Customers say ” It’s to be expected. These things are mass produced and shipped out from a factory, of course there will be scratches and imperfections.” WRONG. You should get a perfect set with no imperfections whatsoever on your $500 set!

    Video Games – Bad code, bad graphics, poor optimizations, lack of support compared to console versions, glitches, bugs, connectivity issues, server issues, etc. What do the gamers say? “The game runs ‘good enough.’ I don’t need the extra polish. I can always debug some of the code myself by taking several hours and modifying INFs and other files. You can’t expect a company to to write near-perfect code for THREE DIFFERENT PLATFORMS!” Ummmm… good enough, is not good enough, it should run GREAT with all the polish we expect out of a PC game according to today’s standards. Since when did I pay $60 for a game to debug it? Yes, I can expect a company to write near-perfect code on ALL THREE platforms!

    The morale here is to stop taking crap from companies who are purposely cutting costs, selling you short, and delivering a far from perfect, if not defective, product! Stand up and defend your power as customers. It is the customer that determines how companies run and what the products are like which they put out. You have almost ALL of the power! And if we don’t utilize that power, the quality control and production quality of all of our country’s products is going to keep going down the tubes until we are the laughing stock of the entire world. American cars are already a laughing stock in most other countries, whereas we used to be the best. Don’t let that happen with the rest of our products too!

    • 10/04/2011 at 12:13 RegisteredUser says:

      For someone so concerned about quality you sure don’t give a toss about your own spelling / proofreading your own “material” before “release”.

  204. 09/04/2011 at 21:40 kiddya says:

    haha awesome, they got me:)

  205. 09/04/2011 at 21:48 kiddya says:

    And no, I don’t demand perfection, I want people to be happy, not slaves to elitist critics. And I don’t consider myself good enough for perfection, Im far from perfect and I enjoy way too much luxery gained over the broken backs of beter human beings with worse luck of being born in a worse enviroment. We are so spoiled and we don’t even know it.

  206. 10/04/2011 at 12:18 RegisteredUser says:

    As nicely put the lighthearted article is(and fairly mocks some of the less important bits), I feel that the people pointing out the severe amount “assuming the user to be dumb” and “we don’t care if you are on a PC, we are going to make it a console game/interface” have a point and that Crysis 2 is nowhere close to the first.

    I am much more insulted by a constant assault of “hey, did you know that after already having pressed x to do something, you can STILL do this with that object right in front of you??? RLY ITS TRU” and stuff like “hey, who needs anytime saves or varied gunplay in a shooter, amirite?” than by a lack of ultra-latest gen DX interface.
    A good game is not made by highest end graphics, but by almost everything but (=> minecraft success not due to gfx I dare say).

    I disagree with the rave reviews and superduper epicness of game so many people are holding up for Crysis 2.

  207. 26/08/2011 at 19:27 3ay says:

    Bethesda Hacked, Details About To Be Leaked şahinnparadisegelenekselramazancoşkusu

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