Misconceptions about PC gaming.

[geldonyetich]

Crysis wasn't that bad, in my opinion. It had very open environments of which you can only find in Crytek's other game. As far as gameplay was concerned, the suit offered more strategy than the typical run and gun FPS. Not all of its publicity was due to its graphics, although they are currently the bleeding edge of PC graphics right now.

 

[The Wooster]

Crysis is kind of like the ben croshaw of video games.

It does something outrageous (in this case demand a modern system) and gets publicity from it, when in reality it really is nothing special.

Man. That's a bit harsh. You may as well say Crysis is a bit fruity and wears a stupid hat too.

That being said the game does have a lot going for it behind it's bugs and annoying technical demands. Smashing through the roof of a hut and punching the occupants to death is always satisfying.

I'm not really saying it's bad, but nothing about it really made me wow. I never really caught myself admiring the details in it, like I did with oblivion. But I never found myself truly enjoying the gameplay either, whereas I nearly always had a smile on my face during Mass Effect.

Still, it's a matter of preference I suppose.

Also, what benchmarks are you looking at, because the 8800 gts (g92) is most definately more powerful than the 8800 gt. I think your thinking of the 320 or 640 mb version of the gts, rather than the g92 chipset variety.

Guess you're right. Although according to this site the difference is pretty small. http://metku.net/index.html?path=reviews/8800-gt-gts/index_eng8

As for mass effect the gameplay was the worst part of the game in my opinion. It was sloppy and the A.I was shitty. Crysis didn't play to it's own strengths (the fight with the soldiers in the small town compound was the highlight of the game IMO) it was still way ahead of Mass effect in terms of gameplay. Story was pure stodge though.

 

[Aries_Split]

Crysis wasn't that bad, in my opinion. It had very open environments of which you can only find in Crytek's other game. As far as gameplay was concerned, the suit offered more strategy than the typical run and gun FPS. Not all of its publicity was due to its graphics, although they are currently the bleeding edge of PC graphics right now.

The textures didn't seem to pop though, as they do in Assassins Creed with all the settings maxed, or COD4.

 

[Alex_P]

Exactly what I said. It's weaker than the gt and the GTX. Hence the weakest in the family. I wasn't talking about value for money, simply performance. I agree the gts is a slightly better choice than the gtx but both pale in comparison to a decent GT.

I think there's some confusion between the old GTS ("G80") and the new GTS ("G92", "512 MB GTS") going on in this thread.

(I wonder why... freakin' stupid naming rules!)

-- Alex

EDIT: Too slow! I guess it took me 11 whole minutes to check my facts. :_(

 

[shaboinkin]

This can run crysis on Low at 42 FPS, Medium at 26 FPS, not tested at high because it will melt

find it funny, cause i got a x1650 pro that can play crysis on high except shaders and shadows (at low), and i get about 25-30fps, at 1024x768. Those damn shadows and crap kill my computer.

 

[geldonyetich]

The textures didn't seem to pop though, as they do in Assassins Creed with all the settings maxed, or COD4.

It's hard to say what you mean by "pop," I'd have to see some comparison shots. I'm not sure how much of that can be chalked down to hardware/software compatibility, and I do know that Crysis holds some things back unless you're running in Direct X 10. I also know that the CryEngine 2 is getting some further improvements which will show up in Crysis Warhead.

Of course, we're just talking about textures here. There's all sorts of other things, such as advanced shading, going into the cutting edge engines that really floored people about Crysis.

 

[Aries_Split]

For instance, here is a very hi res screen of crysis maxed on 1680x1050. Great Graphics, but to me they just seem bland, they lack "pop"
http://www.makethisgame.com/images/crysis01.jpg

How ever with Assassins creed, the textures seem to have life, they seem to almost pop out. Crysis is certainly more graphically advanced in other departments, but textures are a big part of the experience.
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x233/Hexen525/AssassinsCreed_Dx103.jpg

With COD4, it's very easy to see how easy the textures "pop"
http://phaseonefl.com/shot0000.jpg

get what I'm saying?

 

[Alex_P]

With COD4, it's very easy to see how easy the textures "pop"
http://phaseonefl.com/shot0000.jpg

I think that's a bad screenshot. How about this same one from that site?
http://phaseonefl.com/shot0002.jpg

The cars are a good contrast to the boat in your Crysis screen. I think they have a lot more character.

You can see that Cryengine's trees are obviously better.

Overall, it seems like Crysis over-blurs stuff.

-- Alex

 

[CatmanStu]

All this tech talk is making my head hurt.

I've been a PC gamer going right back to the days when Lucasarts actually made good games and Sierra made adventures you had to type to control (Leisure Suit Larry taught me a few words I hadn't heard before) but these days I don't want to have to check the box to see if I can run something, I want to plug in my plastic guitar and pretend to be a rock star, pick up a microphone and annoy the neighbours or run around killing things without worrying if my fingers are on the right keys.

I played through FarCry again the other day and that is a perfect example of how graphics are unimportant. Visually stunning for it's day but gameplay wise, man does it suck balls. Also, you can be completely covered in foliage and getting shot at, but when you turn down the graphics you realise that only half of the scenery is actually cover the rest is just for show; ergo the game is easier to play if you turn all the graphics off. That's like the graphics equivalent of the chapter select in Alone in the Dark.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

With COD4, it's very easy to see how easy the textures "pop"
http://phaseonefl.com/shot0000.jpg

I think that's a bad screenshot. How about this same one from that site?
http://phaseonefl.com/shot0002.jpg

The cars are a good contrast to the boat in your Crysis screen. I think they have a lot more character.

