i was really looking forward to crysis 2 but then a ran across a link to a video showing someone literally just walking through the final level on veteran mode. i dont think he even fired at any of the enemies he just walked through them. the graphics supposedly arent as good as the first one,but i expected that despite Cryteks claims otherwise so im not surprised by that.

what concerns me is that ive been reading that the gameplay is horribly gimped for consoles.......enemies taking forever to target you and only shooting off a few rounds at a time etc. is this game as bad as it sounds or is it just because its not as good as crysis 1 was. and yes im aware that crysis one had some goofy AI at times but apparently crysis 2 is much worse.

i only have 2 games budgeted for this month and one of them is spoken for so i dont want to waste my money on a bad port. thanks in advance.

Did you enjoy Crysis 1 despite its flaws? If the answer is yes then you'd probably enjoy Crysis 2.

It's not a console port, but it may have been dumbed down a bit to reach a wider audience. The graphics are pretty much the same as in Crysis 1

I enjoyed the original Crysis much more than 2. It does feel like a port to me and I detest the simplification. That is just my opinion though.

Getting around to multiplayer, I did find that more enjoyable than Crysis, but it had more of a COD:2020 feel to it than a Crysis feel.
(The original Crysis was in 2020 right?)

Apart from the lack of quicksave, "Press Enter to begin" (not numeric keys enter though) and game not closing with Alt+F4 it doesn't really show.

No, it's an excellent port. The problem is that it's clearly a port. It both looks and runs significantly better than the original - but plays much worse.

I'm not sure how I feel about Crysis 2 yet. I'm running it on my PC and I was shocked to see that all my sweet graphics options (AA,AF,etc..) have been replaced with 3 presets...

Either Crytek did a good job with optimizing the engine, or they toned it back to appease consoles because i'm running max settings with a 1280 x 728 resolution and all I have under the hood is 4GB of ram, a 3.0ghz dual core processor and a 4850 512 MB gpu.

It couldn't pull off Crysis very well...but suddenly it can max Crysis 2? :shrug:

As far as the game goes, its pretty fun. I don't like how the aliens are designed...they seem very uninspired...something like a hunter from halo, mixed with a hanaar from Mass Effect....and they make transformer sounds!

The sound is amazing though...

The arm animations are pretty stale in comparison to the likes of Crysis 1 and other console games like Modern Warfare 2. I was also more impressed with the first games character models.

Does anyone know if this game takes advantage of Direct X 11?

It does not, but that certainly doesn't mean that the engine itself doesn't make use of some pretty cutting edge stuff. This is certainly a case for optimisation rather than being cut back, at least mostly. The lowest setting available is significantly higher than console settings, for example.

As a console gamer, I'd have to say that to me, it is obvious that the game was meant for PC. Just something about the way it handles makes it feel very PCish.

Other than that (which is easily ignored), Crysis 2 is a fine game. I haven't had any problems with it so far.

Crysis 2 plays excellent on the pc. But there are some awkward aspects. First of all you cannot manually change the graphics settings, and I don't think there is a quicksave feature.

The AI is also really bad. Enemies take forever to respond. I'm not a powergamer myself, but I can make 3 headshots before the enemies react. Also they will often stand around in ways where it's very easy to get a headshot anyway.

Plot - there is none. You have a nanosuit - run through New York and kill bad guys.
That's it. If you want plot or story don't look to Crysis 2 for it.

I'm making sound worse than it is. Crysis 2 is actually pretty enjoyable. It's fun.

It's not a bad port at all. In fact, I feel it plays much better on the PC (played the 360 demo and PC demo, now own the PC version), and it looks incredible. Anyone saying that it looks worse than the original is clearly either blind or hasn't played the original in a long time, because it definitely looks significantly better. It is also extremely well optimised, I get great performance on my PC (AMD Phenom II x4 955, 1GB GTX 460, 4GB RAM) running at 1920x1080 on extreme settings (or whatever the highest is called). There was one area early in the game where there was a bit of choppiness, but the vast majority of the time it runs very smoothly.

I'm very impressed with it so far.

Try looking at a puddle of water. Anywhere. Then report back.

That's the only blatantly obvious thing I've seen though. More amusing than actually aggravating. Okay, there's the graphics settings thing. But I won't complain when I can switch it to MAXIMUM QUALITY and still enjoy a better performance and look than in the first game. I really don't care about the technical details. I'd be pretty desperate to say that a real-time shadow that looks just the same as a workaround shadow, but eats more performance, would be a huge victory for PC gaming.

CryEngine 3 looks a lot better than CryEngine 2, but you can't see that using the in-game graphics options. You need an external application to unlock those options.

If Crysis 2 is a very PC game, Crysis 1 would probably kill you with how PC it is. My major complaint with C2 is, actually, how the gameplay has suffered from an extreme case of consolisation!

Why that? Just because you do automatically what you would need more pushes of a a button in the previous game? It's really just more convenient, not less "deep". What use did maximum power and speed have, other than running, kicking stuff and jumping, which are the same things you use it for in this game, only on the push of one button?
They've even enhanced the gameplay through the upgrade system. Dumbing down isn't the thing I would accuse this game of.

You said it, not me.
I didn't mean dumbed down by consolised - though it is that, too. Removal of prone and a lean system that actually works, as well as your suit automatically pointing every tactical opportunity out to you, as well as announcing when it's doing that, make for a very dumbed down feeling game. And let's not even get into the insane length of time cloak now runs for, as well as free stealth kills! I don't blame consoles for any of this, they're gameplay decisions. If I were to blame consoles for it, it would be me saying "All console users are drooling idiots who can barely comprehend the concept behind not just running in hammering shoot" - but that's crytek's opinion, not mine.

By consolised I mean that everything is done with very few buttons. Say what you want about convenience, I liked being able to do a high jump without a second of delay before the game realised I was holding down the button, and I liked being able to do a strength punch without a similar waiting time - that waiting time is significant when you're fighting a fast enemy. And, of course, the removal of prone, and a sane leaning system.

Aside from the nano suit upgrade, I thought the length of cloak was fairly reasonable. :shrug:

Also, I went back to crysis 1 to compare the two...and Crysis 2 is a major graphical achievement in comparison...The only place it falls short is on the water. There seems to be a great deal of caustic lighting and sun rays in Crysis 1 that gave it a more immersive under water experience.

Oh, absolutely, anybody who says C2 doesn't look better than C1 clearly doesn't actually have eyes.

For the cloak, though - the length is insane compared to the original. You can pretty much just turn it on and run past every enemy, or use the free stealth kill to murder everyone without firing a shot. I get that the game entirely combat oriented now, and stealth is meant to play a part in that, but it's overwhelmingly powerful.