Crysis 2 beat; my analysis

Hey all,

Well Crysis 2 is beaten. Good game; not great. The story is a step up from crysis/warhead but I find that I will play those much more than Crysis 2. I don't even know if I will replay Crysis 2.

There are aspects of the Cry Engine 3 that I do like (if that is the name of the engine). I find that the lighting and character models are an improvement. Guns felt good, the hit registry seemed tight. The battles were intense and the game flowed well; much like the COD series but not quite as engaging.

The TAC assessments were pretty worthless. Anyone with decent FPS skills can survive without even using them. I definitely missed the physics and sandbox feel from previous Crysis games and I think that is what allowed more "popcorn eye candy" to be implemented. City streets were near photo realistic but the jungles from the first can't be beaten.

I run an m18x with CF 6970's with 11.8 drivers and CAP2. While the majority of the game can be played in Ultra with DX11 and texture pack, some scenes just can't as they go in the 20's; even OC'ing my cards to stock 6990/580M equivalents. There is nothing more frustrating than having to switch eye candy in games for me. Fortunately, the rush of dx11 and Ultra made hardly any noticeable difference in gaming experience. Fortunately for users of say the 5870, the game should run buttery smooth at enthusiast settings. Very VERY little graphical fidelity is lost.

Tessellation was poorly implemented and completely gimps even the most powerful hardware and I could do without seeing handles on roadblocks or unseen water that was tessellating entire levels (big article on it). The difference in my fraps from the most intense levels were I saw 20's in FPS on Ultra, I found 50-75FPS on enthusiast with max resolution. Again, with poor optimizing, even changing some of the Ultra down to enthusiast saw very little improvement in FPS.

This is no different than the original Crysis on the last level were 17 FPS was recorded.

Again, overall it was a good playing experience but was anticipating finishing the game as it was getting relatively repetitive.

Tessellation is a real FPS killer on current cards and the return on investment for the staggered bricks and more lifelike structures, really takes a performance hit. DX11 definitely is more optimized than DX10, but it really goes to show how great DX9 is....still. Obviously Crysis was made for DX9 and it is a beautiful game on Enthusiast.

For those on the fence for getting Crysis 2, I would wait for good deals. Warhead or the Crysis Maximum CD would be money better spent.

Overall, it is a great franchise and still a showcase of what PC games can look like. I just wish EA would have allowed the developers to have developed the game around a PC to begin with and now rushed in DX11 as an after thought. No way those coders knew they were wasting tessellation...they were just rushed by EA time lines if I had to hypothesize.

I don't think I will ever get sick of the physics and sandbox feel of the first two installments and that is why my recommendation would be to stick with those as they offer a better overall graphical experience and immersion into the Crysis universe. Vegetation and high end physics would have been too much for consoles so I see why they went the urban route. Again, it looked great and the lighting and building detail is far superior to the original crysis. but at least those ugly buildings could have been superjumped and punched to oblivion with jaw dropping physics and good frame rates.

Another game beaten. I guess it is on to Metro2033. Again, a game that runs max except for the bench of scene one that drops even CF 6970's OC'd to it's knees. But the implementation of DX11 seems MUCH MUCH more appropriate in this game without such a performance hit to the GPU's. Wow...looks like a blog but just my opinion on Crysis 2 for those that haven't played through or those that did and want to comment. Peace.

 

See this is why years later, dx9 is STILL relevant. There are hardly an improvements, save for the fact that it was a selling point of vista; directx 10, internet explorer 8, windows media player 10, etc.
I love Crysis, but I wont be getting Warhead or Crysis 2 because of its DRM. I might be missing out, but it's too much of a big deal to me.

 

This makes me want to go play Crysis.

 

I recommend Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
DirectX 11 and Tesselation done right.

Dident even need to OC my HD 6970m to get smooth gameplay.

 

I second this.

My 5730 plays Deus Ex like a breeze on DX11 with Tessellation, Normal DOF, 16xAF, Triple Buffering, Normal shadows and 1080p. 30-60 FPS!

Deus Ex is, IMO, the game that best uses DX11. No performance hit, BUT offers a pretty noticeable tessellation change.

Afterall, that's the objective : increase poly count without wasting resources. That's what Deus Ex did. And did great.

 

I don't know, I certainly enjoyed the first game but I quite liked the second game too, I'm currently on my 4th playthrough and I find the lighting to be a major improvement. I can't stand forward rendering anymore!