Crytek could have been Xbox-exclusive...

[Terronium-12]

Looking over the headlines for Crysis: Warhead in Steam, it appears Crytek could have Xbox-exclusive, or at least 360-exclusive.

Discussions of first-party alignment

Now of course I could sit here and argue how not being exclusive to any one console brand is the best thing since buttered toast, and Crytek having the option to release a game on their own time is also...the best thing since buttered toast -- imagine this; if Crytek had signed a deal with Microsoft, and Crysis became a first-party exclusive...how much would you like to wager CryEngine2 wouldn't have been as poorly optimized as it is now? But who knows how things would have played out had they agreed. Perhaps Crysis wouldn't have been highlighted as being a trilogy. Why? It would, in all likelihood, threaten Halo. I love Halo but Crysis just runs circles around it, day and night.

In the grand scheme of things I am glad, however, at the same time I can't help but consider Microsoft's decision to forego the possibility utter tripe. Look how well-received and praised Crysis was. Look how even more well-received and praised Warhead was. Sure, they have 2 but so does the PS3, and I'd imagine it runs better on the PS3 anyway considering CryEngine favors nVidia GPU's.

 

[Bigbazz]

Imagine how much better it would have been if they didn't bother with consoles!

 

[Terronium-12]

Imagine how much better it would have been if they didn't bother with consoles!

How much better what would have been, Crysis 2?

 

[CaptainHarlock]

Imagine how much better it would have been if they didn't bother with consoles!

And how much less money they would have made.

 

[Terronium-12]

And how much less money they would have made.

Unless it ends up selling more than 1 and Warhead (~4.6 million copies) across both the PS3 and 360 that's a moot argument. Hell, unless it manages to sell more than the 3 million Crysis put up, it's a moot argument.

Looking at recent figures, combining total sales across all three platforms hasn't even broken 2 million yet.

 

[LaBounti]

Hm, would have been a great for PSU............ never played Crisis but seeing that this was so long ago it would have made to PC anyway(Halo,Gears). Just not PS3. There is no telling if it would have been a good game or not. Take away all the pretty and whats left?

 

[Bigbazz]

Making less money by not being on consoles is not really true. The fact that it was available on consoles turned away a lot of people that would have bought it. The original Crysis was a classic and it was revolutionary, it blew everything else out of the water graphically, had a decent storyline and great gameplay.

The 2nd game was (in my experience) really good, but it was massively influenced by the fact that it was made for the console, and also massively held back. While the graphics on Crysis 2 are great and the optimisation they made has it running better than the original the game. But being on the consoles stopped it from becoming a second revolution and was likely the cause of the story change. There was a massive storyline gap between the games that could possibly have been caused by the inability of the consoles to be able to run the game in the massive open lush environments of the first game.

Crysis 2 was multi platform and the original was only available on PC. The original is far more popular and far outsold the second game, Crysis 2 lower sales were perhaps largely in part due to the effects of the developers choosing (or being made to) go multi-platform instead of exclusively on the PC like the original.


Or I could be wrong and it was simply a result of buggy online play, cheating and insufficient marketing at launch along with the changing times of FPS games with games like COD and Battlefield taking most of the playershare.

 

[Tornado]

It has to be said that the original game's sales were at least partly attributed to being what essentially amounts to a benchmarking tool for system components.

That aspect obviously doesn't factor into the second game.

 

[Bigbazz]

What you say could be true, infact it most certaintly is true atleast to some extent. If the second game had been PC exclusive it's likely it would have been the same situation the second time around. The limitations of it being only DX9 and being so well optimised to lower powered computers meant that it's not the most useful of benchmarking tools, even though it does look pretty!

 

[Terronium-12]

Hm, would have been a great for PSU............ never played Crisis but seeing that this was so long ago it would have made to PC anyway(Halo,Gears). Just not PS3. There is no telling if it would have been a good game or not. Take away all the pretty and whats left?

A jungle setting, fantastic mods, a kickass suit, and enough re-playability to go through it several times.

 

[Akira AC]

It depends,but personally I think that Crysis 2 probably wouldn't be as good as it is,the reason for this is how its assets and content are organized,the game is designed(well its roots)to be on PC,the advantage that PC offers to name a few is better usage of system resources(more flexibility with ram,AA and other advantages that PC's have over home consoles),more flexible development and a few more aspects to be included in the game mechanics.