You can see that Cryengine's trees are obviously better.

Overall, it seems like Crysis over-blurs stuff.

-- Alex

I don't think the graphics were finished loading, you know he just dropped down and then took a picture and didn't wait.

 

[AlphaWolf13]

If you use a PC for gaming, you also have to deal with hundreds of viruses.

That's false. You only have to deal with viruses if you don't know how to handle yourself on the internet. Basically, only idiots have to deal with hundreds of viruses.

Exactly. The last time I had a virus was.... Oh say 10 years ago, when I was 9...
=p

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

If you use a PC for gaming, you also have to deal with hundreds of viruses.

That's false. You only have to deal with viruses if you don't know how to handle yourself on the internet. Basically, only idiots have to deal with hundreds of viruses.

Exactly. The last time I had a virus was.... Oh say 10 years ago, when I was 9...
=p

Or you spend 50$ to get a powerful norton anti-virus and it will stop everything. I had over 50,000 virus attempts last year a lone and of those 42 were trojan attempts.

 

[Alex_P]

Or you spend 50$ to get a powerful norton anti-virus and it will stop everything. I had over 50,000 virus attempts last year a lone and of those 42 were trojan attempts.

Memory-resident on-access scanners are the devil.

-- Alex

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

Or you spend 50$ to get a powerful norton anti-virus and it will stop everything. I had over 50,000 virus attempts last year a lone and of those 42 were trojan attempts.

Memory-resident on-access scanners are the devil.

-- Alex

Yeah but if your really worryed about viruses this is a lifesaver, my 4 year old rig has yet to be cracked.

 

[geldonyetich]

For instance, here is a very hi res screen of crysis maxed on 1680x1050. Great Graphics, but to me they just seem bland, they lack "pop"
[examples]
get what I'm saying?

Looking at those, I'm thinking what you're saying here is you like the styles of the other games better. It's not that the CryEngine 2 is a bad engine, it's just that what they used it for had an emphasis on photorealism [http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/crysis-comparison.jpg]. Real life is kinda bland. The other two games were used to create some better-than-life imagery.

This especially applies to Assassin's Creed, which went through this virtual-world interface (so there's Matrix all over the place) and portayed these grand old cities and countryside in majestic artist-recreation splendor. The lighting in that provided screenshot is unreal, it's like a billion dollars went into erecting a gigantic scaffold to hold the lighting needed to capture the scene in cinematographic greatness, right down to capturing dust motes in broad daylight.

As for that Call of Duty screenshot, it's fairly awful. The lighting is no better than Quake. Would you look at that wall and floor detail? Pixel-riffic: Yuck. However, I can see why it'd make for a good game, because the constant light provides a very visible contrast. This allows you to make out the details on the characters easier than you could in even real life. It must make them fairly easy to spot for fighting.

 

[ReepNeep]

8800GTS 512mb the weakest gfx card in 8800 family, what are you talking about??

The 8800GT and GTS (512mb G92) are amazing cards for the price and performance. The only reason somebody would need a 8800gtx is if they are gaming above 1680x1050 with loads of AA and AF.

Exactly what I said. It's weaker than the gt and the GTX. Hence the weakest in the family. I wasn't talking about value for money, simply performance. I agree the gts is a slightly better choice than the gtx but both pale in comparison to a decent GT.

You guys obviously have no clue what you're talking about. The 8800gts cards come in two flavors 320/640mb and 512mb. The 512mb design is a different design than the others with more pipelines and shaders.

The 8800 hierarchy goes like this:
GT 256mb -> GTS 320mb -> GTS 640mb -> GT 512mb -> GTS 512 -> GTX -> Ultra
The biggest performance jumps come between the GTS 640mb and GT 512mb, and the GT 512mb and GTS 512mb.

If you have a display thats over 1280x1024, getting something bigger than an 8800GT is a good idea as it's performance drops off rapidly once resolution increases past that point. The 8800GTS 512 can do 19x12 reasonably well.

 

[AlphaWolf13]

Or you spend 50$ to get a powerful norton anti-virus and it will stop everything. I had over 50,000 virus attempts last year a lone and of those 42 were trojan attempts.

Memory-resident on-access scanners are the devil.

-- Alex

Yeah but if your really worryed about viruses this is a lifesaver, my 4 year old rig has yet to be cracked.

I've been running just AVG for the past 3 years. >_<
Oh and anti-spyware of course!!

 

[Aries_Split]

8800GTS 512mb the weakest gfx card in 8800 family, what are you talking about??

The 8800GT and GTS (512mb G92) are amazing cards for the price and performance. The only reason somebody would need a 8800gtx is if they are gaming above 1680x1050 with loads of AA and AF.

Exactly what I said. It's weaker than the gt and the GTX. Hence the weakest in the family. I wasn't talking about value for money, simply performance. I agree the gts is a slightly better choice than the gtx but both pale in comparison to a decent GT.

You guys obviously have no clue what you're talking about. The 8800gts cards come in two flavors 320/640mb and 512mb. The 512mb design is a different design than the others with more pipelines and shaders.

The 8800 hierarchy goes like this:
GT 256mb -> GTS 320mb -> GTS 640mb -> GT 512mb -> GTS 512 -> GTX -> Ultra
The biggest performance jumps come between the GTS 640mb and GT 512mb, and the GT 512mb and GTS 512mb.

If you have a display thats over 1280x1024, getting something bigger than an 8800GT is a good idea as it's performance drops off rapidly once resolution increases past that point. The 8800GTS 512 can do 19x12 reasonably well.

basically what I said in more depth.