like anyones xbox 360 or ps3 could run an entire new york like that. maybe some high end pcs like mine an others but everyone else would be screwed so insted we get no dx 11thus far. and whining about pointless crap like this
Most PC hardware nowadays can easily runs Crysis. Crysis in a city would probably be easier on most systems because less Geometry is needed for the building themselves as most of them would be empty aside from the outside.

You are implying that City have less geometry than some semi-flat isle? LOL
There is no point in making whole City if you want use only part of that city, and leaving everything else empty.
What make sense is to make playable larger sandboxes, instead of 1-2 streets go for 5-6 streets and make all building in that area accessable, with rich interiors. But still it will take to much time, and in the end can fail to bring profits, thats why developers go for something smaller and safer to develop. Sure in next 10 years development process can evolve to level which allow developers to make game with HUGE areas in short time.

Cause game designers define the set of possible styles for every game they made. You should try all that styles to earn whole fun from the game, to understand its core game mechanics, its importance, its freedom of tactics. If you want to earn fun from the game, you should make some efforts for it: trying different weapons, different suit modules, different tactics, create different situations during fights... Crysis freedom of choice was nearly the same - you should find a way to entertain yourself from the very beginning! Nobody leads you by the hand like in recent Call of Duty games.

Well, if you explain it this way I get your point of view.

But still... as I see it a major flaw of Crysis 2 is the lack of inspiration. It does not inspire me to try something new. On my first run the "armor mode > kill everything > move on" tactics just worked too well and there was nothing that made me think "Hell yeah, next time I will try this... or maybe I should just try to..."

I tried, believe me I really did.
I started a second run and wanted to do things in a different way and still ended up in armor mode all the time. The whole level design is just too uninspiring at least to me.

Once the easiest tactics worked I see no use in trying something different.
Crysis offered a variety of ways to acchieve a goal. In Crysis 2 the tube like levels usually let you take the straight tour from A to B, with only slight variations (a small maintance tunnel here, a rooftop there) possible.

Sure, it is my choice how to use the playground.
But in Crysis the playground was like a beach with dozens of exciting climbing frames, lots of colourful sand molds and interesting playmates.
Now Crytek left me at a 3x3 meter sandbox with just one spade.