Crysis 2 -- console vs. PC first impressions

[fellix_bg]

Frighteningly ugly on XBox360 and very promising for PC (German)

A short summary in English:

360 version does not look good (says ugly though I assuem they base it on a versus PC basis). Being 720p and 30fps. Mentions geometry being rendered in sub-HD (I would think they mean post-processing is very low-res like DOF etc creating aliasing for covered geometry). Version has no geometry edge smoothing thus jaggies are very obvious. Shadows look rough (low-res, low quality I would assume). "Muddy" textures and pre-computed physics animations garbled/clouded the image. Lighting, reflections and camo effect pleased us but was not enough to save the otherwise weak graphic presentation. Previously released multiplayer/promo/bullshots has pretty much nothing in common with 360 version.


PC version tested, map "Crash site", looks much better. No slowdowns and no spongy 30fps framerate. At end of gaming session they tried to examine games menu but it was disabled by Crytek. Hwoever console prompt worked. PC was running at 1920x1080, DirectX9 mode, 32bit mode with constant 60fps. Vsync was enabled. We could not get a hold of graphic settings value. PC version has MSAA which they guesstimate to 4xMSAA and estimation of 4xAF (anisotropic filtering) which they say was activated in Crysis at high settings (the 4xAF). So it might hint to being in high detail mode.

PC version also had better textures and pretty parallax mapping. Reflections, explosions, vegetation and shadows looked dramatically/drastically better than 360 version. PCGH thinks game was set to high detail setting on PC based on their observations and hopes for even more stunning 'very high' mode with DX11.

[Metroid]

The difference is like night and day, no crystal ball is required.

[El Mano]

Will the PC version have all four nanosuit modes? burst/single shot selector? lean movement?
Or will it be like the console version?

I don't mind awesome graphics if playability drops to MW2 levels.

[ajaidev]

SO consoles are not powerful enough to run crysis after all hehe...

Will the PC version have all four nanosuit modes? burst/single shot selector? lean movement?
Or will it be like the console version?

I don't mind awesome graphics if playability drops to MW2 levels.

Chances are that this may be a PC to PS3/Xbox 360 port

[saaya]

uhm, hl2? lol... ouch.... ouch ouch...
this must be the xbox360 version...


i still dont get the robot part...
robots? in crysis? i dont get it... i really hope they dont ruin crysis2 trying to reinvent the game... they already went from great to good from far cry to crysis... i hope they dont try to "improve" the game even more :P

[Iconyu]

Will the PC version have all four nanosuit modes? burst/single shot selector? lean movement?
Or will it be like the console version?

I don't mind awesome graphics if playability drops to MW2 levels.

They've changed how the nanosuit works, so you upgrade it according to your play style.

As for the rest, you'd have to ask those that play tested it. I do think they are being a little harsh on the 360 version though as all the preview videos we've seen have been on the console versions and they've looked good, but it can't be denied a high spec PC will slaughter both of them

[Manicdan]

can we assume the PS3 version will be any different?

[ripken204]

did they really have to write an article on this?
i could have told them this years ago.

[Hornet331]

i still dont get the robot part...
robots? in crysis? i dont get it... i really hope they dont ruin crysis2 trying to reinvent the game... they already went from great to good from far cry to crysis... i hope they dont try to "improve" the game even more :P

there are no robots in crysis2... they are aliens... in exosuits (if they continue the stroy).

[zalbard]

can we assume the PS3 version will be any different?

I don't think it will be better than 360's one, PS3 is a pain to code for and most devs don't bother much with it.

[Carfax]

Now taking this into consideration, it's easy to see why the UE3/UE3.5 is the premier choice for developers when it comes to making console games since it performs well and has fairly good graphics. It will be interesting to see whether the CryEngine 3 will be enough to persuade developers to use it, in favor over the UE3.5.

[Hu1kamania]

Gee what a shocker. A console game that has muddy textures and doesn't run in 1080p, isn't that every console game?

