Hey, so first off, if this issue has been solved before, and I didn't find it, just direct me to the solution. That said...

I tried to start Crysis 1, and the opening blurbs/EA Nvidia stuff goes fine, but I get to the main menu, and things start being crappy. It takes about 5 minutes to load the menu, during which the program is "Not Responding". Then it will work perfectly fine, no issues at all, for about 30 seconds, where it will hang again. Same thing, about 5 minutes of frozen, then 30 seconds of fine before it freezes again. This continues past the first cinematic (the one with the voiceover with "Maximim Strength" and stuff), which runs fine, but when it starts loading the level, same thing. Hangs for several minutes, loads for a few, and back to frozen.

Later, I tried actually getting to the gameplay, which I never made it to. After the game said "Press any key to begin", I was treated to a black screen, accompanied by a sweeping orchestral score, followed by a flash of white and the text "7 Days Later" and unless Crysis' opening sequence involves an elaborate creation myth, this wasn't the intended effect.

My computer Is capable enough, or should be, as Crysis 2 has no such problems. Still, my Specs are as follows:

ASUS G73S G-series Gaming Laptop
Processor: Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00 GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.0 GHz
Memory: 8192 MB RAM
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M (4048 MB total Memory)
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

I have it stored on an External hard drive, along with all of my games, but the game's location has no effect, positive or negative on the issue. I have re-installed the game, but the issue persists. My graphics Drivers are up to date, and honestly, this is a problem unique to Crysis. None of my other games do this. I've already logged 75 minutes in the game without ever getting to any actual gameplay. If there's any information as to why this is happening, or more importantly, how to solve it, I would love to hear it.

Thanks!