Crysis 2 Reviews

[David M]

This is a very graphically demanding game. I was hoping the Crytec 3 engine would be more efficient. On the other hand, the renderings are amazing, even better than Just Cause 2 or any of the Call of Duty's or any other game I have played. Yup, the Crytec 3 engine seems to have the best renderings ever but you will have to pay for it with an expensive graphics card.

At first I was getting some nasty artifacts that made the game almost unplayable such as choppiness and horizontal streaks so I experimented around and found that changing from Full Screen to Windowed Mode completely eliminated that problem. This is something Crytec will need to fix with their first patch. I don't think most people care for Windowed Mode. I find it distracting.

This game is actually very limited in graphics adjustments compared to the original Crysis and Crysis Warhead but that is not necessarily a bad thing. There is much you cannot adjust now including the very basics like anti-aliasing and anisotropic settings. There are now only three graphics levels that they call High, Very High and Extreme. Keeping things simple probably made it easier for Crytec to automate these functions and do a better job of tweaking the image. This is a good thing for relatively inexperienced gamers who might have a difficult time tweaking all the different graphics settings....that's just my guess. It might have been better to give us the option of an auto-tweak or a manual tweak choice.

Here are my FPS results using Fraps in the relative order I just mentioned with a 5970 graphics card and an i7 860 CPU with a mild overclock.

FPS results:
At 5760 x 1200: 20, 16 and 12 FPS. This is not playable for me so I switched over to one monitor at 1920 x 1200. All the FPS results were done outside where the shaders and how light works off of objects puts more demand on the graphics card. Indoors the results were on average about 3 FPS faster.

My monitors native resolutions are 1920 x 1200 so I did not have the option of choosing the much more popular 1920 x 1080 resolution. The difference in pixels is 10% so those of you with the 1920 x 1080 resolution, figure on about 10% faster than my results.

FPS results at 1920 x 1200: 49, 39 and 33.

If you check others cards benchmarks compared to a 5970, it looks like anyone who buys this game is going to need a very high end graphics card just to run this game at the minimum settings with playable frame rates on a decent sized monitor...or suffer with low frame rates and Mario Brothers like renderings.

This is going to be a bummer for a lot of people when they learn of this and will probably hurt the games sales, except for those with consoles who don't have a choice over graphics quality. I would imagine that Crytec dumbed down the graphics quality so it can run on a gaming console....they would have to, or run at 2 FPS.

Crytec got rid of the awkward selector for changing different modes for the suit such as, stealth, strength, speed etc. It is now done simply by pressing the correct key which I think is a real improvement to the game. No more stopping the game to change suit modes.

So far I am only about an hour into the game so I cannot say just yet if I like the story line or the play. So far though it's good, not excellent...yet. I have a feeling it's going to improve significantly

[birddog_61]

There may be a driver problem, your card should be performing much better in crysis 2 than that.
GeForce.com - Get the Most Out of Your GPU

I know its not an actual benchmark, but it is pretty much dead on on every game with my card. If a gts 450 on high is getting 38FPS you should be getting way more than 49. I haven't played it yet, I will get it and report back on what FPS I am getting.

[David M]

Thanks...I will see if my drivers are outdated.

David, problem with the graphic's has been heating up the Crytec forums, seems it's a crossfire/duel gpu problem. I've heard Crytec is saying it's the fault of Nvidia/ATI, (drivers) who know's. I'm also playing in widowed mode to fix the graphic issue also. Like you, I'm running the 5970 and no way to disable a gpu which seems to fix the problem if you can disable crossfire. I agree with your assessment of the game and it does get better, I'm a little over 2 hours in. That said, I'm still surprised, given the time they've had for development, that it isn't better than it is.

[David M]

I was over in the WSGF (Wide Screen Gaming Forum which discusses multi-monitor rigs) looking around and made a post about the surprisingly poor performance. I have not heard anything back yet.

There are many in the WSGF that are not happy with this game for a number of reasons. Many of those reasons are that it was obviously written for a gaming console and then poorly altered to work with a PC. Other than the framerates, I'm not griping.

Thanks for letting me know what is going on. I have my trigger finger on a 6990 possibly even two thinking this would make the game on three monitors playable. I REALLY enjoyed the first Crysis and have decided to stop playing Crysis 2 at sub 60 frame rates at the lowest graphics setting on one monitor which was kinda ruining the experience. It's no fun playing when you are a little ticked off about the image quality and you only get to play a game for the first time once. I will probably either get the 6990 or two or wait for a patch to arrive.

How are your frame rates and at what game settings and resolutions? I am really curious to see how our frame rates compare since we have the same graphics card and as I think I remember the same CPU?..an i-7 860?

I doubt it's a driver problem since there are many games that run perfectly with a 5970. It has to be their Crytec 3 game engine or code that does not conform to the drivers. Also, Crysis 1 works perfectly with a 5970 as I would imagine you have experienced.

[Force Flow]

Advanced graphics settings application: inCrysis - Crysis Forums / Crysis 2 Advanced Graphics Options Application

And workarounds for common issues that have been cropping up: Crysis 2 Workarounds - Blue's News Story

[David M]

Excellent, thanks Force.

Edit: Is that right? You go into the Crysis 2 game folders and start deleting all the autoexec.cfg files in the root folder?

I think this is above my abilities. I don't even know which is the root folder.

I appreciate the help but I think I am going to hold off on playing the game until Crytec fixes the problem with a patch rather than frustrating myself with much appreciated but probably frustrating for me attempts at installing peoples home brew patches. I am just not up to that level with my knowledge of game software.

This is not the first time where I have tried to install home brew game patches. The problem is the people who write these patches and the instructions forget how much more they know than game software newbies and do not include all the basic information that game newbies need to know in order to make the patch work.

