Crysis Demo

Just finished the demo which is comprised of the 1st level of the full game.

While it was impressive to a degree, I wasn't as blown away as I thought I'd be. I played it at 1280x1024 with all the graphic options on high, there's an ultra-high mode but it's disabled in the demo. It ran pretty smooth for the most part on my Radeon X1950XTX.

It takes place on an Island, and if it wasn't for the moderately updated graphics you might swear you were playing Far Cry again. Even the vehicles are almost identicle, although I'm sure they get better later in the game.

The controls are standard for shooters with the ability to use your suit to focus extra power to one ability at a time. For instance, in speed mode you move faster, in strength mode you jump higher, etc. You can also customize your weapons to a degree, adding or removing a flashlight or silencer whenever you want.

There's no health items at all, instead you regenerate health when you're not taking damage.

For all the hype this game is receiving I have a hunch that some people will be disappointed. Not that doesn't seem like a quality title, just not the ultimate DirectX 10 FPS that a lot of sources are making it out to be.

JDR13 said:

There's no health items at all, instead you regenerate health when you're not taking damage.

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Ooh, it's like CoD 2 all over again.

I mean, I'm sure the game can/will be good, but taking out health (management) just makes it easy, and removes challenge.

JDR13 said:

For all the hype this game is receiving I have a hunch that some people will be disappointed. Not that doesn't seem like a quality title, just not the ultimate DirectX 10 FPS that a lot of sources are making it out to be.

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I'm downloading the demo right now.

As for being the ultimate FPS dx10 game, I believe that it very well could be. Don't know about the demo, but the game is top-notch when it comes to the technology department. Have you seen the 2 part tech demo from the game developers conference 2007? It blew me away. Their editor is awesome.

But I'm pretty sure Crysis was and is hyped to death. So you may also very well be right, and some people will be disappointed.

VPeric said:

Ooh, it's like CoD 2 all over again.

I mean, I'm sure the game can/will be good, but taking out health (management) just makes it easy, and removes challenge.

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I liked the COD2 health system. Imo it's better than running around looking for health packs/med kits. It may not be realistic, not that health packs are realistic, but gameplay-wise it was a good choice imo. Especially when playing on hard difficulties where 2 shots means death.

danutz_plusplus said:

I liked the COD2 health system. Imo it's better than running around looking for health packs/med kits. It may not be realistic, not that health packs are realistic, but gameplay-wise it was a good choice imo. Especially when playing on hard difficulties where 2 shots means death.

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Yes, but it also means you can just run headlong into the fray, and just crouch/go prone if things don't work out (and heal up by doing so).

Also makes MP unfun (which is why I still play CoD:UO, instead of CoD 2).

danutz_plusplus said:

I'm downloading the demo right now.

As for being the ultimate FPS dx10 game, I believe that it very well could be. Don't know about the demo, but the game is top-notch when it comes to the technology department. Have you seen the 2 part tech demo from the game developers conference 2007? It blew me away. Their editor is awesome.
.

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I have a feeling they may have cut some effects(graphics) from the actual game, maybe for performance reasons. I remember the tech demo you're referring to, and even with options set to high the game doesn't look close to that.

JDR13 said:

I have a feeling they may have cut some effects(graphics) from the actual game, maybe for performance reasons. I remember the tech demo you're referring to, and even with options set to high the game doesn't look close to that.

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Could be. It wouldn't be a first in gaming history.

Anyways, I managed to play the crysis demo with my low-end system(P4 2,4ghz, 1GB ram, 7600gt) and it played better than I thought. I've set most to low, and some to medium(textures in particular) and ran pretty well until I reached the first large opening. That's when the frame rate dropped considerably.

Anyways, I liked the character models and their animations. The faces look very good and life-like imo.

It does feel a lot like Far Cry, in a SF setting, but I prefer a scifi setting. Anyways, I won't be playing again until I get a high-end system for it. Because graphics are pretty much what makes this game what it is.

So how long is the demo?

Also, it would appear that the "Very High" mode is reserved for DirectX 10.

VPeric said:

So how long is the demo?

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Just played it and it took me ~1.5 hours with a lot of exploring on the side. As in FarCry, exploration is pretty much pointless though. The large, open areas are kinda nice but there's nothing but emptiness to be found so it's overall only semi-exciting (at best) to veer off the -more or less visible and beaten- track.

Still, I really liked the demo. I was pretty sceptical of Crysis since I didn't like FarCry overly much but this demo was a positive surprise for me. There might be a little more than just eye candy here. The cinematic story-telling, the special suit options (like the optional stealth mode), the diversity in mission goals (with secondary objectives etc) and the not too shabby AI seem pretty promising.
I also don't mind the Call of Duty 2 style health management. Actually, I didn't like it in CoD 2 due to the realistic setting in that game but in Crysis it doesn't seem as out of place. I also feel that it is better implemented and more nicely balanced than in CoD 2 since you really have to get your ass in gear and get away from the line of fire pretty quickly because you take quite a bit of damage from getting hit in Crysis. That's challenging enough in and of itself IMHO, especially since it can be kinda hard to track from where you are being fired at due to the vegetation. And I think it's refreshing to not have to collect health/med packs for a change.

On the technical side, the game ran really well on high settings (everything on "high" on Win XP with -naturally- DirectX 9.0c) and Anti-Aliasing off in a res of 1280 x 1024 on my Core 2 Duo E6750, 2048MB RAM and GeForce 8800GTS 640MB (using the latest official 163.71 WHQL drivers and not the all new dedicated-to-Crysis beta drivers). Just had some minor tearing/flickering occasionally which might have to do with VSync being forced off via the nVidia driver. It wasn't really disturbing though. Otherwise: No crashes. No other bugs or issues.

