Crytek is famous for its beautiful yet demanding graphics engine. When Crysis 3 was announced, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli, declared that the PC version would “melt down PCs” due to its thirst for powerful hardware. Thus the latest version of the Crysis game series is often used as a benchmark for graphics cards on various hardware reviews sites including here on HEXUS. In a recent interview with Xbox 360 Magazine the Crytek boss explained that the firm’s focus on graphics was because amazing graphics drive immersion and even went as far as saying that making things look spectacular is 60 per cent of the game.
Crysis 3: see the blades of grass sway
60 per cent graphics, 40 per cent game
The Crytek CEO was very forthright in his assertion that graphics are of paramount importance to modern games “People say that graphics don’t matter, but play Crysis and tell me they don’t matter. It’s always been about graphics driving gameplay.” He told Xbox 360 Magazine. “In Crysis 3 it’s the grass and the vegetation, the way the physics runs the grass interact and sways them in the wind. You can read when an AI enemy is running towards you just by observing the way the grass blades (move).”
These superlative graphics help immerse the player within the game and make it more immersive. “Graphics, whether it’s lighting or shadows, puts you in a different emotional context and drives the immersion. And immersion is effectively the number one thing we can use to help you buy into the world.” Yerli went on to quantify the value of Crytek’s immersive graphics “The better the graphics, the better the physics, the better the sound design, the better the technical assets and production values are – paired with the art direction, making things look spectacular and stylistic is 60 per cent of the game.”
JetStrike Amiga, just fun
While computer gaming hardware and graphics have undoubtedly evolved by leaps and bounds since I started playing games on home computing hardware in the early 1980s, I don’t think the immersive qualities of games are necessarily better. A recent HEXUS “QOTW: Are computer games better now than they were 20 years ago?” also found that readers didn’t think modern games are better than their ancestors, despite the modern graphical, hardware and controller enhancements.
