june gloom on 25/3/2011 at 21:35

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Depends on how it's implemented. As examples: Valve games do it right, FEAR 2 does it wrong.

Aja on 25/3/2011 at 22:23

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It also simulates what you see during actual head movement pretty well. 60fps games in which you turn fast and can see everything throughout the turn look really weird to me, because I can't do that in real life.

Volitions Advocate on 27/3/2011 at 18:56

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Alright so i beat it.. because I played it practically straight through.

I have to say, I'm not upset that I bought this game. It isn't crysis 1, that's for sure. The mechanics of the game are necessarily different from the first. The game isn't quite so open and free, but there are multiple ways of getting where you need to go. In fact, I'll bet you could actually ghost 80% of the game without needing to make any kills.

It's as hectic at times as any SP cod campaign but without the frustration and as far as I can tell, there are zero infinite spawn areas. If you can manage to duke it out long enough you'll clear an area that seems to keep spawning and spawning.

Technology wize. I didn't see anything that made me think it was better looking than most stuff out there right now in the current gen graphics race. BUT I was not running on max settings (I was on high, and there is a very high, and extreme setting avobe that), and when you get into game development you learn quickly to realize the difference between engine technolgoy and art. The art is not up to stuff as far as Call of Duty is concerned, but stuff CoD, bulging veins complete with normals, displacements, and speculars DO NOT MAKE A GAME. The tech on the other hand deserves all the praise it gets. Sure HDR and bloom is annoying, (it really is) but theres a utility to turn it off. I have never seen things done with lighting that this game does. There is a level where you are in central station and you've been fighting in the lobby / plaza / whatever and after a wave all the lights go out, then a big dropship or something hovers over the blown out roof and the way the blue light bathes everything and moves across your entire field of vision, it's like when a plane flies directly overhead and blocks out the sun, it look so damn real. Complain all you want about how graphics don't make a game... but they did a VERY good job of highlighting their Tech in a good way that added to the experience (minus the fkn bloom).

I am also very very impressed with the layers of detail that was put into the maps. They are very finely detailed with tons of little bits of rubble and miscellaneous art assets you would really have to be thinking about to decide to put into a game. Especially with maps and areas the size that this game has.

The sound:
HOLY SHIT THE SOUND!!
weapons have PUNCH!! they feel so satisfying, explosions carry weight and sound good too. I suppose this may depend on your audio setup, but I play through the same setup I edit audio with, so I have nice flat response near field studio monitors to listen with and even tho they're only 5 inch, they pump it out good, and also having a MOTU 896 as my DAC rather than the onbaord sound on my mobo (or even a consumer level creative card) probably helps. But you can't really improve something that isn't up to snuff in the first place. so they get an A++ from me.

Also the soundtrack is friggen awesome. It's orchestral which has a tendancy to make me yawn lately, all we need is another Harry-Gregson-Williams re-hash of "The Rock" soundtrack (don't get me wrong, i love that ST and HGW), and Hans Zimmer delivered, which I find interesting because he did the ST for MW2 didn't he? it was nowhere near as good as this. It keeps things suspenseful and really helps the gravity of the situations you encounter.

This is actually one game I can say where the music itself influenced the way you play. In some scenes I was pushed harder by the music and did some crazy things I can't believe didn't get me killed (more than a couple times).

I'm not a huge crytek fanboy, and even Crysis itself only had 1 or 2 moments in it that i really loved, I was really on the fence about buying this game and just basically splurged on it out of sheer boredom with what I had available to me. I'm completely surprised, I loved it, nearly every minute.

as for MP, i dunno. I can't even get it to run. The demo crashed every time i tried to start it, and it does the same thing here when i switch to MP mode. Who cares though? I doubt it will be as good as FarCry multiplayer.

Volitions Advocate on 28/3/2011 at 09:05

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I guess I should pay more attention, I just saw his name pass by in the opening credits.

Volitions Advocate on 31/3/2011 at 04:29

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Well I don't see how it would apply the same way it would in Crysis. There are no huts... its all concrete buildings, and there are no trees. It's NYC. There are some trees in the greeny central park bits.. but not much. and I didn't even think to try. Although I'm pretty sure I've killed a few baddies through some corrugated steel walls and such. But everything else is brick and cement.