VIDEO Crysis 2

[cybercore]

Crysis 2: Gameplay impressions | GamesRadar



Never underestimate the power of a good demo-er. From what should have been a sterling first look at the gameplay of Crysis 2 ended up as a bit of ham-fisted blast-a-thon that barely showed off the brilliance of this New York-based shooter. It's ironic as we were told at the beginning of the demo just how varied the game allows you to be - stealthy, gung-ho or tactical. Yet they were all mashed into one big bullet-filled patty.


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Regardless, you can still just about see the genius shining through. Everything about Crysis is big and dramatic. From the way that Prophet (what they're calling the hero in the demo) drops from the sky and lands with a thunderous thud when leaping from buildings to the huge sniper rifles you can fire while invisible. Heck, you can even twat enemies with parasols if you like. But it's the NYC setting, which thrills us most. A place, say the developers, will help to drive the story rather than the island action of the previous game.

OK, so loads of titles use the Big Apple as a backdrop but combined with the superb visuals that Crytek are capable of producing Crysis 2 is already looking hot.



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The demo we were walked through starts off with Prophet staring out from a bust up building on Wall Street. Choppers fly past and debris falls from the skyscraper as the camera pans around the incredibly detailed destruction below.

A quick leap to the ground, from some 20 stories high or so, and Prophet is scanning the area. Marking off his targets with his nanosuits goggles. All starts off well - a huge jump lands him behind an enemy on rooftop who meets his maker with a stealth kill. Another enemy is at the end of walkway but rather than remain invisible all hell breaks loose as Prophet opens fire with a machine gun that's as loud as war. Soon there are soldiers flanking and peppering our hero from all angles, which he quickly deals with.

But as the dust settles, Prophet is invisible again and staring down the sights of a sniper rifle ready to take out a distant enemy, sadly a stray shot is fired and suddenly his position is revealed again meaning more strafing and shooting. It's at this point we wonder whether God mode is on.



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The rest of the rooftop action is full of run and gun, apart from two key moments when a) a guard is picked up by his throat and thrown through a window to his death and b) a parasol is used to twat an enemy unconscious.

We also get to see our hero in an unfamiliar, vulnerable position as he's captured by the enemy and has all his powers depleted. Mysteriously, his suit powers up again when a giant enemy spike erupts through a building and kills all the grunts around him with its spooky power.

As he regains full strength he takes on a few aliens in a dazzle of explosions, grenades and uber violence and then the demo ends. We're already looking forward to this immensely, and even though the demo was a bit slap-dash it's plain to see it's going to be great.

 

[kemical]

Hmm.. I agree with the sentiment but not so sure Crysis 2 had dx11 removed. The amount of critisism Crytek has received because of this huge blunder is quite incredible.
Nearly every review either mentioned this fact or indeed flamed crytek for it.
The community (of which i consider myself part) went ape-**** and unfortunately started a trend where crytek and EA have become the bringer of all gaming woes (although EA is a greater candidate for this IMO and I must admit that in most forums EA and whatever the dev happens to be usually comes under a fair amount of abuse)
Crytek especially didn't help matters when it took so long to fix the mp, although the term 'fix' is used quite loosely here. To date we are at patch 1.9 which also tells you things weren't right from the get go although to be fair much of the advanced graphics is in this patch.
To cap it all though they then released two dlcs which weren't free. Many thought they should have been especially as they were map packs based on areas in the sp.
So when Crytek dithered about dx11 or not they were under a great deal of pressure to produce what was originally promised. Nvidia for one must have been pissed as their web site had boasted about one of it's cards being designed to push the 'next gen dx11 game crysis 2'. This page had to be removed after release of the game for obvious reasons...

Personally, I feel the reason dx11 wasn't in the original release was that Crytek was really pushed (probably by EA wanting the money to be recovered). They released a game, a very advanced game at that regardless of the use of dx9, on three seperate platforms. This also was the first time Crytek had tried to do anything like this so no wonder they dropped the ball here and there. You only have to enter each platforms forum and read the posts to see the level of garbage thown, you know the type.. It has to be said that there are also many with legitimate claims about this that and the other..

Luckily there is still one or two worth chatting to and a reasonable conversation to be had here and there.

I do agree with you about the pc vrs consoles, it seems envitable that more and more dev's are going over to the console rather than invest in a worth while anti-piracy solution. I'm hoping that there will always be a place for pc gaming as we both know that once you have used a decent gaming pc then a console just ain't gonna cut it. They have even (the devs) gone so far as the change consoles into almost pc like machines what being able to use the net ect..

 

[Highwayman]

The real issue isn' piracy though, that's a dead subject since you can find ANY console game hacked on google days before it's shop release, a claim they try to get everyone to perceive as a PC ONLY thing. Indeed it's been shown that PC gamers are more frugle but also more loyale to companies that do the PC proud.

 

[kemical]

What about STEAM games? Do you have any info relating to piracy concerning this platform?

 

[Mike]

What about STEAM games? Do you have any info relating to piracy concerning this platform?

Clearly anyone who is able to hack a Valve-powered game cannot access the online resources it offers. I believe this is why many publishers have chosen to provide online access and updates via Steam. This was a surprising move with the Civilization series of games - it is probably the most popular turn-based strategy game ever made, and was pirated extensively until the latest game required Valve for updates and online play.

Similarly to get development tools to certain games, you need Steam for certain games. This is true with Fallout now and many other games (for custom maps, add-ons, and so forth). Admittedly, a lot of people said they copied games so they wouldn't lose the disc. Now what could be the excuse?

