Ten Years Later, Can You Run It?

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[{"type":"txt","id":"rich_1510560308669","data":"The 13th of November, 2007, was an important day for the rapidly growing gaming industry. Two video games, that would go on to create their own legacies in the years to come, were launched on this day. While one was a game that would go on to change the industry gradually, over the years, the other one - the one in question in this article - was an instant sensation, a global phenomenon that had even the most veteran gamer jaw dropped at the what they were witnessing on the screen. That is if your PC could manage to run it in the first place. <\/p>The games I'm referring to are Crysis, developed by Crytek and published by Electronic Arts, and Assassin's Creed, which also turns 10 years old today, developed and published by Ubisoft and helmed by Jade Raymond. While Assassin's Creed would go on to become a worldwide phenomenon thanks to Ubisoft's flashy trailers and spending excessive amounts of money in marketing their games, turning it into an annual franchise and pushing out books and movies based on it, Crytek showed the world what was possible with a PC powerful enough to run Crysis. Such were the graphics of that game, it brought even the most powerful systems at the time to its knees should the settings be pushed to the max. The question 'Can you run it?', turned from a question to a meme, Crysis was the gold standard, the new sheriff in town that outgunned everyone and everything, and it still holds up to this day. <\/p>While the story of Crytek - and the Crysis franchise itself - ended in tragedy, Crysis left behind a legacy that is still being faithfully upheld today: a lifelong obsession with PC gaming, encouraging enthusiasts such as yours truly to stop slacking off with their PCs and actually learn how to push it to its limits. I obviously cannot speak for everyone as I'm whipping up this article lying on my back in a sofa with questionable cushions and a one-hour deadline, so I'm going to talk about how Crysis left its mark on me and how it changed PC gaming forever, again, for me.  <\/p>"},{"type":"txt","id":"rich_1510569112887","data":"One Small Step For Gaming....<\/p>I started playing video games in 1995-96 when my dad brought home a knock-off Nintendo console that also happened to have Mario on it. One of my earliest memories was playing Super Mario Brothers where Dad would let me play as Mario while he picked Luigi, and all we did was navigate the levels and try to beat Bowser, except I was terrified of the rotating red obstacles because I had convinced myself that I would burn myself in real life if I touched those, and of course I didn't want to see Mario lose. Those were simpler times. <\/p>Of course, I later found out that by the time I had played Super Mario Brothers, the game had been out for 10 years. Graphics in gaming had turned from 2D sprites on the screen to horrendously rendered 3D models in levels designed as if they were made of plastic, but that didn't matter back then because it was progress! So, taking the gap between 1987 to 1997, the graphics had gone from Super Mario Brothers to the first Tomb Raider game. I'll post the images to compare below. <\/p>"},{"type":"img","id":"img-uid-1510570811273","data":"5a097beb7a0b0"},{"type":"txt","id":"rich_1510570820210","data":"Tomb Raider II, 1997 <\/p>(This game is available on iOS and Android now, btw, worth checking out. It's one of my all-time favourites) <\/p>"},{"type":"img","id":"img-uid-1510570815632","data":"5a097c23594e1"},{"type":"txt","id":"rich_1510570813089","data":"While impressive at the time, thanks to the tireless efforts of the incredible developers in the industry that was still considered a waste of time back then, graphics in video games were still seen as 'cartoonish' and thus typecast as childish - gaming remained a niche and underground thing to do, something that was seen as the hobby of folk who were socially inept at doing anything else, which I did turn out to be but that's another story. Being 6 years old exempts you from such silly social constructs, which is how old I was when Dad brought Tomb Raider II from his trip to Dubai. I was hooked, never had a game enthralled me so much and challenged me so much that I had to rely on notebooks to write down solutions and draw maps based on memory alone. It took me 2 years, until 1999, to beat that game, but I digress. <\/p>The decade following 1997 saw rapid advancements in video game graphics, in 2001 with the release of the much celebrated Max Payne from Remedy Entertainment, the magic of video games was reclaimed from The Matrix, wrote reviewers. The game featured bullet time, allowing Max to shoot while time slowed for him, and players could also see each individual bullet fired by both the enemy and Max himself. It was a good time to be a gamer, Max Payne was tough, gritty, groundbreaking and more importantly, fun. <\/p>The art style and visual aesthetics of video games seemed to be going in a singular direction, despite the release of fantastic first-person shooters like Half-Life (on which I've written an entire article which you can read by clicking here) and  F.E.A.R, which is terrifying to play even to this day. F.E.A.R showed that there was a market for a game that could challenge computers graphically and allow for more visual fidelity in video games. <\/p>Despite that, however, nothing had prepared the industry for the shock it was going to receive in 2007. On November 13, 2007, Crysis dropped on PCs, and gamers went nuts trying to run it. To get an idea of how great the leap in the one decade following Tomb Raider 2 was, take a look at the screenshots below. <\/p>"},{"type":"txt","id":"rich_1510571717607","data":"System Shock II (1999)<\/p>"},{"type":"img","id":"img-uid-1510571716226","data":"5a097fa1f3b6c"},{"type":"txt","id":"rich_1510571823633","data":"Max Payne (2001) <\/p>"},{"type":"img","id":"img-uid-1510571713770","data":"5a097fe816b0f"},{"type":"txt","id":"rich_1510571895993","data":"Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) <\/p>"},{"type":"img","id":"img-uid-1510571707429","data":"5a0980b49d702"},{"type":"txt","id":"rich_1510572105011","data":"Hitman: Blood Money (2006) <\/p> <\/p>"},{"type":"img","id":"img-uid-1510572193413","data":"5a09811c6edc4"},{"type":"txt","id":"rich_1510572200054","data":"And then there was Crysis (2007)<\/p> <\/p>"},{"type":"img","id":"img-uid-1510572287645","data":"5a09828b4fe88"},{"type":"img","id":"img-uid-1510572289465","data":"5a09829f0ae89"},{"type":"txt","id":"rich_1510572291383","data":"Notice the difference? The game pushed our PCs to the brink of death and we had to upgrade to play it. For me, it started a lifelong obsession of keeping up with PC hardware, tweaking settings, pulling my PC apart and putting it together, staying abreast of news regarding the latest hardware and making sure I can push my PC to its maximum potential. <\/p>It took me a few years of saving up and upgrading before I could finally play Crysis, it was a game that was built for the computer that did not exist yet, even today, with better-looking games that have been built on Crysis's photorealistic bones, Crysis still puts me in awe of what it achieved in 2007.<\/p>Now, if I had more time, I would have made this an extensive article talking about gameplay elements as well as the graphics and how they're used so effectively, but sadly, time is not on my side today. Just one of those days. <\/p>Maybe I'll do a followup on this one of these days. Stay tuned! <\/p>"}]

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