Alright, so when the end of Crysis 2 came around, I thought about how this could be the greatest FPS ever made, perhaps the greatest game ever made. Here's how it could have been:

- Global War: Not just one city or one island, but different areas all around the world (like MW3's campaign, but executed much better). Then, we could have urban AND jungle environments, not have them both crammed into one. And maybe, at the end, you'd return to the Lingshan Islands, and then that's where the game would end. But that'd be too clever. Instead we get the jungle of Lingshan with the streets of New York. Lazy.

- Moar Nanosuits: Okay, so we got Alcatraz, check. What if we threw Pyscho and Nomad in there? I think they might be dead ("You turned them into dead men walking!") but I wouldn't care if they overlooked that and brought them back. Then we could maybe play as all three of them, making the global war execution a bit easier. Or heck, just make up random characters. This would open avenues to co-op, and that'd be awesome.

- Moar Enemies: So in the trailers, I believe we can spot one new Ceph enemy type. Cool. Why are the rest the same exact ones? Transitioning from Crysis 1 (where everything looked like a squid) to Crysis 2 (where everything looked all metallic and cool), why isn't the same with Crysis 3? Why don't we see a new array of enemies. I mean, it's been YEARS, right? And C.E.L.L. again? Didn't we already do all that in Crysis 2? Whatever. Might as well bring in some North Koreans, too. They already have the jungle.

- Moar functions: Alright, Stealth, "Power", Armor, yadayada. Crysis 2 added Nanovision, which was garbage. Why can't we get something new, something possibly big? Like a jetpack? Didn't Nomad have thrusters on his 1.0 suit? (That never made sense to me.) Maybe that'd nullify jumping, but then maybe make jetpacks loud and jumping more stealthy, or make the jetpacks more horizontal. Just something significant, at least.

- Moar Weapons: One of the major issues with Crysis is that it has a severe lack of weapons. Which is fine, so long as they're all balanced well (i.e. Halo), but in Crysis 2, they weren't. They were horribly unbalanced (Jackal anyone?). But from what can be gathered from the trailers, a few new weapons are around, and one is an alien rocket launcher. More alien weapons? I hope so, but I'm not counting on it.

- Moar vehicles: Take the Crysis 1 approach, where you could venture from Toyotas to tanks. Although I doubt we'll see really any vehicle action in Crysis 3. There were only two instances with vehicles in Crysis 2, and those were on streets. Put a bunch of vegetation in front of those streets... where do you drive?

- Moar original multiplayer: Crysis 2 was a cookie-cutter Call of Duty deal, but with even worse balance (LTAG anyone?). One may say that it's hard to be original when there's not much else to do, but look at how other games are reinventing their multiplayer. Halo 4 looks really fresh and beautiful, and I hear Black Ops 2 will have a whole new class setup. For Call of Duty, that's saying something.

This is all I can think of right now, but I hope that some of these concerns of mine will be put to rest when I pick up the game. This is just what I had hoped for when I beat Crysis 2, but I see that that's no longer a reality.

I personally blame EA. This is the same situation we saw with Mass Effect 2. Developer makes first game, it's okay but not very big. EA buys them, they make second game. Second game is good, and it gets big. Then EA tells them to release the third game within two years, and that's where it all falls apart.

Agreed. Games really have great potential - certainly far more so than movies - to push the boat out when it comes to areas such as number of protagonists, vehicles, enemy types, locations, weapons... I mean, 10 hours is a healthy playtime for a straightforward campaign, that's something you'll never see in a film. And yet, so often - in fact, always - the writers effectively take a dump on this gift. Pathetically simple plot lines, few (often 1) playable characters...

Crysis 3 was positioned perfectly to break this trend. Ceph forces positioned all over the planet, the sort of near-future/alien setting that simply begs for tonnes of new vehicles and weapons... what if the Nanosuit tech was leaked, you could have teams/individuals set up by whichever government/company/terrorist group you wanted...

To say Crytek have miserably underused the potential Crysis 3 held would be a vicious understatement. Oh well, looks like my hopes for a campaign along the lines I just described will be sitting on the shoulders of Black Ops II.

Hmm, they could make Crysis 3 a big world similar to STALKER. They should allow you to go back to previously-visited areas.
Or maybe I'm just too optimistic :/

Does Crytek strike you as a company trying to create the 'best gaem evar' right at this moment? They strike me as a company that's had a number of failures (by its standards) and is now trying something radicaly different (the Free to Play model) to save itself.
Once they have washed their hands of Crysis and Homefront 2 etc. (and they really are washing their hands of them; 'get them out the door quick so we don't have to worry about them anymore!' is the motto there) they will move onto their new system which will hopefuly net them the revenue they want.

I agree that Crysis had oodles of potential, but it has been missmanaged to the point where it would be to much effort to make the final game more than a competent shooter with a mildly entertaining, self contained story.

And yet, despite their many failings (and the failings of the Crysis franchise), Crytek will have made a trio of games that are far better than 90% of the other first person shooters on the market; and for that, they get a cookie.

Maybe just half a cookie...

But a nice cookie, with chocolate chips.