In the end I was on the edge of pre-ordering the game for a moment until I realized that there wasn't a single alien in the demo (at least not in an interactive combat scene). Fighting the KPA soldiers was tons of fun but if I force myself to remember the uber sucky monkeys in FarCry then I have a weird feeling that Crytek might have fucked up the game again when it comes to the non-human enemies so I'll be patiently waiting for people's impressions of the later levels and especially the alien fights before making a final decision.

VPeric said:

So how long is the demo?

Also, it would appear that the "Very High" mode is reserved for DirectX 10.

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The "Very High" mode may indeed be reserved for DirectX 10, but it's still not available in the demo regardless.

JDR13 said:

The controls are standard for shooters with the ability to use your suit to focus extra power to one ability at a time. For instance, in speed mode you move faster, in strength mode you jump higher, etc.

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Made me think of the Witcher with the strong attack/speed attack mode.

By the way, Very High mode was available for me.

JuliusMagnus said:

By the way, Very High mode was available for me.

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Really? I was with a friend ealier today and he couldn't get that mode with his Radeon 2900XT, it was greyed out.

Windows XP = DirectX 9.0c = High Mode = Maximum Setting
Windows Vista = DirectX 10 (if you have a DirectX 10 compatible graphics card, i.e. a GeForce 8xxx or Radeon HD 2xxx) = Very High Mode = Maximum Setting

There simply is no 'very high' mode for Windows XP systems and won't ever be unless someone haXX0rs DirectX 10 to run on Win XP.

That would explain some things, I didn't know it was tied to what OS you were using, Is that for all games? I don't recall hearing that you needed Vista for the DirectX 10 effects in Bioshock.

Vista = DX10

There is no way around that. Of course, you can run DX9 too, but you need it for DX10.

Only problem is that all games running in DX10 mode I've seen so far, all run MUCH slower than they do in DX9. What's worse, they also run quite a bit faster in DX9 with Windows XP. Vista is a failure in terms of a gaming OS, I can see that now even if I don't like it. Maybe when DX10.1 comes around and the next-gen GPUs are available cheaply, but until then I wouldn't recommend Vista for gaming at all.

I've played Hellgate (beta), Crysis, Bioshock, and Company of Heroes in DX10 and the visual impact in Bioshock and CoH was minimal, but I think Hellgate and Crysis look significantly better in DX10. Sad thing is that they run horribly slow.

Some people are apparently working on a "wrapper" for Windows XP, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

I'm surprised to hear everyone saying it ran so smooth. Most folks on HardForum are complaining about sub 20FPS @ 1680x1050 while using the 8800GTX. I'd be curious if one of you would run FRAPS while playing and report back.

ToddMcF2002 said:

I'm surprised to hear everyone saying it ran so smooth. Most folks on HardForum are complaining about sub 20FPS @ 1680x1050 while using the 8800GTX. I'd be curious if one of you would run FRAPS while playing and report back.

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I just ran the built-in benchmark this afternoon. There are two batch files in the demo's \bin32\ folder that you can use to start either a GPU or a CPU benchmark test. With my system (Core 2 Duo E6750, 2GB RAM, GeForce 8800GTS + ForceWare 163.71, Win XP DirectX 9.0c) I'm getting an average of 27.xx FPS. The minimum FPS was 18.xx.
That (the fairly "high" min FPS) is why I think it felt smooth all along when I was playing it last night. A game that runs at a rather steady FPS rate of ~27 FPS and only drops to ~20 FPS will always feel smoother than a game that runs at 60 FPS but drops to single digit or even 0 FPS (short freezes).
That's why -performance-wise- Crysis reminds me of Oblivion in a way. It runs at fairly low FPS on high detail but it's still perfectly playable since it's steady and consistent.

Is that for all games? I don't recall hearing that you needed Vista for the DirectX 10 effects in Bioshock.

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As D'Artagnan pointed out, DirectX 10 is Vista-exclusive. I edited my post above to add that you need a DirectX 10 compatible graphics card to use DirectX 10 in Vista. If you only have a DirectX 9 compatible card then -just like XP- you can only run the game in DirectX 9 on Vista, too.
The way it works in Vista is that the OS basically has both DirectX versions, 9 and 10, running in parallel and depending on your hardware and/or the game, Vista "launches" the compatible or required (or desired... in some games you can choose) DirectX version.
Therefore, you definitely needed 1) Windows Vista and 2) a DirectX 10 compatible graphics card for the DirectX 10 effects in Bioshock. You got slightly better fog/smoke and slightly improved lighting in DirectX 10. It was very hard to tell a real difference in screenshots though so we poor XP slobs didn't really miss out on much .

Ah, a pity my Radeon just suicided this afternoon. I might have given the demo a try otherwise.

I did not take a new Radeon from the basement. Just swapped the boredom victim for an older card, let us just assume it is not a Hercules but not much newer. Nevermind, as long as it is strong enough to run Heretic.

I'm sure Micro$oft could install DX 10 in WindowsXP if they wanted to, but we all know the reason they won't.

Please be assured of my condolences regarding that loss, Jaz... it always sucks when hardware decides to die .

Back on the topic of the Crysis demo, it looks like there is a way to manually enable some or all of the 'very high' setting in Windows XP/DirectX 9.0c. That would mean that Crytek is not genuinely supporting DirectX 10 (at least in the demo) but that they have only "soft-locked" some of the (non-genuine) DirectX 10 options out of the DirectX 9.0c version. This post/thread here has all the details. I haven't tried it yet since I don't really feel like going below 27 FPS average .