Me either, and I played for a while earlier. I'm not impressed by the visuals, or by how they've streamlined (read: dumbed down) the suit powers, but I do like that they went back to square one for the multiplayer modes and reinvented Crysis a little. I still don't think it's particularly great, but you can see that they put a lot of care into trying to emulate different games. Crysis multiplayer was a hodgepodge of ideas lifted from Counter Strike and Battlefield, and this time we have something that's a little (a lot) more Call of Duty.

There are changes that are clearly for the better, but they're following a lot of trends that I absolutely hate. The game is filled to the brim with bars to fill, items and powerups to unlock, with killstreaks following along the way. The worst features in modern FPS games are basically finding their way into every big blockbuster, which has me anticipating stuff like Red Orchestra 2 or Natural Selection 2 with bated breath. They may or may not deliver on my expectations, but at least they're actually trying to deliver some real depth to the genre instead of following Modern Warfare. We have enough of that going around already. And bring on March 1st so we can see if DICE will continue to water down the ingredients that made Battlefield great.

Not that I was ever too interested in what Crytek was doing with MP (their free game looks sweet though!), but it's an interesting take on current trends and it's interesting to see them go back to the drawing board. I'm hopeful that the campaign will live up to where they started this thing still. I'm also still mighty concerned about the setting and plot. Crysis didn't actually end.. and there really should have been a second expansion pack to tie up the loose stuff.

No, it's still definitely dumbed down. Holding down jump or melee aren't the same as strength anymore than sprinting is the same as speed. Speed would also increase your reload time, for example, and strength allowed you to pick up objects and people and throw them for dozens and dozens of yards (meters). And even if it were the same (and it's not), simply making those powers automatic isn't dumber how? They've also removed prone and elan, which are hopefully present in the PC version. I'm also sort of missing any elements of large scale combat in the multiplayer. It's not that Crysis 1 MP was worth returning to--but there are definitely ideas they moved away from that are better than some of the ideas present here. Like I said before: they have abandoned previous copycat ideas from good games for copycat ideas from a bad one.. but maybe for the best!

And the shaders are clearly good, but they're pushing them at the extreme sacrifice of image quality, which I think is a poor trade personally.

Different in this case is clearly dumber imo... Making the game play itself for you is not just "streamlining," it's making it easier and simpler for the sake of access for people who can't learn to do it the other way. I'm also not really keen on this idea that you have to "flip" through anything in the original Crysis.. why? Because you have to actually activate all of your abilities to use them? Have you heard of hotkeys? And perks? Yeah, they're copying the worst parts of the most successful games in hopes of reaching the same idiot audience. And no, I'm not saying that everyone who plays COD is a noob..

Holding down the button instead of tapping it is about as close to automatic as it gets without the game actually doing everything for you.

Why shouldn't it require a step to use an armor ability? Ultimately it reduces the skill curve in favor of ease of use. I can not see how that's not the very definition of dumbing down. I'm not always against a little streamlining. Obviously some people draw that line in the sand at different points. Some people are fine with the game doing everything for you, and some people want to rely on things like timing and micro instead of duuuuhhhh click. ;)

That said I like arcade games more than sims, so I'm in favor of a little dumbness from time to time too.

The radial menu in Crysis 1 is sorta pointless, unless you insist on handicapping yourself with a gamepad. I do like that they're button presses in Crysis 2, which I absolutely assure you is why we've lost powers in the conversion to multiplatform. There simply aren't enough buttons, I guess.

When you use the radial menu instead of hotkeys you're adding a pretty significant chunk of time to your actions. Sure, it may not seem like adding a split second to your actions means much, but a split second in combat is pretty significant. In Crysis, you can activate speed, run up on a baddy, and activate strength and pummel him. If you use hotkeys you can do these actions as quickly as you can react (and think to do them), but if you use a radial menu you're simply adding an unnecessary step to the process. Granted--Crysis isn't so demanding that you can't get away with crippling yourself with a gamepad, so using a context menu to activate your suit powers isn't really going to make a big difference. I just prefer to do things "right."

Now in Crysis 2 you don't even need to think or react to do these things. The game does it for you.

Again, just because you don't understand why that's a handicap, doesn't mean it's not one.

And you're being an idiot.

I've explained myself pretty clearly. It is a handicap. That's not my opinion, that's a fact. Adding time to your actions is holding you back, period, even if the game is easy enough that it doesn't matter.

Yes. Adding a half second of time to your actions is absolutely a handicap.

It's not about playing differently, it's about playing better. You're choosing options that give you slower feedback on all counts. Granted, using the radial menu isn't half as bad as using an Xbox controller, but it's still a handipcap. So is using the scroll wheel to change weapons in other shooters. Getting out of that habit would ultimately make a big difference in how well you'd be able to play a PC game. Hot keys absolutely make you capable of reacting quicker in every situation, in nearly ever game. Opting out is clearly a handicap regardless of how willing you are to accept that.

And refusing to accept that doing things the slow way is a handicap and suggesting that it's somehow backwards logic is abso-fucking-lutely stupid. And just because a game is easy enough for you to get away with a handicap doesn't mean it's not one. You can clear a lot of games without using whole features.. that doesn't mean you're not doing it wrong.