Does anybody else wind up playing through Crysis evertime you get a new PC?

Everytime I get a new PC, I install Crysis to see how the new machine runs it and I wind up getting sucked in and doing an entire play-through.

First machine I ever played Crysis on was the Asus in my sig. Some games scale down pretty well and can still look pretty good on low settings (although not as good as high), but this game did not scale well. It looked like crap. But it ran pretty smooth (except in the alien ship) and I had tons of fun. While the graphics make the game look pretty, most of what made crysis a phenomally enjoyable experience was AI/physics/non-linear level design. And that was all still there.

When my Asus died unexpectedly, I didn't have a whole ton of money so I had to go with a 750 dollar HP (second one in sig). Hardware had come far enough at that even mid level machines could meed Crysis's recommended reqs. Most everything turned up to medium, a few things on high, and 1280 something resolution. It was just as fun and it didn't look like crap!

That HP died 2 weeks ago and I had to go with another budget HP notebook. But still, hardware has come a pretty long way and now I can run the game with everything on high, 1600x900 resolution and 2x anti-aliasing at a smooth framerate.

 

I hate to be that guy, but wouldn't it be monetarily responsible to buy one good computer, rather than 2 cheap hp's?

 

That Asus was a high-end gaming machine (when I bought it). I paid around 1600 for it and within a year, there were games being released that either didn't run well or didn't look good or both. I paid 750 for the second HP and I got alot more longevity out of it in terms of game-performance. Games are only just starting to be released that it would have trouble running. This is partly due to the fact that everything is designed to run on the piddly home consoles, and this was half-way through the 360/ps3 console cycle, and hardware had come far enough that even a cheapo entertainment PC could be more powerful than the consoles that just about every game was designed to run on. I'm not much of a graphics monger either so I don't mind playing a game on low, as long as it scales down well so it doesn't look like crap and it runs smooth. I expect my new HP to meet these criteria for the next 2 years or so, until the new console cycle is in full swing and devs transition to new hardware, this should satisfy my needs just fine.

There's also my financial situation. I don't make enough money right now to pay for the best performance and shine. I should be finished school and making a decent living within a year. Then maybe I will go all-out.

 

I wasn't trying to come off brash, just cheap hp's are just that. Seems like it'd be a better option to score a "cheap" Asus/msi/Lenovo to get the you through. I understand the money thing, I've been saving up and limping my 6 year old Asus through until I could make a good purchase. Scored a gt70 yesterday, genuinely exited.

 

Crysis is just that game which quickly shows you how much stronger your new GPU is over the last one. Plus it's a fun and innovative FPS, with an open style which Crytek abandoned.

I absolutely install it on every new laptop. When I had an 8600M GT DDR2, I didn't even bother, because I figured it wouldn't even run. Then I moved up to the 9800M GT, and could finally try it out, I was so stoked. Still didn't feel "good enough" though. It wasn't until I got the 6970M, that I felt worthy to finally play through Crysis. What a good game.

Haven't yet tried it on my latest, because of Windows 8 compatibility issues,

 

Seriously? I played through Crysis and Warhead on my 8600m GT. Granted mix low to medium settings. And I did replay it when I finally got my GTX 260M at higher detail. Heck even IGP can play Crysis just fine at high settings now. I don't care much to play it again though. Just isn't that interesting, two plays was enough for me. And it is a six year old game now. Six years is a long time for tech.

 

Six years is a long time, but not for this tech. Too much focus on graphics is ruining modern gaming and we've actually been taking steps back since then. Look at the Crysis Sequels. They got rid of the AI/level design/physics that made the first so damn good and stuffed you into tight levels with with little intereactivity and physics and populated by prescient AI. Yeah it looks better than Crysis, but that doesn't suddenly make the first game look like crap. The better graphics are offset by how static the environments were; they look really good but their reactions to player interactions is so minimal that it significantly detracts from the realism.

Crysis 3 is touted as possibly being the best looking game yet, but I watched my brother play and it looked like so much like more of Crysis 2 and less of Crysis 1. I don't wanna bust a game I haven't played myself, but I feel soooo dis-inclined to play it. Just another turd rolled rolled in diamonds.

It was good to see that farcry 3 retained many of the environmental effects and physics of it's predecfesor, but this doesn't seem to be a normal trend.

Does anybody know of any games on the horizon that are going to complement better looking environments with physical properties and interactivity?

 

Hmm I wanted to do that on my new MSI with 770M, but I ended up playing Crysis 3 instead, among lots of other new games. Maybe I'll try the first one later.

 

Yeah I agree. In my mind I rank the series as follows: Original Far Cry and Crysis (and Warhead) clearly at the top, Far Cry 3 a close second, then Far Cry 2, and Crysis 2 and 3 clearly at the bottom.

With the right mods, Crysis 1 can look just as good if not better than Crysis 3. But clearly graphics aren't everything, something which it seems Crytek no longer understands anymore.

 

For Crysis (1), BlackFire's Mod is all you need.

BlackFire's Mod Ultimate for Crysis 1 - Mod DB

Anyways, this is was the first game I installed on my system (which I own for about 2 months now). When you build your new system, always ask yourself this question: "Nice machine, but can it run Crysis?"

 

I have high hopes for The Witcher 3. I also fear it will be rxtremely demanding.

 

With my shiny new 8600M GT DDR2 in 2007, I had to try Crysis's demo. Sure, it probably wouldn't be very good, but I had to answer the question, "But can it play Crysis?" Turns out the answer was, "If you consider 23 FPS on low settings and low resolution to be acceptable". I didn't go out any buy the game after that, but I had to satisfy my curiosity.

I did install the demo and try it on my desktop when I built it, but not right away. I don't remember how it did, but needless to say it was much improved.

 

Yeah but it will blow you away with its visuals. I have no doubt about that. In fact, to this day I still think Witcher 2 is the most graphically-pleasing game I've ever played. Not necessarily the most realistic, but the art direction and aesthetic qualities are the most pleasing to my eyes.

 

Damn you, because of this, I am now forced to do a replay of Crysis, and I haven't even gotten around to playing Crysis 3 yet

@Kevin http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/735738-does-anybody-else-wind-up-playing-through-crysis-evertime-you-get-new-pc.html#post9425353

How did you not find the 9800M GT capable of running Crysis at acceptable settings? From what I remember, a few years ago on my Gateway FX gaming laptop I was able to play Crysis on high settings without any frame rate issues, I really only had the AA and other filters turned off. The Gateway FX had a 9800M GTS 1GB, Intel Core 2 Extreme X9100 3.06GHZ, 8GB RAM. I really wish Gateway still made gaming laptops... that FX was a beast in its time and had less issues than any other gaming laptop I've owned.

 

Yep, guilty . I love seeing how much better it runs and looks with every new GPU I get.

 

I don't know. My native res was 1680x1050 and at that it was really hard to maintain 30fps with the 9800M GT, unless I lowered the settings significantly. Why play a beautiful game, if you must turn off the beauty to play it beautifully?

 

Guilty as charged!