So. Crysis 2

[Zixinus]

Who here pre-ordered and has it?

[adam_grif]

It's been out in America for a few days now iirc. I am kind of surprised we haven't seen impressions from them yet.

[Srelex]

It's been out in America for a few days now iirc. I am kind of surprised we haven't seen impressions from them yet.

Impressions I've seen is that it's pretty damn good, especially in comparison with other contemporary FPS.

[Zixinus]

I got my hands on it myself.

I can see parts of "consolazation" or whatever. For starters, the complete reliance on checkpoints: no quicksave or anything.
Environments are also much more limited now. No big, expanding terrains with bases that can be approached from all sides.
Controls are somewhat reduced in regards of number of buttons, although this is not necessarily a problem: problem is that to activate super-jump or a power-strike you need to hold down the key until it's charged. This by itself wouldn't be a problem, but you can't control the release: it's automatic and may not always happen when you want it to.

Speed is reduced: you no longer can just zoom like a maniac.

You do however, have a more interesting night-vision mode: you see infra-red. Handy and definitely better than the green-filter as previous.

Something that I find somewhat unnecessary is the armor addons: during the campaign you can collect nano catalyst with what you can upgrade your armor. Not necessarily bad, just somewhat contradictory.

What I do find annoying is the weapon modification system: yes, it is still as quick and easy as before, but now you have limitations on what you can upgrade and how. You can no longer slap whatever weapon addons you find on almost any weapon. There are some that even look like having a picatiny rail but can't be added. You can't add a shotgun to your SCAR or a grenade launcher to your shotgun.

But otherwise, not bad. The gameplay still tries to give you options and allow you to fuck around a bit.
What I am annoyed by the the occasional quick-time event-like stuff and the sometimes insistent tendency to take control away from the player to give us a cutscene.

Still, miles better than Black Ops and comparable to BF2.

[adam_grif]

You do however, have a more interesting night-vision mode: you see infra-red. Handy and definitely better than the green-filter as previous.

NANOVISION ENABLED.

NANOVISION ENABLED.

NANOVISION ENABLED.

NANOVISION ENABLED.

Who the fuck greenlit the voice over for every time you turned on IR, and whose fucking stupid idea was it to call it "nanovision"? It drove me up the wall in the multiplayer demo because the only way to turn it off was to completely disable the suit voice. But I like Cloak Engaged etc, just not this shit.

[CaptHawkeye]

It's Crytek, they self fellate to the awesomeness of their transhumanism storyline by obsessing about Nanomachines at every turn. Hideo Kojima would be proud.

[adam_grif]

It's Crytek, they self fellate to the awesomeness of their transhumanism storyline by obsessing about Nanomachines at every turn. Hideo Kojima would be proud.

[Zac Naloen]

Okay, I had it on pre-order but because I've been playing assassins creed brotherhood I've only just got round to playing it.


Okay, not sure the comments that it looks worse than Crysis are accurate, on my rig it looks comparable (and seeing as Crysis was ahead of it's time this is no surprise) but most importantly runs a hell of a lot better. No it's not running directx 10 or anything, but it still looks extremely polished.

I think I have the brightness too low or something though because I'm finding the colour pallette very odd and a little tough on my eyes for some reason. Picking out the enemy is a challenge in the urban environment.

Switching between powers seems much easier than before, but being able have either laser sight or Iron sights is fucking annoying when I could have both in Crysis. Maybe this is just the Gun I have, but I'm sure this wasn't a problem in Crysis.

And I've got the activation bug which is going to get old fast, I hope they patch this soon.

[Chirios]

Got on PS3 and I actually like. Shockingly horrible storyline though, so many plotholes and inconsistencies and WTF character moments; but a good solid game with good mechanics. I especially like how you have multiple methods of passing through each level, and how the nanosuit allows you to attack enemies in lots of different ways.

Shame the story sucks so much though.

[Zixinus]

What was the worst part of the story in your opinion?

