Crysis 2 with DX11, HD Texture pack (Video)

[Wolfram23]

Well as I'm sure most people here know, Crysis 2 finally got updated to modern specs with DX11 and an optional HD Texture Pack. A lot of people may be wondering how it looks, or how it plays. It looks very nice, obviously. I don't think they're really pushing the DX11 capabilities, but still, it's nice. As for performance, it's roughly the same but slightly less GPU demanding than the original, but that might be thanks to optimizations made. It uses lots of RAM (~6GB) and CPU (~50-80% on my i5 750 quad core @ 4ghz), but the framerate is more stable than Crysis 1.

Anyway, onto the goodies. I recorded and uploaded a 16 minute video in 1080p of what is basically the first level. I have the intro as well, but this vid is where the action actually starts and it also shows off the graphics better.

I recommend watching it on YouTube in HD (720p or 1080p) rather than in this little window...


For discussion, let's talk about Crysis 2 and whether you think it was a good game or not, especially in comparison to the 1st. Personally, I like the streamlined nano suit but so far I can't really comment on if the game is better or not because I haven't finished it yet.

 

[teh_Canape]

honestly, I loved it and found it to be way better than the first one, especially the suit handling

another thing tha I liked was how free the environments felt, granted the first one was pretty much a sand box, but I didn't liked it there because I could easily get lost and most places looked the same (that is, in the forest parts)

also, the campaign and the atmosphere were my favorites and the multiplayer is pretty fun

but sadly, I wish it kept the weapon cap from the first one

 

[Outright Villainy]

Mmm, I liked Crysis 2, it was definitely an above average manshoot, but I had some problems with it. For one thing, it was way too frickin' easy. I started on the second highest difficulty, and had absolutely no trouble. Now, I could just play on the hardest, but that'd be ignoring some fundamental problems:

1) Finding every single enemy's location is ridiculously easy, and you can also keep a constant beacon on them through walls. You can even mark them through walls. Hell, the game even tells you when there's a few enemies up ahead, so you don't ever accidentally bumble into some. Way too much handholding.

2) Guns feel a little samey for the most part. I love the hand cannon, and the sniper rifle (which I usually just pop a reflex sight on and just start headshotting at close range), but most other guns aren't too interesting.

3) Way too many frickin' aliens. They just aren't fun to fight against. It'd be cool if the big ones were there now and again to act as boss characters, but on the whole, the grunts are just boring to fight against.

4) Not enough enemies. It's incredibly rare to get overwhelmed. Even when I get caught with my pants down, I can usually sprint for cover, wait for the recharge, then turn on super armour and pick em all off. Tactical positioning isn't anywhere near as necessary as it should be. There are parts that do force you into picking the right path, and position to attack from, and there really should have been more of that.

5) The story is pants. Which is surprising considering its from Richard Morgan (who wrote the quite excellent Altered Carbon), but there you go. It's all gruff marines shouting at each other about what do with the completely unambiguously evil aliens you have to fight. It's just... so... boring.

6) What's up with all the scripted parts where you get knocked to the ground and get up realllly slowly? Man that was annoying.

I'm making it sound all bad, but it's not. It mixed stealth and gunplay well, the level design is relatively open in terms of path choices, which I appreciate, and you have a wealth of options for each fight. I just wish there were tougher choices in those options, as opposed to them just being flavour.

 

[jamesworkshop]

I thought it was a very good game, i've never really like cross-comparision in series entries but the expanded nanosuit was better (airstomp is a perfect F-you button), the weapons themselves were better detailed and more unique, crysis has a massive problem with that.

FY71 and SCAR were effectivly the same gun, the SCAR was noticably more powerfull but FY71 constantly had ammo available, both shared excatly the same attachments and fire modes.
This extended into other weapons, especially the Sniper rifle which is only worth picking up for the sniper scope attachment, SCAR/FY71 + Scope in single shot, do less damage but carry almost 10 times as much ammo and have other uses and easier to find ammo.

 

[Akihiko]

I've not played it very far, I also don't have a Dx11 card(Can play it maxed otherwise though).

I did however install the HD texture pack which said it was usable in the dx9 version. Enabled it in the settings, and honestly, I could not tell any difference.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Well now I know what it's like to play Crysis 2:


"CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED""CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED""CLOAK ENGAGED""CLOAK ENGAGED""CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED""CLOAK ENGAGED""CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED"
"CLOAK ENGAGED"

 

[Wolfram23]

snip

QFT! Yeah I need to get that voice disabled. Ugh.

 

[NorthernTrooper]

The voice is like, half the reason I play the game. It's so satisfying.

 

[Tharwen]

It's been loading on 1080p for about 5 minutes, and only 25 seconds are streamed...

I hope it's worth it. Also, I need more RAM and a new GPU if I want any chance of making it look like that. It's a shame... this PC was amazing only a year ago.

EDIT: 1 minute 20 seconds now!

EDIT 2: 3 MINUTES! WE'VE HIT 3 MINUTES!

 

[SyphonX]

I really couldn't get through this game, as much as I tried.

The gameplay is trash. The AI is absolutely atrocious, even on the "Post-Human" difficulty. I mean it's just bad.

The graphics are not all they're hyped up to be. They are impressive in some ways, but completely sad in others. The FOV is sad. The lack of anti-aliasing makes it even worse. All the shallow graphic eye-candy isn't going to flush away the fact that every level in the game is narrow, small and short. Don't even get me started on how they removed destructible environments.

They bragged about the cityscape and how you would be able to scale buildings and take different approaches, when the fact is, you can't. You can only start on a rooftop, then find your way down to the street and continue the level. So basically the cityscape is only for aesthetic, which would be fine, if the rest of the game wasn't so shallow.

There is no sandbox like the first one, and that is my final and most important complaint. The first one was more like a smaller-scale Just Cause 2, where you could freely travel through a rather large environment and take different means of approach to complete your tasks. Crysis 2 is more or less a glorified Halo clone.

 

[Dalek Caan]

I really loved the campaign and was really into the multiplayer. If the news about Crysis 1 coming out for Xbox 360 is correct then once I play that I will be able to fully compare the two.

 

[Wolfram23]

It's been loading on 1080p for about 5 minutes, and only 25 seconds are streamed...

I hope it's worth it. Also, I need more RAM and a new GPU if I want any chance of making it look like that. It's a shame... this PC was amazing only a year ago.

EDIT: 1 minute 20 seconds now!

EDIT 2: 3 MINUTES! WE'VE HIT 3 MINUTES!

Hahaha yeah 1080p needs a good connection ><

How are you liking it though?

 

[Tharwen]

It's been loading on 1080p for about 5 minutes, and only 25 seconds are streamed...

I hope it's worth it. Also, I need more RAM and a new GPU if I want any chance of making it look like that. It's a shame... this PC was amazing only a year ago.

EDIT: 1 minute 20 seconds now!

EDIT 2: 3 MINUTES! WE'VE HIT 3 MINUTES!

Hahaha yeah 1080p needs a good connection ><

How are you liking it though?

No idea. It stopped streaming and refused to play.

As nice as the area around my house is, I would rather it was somewhere close to a network hub.