It's really frustrating seeing the solution right in front of your face but not being able to install it. And when you do go to some of these forums to ask for help you are thought of as an idiot for not knowing how to install the patch or the work around.

That's whats great about PCMech...we also include the basic information and never assume everyone is already an expert.

[birddog_61]

Well I have just finished playing for about an hour, my first impressions are its pretty cool. I like the new suit control and new modes, the guns feel good and the graphics are about what I expected on the gamer setting. As for playability, running 1920x1080 on the gamer setting I am getting high 40 FPS during fight scenes with the occasional dip into the 38-39 fps range at parts. During normal play and movement it stays in the 50 FPS area, not bad for 130$ graphics card. I am currently playing with the stock clock speeds for my card, I will probably fire it up in a bit with my OC profile just to see what the GTS 450 can do.

[Force Flow]

Originally Posted by David M Excellent, thanks Force. Edit: Is that right? You go into the Crysis 2 game folders and start deleting all the autoexec.cfg files in the root folder? I think this is above my abilities. I don't even know which is the root folder.

I think it's the folder where the game is installed.

"c:/program files/crysis 2", for example.

I don't have the game myself, I'm just reposting useful links I saw recently

David, I downloaded and installed the "advance graphic's app" version 1.6 that is mentioned in Force Flow's second link above. It didn't really solve the flicker problem but it does give you a better control selection over the game graphic's. It worked fine for me on Win 7 HP, 64 bit.
MyCrysis • View topic - Crysis 2 Advanced Graphics Options Application Version 1.6!

[David M]

I have to admit I'm chicken about deleting all the autoexec.cfg files in the root folder. I went ahead and ordered two 6990's so I can brute force my way through the game.

[Force Flow]

Rename them to .bak instead of actually deleting them.

[birddog_61]

How is Crysis 2 treating you now on the new setup?

[David M]

I still have not tried it. I am going to wait for it to be available in DX11 and see if that helps speed it up. I am doubting the solution to the problem is to keep turning down individual game settings. I have two kick-ass graphics cards that should be pushing the game faster than 10 FPS at "extreme" settings. I think it might be that I only have 8 graphics lanes available per card or hopefully DX11 will speed things up.

One guys beef with Crysis 2, an interesting read. The comments afterwards are also entertaining.
Crysis 2′s Shocking Tech Compromise: Proof | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

[Hi Ho]

I actually thought just the opposite of Crysis 2. I was not impressed by the demo. I have not purchased the game.

I'll admit I'm a sucker for eye candy and the original Crysis delivered on that front along with stellar gameplay. I love the full blown physics and wide open sandbox gameplay of the original game. Crysis 2 doesn't offer that. That is a huge disappointment. It is quite obvious that this game was designed for consoles first. When the PC demo was released it said "Press Start to Begin"! Really?

Now, I'm not running Eyefinity here but Crysis 2 did not push my PC at all. I never measured the frame rates but it was perfectly smooth. It looked good but it was obvious that a lot of the advanced features from the original were missing. Physics are toned down significantly. No more completely destructible environments that, in my mind, really made the original game immersive. Lighting and water effects are also less sophisticated.

Gamespot did an interesting comparison between the old and new game:

Crysis 2 Graphics Comparison - Features at GameSpot

I love games that push the limits of PC technology and the original Crysis was, and as far as I'm concerned, still is the last game that really did that. Yes, I play the Call of Duty series and have a lot of fun with it even though there is no comparison when it comes to graphics, but I expected more from Crysis 2 and was thoroughly disappointed. I will wait and see what the DX11 patch brings to the table.

[Jmarcelo]

I think they realized that the PC crushing-ness of the first 2 where a major limit to the income of the game and, at least to me, found a good optimum area between good graphics and performance. Also its not just the graphics that makes a good game. After completing it last night I would summarize it as 1 part Iron man, 1 part Andromeda strain, and 2 parts of COD. In my opinion Crysis 2 gave a good storyline for a shooter and it had a good number of twists and a fulfilling ending. I give it a 8/10.

[birddog_61]

Originally Posted by Jmarcelo I think they realized that the PC crushing-ness of the first 2 where a major limit to the income of the game and, at least to me, found a good optimum area between good graphics and performance.

The first 2 crysis games had a good optimum area, all you had to do was run it on medium settings and most computers could do that. I run it on medium(some settings high) with a GTS 450 at >35fps. However the problem with the new one is the lack of directx11 support entirely at this point. It would be nice for the guys running high end gaming rigs to be able to use features that have been on even budget cards for over a year. It was BS to release the pc version of the game without directx 11 and stupid not to include the graphics options like in the first 2 and almost every other pc game. The graphics do look good for old tech, it looks so so on high settings compared to crysis warhead, and it is going to look horrible next to battlefield 3. I am a huge console fan, I have an xbox 360 that I play more than my computer, however even I think crytek sold out to the console. Like I said I love my 360 because its easy to use and the online experience is unmatched, but when I want to see a game look great I don't turn on my xbox I get it for computer.

[id10x]

this game is unplayable , corrupted sound corrupted graphics , comes right
after the big joke dragon age 2 were you get the main character
slowing down to 0 attack speed in mid game hehe ,,
those guys are amateurs . i dont believe these titles are so humiliated
that they didnt even tested them before release .
pay me some money ea and ill be glad to play ure games before these
scandal releases and tell you whats up .

[David M]

Hopefully Crytec is working on it. They are working on a DX11 version. I stopped playing it because it will not play fast enough on my rig. I would rather wait and play it if and when they fix the problem. Something is wrong if any game won't play fast on my computer.

[id10x]

they are in total mess man , their are messing around like nobs , try their play for free
games and its a total scandal with every game .