My thoughts was its tendency to go conspiracy-theory-logic on it and the fact that no one else is willing to put up a nanosuit (despite finding a gallery of them!) or having any nanotechnology on-hand that could fight the alien virus.

[Sarevok]

They made the Nanosuit into a deus ex machina to drive the plot rather than just be a useful gameplay device as in Crysis 1. That is the biggest let down with the story.

[Chirios]

What was the worst part of the story in your opinion?

My thoughts was its tendency to go conspiracy-theory-logic on it and the fact that no one else is willing to put up a nanosuit (despite finding a gallery of them!) or having any nanotechnology on-hand that could fight the alien virus.

In terms of pure story? The following:

1) At the very beginning of the game one of the marines says: "I hear there might be aliens", another replies: "yeah, illegal aliens", suggesting that nobody knows about the invasion. But all throughout the rest of the game people act like they knew about the invasion, having even named the invadors and studied their technology for long enough to have built and designed effective countermeasures to it, not just that but everyone acts as though the invasion has been going on for years instead of just a few days.

2) The fact that the aliens invaded the planet rather than say, dropping Rods from God from orbit, but that's something that pisses me off about all alien invasion media.

3) The fact that so much of what you do is just senseless meandering, with absolutely no understanding of what's going on. When you get given the suit there's some BS about the CELL people wanting to attack you because they think that you're someone else; but surely you should be able to just say: actually, I'm not that fella wearing a nanosuit, I'm another lad, I borrowed his.

4) Characters and situations dropping in and out with no backdrop, no understanding of who the hell they are, but suddenly being treated as though you should've known them the whole time. I had no idea who Hargreaves was, or that conspiracy dude, or what the hell Lingshan was supposed to be, but the game treated me as if I already did, and massive amounts of dialogue was given to these people/places so I assume they were meant to be important.

5) The fact that the nanosuit is capable of interfacing with alien technology in the first place. It's alien fucking technology, how in the hell does the nanosuit know what to do with it?

6) On the subject of the suit, why are you the only person wearing one? If they (the weapons company Hargreaves owns) could build one, why not build 2? Why not a few billion? This is especially jarring when you meet up with the US marines and they aren't carrying any equipment more advanced than modern day.

7) The US military response. Why would they leave the entire evacuation to private military companies? Why do they only send one contingent of US marines?

The alien invasion. Why do they only invade New York?

9) The rest of the world. Actual aliens are invading, why in the name of all that is good and holy aren't the rest of the world at least sending air support?

What I do like about the plot is that they at least attempted some sort of pacing. Too many FPS's nowadays are so desperate to get "to the action" that they don't give any time to set the mood, and you just jump from one ridiculous fire fight to another.

[Zixinus]

Some of the points do have an explanation, although I agree that better introductions should have been done. They also commit the bad idea of making the protagonist a silent character in a bad way (in Half-Life it mostly worked because you were forced into a situation where speaking wouldn't have made much a difference).

Of course, the other reasons can be driven down to conspiracy-theory bullshit.

2) The fact that the aliens invaded the planet rather than say, dropping Rods from God from orbit, but that's something that pisses me off about all alien invasion media.

Why do you assume that they can do it?

When you get given the suit there's some BS about the CELL people wanting to attack you because they think that you're someone else; but surely you should be able to just say: actually, I'm not that fella wearing a nanosuit, I'm another lad, I borrowed his.

To be fair, they likely wouldn't have believed you if the protagonist did say so.

5) The fact that the nanosuit is capable of interfacing with alien technology in the first place. It's alien fucking technology, how in the hell does the nanosuit know what to do with it?

That's a spoiler, so Spoiler

Because the nanosuit was built originally from alien technology. The rich guy in the cryounit got it from way back in Tunguska.

) On the subject of the suit, why are you the only person wearing one? If they (the weapons company Hargreaves owns) could build one, why not build 2? Why not a few billion?

a, because the nanosuit is very expensive to build
b, there is an in-game cited reason that says that there are suspicions that the suit drives people crazy.

