Crysis - Crytek's new game

    Mmm... did you guys listen to cliff blezinski's 2005 GDC speech? I thought he touched on something that is fairly important. He did a small rant on graphics mattering, the same way sound matters. - http://www.cliffyb.com/did.mp3 - the speech mp3 from his site.

    i'd like to know your thoughts on FarCry postman.

    Quote from kleinluka

    Posty dont be an ass. Don't judge the game based on a few screenshots. I think you are professional enough to know better.I'm looking forward to this one.

    Okay Klein, if it turns out different than I predicted here I owe you a Coke. I'll mail it to you or send you a Coca Cola gift card for one (1) Coke.

    Quote from Belgarion

    i'd like to know your thoughts on FarCry postman.

    I didn't play Farcry, mostly because it didn't appeal to me. Largely for the same reasons a lot of next-gen games don't appeal to me. There's no real heart there, no story, no anima.

    You're playing tough guy with a large amount of guns.

    You're tackling an array of forgettable enemies that are little more than sacks of hitpoints (I don't care how much publishers tout advanced AI, that's usually a bunch of bologne).

    You're a sack of hitpoints with no real reason to do anything other than perhaps a door's locked or a guy with a gun is blocking the stairs.

    You're in a world that's artistically un-interesting. The armor looks the same as other games, the guns look the same as other games, the loadout of weapons is the same as other games, the level progression is similiar to other games, etc etc etc.

    Story and player involvement in a rich (and I mean really rich, not publisher bullet point rich) world environment get pushed to the backburner in favor of graphical enhancements and pretty rendered screenshots.

    Then again, there was HL2 and that's a next-gen title that I enjoyed immensely as a single-player experience. I think it's a fantastic example of how to do next-gen right.

    I think you just poo'd on your shoe there.

    First of all, if FarCry had just been a new linear boring, no good story etc etc generic FPS shooter as you say, would it be such a huge success?

    Second of all, if you haven't played FarCry, your opinions don't really matter here in terms of how generic you think its going to be. (since you dont know what these guys are capable of).

    I'd also like to point out that im no big fan of shooters. I used to play every game that was out there before, but I've started to get more and more reserved over the years. There's just a few games that actually stand out in my memory as good FPS games. FarCry is one of them.

    Quote from Skjalg

    First of all, if FarCry had just been a new linear boring, no good story etc etc generic FPS shooter as you say, would it be such a huge success?

    doom 3 sold well into the millions of copies, which isn't common for a PC title, and was one of the top sellers on the Xbox for a few months. Fifty cent's game also sold well over a million, making it a 'success.'

    I had fun with Far Cry, personally, at least up until the nighttime mission. Up to that point, it lived up to some of the hype. Story was cheesy as all hell, sure, but the combat was pretty cool and there were a ton of crazy options to approach each scenario, but it still managed to be controlled enough that I never got lost. I think that's what made the combat, fun, too... AI taking advantage of more open levels made them feel smarter than they would have in linear areas... Hell, I know Quake 4 has some great AI on the marines and tacticals, but it's hard to use it when you get stuck with room/hall/room/hall/button/hall/room layouts.

    What pissed me off, though, and resulted in me stopping playing it, was the nighttime mission felt like it threw all that out the window and forced you into stealth. Maybe I just suck too much at stealth, but it felt like I suddenly lost the coolest feature of the game. Had it been straight linear up to that point, I probably would have forced myself through it. But with the options that had been open to that point, I felt really ripped off.

    I do want to check out Instincts when I get the chance, but I understand the 360 title (predator or something?) also includes Instincts ported over... Might snag that instead. Was this also developed by CryTek or did one of Ubi's studios handle it?

    Quote from Skjalg

    I think you just poo'd on your shoe there.First of all, if FarCry had just been a new linear boring, no good story etc etc generic FPS shooter as you say, would it be such a huge success?

