Hello all, I understand that I am not supposed to be here, but how many times will there be a first time Crysis demo release? And how many times does a high profile game live up to it’s huge expectations? :)
I throw my pebble in the pile so to speak. So here you go: Crysis - First Look.
Sunday, October 28, 2007 8:52 PM
Finished downloading the demo!
Sunday, October 28, 2007 9:02 PM
Just finished installing the special drivers for the game, and for those of you who don’t know, these can be found on the official website http://www.incrysis.com/
Sunday, October 28, 2007 9:04 PM
Installing the demo. So far so good.
Sunday, October 28, 2007 9:17 PM
Just started the game…I waited 31 hours for the download to finish!
Sunday, October 28, 2007 9:21 PM
Everything in the game is set to low and the resolution was automatically set to 800x600. I decided to change the change the resolution to 1024x768 and see how the game would work. Should I dare to change it to 1280…?
Sunday, October 28, 2007 9:24 PM
Awesome into sequence! Somehow reminds me of Quake 4.
I just did a test run of this game right after the intro sequence. Since the setting is night time, the game was running alright. I wonder how that is going to change once the time of the day changes.
As of now, I am waiting for Xfire update to be finished so that I can play this game through Xfire and take some screen shots.
The story hasn’t changed it appears. There were reports at one time that the story was changed…but from the looks of things, it may have remained the same. I can’t say for sure yet…but that’s the impression I got. There might have subtle changes though…
Sunday, October 28, 2007 9:38 PM
There is no support for this demo on Xfire it seems, so I will have to continue with my game. I’ll see if there is a way I can take screen shots within the game, perhaps the function exists.
Sunday, October 28, 2007 11:56 PM
Phone calls, dinner and other such real life obligations delayed my work here.
Moving on to the game, I am very pleased to report that the game seems to be very well optimized to run on computers that just about meet the minimum requirements.
I was very apprehensive when I started installing the game. I didn’t think it would work on my computer with playable frame rate. So I started with low resolution (1024*768 ) and all settings low. The game worked fine.
Now I decided to push the limits and increased the resolution up to 1280*1024 and increased some of the settings to medium and high. The shadows, shaders were kept at low. To my surprise the game worked fine. I didn’t notice a severe drop in frame rate, it does lag every now and then, but after all, I am playing the game on an AGP card with medium-low settings at a high resolution, so I think the performance I am getting is very acceptable.
Of course, the game still doesn’t look as good as it is supposed to, but I am satisfied. Although this game might be extremely demanding when running at higher settings, it is still very good on older machines.
I haven’t finished the game as yet, so I think I am going to get to it right now, will update this as soon as I am done playing. I’ll see if I can push the settings any higher and see how my video card might take it.
Monday, October 29, 2007 7:02 AM
Will give this game another run now. Will probably finish it and write about the other technical aspects of the game. I should have finished it last night, but there were several interruptions.
Monday, October 29, 2007 10:48 AM
Finished the demo at last! The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger. I will not give away the surprise; those of you who haven’t played the game yet, must give this demo a try. I spent over 30 hours to download this game and tolerated several annoying interruptions - friends coming in unannounced, untimely phone calls, power failures; all that was worth it!
This game is going to be one of the most entertaining games ever!
Good on you Crytek for a job well done.
Final verdict
Before I write my closing comments, take a look at my computer configuration:
Manufacturer: INTEL
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 1790MB RAM
Hard Drive: 84 GB Total
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
Monitor: LG 17" CRT
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy
Speakers/Headphones: Creative SBS 360 5.1
Keyboard: Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech Optical
Mouse Surface: Standard surface
Operating System: Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2
When I first started the game, it auto detected my configuration and determined that the game delivers optimal performance at 800x600 resolution with all settings low. I changed the settings a great deal - increased the resolution to 1280x1024, set some of the options (physics, sound, game effects, post processing) to high, Object Detail was set to medium and the rest to low without FSAA and AF.
Except for situations where a heavy battle took place, the frame rate was very steady. Although the requirements are quite high to run the game at maximum settings, it can still be played on PCs that meet the minimum requirements.
The question though is, should it be played on PCs with minimum requirements? I don’t think so. This game thoroughly deserves the monster PC it requires. I will wait for an upgrade before I play this game and if you don’t have the hardware to play it right now, I strongly suggest exercising patience.
There are some very interesting gameplay elements and the most important of all is your new nano suit. This suit gives you the ability to customize your strength, speed, armor, weapons and almost renders you invisible for a limited amount of time! The way this feature is implemented is extremely good, accessing the different functions is very easy and doesn’t take a lot of time to get used to it. Excellent feature this.
I am not very happy with the AI. For most part they are extremely competent, and do a fine job at filling your nano suit with lead, but there are times when they react rather abnormally. For example, I made my way through the dense foliage, and stumbled right in front of guard, and yet he never made a move or called for help. I took the opportunity and silently finished him off with a well timed shot at point blank range.
Apart from this, I do not have any complaints with the game. This is sure to be a huge success.
Verdict - 9.5/10
First published on GameSpot