Although, yeah, this is bullshit a bit. Again, there was a room full of these: you would expect to get someone to wear one of them.

8 ) The alien invasion. Why do they only invade New York?

Again a spoiler Spoiler

because they were already there. The aliens had a base way underground New York and it emerged in the endgame as a ship that came from Central Park or whatever.

[Chirios]

a, because the nanosuit is very expensive to build
b, there is an in-game cited reason that says that there are suspicions that the suit drives people crazy.

@ b. really, where? I'm on the last level and I haven't heard anyone mention that.

@ a. I never played the first one but from what I understand from reading the wiki, there were the first few that your special ops team wore and then the North Koreans managed to figure out a way to build at least a few hundred. If they are cheap enough for the North Koreans to build then they're cost effective. The sheer amount of utility the suits have is evidence of that, not to mention their ability to download memory directly into peoples brains means that you can pretty much do away with the concept of training soldiers completely. Just copy+paste the memory of basic, plus the memory of how it actually feels to be in combat directly into peoples brains, then spend say, a month getting your soldiers physically fit enough to actually fight.

[Zixinus]

@ b. really, where? I'm on the last level and I haven't heard anyone mention that.

It is mentioned in an e-mail here and there I think, or in a conversation.

@ a. I never played the first one but from what I understand from reading the wiki, there were the first few that your special ops team wore and then the North Koreans managed to figure out a way to build at least a few hundred. If they are cheap enough for the North Koreans to build then they're cost effective. The sheer amount of utility the suits have is evidence of that, not to mention their ability to download memory directly into peoples brains means that you can pretty much do away with the concept of training soldiers completely. Just copy+paste the memory of basic, plus the memory of how it actually feels to be in combat directly into peoples brains, then spend say, a month getting your soldiers physically fit enough to actually fight.

[/quote]

No, no, no, you're not thinking like a conspiracy-nut American: the North Koreans in the future, regardless of current reality, are significantly up-to-date (because all COMMUNIST(tm) nations ruthlessly steal the latest technology from the USA) and could easily steal the nanosuit designs, willing to spend billions on it from their massive fortune of... well, whatever. After all, by American logic, COMMUNISM(tm) can always offload the cost on the population when it comes to military spending (which has some basis in reality for the Soviet Union, but not North Korea, but don't expect an American to actually know anything about Communism).
Plus, I wouldn't be surprised if the writer said "coverup" when in regards to this. In other words, you are thinking more along the lines of a sane, rational person, not a conspiracy theorist.

As for the ability to download memories, I don't think that was an intended feature of the suit.

[Ford Prefect]

2) The fact that the aliens invaded the planet rather than say, dropping Rods from God from orbit, but that's something that pisses me off about all alien invasion media.

They didn't 'invade'. They were already here long before the rise of human civilisation. The novel suggests that the Ceph aren't actually sapient, either, and are instead the adaptive, self-modifying tools of an actual alien species. I think Alcatraz compares them to gardening equipment.

[Zixinus]

There was a novel?
Am I right in my suspicion that the writer uses conspiracy-theory-logic?

[Ford Prefect]

Crysis: Legion, by Peter Watts (Blindsight, the Rifters trilogy). Watts did all the buzzwording for the Nanosuit 2.

Am I right in my suspicion that the writer uses conspiracy-theory-logic?

Don't be an idiot.

[Zixinus]

Don't be an idiot.

That doesn't answer my question either way.

[adam_grif]

I still can't believe they released the final prophet flashback you don't unlock until the end of the game as a prerelease trailer for the game.

[Joe Momma]

There was a novel?
Am I right in my suspicion that the writer uses conspiracy-theory-logic?

For the most part, no. In fact, Watts does a fairly good job of at least wallpapering over a lot of the more illogical elements of Crysis 2 mentioned earlier in this thread.

But more specifically regarding the novel and your points above:

1) The events of the first game are briefly mentioned. There were extensive efforts to contain information of those events, i.e. an attempted cover-up, though it only obscured what happened at Lingshan rather than completely hiding it. But more importantly a global ecological crisis and massive social upheaval shortly after the first game turned everyone's attention elsewhere.

