barely fatal

I just beat Crysis, and I must say I’m somewhat disappointed. It’s way too short, its hardware requirements are insane, at some points the AI turns out to be as stupid as rock, and some of the more linear levels have design flaws. It’s brilliant when it’s open and lets you decide how to get from point A to B. The nanosuit allows you to play the game you want: stealthy, fast or with big explosions. Also you can switch on the fly, in seconds – that’s the fun part. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of levels when you can enjoy this kind of freedom.

So, while visually stunning and a break-through regarding real-world physics, it’s just another shooter. Yes, you can chop down trees, throw chickens at turtles (or the other way round), destroy huts, dive through beautiful water with real waves, and enjoy the ultra-realistic jungle (complete with frogs and all), and you’ll do that a lot – simply because it’s fun. Yes, the detailed simulation of the environment makes the game very immersive, but in the end you just point and shoot. And no current-day computer can run the game at the highest settings, let alone in DirectX 10 mode.

What the game needs is one year, one year in which new, more powerful graphics cards are released, and one year in which the devs can build more exciting levels and fix the AI. The multiplayer part is nice and all, but no less hardware-dependent. I prefer COD4.

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If you check out my movie list, you can see that I watched the new Harry Potter this weekend. I feel ashamed. Anyways, not so bad. Tells the same story as the book, and in only two hours. Saves you reading the boring parts. But I still believe that once they come to making the last movie (in about three years), noone, and I mean noone, will be fooled by the totally grown-up looking actors. It’ll be a bit like seeing the … overweight, old Enterprise crew in Undiscovered Country. A great movie, but you just know that it’s time for them to let go.