Having read half the hate comments (my reply is to those hate comments mostly) in here I find quite a few things that are funny and I cant resist but give my 2 cents on them.
1)
How much hate some of you have for EA, clearly showing your inability to understand that EA is a publisher not a developer. The game is made by Crytek. If some of you making those EA comments where smart enough you probably would have got that from the title too, but apparently you are illiterate? Or incapable of thought processing perhaps? Who knows. Maybe both. (p.s I have hated EA before most of you knew how to read, but I still know where to direct my complaint or comment in every given case.)
2)
Some of you are attacking the game for focusing on graphics and your only concern is "gameplay"... To you people all I can say is crawl back into the hole from whence you came! People with that specific argument have proved over the years one thing, they are simply whining little tarts that aren't pleased with anything. Now, lets set things straight here since we are on the subject of gameplay, quality, and such.
FPS games where designed with one thing in mind to begin with, graphical advancement and fluent "shoot them in the body head or wherever" that simply makes the game fun! Story was a late second after these two that was added. The gameplay of an FPS game is how it handles the action, the combat, the SHOOTING, and how aesthetically appealing it is adds to the enjoyment of that. The story is NOT gameplay. So all you little "gameplay quality" whining tarts go jerk off somewhere else, by comparison with ALL other fps shooters of our time Crysis 2 (can't say about 3 haven't played it yet) was both an improvement to 1 and has gameplay quality that NO or FEW other fps titles deliver.
Nanosuit functions (cloak armour and vision), maneuvering (such as ledge climbing, siding, and again due to the nanosuit strength function jumping and bashing things in, picking stuff up etc etc), stealth attacks, all the extra nanosuit upgrades and the enemy types as well as the urban terrain with cover and multiple other ways to tackle each objective from stealth to guns blazing. Stop whining, the game has things other FPS titles wish they had, handles them amazingly well and in a fun way, so quick that even m-player matches proved the game was utilised to use all the above things fluently and with speed.
I really would like to know what other FPS titles you know out there that are way better and include as many things and as good. (Don't even dare put the story into the equation, you can't at one moment say "gameplay" and the next use story as backup, they are different things and story is a matter of taste. In my opinion the Crysis 2 story was one of the best I ever played in an FPS. And also don't dare compare this to a title like COD, that is the most milked and technologically disgusting franchise ever that never added anything to the FPS scene the way Crysis and Crysis 2 did, don't even get me started with that ridicule of a title.)
Quite simply, there are no FPS titles that are that much better than Crysis 2, not even graphically, and in my opinion not even in terms of story but the last one I know is a matter of taste alone.
3)
Complaints about AI. Lol, are you serious? Cryengine proved to have the least AI problems than all if not most FPS titles, it's drawbacks are not uncommon in other titles even though they are few. The sound to view awareness that everything has in the game (and on different levels too according the enemy type) is simply top notch along with all reactions and animations for how AI utlises it's awareness and tactics. Not just in how the player cloaking works but also in all types of hiding such as bushes and so on.
Many fps titles prove to handle this area MUCH worse.
The combat awareness and how enemies seek you out (again according to the enemy type) is once more top notch, and the game honestly feels like each tactic you have can be put to great use. Physics are awesome, and well generally I played through the whole game 4 times at least when I first got it and didn't find a single buggy AI.
So, my question is, WFT are you talking about? You sure you aren't doing something on your pc that might bug out the AI in the game? eg- using fraps on SW the Force Unleashed 2 for some reason stops all the dismemberment animations from working. That is not the games fault, developers do not make games counting on you running other programs simultaneously. They also don't make them so you can run extreme graphics on a rig that is made to handle medium graphics. Bugs in those cases are user faults.
I have compared all FPS games out there and have been a gamer for 25 years damn it, I know when I see a product that is technologically top notch. Is there room for improvement? Always, that is a given. That does not make the improvement made any less valuable. Damn, some of the comments in here are like people talking with down syndrome. Wtf? I expect more from today's gaming community I mean honestly guys...
4)
Comparison to Crysis 1. Ok, please, that one gets old. Stfu with that already. The ONLY reason some of you EVER liked C1 better was the island. It was a paradise holiday with beautiful lush trees and amazing beaches, all of which where right there for you to spray blood over them and to mow down and destroy with all the havoc one would cause.
The setting ALONE was what made you love it more, not the graphics not the story not the gameplay not the AI. None of it was better than C2. The only thing that was better and I agree was the setting. I loved that damn island myself, but it was no reason for me to shy away from getting into the new environment which in turn actually turned out to be MORE fun and even more action packed (just less aesthetically appealing... and then people complain about companies focusing on graphics when their main comparison between C1 and C2 is based on graphics/appearance... bloody hypocrites).
Graphics are better in C2 I don't care how silly you are to realise. There are many areas in the realtime render engine where the cryengine 2 was better, making C1 slightly better in a few ways graphically than C2. The general improvement in the end however, even after Crytek chose to sacrifice some areas, was much larger in C2. The comparison is ridiculous especially when you drop all the DX11 graphics and textures into the equation (which is what the actual PC version offers).
Even after being console aimed the improvement overall from C1 to C2 is present in every way.
Better movement and maneuvers, better (quicker and more fluent on controls) suit functionality, same AI pretty much if not improved (probably improved I think I saw some AI bugs in C1), better story (the only thing in C1 that brought shivers up my spine was the mountain breaking into the alien base and the final alien boss. Those where simply wicked, other than that the story felt it had holes lacked any good cutscenes the progression of it was a little colourless and so on so forth, C2 handled all presentations of story telling much better), anyway pretty much everything in the game was improved. It's just that, well, that island was indeed awesome. But other than that, C2 brought much more strategic and improved FPS sand-box environments.