Basically, the general public knew something weird had happened there but didn't know the details and were too preoccupied with more serious immediate problems to give it much thought, particularly since they had no idea that the Lingshan incident would ultimately have larger implications.

2) The NK duplication of the nanosuits isn't discussed in the novel since it's focused on the second game, but the info available from the original Crysis indicates that the NK suits were a knock-off based on a captured US nanosuit and were significantly weaker in numerous respects. Also note that the original nanosuits were far less advanced than the one in Crysis 2, which may make it easier to explain why they were more commonly manufactured and used by both the US and NK. The Nanosuit 2.0 from Crysis 2 is a one-of-a-kind for a number of reasons further explained in the book, said reasons also tying into the much more restricted use of nanosuits in general.

As I said, a lot of the other issues are given some explanation as well, including but not limited to a better explanation of the various NPCs and how they fit into the big picture, why the protagonist is mute to the point of self-sabotage, why the human military forces aren't completely curbstomped by a race with such vastly superior technology (already touched on by Ford Prefect above), etc. Watts even manages to fold in a lot of the FPS standards like waypoint markers, the plot-related inability to kill certain characters, etc. into the story in a coherent way that actually advances the plot in some respects.

Even if you're not interested in the game (hell, I haven't even played any of them beyond the first game's demo and watching part of a video playthrough of the second game, though I do plan on picking them both up from the bargain bin at some point), the novel's an interesting example of creative fixes for logic fails and plot holes. Despite my admitted lack of familiarity with the source material, the book stood up pretty well on its own.

[MJ12 Commando]

Some of the points do have an explanation, although I agree that better introductions should have been done. They also commit the bad idea of making the protagonist a silent character in a bad way (in Half-Life it mostly worked because you were forced into a situation where speaking wouldn't have made much a difference).

Of course, the other reasons can be driven down to conspiracy-theory bullshit.

There's an explanation for the protagonist being a silent character. The joke is, he's rendered effectively mute by his injuries and can't speak because of that. Let me find the relevant passage from Legion...

Gould then directed us at gunpoint to hook the rogue up to the NODAR, which we did. Chen handled biotelemetry and I ran the suit diagnostics. I was parsing the twitch protocols when Chen said “F_____k, he’s dead.”

Gould threatened Chen and told her not to make threats she couldn’t back up, but Chen explained that the rogue was actually, literally dead. I accessed his vitals myself at that point and confirmed this. The right ventricle and left lung were gone and his right lung was relatively intact but nonfunctional due to pneumothorax. I could see that the right lung might be salvageable (the diaphragm had been perforated but the N2 had infiltrated the injuries with a synthomyosin mesh that was restoring some integrity), but the rest of the thoracic cluster was just gone. The N2 had bypassed the pulmonary system entirely and was infusing O2 directly into the aortic arch. I also noticed that it had extruded synthomyosin around the shrapnel and it had coated all the torn internal surfaces with anafibrin, but none of these were stand-alone modifications. The N2 extended into its wearer at the molecular level and had taken over most of the vital processes, so Chen was medically right. The undamaged tissues left inside the suit did not meet the definition of a complete viable organism as defined by National Health Industry Standards. “Prophet” was legally dead.

I think Richard Morgan was told to make the protagonist silent (like all those other popular games!) so he threw this in as an excuse for a silent protagonist, then Watts ran with it.

[Sarevok]

Reading the above passage I feel sorry for Alcatraz. His selfless determination in carrying on no matter what happens to him is quite inspirational though.

[Zixinus]

It would be, if Alcatraz was more of a character. There was a coherent attempt at a narrative, but I really wish developers would have taken much more story-telling cues from Half-Life 2 other than "protagonist is a silent blank".

[Ford Prefect]

He's got plenty of characterisation in the novel lol. Clearly reads a lot of comic books and New Scientist.