Good day, and here we have the holy grail of PC gaming, Crysis 1.
When this game came out, pretty much no one's computer could run this on all high.
In fact, it was a point of pride when someone actually did get a computer that could run
this on all high.
And I, as of 2013, can finally run it with maximum settings!
Back when it first came out, I was actually pretty proud of myself that I could actually
run it all on the second highest levels... with no anti-aliasing and basically non-HD
screen resolution.
But hey, it ran!
And it looked damn good even with those settings!
Crysis is an example of a game that has first person shooting down right.
Now for one, it has great graphics, but it doesn't rely on those graphics.
Instead, it actually relies on something called gameplay.
You see, in a game, you want to play it, not just go through a linear series of corridors
shooting enemies that are entirely too easy to kill.
In Crysis, you actually have this elusive gameplay concept.
You can actually play this game differently each time you actually play it.
You can be stealthy, you can do run and gun, or you can just smash down buildings with
your mighty fists.
To me, Crysis was one of the last, great first person shooters.
It actually introduced some new concepts to the genre instead of simplifying them back
to pre-DOOM days.
In this game, you actually get a suit with special powers.
You can have maximum strength, which allows you to smash stuff.
You can have maximum speed which allows you to run really fast.
And you can have basic armour which lets you take more hits.
And finally, my personal favorite, the cloaking device.
This makes the game infinitely more fun, simply because it actually allows you to stealth
past enemies, and it allows you to do stuff like this...
And see, this is a good example of game play.
You see, I didn't have to just shoot that thing with a rocket launcher; I was able to
sneak around, shoot it in the gas tank and have it explode!
If I had so chosen I could have just ran up with a rocket launcher and blasted it, but
I instead chose a different approach.
And that's why Crysis is a great game.
It actually lets you do stuff!
What a concept indeed.
And of course, this kind of refutes the whole concept that "production costs get so high
they have to simplify the gameplay!"
Well...
No, Crysis had graphics that stood up until just about this year, and they actually were
able to have advanced gameplay to where you weren't just stuck in one bloody corridor.
In the end, Crysis is a game that I of course recommend.
If you have a computer powerful enough to play it, that is.
Yes, even today it's somewhat difficult to get Crysis to run.
But if you're a true PC gamer, it should be no problem!
and so, this is Jon, signing off.