I'm pretty sure that the game would probably(and most certainly) run better on 360(reaching the all beloved 60 fps),but this probably have some effects on the game assets(less LoD levels,graphical output reduced and lower res textures).

 

[Terronium-12]

It depends,but personally I think that Crysis 2 probably wouldn't be as good as it is,the reason for this is how its assets and content are organized,the game is designed(well its roots)to be on PC,the advantage that PC offers to name a few is better usage of system resources(more flexibility with ram,AA and other advantages that PC's have over home consoles),more flexible development and a few more aspects to be included in the game mechanics.

I'm pretty sure that the game would probably(and most certainly) run better on 360(reaching the all beloved 60 fps),but this probably have some effects on the game assets(less LoD levels,graphical output reduced and lower res textures).

You do realize that as far as Crysis' core audience is concerned that 2 is a failure? The AI is meticulously stupid (think about that, meticulously stupid), the storyline takes a massive dump on the events that occur throughout Crysis and Warhead and introduces this new guy, Alcatraz, which from all that I've seen...no one likes. The only real relation 2 has to either of the two Crysis games is the Nanosuit and Prophet.

And now, according to Prophet, the remaining survivors have bonded with the previous generation Nanosuit? Really, it has symbiotic properties now? And until recently (and I do mean 'recently') the PC version of Crysis appeared to be nothing more than a mere port of the console POS. Only now is Crysis doing one of the things it does better than any other game - look fantastic. As it stands, Crysis 2 isn't as good as it should have been anyway...

 

[Akira AC]

I guess that I forgot to add the last bit,is is pretty much that,the game is plagued with bugs,AI confused,LOD loading sometimes drops and plenty of other glitches(I own the 360 version).

From the storytelling point the game is quite broken as well,but the writing wouldn't been changed because of being console-only,The game could probably be better in some aspects,however the writing of these games do not improve by some of the technical characteristics of the game.

I never played Crysis 1,so I don't know how to compare it to the first one,I played the PC "port" once and it ran smoother(however this was a high end gaming PC),the game as a whole probably could be better,but compared to other console FPS(BFBC2,COD) the game is really good(regardless of the narrative and some AI glitches).

 

[Terronium-12]

I guess that I forgot to add the last bit,is is pretty much that,the game is plagued with bugs,AI confused,LOD loading sometimes drops and plenty of other glitches(I own the 360 version).

From the storytelling point the game is quite broken as well,but the writing wouldn't been changed because of being console-only,The game could probably be better in some aspects,however the writing of these games do not improve by some of the technical characteristics of the game.

I never played Crysis 1,so I don't know how to compare it to the first one,I played the PC "port" once and it ran smoother(however this was a high end gaming PC),the game as a whole probably could be better,but compared to other console FPS(BFBC2,COD) the game is really good(regardless of the narrative and some AI glitches).

Long story short, you went from Koreans and aliens (which I'm guessing are now the "Ceph" as of 2) in a jungle (Lingshan Islands), to NYC. I found it to be really interesting at first and perhaps me living in NYC I'm a little biased but anyway once I heard of all the continuity BS and whoever the hell Alcatraz is supposed to be filling in for, it all fell through the ceiling - quick fast. Now I haven't played it yet but I do intend to.

I never liked how the original went from a scrimmage (of sorts, at least according to 2)/rescue mission to "OMG! There are aliens in the goddamn mountains!" because, well, I just didn't like it. Now I don't know what the story is, why Prophet committed suicide or why Nomad nor Psycho are directly heard from.

 

[Akira AC]

I have to say that I stopped caring about the plot to the point in which everyone wanted to kill you (Precisely the chat between Lockhart and Tara),the story has a bizarre structure of telling you stuff (the whole symbiotic thing as an example),and without playing the first one a lot of stuff is never understood(not even a single well-made recap of the events of Crysis 1).

However I do like the game for its mechanics and gameplay,the missions are terrific and the stealth/shield/running functions are correctly balanced,there is no so much tedium and the levels are somewhat open(compared to BFBC2 and COD),and the missions are really well done(the defence and demolition of the building for the survivors defense was a blast ).

The game would probably be good if it the story shouldn't be so complicated and easy to follow(I don't mean a no-brain plot,but something with better justification).