This makes some good observation regarding concessions made for crysis 2 graphics-wise. Doubt it but I hope the dx11 patch will fix some of this, although I lost hope about the destructible envrionments thing.
I definitely appreciate this fact: the sheer variety of the environment almost makes up for the glaring graphical omissions. I mean C1 was gorgeous but it was like the same 4 bushes and 2 trees copied and pasted for miles. Every location in C2 feels hand tailored and loaded with detail, which is awesome. However, at several points playing Crysis 1 I am still blown away and just stop to admire a vista that looks "real". Crysis 2 is a fun game and great technical achievement (runs SOO smooth!) but it never pulled that off for me, I never achieved that level of immersion and disbelief "how did they do that? it looks REAL" like in Crysis 1.
A couple of things gamespot didn't mention that I was really disappointed about:
where is parallax mapping? The ground is so flat in C2, especially ugly and noticeable in grassy parks and on dirt roads (tire treads/ruts/gravel don't stick out like in C1)
Also the low res textures really stand out.