Is there a Crysis in PC Gaming?

Minimum System Requirements

OS Windows XP or Windows Vista
Processor 2.8 GHz or faster (XP); 3.2 GHz or faster (Vista)
Memory 1.0 GB RAM or 1.5 GB RAM (Vista)
Video Card 256 MB
Hard Drive 12 GB
Sound Card DirectX 9.0c compatible

Recommended System Requirements

OS Windows XP / Vista
Processor Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2GHz
Memory 2.0 GB RAM
GPU NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS/640 Recommended System Requirements
OS Windows XP / Vista
Processor Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2GHz
Memory 2.0 GB RAM
GPU NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS/640 or similar

This year has been an interesting one for PC gamers. Most PC owners who love to play video games don't upgrade their systems very often. Mainly because this process is expensive and many people feel that just buying a new system is cheaper than upgrading. Especially when new video cards can cost as much as a new low grade system.

This year and part of last year have been previews of what is to come in the PC gaming industry. The fact that the consumer can spend as much as $5,000 on a new system and still not be future proofed if they make the wrong decision about what components to add to their system.

Most players have a single or dual core system. With a midrange graphics card and probably around 1 GB of RAM. This is probably the average. Some people have much more and some have much less. But in the end the percentage of high end systems is pretty small.

Gamers have been slow to upgrade in most cases. But developers like Crytek and Gas Powered Games have kind of ignored this. Supreme Commander sold well the first week but now can be found for as little as $19.99. Because few PCs can handle the game at the highest specifications and it's an RTS. Now the game is coming to the XBOX 360, where I'm sure it won't look as good but probably will sell a lot better.
Crysis has been getting good reviews. The sheer lack of people with a enough power to run the game on a level that will make it worthwhile for the average person to purchase the game will likely slow sales. Is this something that reviewers should take into account? After all, most reviewers have stated that they had a hard time finding a computer that would run the game.

With Unreal Tournament 3 coming out in less than a week with an adaptive engine that allows MANY specs of PC to run it. It will be hard to see Crysis doing very well. Certainly the competitive multiplayer market is full of people with high end PCs. But Crysis has no team deathmatch, so it appears that isn't the market they are aiming to serve. Which is strange because they are probably the best equipped to run the game.

Certainly with all the innovation in PC gaming over the past year to three years the game industry has greatly moved forward. With the advent of DX 10 technology, there have been plenty of advances and innovations in game design. But what price comes all this power?

The sales of power hog titles is all ways significantly lower than the sales of midrange spec requiring titles. For instance, Hellgate London has the capability of implementing DX10 textures and technology but it can also be run on a single core system with a midrange video card and still look good. This is the kind of game that developers need to invest in. They might not have super sexy screens and movies to show but their games will actually make money. Considering the long development process of a game like Crysis the pay off for the game needs to come close to the outlay of the title or they won't make any money and there certainly won't be a Crysis 2.

In the last couple of years I have taken a real shine to PC gaming. But my PC will never run Crysis and by the time I get a PC that will run it. There will be much more exciting title to play. Because for all of the hype of Crysis; it is basically FAR CRY with aliens. I don't discount the open world or the great A.I. but it is just a FPS. It also seems that the story is rather simplistic. As fun as the game is for the first few hours, it appears that there are probably only so many ways you can kill someone. Just as in real life...

I would give Crysis high marks for innovation but low marks for marketability. Since it has all ready taken 4 years to make Crysis; I think they could have waited a year or two more so that the average gamer has a PC that can play their game.