This is a question which all developers probably ask themselves when they are brainstorming on a new project. “What are going to be the “hooks” in this game which will differentiate it from the common denominator?” After all in today’s crowded gaming market there is always some coronation for the greatest game.

Just look at any gaming media toward the end of any given year and you will see that everybody passes a quick judgment on the latest and greatest in the gaming industry. Yes, we all have this urge I guess. Yet I do not think that anybody, developers, publishers, or gaming enthusiasts alike, can put their finger on what makes a game unique and fun. This is because such a formula does not exist or if it did, it mutates all the time and so it is unpredictable.

I think that for me as an “end user” of games the answer is very simple: I try a game and it either just “feels” right or it is just another game, which I will forget the moment I am done playing it. And then there are the few and far between games, which actually set milestones in the gaming industry and become the example that many aspiring developers want to emulate.

The reason for my long-winded introduction is a game, which is about to be released for PC. The name of the game, for those of you who are not fairly hard-core gamers is Crysis. It is developed by the German developer Crytek. In their case, they found the magic formula I mentioned above… Its in the technology behind their graphics engine. This is a game which is built around incomparable visuals, especially if you have the computer to run the game on the higher settings. Simply said it is something to behold.

The demo was just released and I can honestly say that it has been quite a while since I have done so much staring at details in a game as I do in the case of Crysis. The word stunning is a cliché, which in this case has to be used to describe the technological achievement of the graphics engine. While art direction and design in a game are subjective measurements, pure technological achievement is not. And make no mistake the technology of Crysis will be talked about for quite some time.

Yes, I can confidently say that for me the game-play is very fun and feels just right, but these are subjective qualifications and everybody will have to make their own assessment for that. The technology behind the engine however is undeniable!

Well, what are you waiting for, do yourself a favor and see what I am talking about: step in the world of Crysis!

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Crysis is rated “M” for Mature by the ESRB for intense action violence, blood and gore.

– From the makers of Far Cry, Crysis offers FPS (First-Person-Shooter) fans the best-looking, most highly-evolving gameplay, requiring the player to use adaptive tactics and total customization of weapons and armor to survive in dynamic, hostile environments.
Earth, 2019. A team of US scientists makes a frightening discovery on an island in the South China Sea. All contact with the team is lost when the North Korean Government quickly seals off the area. The United States responds by dispatching an elite team of Delta Force Operators to recon the situation. As tension rises between the two nations, a massive alien ship reveals itself in the middle of the island. The ship generates an immense force sphere that freezes a vast portion of the island and drastically alters the global weather system. Now the US and North Korea must join forces to battle the alien menace. With hope rapidly fading, you must fight epic battles through tropical jungle, frozen landscapes, and finally into the heart of the alien ship itself for the ultimate Zero G showdown. Next-generation graphics that define state of the art, with scalable options to deliver solid performance on older machines Choose your own path through the open world of Crysis — destroying obstacles, driving vehicles from VTOL’s to boats and using the environment itself against your enemies Full-featured multiplayer for up to 32 players with real-time armor and weapons customization

Crysis

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