    That's the problem. It's short term "successes" and sales that publishers are going for, not long-term communities or staying power. I suppose one could make an argument for either end, but I'd really like to see a community like those fostered by today's MMOs or yesterday's HL1 mod scene. There's a reason why that worked and it's a reason that's largely ignored by developers today.

    Quote from Skjalg

    Second of all, if you haven't played FarCry, your opinions don't really matter here in terms of how generic you think its going to be. (since you dont know what these guys are capable of).

    I didn't play Farcry because it looked boring and like nothing new. My opinion is perfectly valid because I was turned off from the game by what it was, what it was marketed as, and what it appeared to be. And nowadays it's largely forgotten, let's not split hairs here. I'm not trying to gang-up on or diss the makers of Farcry. A lot of these decisions are pushed by publishers. They know what sells games, but not what makes them fun. Getting a game into the player's mitts is one thing, but making them love that game is another.

    Doom 3 had the same problem in that it sold well initially but then faltered under its own weight. It had no multiplayer and although it was ridiculously easy to mod for (well...the level design tool blew, but oh well...modelling was easy) it was largely rejected and got little to no community following.

    The inability to foster community staying power and the lack of original ideas in the PC gaming market are two major forces slowly driving nails into PC gaming's coffin.

    I have played Farcry from start to finish and I can say that it is much more than just graphics. It did nextgen the way it should have been done. It had the actually interesting AI and open gameplay which other so called "next gen" titles as HL2 lacks.

    I enjoyed FarCry more than I enjoyed HL2 and Doom3, but then again, I enjoyed Riddick loads more than I enjoyed FarCry.

    I agree with Posteh, back in the days we loathed linear games that didn't offer us anything, now they are the standard of quality?

    Where are the games like, System Shock 2, Paradroid, Elite, Bioforge of our time?

    It's becoming rediculous that the risks are way too high to make innovation, every other industry besides entertainment industry is based on innovation, without them the whole indsutry would go down, but entertainment industry is the only one that flies with "the same old bullshit".

    And I'm not talking about WILD ideas here, I'm more about extra than complete rehaul, like Thief and Riddick, FPS shooters with a twist. push the genre forward. Some day we will have something new in place of FPS shooters, and then we bitch about it being dull.

    But after I have said all that, I have to say that I'm looking forward to Crysis. Since I looked forward to Doom3 and HL2 too, it doesn't automatically mean that it will be good or anything.

    I kinda have feeling that next-gen doesn't appeal to me. Ok they might be fun to play with friends on internets or lan, but hell even Worms is fun to play with friends. I enjoy most games, atleast the games that contain the words "Apocalypse" or similar, but I know that I'll never have enough money to both buy the game, and buy a monster rig that can run the game on acceptable fps and loading times. This counts for all next-gen games.

    And by the way, I enjoyed Fallout2 alot more than I enjoyed HL2 or any other new pc game, and I'll still not tierd of it.

    But I can say, the engine, screens and such look nice, too nice for a common poor kid.

    Quote

    Where are the games like, System Shock 2, Paradroid, Elite, Bioforge of our time?

    I am working on it, but with the resources we got at SoW it is kinda hard:P

    Uhm... My impressions of Farcry:

    1st hour: "Hooray! the graphics are sweet, and theese areas are huge!"

    2nd hour: "YAY! i can choose between to paths! its non-linear! *walk one path through a cave and come out on someplace else on the mountain* "woops, turns out im about 200 feet from the place i entered the cave, it doesnt matter what path i choose! HOORAY! (irony)

