Crysis 3 (PC Only) - The Kvetchfest Returns To Its Roots

[PGHammer]

I truly cannot even fathom how people can say that somehow the Crysis series has not been good from a gameplay perspective. It damn near boggles my mind. Even as they have progressively dumbed down the gameplay to make the game more suited for the consoles, it is still overall one of the better FPS experiences one can have in gaming. At least IMHO. It is just damn fun to play.

I'm NOT saying that it isn't fun to play, DL - the advantage it's gained as it's required less and less fiddlework for average midrange PCs to be able to play it is that you can actually CONCENTRATE more on the gameplay, as opposed to the graphical goodness. Then there is the fact that the controls of the first Crysis practically BEGGED for something other than keyboard and mouse - which isn't the case for Crysis 2 or Crysis 3. Because Crysis 2 (and even more so Crysis 3) are games i don't have to wrestle to the ground to be ABLE to play, I can actually CONCENTRATE on playing. In fact, I'm at the dam right now, and playing "how many different ways I can kill CELL troopers using the Predator Bow". In addition to the standard impact arrows (and the electric arrow for taking out nosies in bodies of water (how shocking)) I've used BOTH sorts of explosive arrows (HE and thermite) to cause some CELLular decompression - one poor trooper found himself the recipient of a thermite enema. (That's right - a thermite arrow in the posterior.) No - I don't like CELL. Hated them in Crysis 2; if anything, I hate them even MORE in THIS game. It's why I'm NOT rushing through the levels - instead, I'm looking for more and more humiliating ways of increasing the numbers of CELL corpses. (Between the stealth and the Bow, the possibilities are legion.)

[HoochieMamma]

I'm still wondering why they felt the need to go ONLY DX11. :/

[spaceelf]

I'm still wondering why they felt the need to go ONLY DX11. :/

And I'm still wondering why not.

It's been three and a half years...it only took six months for people to start adopting DX9...and ten years for anyone to stop.

[PGHammer]

And I'm still wondering why not.

It's been three and a half years...it only took six months for people to start adopting DX9...and ten years for anyone to stop.

DX9c is, to put it bluntly, a boat-anchor around the neck of game developers - it's the common hardware denominator between PCs and the lowest-end game consoles. If you are going to stay with DX9c, you are basically writing glorified console ports - even if your game is PC-only.

Next - DX11 hardware - in the customer computers - has ALREADY reached the Tipping Point; nearly half the PCs running Steam have DX11-ready GPUs (latest published Steam hardware survey). That's not sales OF hardware, folks; that is already SOLD hardware.

Lastly, except for portable computers, upgrading to DX11 is cheap. The top of the midrange (HD7850 or GTX650 Ti with 2 GB of GDDR5) is around $200USD today. The bottom of that same range (GTX550 or HD7750/HD7770 with 1 GB of GDDR5) is half that - $100USD. You can afford a $50USD game (Crysis 3 Hunter Edition) but can't afford a $100USD graphics upgrade to make that game (and all your other games) more playable? No, sir - I'm not buying that argument.

A footnote - Crytek is, of all things, LATE to taking advantage of DX11 - even with Crysis 2, they had been beaten to the draw by a pair of RTS titles - Starcraft 2 (Blizzard) and Civilization V (Firaxis). Shooters are the titles that are supposed to push the edge, but even Crysis 2 got seriously walked over by two RTS titles - in the case of Firaxis and Sid Meier, neither Firaxis as a developer, and especially not Meier himself, has a history of making graphically-demanding games. As has been stated earlier in the thread, Crytek has a reputation for making graphically challenging games - how would the gaming community react to seeing Crytek lose that title to, of all things, an RTS-focussed developer, and specifically to Firaxis and Sid Meier? I can pretty much assure you that there would be more snickering over Crytek's "fall from glory" than there is by Crysis 2 and Crysis 3 players snickering over CELL.

[spaceelf]

I didn't even buy Crysis 2 until the dx11 patch came out. I lost interest early and lost DRM activations before I actually finished the game.

Ironically, just got a new one within the last few days to try and finish it, got further than I had been, had hardware problems and no longer have any activations. Fun.

And some people think having to log in to play a game is bad...heh.

[AlphaPrime]

The previous Crysis games were decent fun I thought. Good to see they're trying to push the limits on PC again, shame about the SP duration however.

[cropcircles]

Need to come out with a compatible DX10 GPU capable version or this game will be a bust. Complaints about the DX11 version are all over the place

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Need to come out with a compatible DX10 GPU capable version or this game will be a bust. Complaints about the DX11 version are all over the place

That won't happen because CryENGINE 3 is DX9/DX11. Crysis 3 is an exception because it only supports DX11 and they're not going to release a DX9 version.

[LaP]

It's just a shame Crytek can't make a quality game. CryEngine3 has so much potential, but we're going to have to wait until a third party company purchases a license for the engine and develops a game that properly utilizes the engine.

Crysis 3 exists for the sole reason the original Crysis existed -- to benchmark your system to see how future proof it is.

While Crysis was not a masterpiece nor an awesome game it was still a nice game that was worth my time.

[PGHammer]

Need to come out with a compatible DX10 GPU capable version or this game will be a bust. Complaints about the DX11 version are all over the place

Actually, no, they aren't - the complaints are coming from two areas - lack of DX10 compatibility (older hardware) and lack of usage of multi-GPU (DX11 high-end hardware).

The midrange, and even the DX11 low-end, aren't complaining.

The DX10 GPU owners are pleading poverty, while the high-end are complaining over lack of multi-GPU support.

[PGHammer]

I have a follow-up post in this thread (not trying to revive it, honestly - I simply have additional data).

 

Since my last post in this thread, I've replaced my AMD HD5450 (Mobility part in desktop clothes) with a desktop part in desktop clothes, but of the same age - an nVidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti.  (The direct equivalents from AMD are the HD5750 and HD5770.)  I changed nothing else.  How does it handle Crysis 3?  Amazingly well, thanks - 1920x1080, firewalled everything except AA (I'm using 1x MSAA) - basically, I replaced dead hardware with slightly higher-spec but STILL dead hardware.  If you have a better GPU than this and are getting crappy performance, then something else is definitely wrong, and more likely than not, it has diddly to do with your GPU or the drivers thereof.  (That is, if anything, even MORE likely since I'm running the 320.49 Forceware drivers - which is getting a ton of complaints on the GeForce.com forums - on Windows 8.1 Preview besides.)