Maximum Port
It has been a tough week for PC gaming news for me. Last week Movie Bob declared PC gaming dead. I won’t link him purely on the fact that I feel that every time someone says “PC gaming is dead,” they’re just panhandling for web traffic.
Following that up was some odd news coming out about Crysis 2. It seems that people who downloaded the PC multiplayer demo were greeted with a splash screen that said “Press Start Button.” That must be by my “Any” key.
Let’s back up a little here. Crysis was largely heralded as one of the few games to single-handedly kick PC gaming graphics up to an all new tier. This caused many PC gamers to go out and buy new rigs just to play the game. Then in 2009, Crytek announced that their new engine, CryEngine 3, would be made from the beginning to support not only PCs, but also Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Which, in hindsight, was the first signs of the upcoming screw job.
The original Crysis, released in November 2007, included support for DirectX 10, which had been released in November 2006. This made it where the game was using very new technology. What I found out last week was that Crysis 2 was shipping only with support for DirectX 9, which was first released in August 2004, meaning that it would be running on seven year old tech.
Crysis 2 was released on Tuesday and one of the first things PC gamers noticed was how few graphic options there were: only four settings in the Graphics menu. You can change resolution, v-sync, bobbing and between one of three pre-defined graphics levels. You have no direct control of anti-aliasing, shadow or texture detail. One of the worst omissions was the lack of ability to shut off motion blur, which is exceptionally bad in this game, seen here.
With all that said, there is some good news to go along with it. First, the publisher has said that DirectX 10/11 support will be released as a patch at a later date. Second, gamers are already finding ways around many of the issues, including the motion blur. And finally, Crysis 2 is receiving really good reviews, with many saying that it’s better than the first.
Despite being treated like a second-hand customer, I will still end up buying Crysis 2 sooner or later. And while all this is definitely not good for it, PC gaming is far from being dead.
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