[Kingcarcas]

Console games can't even run 720p ^..........also i can't imagine how ugly a possible PS3 version would look.......Ps2 graphics?

[DeltZ]

I don't think it will be better than 360's one, PS3 is a pain to code for and most devs don't bother much with it.

I remember crytek ceo guy talking about PS3 capabilities, it seems they put some real effort into coding for it and extracting its potential for Crysis 2. So PS3 might even come out on top of X360 (pains me to say)

[570091D]

I remember crytek ceo guy talking about PS3 capabilities, it seems they put some real effort into coding for it and extracting its potential for Crysis 2. So PS3 might even come out on top of X360 (pains me to say)

why does it pain you to say that? the ps3 is a beast and capable of gaming at 1080p... i don't know what all this "consoles can't do 1080p" nonsense is about.

[turtletrax]

Newsflash: 4 year old silicon is slower and has less features than new silicon

Gimmie a break

[DeltZ]

why does it pain you to say that? the ps3 is a beast and capable of gaming at 1080p... i don't know what all this "consoles can't do 1080p" nonsense is about.

lol i just have an irrational dislike of the PS3, cause i hate the playstation controller

[Sly Fox]

Let me get this straight. The console version doesn't look as good as the PC version?

Shut. Down. EVERYTHING!

[Chumbucket843]

I remember crytek ceo guy talking about PS3 capabilities, it seems they put some real effort into coding for it and extracting its potential for Crysis 2. So PS3 might even come out on top of X360 (pains me to say)

i do recall reading something about CE3 and the optimizations they did for both consoles. frames on the xbox took .2 milliseconds longer. in some parts of the graphics code the ps3 dominated, and on the 360 others.


anyways i find it very funny that people complain about how CE3 would be a port and that the PC version would only look marginally better. it's almost like people want something to complain about. crytek managed to get a game to utilize the capabilities of modern graphics cards and api's then scale down to 5 year old hardware and software. pretty impressive.

[STEvil]

why does it pain you to say that? the ps3 is a beast and capable of gaming at 1080p... i don't know what all this "consoles can't do 1080p" nonsense is about.

I'm pretty sure I read something somewhere that shows all games on PS3 and Xbox360 are rendered in a maximum resolution of 720p then upscaled to 1080p if you are using a screen that supports it.

but I guess someone could have made pong for the PS3 or 360 and it would probably render that at 30fps in 1080p fine enough... but so would the Wii.

[Spectrobozo]

can we assume the PS3 version will be any different?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0hkSsBNlNc

I think this is running on PS3, at the end of the video he mentions the use of the CELL and SPEs and about the inferior GPU compared to the 360.
so I would expect the console versions to be similar,

almost all of the console games are rendered in 720p or less in many cases, in most of the multiplatform games the 360 version is slightly superior, because of it's superior GPU, memory design and development tools I guess?

[ajaidev]

Newsflash: 4 year old silicon is slower and has less features than new silicon

Gimmie a break

[Coldon]

the biggest flaw in current gen consoles is the limited RAM. Textures wont look as good since there is no where to put them, the xbox only has 512mb RAM to allocate between the CPU and GFX card, considering how much space animation data, pathfinding, game data takes I'm even surprise they still have the space for things like high poly models and decent res textures, oh wait that's right they don't.

The PS3 is by all accounts an absolute to program for, and often the return in investment just isn't worth it. I am slightly optimistic about the new crysis game even though I didn't enjoy the original too much. There hasn't been too much choice in the FPS genre lately.

Tho I'll +1 every poster in the thread that mentioned that its absolutely no surprise it looks worse on console... I dont think anyone thought it would look good!

[jmke]

I'm pretty sure I read something somewhere that shows all games on PS3 and Xbox360 are rendered in a maximum resolution of 720p then upscaled to 1080p if you are using a screen that supports it.
.

"most" of them. Some games do run naively in 1080p, but those are indeed less taxing on the hardware; duh

[PatRaceTin]

A time to upgrade PC