Crytek says the most important difference between Far Cry and Crysis had nothing to do with technology: 'In Crysis, we mimicked nature as closely as possible'

Crysis hero Prophet running down a beach while under fire.

Sorry (not sorry) for rolling out this withered, ancient chestnut, but it truly is mind-blowing how good Crysis still looks today. What's even more amazing is just how advanced it looked compared to Crytek's previous game Far Cry, even though the two only released three years apart.

I always figured the difference was due to technological advancements, and certainly, Crytek devised some wild new technical features to make Crysis look as good as it did. From subsurface scattering to make leaves look translucent, to skin-shaders specifically designed to make characters blush if required, there's some amazingly specific tech running beneath Crytek's nanosuit-powered shooter.