Well, Crysis 2, for me, was a mixed experience. Having stopped to upgrade my PC sometime shortly after Maniac Mansion 2, Crysis 2 on the Xbox 360 was my first Crysis experience. And I loved it. I played the MP-Demo more than any other game in that time, and I absolutely loved it.

Boy, did I love it.

At first.

Then, the center could not hold, and things fell apart.

Actually, after the intriguing and amazing experience of the demo, I first hated the actual game, since I was stuck with the German version. Crysis 2 was one of those games, where the German Retail version only included German (and Turkish) languages, and despite the fact that Crytek is actually a German-based company, the German "translation" - and I use that term lightly - was the most embarrassing, senseless, pathetic and above all, incorrectly translated game I have ever had the misfortune to experience.
I was looking in the credits if they had actually credited "Google-Translate" for the German version, since no human being could have countenanced some of these "interpretations" (by which I mean molestation) of the English language in which this game has (obviously) been written and designed.

After I had sold that and gotten my hands on the UK version (cheaper, anyway), I could actually play the game, and, well, I loved it. Fluid gameplay, wonderful graphics, and if I did prefer the engagements of human foes to the fights against the Aliens, the margin by which I made that decision was so very, very slim. I finished the Campaign several times, often choosing different approaches, and I still love it. Every time. (Especially now, that I don't feel my bile rising at the German dubbing...)

And then the Multiplayer. What a surprise that was. What at first seemed like an uninspired mix of Halo and Call of Duty, was soon revealed to be probably the deepest and most tactical fast-paced MP I have ever had the pleasure to play. And I did play it. Play it I did, until the batteries gave out and I needed to get glasses.

And I loved it.

When. It. Worked.

Because, as I had to find out, that was not always the case. Not even "often" the case. In complete contrast to the lag-free demo, I was faced with probably the worst lag-problems in Console-Gaming History.

Where I could play the demo perfectly with people from the US or even China and Australia, the full game's MP was seemingly unable to deal with distances of more than 500 miles. Or more than 100 miles. Whether that was because the demo ran on a dedicated server, or simply (as was assumed many times in the Crysis 2 forums) the terrible net-coding for consoles, well, whatever the reason, 5 out of 10 times the gameplay was untenable. Unplayable. And impossible to enjoy. Terribly spotty hit-detection, incredible frame-rate issues, stutters, teleporting, constant disconnects and host migrations, the list of grievances was as long as my... well, it was long.
Not to mention the fact, that the equally sub-standard matchmaking system consistently put Europeans into lobbies with people from overseas, exacerbating lag a hundredfold.

And the players started to dwindle. To the point where playlists of gamemodes had to be merged together in order to even sustain matches at all. And while I welcomed the effort to keep the MP for consoles alive, many, many people did not like not being able to play Team Death Match all day long. Yes, to give people even the chance to find games, they had to merge TDM and Objective-Based Game Modes into one matchmaking area.

There was a slight increase/return in/of players when the two DLCs came out, but a scant three weeks after the release of the second DLC, as a European you could not find a single game. You could wait in lobbies for hours, with one or two people, max. Two weeks later, the European MP of Crysis 2 on consoles had died.

And now Crysis 3 is on the horizon, and as much as I am excited for the campaign (although I am hoping it's not once more a two-part game: First half - human enemies; Second half - Alien enemies), I am very worried about the Multiplayer on consoles.

You have seen what happened with Crysis 2. And if you forgot, go and read some of the forum threads from that time.


So, what should you learn from that?

Minimize lag. Whether it's streamlining your net-coding for consoles, or getting dedicated servers, you need to enable players to play the game, and not just with others in the same town. COD manages it, Battlefield manages it (albeit with dedicated servers), Halo manages it, the award-winning developer Crytek should be able to give players a lag-free experience as well, even across oceans.

That's it. Well, there's other stuff you could do, but if you manage that, you're good.


Other stuff:

Find a way to integrate the two Crysis 2 DLCs into Crysis 3 MP. For DLC that was as small as it was expensive, it had an almost insulting expiry date: Two weeks Later it was dead. As a consolation and a thank you to the people that bought the DLC despite the many that haunted the Crysis 2 MP, you should make those two Map packs playable in Crysis 3.

Oh, and if it's not to much of a bother, why don't you NOT use Google Translate to make the German version. Where's your sense of patriotism and national pride, anyway?

I know, I know, you will always be more considerate and accommodating to your PC audience, but honestly, do you really need to alienate the console customers? There's quite a lot of us, after all, and we're all willing to spend money. For games that work, at least...

I think they alienated the PC players more than they did the console players...