P.S. I would argue getting every single pre-order item in a zip file "from a friend" does not count as software piracy if you bought the game

 

[kemical]

More on the update pending:

Crysis 2 DX11 and High Res Textures Update

As a number of users were able to download the DX11 and High res texture packages from our test environment we would like to take this opportunity to explain how these files will work and our future plans via a short FAQ;

Where can I download these files?
We have removed the files from our websites until the full release date.

How do I install these packs?
Both the DX11 and High Res texture packages require Crysis 2 PC Patch 1.9 to work. Without this patch they cannot be installed.

When will patch 1.9 be available?
Crysis 2 PC patch 1.9 AND the DX11 and High Res Texture packages will be made available on MyCrysis.com on Monday June 27th!

Please note that the files will not work without the PC patch scheduled for release on Monday, more information about this including all download links will be made available to you via MyCrysis.com and our social network pages. If you would like to see a list of changes made in patch 1.9 you can view them HERE.

- MyCrysis Team

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[Highwayman]

As far as STEAM games go, the ones that use VACS for protection pretty much eliminate all but the very most determined pirates from ever playing them online, although theres little to stop solo modes from being playable, but I think it's probably one of the best protections rather than the usual knee jerk responses from inept companies.

 

[kemical]

Double post

 

[kemical]

The three updates needed for the advanced options (dx11) can be found here:

GeForce.com - Get the Most Out of Your GPU

 

[Highwayman]

The three updates needed for the advanced options (dx11) can be found here:

GeForce.com - Get the Most Out of Your GPU

Link Removed due to 404 Error for the official site for both the big graphical addons (Texture pack & DX11 pack) the Texure addon is only for 64bit users only though. The 1.9 patch is got directly by running the crysis2 launcher in the games folder.

DX11 Package Specs 546mb
Minimum:
o DX11 compatible graphic card with 768MB Video Memory

High-Res: 1.7gb
Minimum:
o 64-bit Operating System
o DX9 compatible graphic card with 768MB Memory

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[Highwayman]

Well all patched up and ready to go.... but wait... what's this ****? 60hz mode no longer works and my big screen locks the game to bloody 50hz just like the fricken buggy code in Crysis wars used to, except that Alt-Enter a few times cured the black border and smudged look in the old game, no such luck here... considering the same exact rez in windowed mode is super sharp etc. Very annoyed that such a simple thing as being able to force the screen res to 60hz not 50hz is an EPIC FAIL!


EDIT: okay the workaround is similar as it happens.. main difference now you have to set to windowed mode, exit game and relaunch, load into tha game THEN alt-enter to fullscreen to get it going.. but you still appear to be locked down in FPS compared to the same in windowed mode... heard on forums its apparently locking to 24p mode on HDTV's when using the Dx11 bit (same issue seen in DX10 Crysis 1)

 

[kemical]

Here is a report from the graphics team that created the patch. Some good reading and great screenies too.

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[kemical]

Some screenies of the new pretties DX11 Patch.

POM=Parrallax occlusion mapping also notice hard and soft shadows.

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Textures.

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Realtime reflections.

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Shadowbased cloud.

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Tessellation

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I haven't inlcuded the Texture pack in the screenshots as it makes my poor pc weep like a baby lol. Recommended hardware is a 1,5GBVram GPU and 8 (yes that's 8) GBs of RAM!
Nuff said.

 

[Highwayman]

With all the focus on the D11 patch it seem a lot of people overlooked the release of the SDK mod tool with Sandbox 3, which came out 2 weeks ago!!!

Patches and Fixes: Crysis 2 v1.0 Mod SDK - Demo Movie Patch Download Section - GamersHell.com

 

[kemical]

Yeah I forgot to post the announcement although it's Cryengine3 that everyone is waiting on...

 

[kemical]

If you want a breakdown on the update then this article:

Crysis 2 DX11 VGA and CPU performance benchmarks
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DirectX 11 hardware tessellation is a massive feature, but the Ultra Upgrade also introduces soft shadows with variable penumbra, improved water rendering, and particle motion blur and shadowing. Having been originally omitted from CryEngine 3, Parallax Occlusion Mapping has been reintroduced, as has full-resolution High Dynamic Range motion blur, making the game’s use of camera panning more detailed and defined. To improve performance further hardware-based occlusion culling has been implemented, resulting in performance improvements from objects and scenery out of view not being rendered.

is one of the best I've read so far.
Great read..

 

[Highwayman]

Crytek's CryEngine 3 SDK kit is now available for free....

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[Conduct]

Re: Crysis 2-Prophets Journey

Crysis!!! WOOT

Good game!

 

[kemical]

Re: Crysis 2-Prophets Journey

Here is a great report on the use of DX11 in Crysis with some surprising reveals.. Water, water everywhere!

Link Removedf you also like the look of the tool used in the article you can find it here:

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[Highwayman]

Re: Crysis 2-Prophets Journey

Aye and that Nvidia have basically sponsered (Read as: bribed) the devs to leave a hell of a lot of deliberate overheads to make ATi cards look slower artificially dumping unseen water tesselation stuff underground etc.... tut tut. Don't take that as a Nvidia bashing based on me having an Ati currently as I'd only buy Nvidia for the previous 10 years worth of GPU upgrades, and if they can get a decent 28nm GPU out by January 2012 i'll likely swap back to Nvidia.

 

[kemical]

Re: Crysis 2-Prophets Journey

Just shows what goes on huh?