Conclusion)
And so lastly, the game as an FPS offers in every way improvements to the first Crysis, I really can't stand any more of some childish whining tarts that apparently don't know squat about how to compare games and end up rather using their personal preference instead of actual facts or unbiased observations.
I also can't stand the bitching when it comes to developers aiming at graphics. STFU please, graphics are the core of FPS games, you don't like it? Then this is obviously not the genre for you so please, move the fk along. Not to mention that the bigger market of PC gamers complains how no games are graphically made to push PC's, and when developers FINALLY wake up and do just that, another portion of tarts wakes up from slumber to diss graphics? Please, I can't stress this enough, craaaawl baaack, into your caaaves. Stay there. And don't bother the FPS genre ever again.
As a result, C2 in many ways (even with a less appealing environment/setting) improved on C1 in many ways (even the enemies where more kickass in C2). I find no reason to believe C3 will not do the same. It adds a bow which seems to add tactics in different types of ammunition for different purposes not included before in the Crysis franchise, it adds environments and settings that seem to aim at bringing both C1 and C2 settings together as well as add new ones to the equation, and improves on graphics as well.
Gameplay, even if it will be the same as C2 (though I doubt it the bow alone should add some changes and perhaps improvements) for me will be more than amazing, loved the gameplay of C2 and even no changes to that are enough for me. I don't remember old time FPS games adding new gameplay structures with each title back in the day yet we still loved them didnt we? Bunch of whiners nowadays. Nothing seems to please you tarts.
Lastly, story is something secondary to all the above and even if it sucks to me it will not take away from the quality I expect delivered from C3.
Crytek has delivered with an engine that by comparison is much better than other engines out there. And I've roamed around both developer kits for UDK and Cryengine 3, to conclude to the same notion. Crytek has made better technology that is aimed at future graphics and is dumbed down even if they made PC exclusive titles, thus it is a better tool period and end of story. With room for additions and improvements crytek is developing the engine of tomorrow even as we speak and it is out there. People comparing this to Unreal Engine 3 still are a little misinformed or sometimes even biased perhaps becuse they have invested in UDK. This is understandable and I would feel the same, but we must learn to be honest as well. CE3 is better. Like I said, end of story. This does not make UE3 crap, by no means. UE3 is still amazing, I am simply comparing the capabilities and sorry but the results speak for themselves.
Also UE3 is working at it's max, CE3 is nowhere near running at it's max. The new Unreal Engine (UE4) is actually the proper comparison for CE3 and perhaps it might be much better, or perhaps it might be just a little improved on release with CE3 surpassing it again and so on so forth as they both improve over each other to compete (this is just a guess of mine of what will happen, who knows).
Point being, CE3 is the best thing out there right now so fps gamers should enjoy it. The rest of the crowd that are stuck on some ridiculous reasons to diss the crysis franchise, C2 mostly and now C3 (even though they havent played it proving they are biased as fk) can simply gtfo. Not just from crysis, from FPS games in general. CoD not included, that is not an FPS, its a sorry excuse of a game that started from something great in the first 1 maybe 2 titles then quickly became a pile of steaming milked sh.t.
My two cents, or perhaps more, on this entire matter.
p.s. someone said the engine is optimised to run on XBOX 360 and PS3 hardware. I pity you because you show such an obvious lack of comprehension. UDK is optimised to also run on iOS, does that make it sh.t for PC's? You people baffle me with your stupidity, and you like to parot-copy each other with all you bullsh.t that you pass around. Cryengine 3 is optomised to run for hi-end PC standards in both graphics and video/cinema graphics, Crysis 2 is optimised for consoles. Get your sh.t together and maybe learn something. Cryengine 3 was designed to be a multi-platform giant, and they did just that. Not many companies achieve such a feat with such flying colours! Even the Skyrim engine handles on of the three, PS3 to be precise, like crap and can't support it. CE3 has no such problems and runs smoothly on all platforms. Also, adding "high density DX11 textures" as you say (firstly its high-resolution, sorry but density can mean a variety of things such as the detail density in pixels meaning how many colours are used from the spectrum, thus the reason why a video with 90% white backgrounds is compressed to a much smaller ratio than one with dense-coloured backgrounds... anyhow) back to the point as you said adding those textures is not enough. You are obviously a little behind with the news buddy. The textures was NOT the DX11 that was added. Where are you living? It's 2013 and this addition was a year ago! DX11 was lighting, reflections, volumetrics, a whole bunch of physics, unlimited particle effects and above all, TESSELLATION among other things! You are referring to the hi-res textures alone stating this doesn metl a pc, showcasing your lack of knowledge on the entire matter here as well. I wonder why you even bothered to post that comment. C2 with the DX11 patch alone melted a portion of the hi-end PC's 1 year ago. If C3 uses these alone with improved detail it is more than enough to be in par with top end PC's and most if not all gaming rigs.
p.p.s I can't ehlp but want to reply to each comment out there sepperatly, omg, like I said before, down syndrome. Wtf is going on here, is the fps market filled with such retarts or is it just moron day? I know I have had conversations with tons of people (developers and gamers) that think nothing like this, so I will just hope that it was a coincidence that such stupidity was present here in the comments. I have to hope otherwise there is simply no future for games anywhere if this is the sum of gamers in general. Think people, think. Do a little research and wake the fk up before you think you know everything and stop repeating the same stupid comments everyone else is. Be a little different and dare to actually learn things, you might get somewhere in the end.
Take care.