Looks like it's time for Crysis 2

Looks like I'm totally eating my words now. Crytek is coming out with a DX11 patch. This I knew already. The thing that surprised me was when they released more info about said patch, the list of changes included a high resolution texture pack and real-time reflections. Both of these things are significant improvements that I honestly did not think Crytek would go to the trouble to include. It basically shows that they actually care about the PC market. These are great features that will make the game what it should have been at release. When I heard the news I immediately ordered the game off of amazon. It should arrive Tuesday, one day after the patch.

Great, just more ways for me to procrastinate.

Crylulz

I have been posting a lot about Crytek lately. Let's continue this trend, shall we? I saw something today on their website that is pretty hilarious. On their page showcasing the CryENGINE 3, they have the following pictures:

Typical beach scene from Crysis anyone?

Hate to break it to you, but the image of the faces that is used below is older than the CryENGINE 3 by just a few years.

These CryENGINE 2 pictures are being used to promote the CryENGINE 3. There are a couple others pictures that actually are from CryENGINE 3, and some completely pre-rendered graphics. Then there's this:

I would be willing to bet a ton of money that the nanosuit in the above picture is pre-rendered. It is waaay to detailed*, and matches too precisely with this other pre-rendered graphic that is on the same page:

I don't think it is very forthcoming of crytek to photoshop a pre-rendered graphic into an actual real-time screenshot, and then use it as promotional material for their engine. Talk about false advertising. I'm really more amused by this than anything. Crytek is giving me the Crylulz.

*Unless that's actually what Crysis 2 will look like when the DX11 patch comes out. Ha. Ha.

Haha.

A Crysis Crisis

OK. I don't think that I'll be buying Crysis 2 if this is not fixed. I recently came across screenshots posted by a member of crymod. I'll get to that in a minute. First, take a look at these pictures of the CryENGINE 3 released by Crytek:

Wave propagation seems to be a pretty awesome feature, eh?

Like I indicated, I don't think that these screenshots look any better than Crysis 1, but I have to admit the screenshot below which - take careful note - is labeled as "Extreme spec," looks pretty darn good.

Now on to the deal breaker. The member of Crymod posted screenshots from the actual retail game of Crysis 2, at the "Extreme" preset (Which, by the way is all there is in Crysis 2. Only presets. No detailed graphics settings):

This screenshot looks NOTHING like the claimed "Extreme spec" that Crytek themselves released. Not only is the lighting less... well... good-looking, but the ripples don't have a fraction of the detail that the ones in the CryENGINE 3 screenshot.

The water ripple thing is (I think) a tessellation effect, which is a feature of DX11. Now, Crysis didn't ship with DX11. This would explain why the water looks so much worse in the actual game. Hhhmmm, why would Crysis 2 ship without DX11? Because the consoles don't have DX11; why bother to spend the effort to put something extra into a PC game that isn't on the consoles? The logical answer is: because it would be awesome. But Crytek apparently doesn't care.

Now, even if this is fixed in the future, serious damage has already been done, in my opinion. Crytek has gone and done exactly what they said they would not do! They said that the PC version came first, and that the console versions would not dumb-down the PC version. YET THIS CRUMMY SCREENSHOT EXISTS!!!!! Crytek clearly have their priorities straight. Just like every freaking other game developer out there, they put console development first. The version for the PC platform is an afterthought.

DX11 is now probably going to be included in Crysis 2 via a patch. Man. I. Freaking. Hate. This. Patch. SYSTEM!!!!! That's all there is these days!!! All of the PC releases nowadays are broken in some manner on launch day, and then we get patches that may or may not fix the problem afterwards.

Like I mentioned, I might still go for Crysis 2 if they update it with DX11. But even if they do, like I also mentioned, the damage has been done. I trust Crytek significantly less than before this debacle.

Man I love ranting.