    3rd hour: "Perhaps the game really is non-linear! what happens if I use that flying thingy to fly somewhere else than the developers wanted me to fly?" *fly out to some hill filled with bushes* Perhaps not all that cool, as this place is empty and i now had to load because im stuck on somewhere i cannot get away from. Once again, hooray for non-linear games! Although you can argue with the fact that it might not be necessary for the soldiers to be stationed the place i flew to, ill say that it made the game linear as even though you _could_ travel pretty far off into the jungle of emptyness, there was no reason for you to do so, you couldnt discover an alternate route or something to that base you needed to the destroy other than that specific area they wanted you to discover, just because of the fact that it was indeed empty (except for the trees), and therefore the player would learn that pretty fast and not attempt it later. That made the game linear, even though they tried to hide the linearity. (Dunno if that made any sense )

    Other things: The AI must be sweet!? or does it? Because the can just run around randomly, and they will appear to be "smart" hiding behind bushes and trees and whatnot as its so much vegetation anyhow. So i didnt get the impression that the AI was terribly smart, allthough they might have been programmed to be so.

    The story appear rather cool at the beginning, but then along came the monsters and it pretty much went downhill from there.

    Anyhow, the gfx (and physics) was sweet.

    So all in all, the farcry game didnt do much for me. Now that they say they will have aliens in the next game im not getting all that excited. But its allways nice with someone who pushes the limits and possibilities of graphics, even though my wallet seems to shrink remarkably every time a game who does that comes by.

    Oh well, ill keep an open mind and cross my fingers! Hope they make it a better game than farcry!

    oh, and HL2 was`nt really all that good for me either, as it did not contain the "HOLY FUCK I NEED TO GET OUTTA HERE AS FAST AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE!"-feeling wich (imo) made the first game as good as it was.

    In other words, there are other games i look more forward to that the succeder of farcry, such as The Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion , and The Legend of Zelda : Twilight Princess.

    Oh, and st0lve - The fallout games are pure genius, and in case you do not allready know; Beteshda (or however you spell it ) are going to make the next game in the series! =)

    bah, too much text

    How can a game effectively tell a story if its not linear to a degree? Farcry gave you options to go down a linear path, and thtas what I enjoyed. It might not have been totaly free form, but thats alright in my opinion. The graphics were superb and I enjoyed it, except for the boring ending. I'll definetely try to afford this game as well.

    Quote from nico

    Oh, and st0lve - The fallout games are pure genius, and in case you do not allready know; Beteshda (or however you spell it ) are going to make the next game in the series! =)

    Thats in no way a "=)" compared to the "=D" that would have been on my face if Interplay or even Troika (their tech demo was awesome, and they had some of the original Fallout staff) was doing it.

    Quote from The Postman

    I didn't play Farcry because it looked boring and like nothing new. My opinion is perfectly valid because I was turned off from the game by what it was, what it was marketed as, and what it appeared to be. And nowadays it's largely forgotten, let's not split hairs here. I'm not trying to gang-up on or diss the makers of Farcry. A lot of these decisions are pushed by publishers. They know what sells games, but not what makes them fun. Getting a game into the player's mitts is one thing, but making them love that game is another.

    I dissagree with you there. I would liken that to saying you don't like a car's feeling or handling based soley on watching someone else drive it, or not seeing it driven at all. True, the game is a little cheezy at times, and it's got the big guns with a slightly brainless protagonist, but that doesn't mean the gameplay is brainless. Story, while it may not be the driving force in the game, does exist, and something interesting does happen to you near the end (instincts really capitalizes on that).

    All in all, I think you're throwing it in the "games that suck" bin before giving it a chance. I won't deny I've done the same, but as one who's played FarCry and really enjoyed it, I think it deserves a chance from anyone I can get to play it. at least try out the demo. it doesn't perform as well as the shipped product, but you'll get an idea of what the gameplay is like, and the worst possible outcome is that you'll lose an hour from downloading installing and deciding you don't (or do) like it.

    The night missions bored me but I loved the rest of the game, all this talk of it made me boot it back up this afternoon and it's still great fun. I think there was alot of room for improvement though, I didn't really like the "feel" of the weapons and I wanted more grunt action. All that aside, I'm looking forward to Crysis, I'm a sucker for eye candy at least.

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