I find it amusing when hype surrounding a game focuses solely on aspects other than how the game actually plays. For far too long, the only thing we in the media heard regarding was how it would make all of our computers fall to their knees begging for mercy, only to then deliver none.

Crysis gives you all of these toys and ratchets the action higher and higher the deeper you get into it. The first level of the game introduces you to the sandbox combat and the nanosuit. From then on, the battles become larger and more intense as the action escalates.

Dynamic; emergent shooter gameplay; Unparalleled visuals with destructible environments; High level of replayability; Power struggle makes for huge multiplayer battles; An amazing accomplishment overall

The single-player story ends; Will laugh at every CPU and GPU thrown at it; No team deathmatch

It was about two hours into Crysis when I began to realise just how good it might be. The first couple of hours had been fairly unremarkable - there were some predictable first-person cut-scenes, a linear intro level, some spooky goings-on, US military deployment, you know the sort of thing.

Experienced gamers are liable to acknowledge this as one of the top action games this year and that's okay with us. Everything that made Far Cry good was successfully taken to the next level in Crysis (with the possible exception of the AI).

A visual and audio treat; weapons and the nanosuit allow for a truly great variety of tactical possibilities in combat; compelling atmosphere; high replayability; solid multiplayer

Unresolved AI issues; it will beat any PC to its knees; abrupt ending may disappoint gamers

Best….game…ever! Crytek pays attention. Far Cry came out four years ago now and was heralded as a classic first person game. Graphically it can still challenge many of the games out today. It's gameplay was sublime. But it certainly wasn't perfect, especially towards the end.

Best Graphics, gameplay & Audio ever seen; Only available on pc (pc gamers all switch to smug mode

You need a top of the range rig to get the best outta this beast

This is a superb shooter, with a fantastic engine powering some immediate and sci-fi worthy story. It's one to save up for.

Quite apart from being the long-awaited sequel to Far Cry, Crysis is also the poster child for DirectX 10: it's the first game to appear that's been designed from scratch with DirectX 10, and it looks simply amazing. But before we start eulogising about the graphics, let's talk plot.

Love them or hate them, First Person Shooters (FPS) have been pushing gaming technology to the limit of realism at the cost of our bank accounts. More powerful hardware is needed, new powerful gaming engines are developed and of course the gamers need to push his or her computer to the extreme to...

The plot is rather strange In Crysis, you take control of a US Special Forces elite member that's equipped with a high-tech nanosuit in a search and rescue operation in the Philippines.

Stunning graphics even on low settings; weapon and nanosuit customization; some very nice vehicles; intriguing gameplay

Steep hardware requirements; somewhat limited arsenal

great...