Video games are an expensive hobby — for PC gamers, it’s even more so. When you adjust for inflation, it’s plain to see that the price of consoles have come down quite a bit. In 1977, an Atari 2600 cost $199 — that kind of scratch would almost net you a Wii, these days. For a few dollars more, you could own a new Xbox 360 Arcade at only $279. In the PC gaming world, however, this kind of cash would just about cover the cost of a decent video card — and that’s just one component. You still need some RAM, a case with good air flow, a capable motherboard, and a CPU — none of this is cheap. If you already have most of the components you’ll need to build a new system, you can usually save yourself a few hundred bucks, but for the modern-PC gamer who’s just starting out, you’re looking to spend over $1000, easily. Oh, and don’t forget the monitor!

Now, generally, you can go for cheaper components and only buy parts that support the exact features you need, but you usually get what you pay for. Tech savvy gamers know how to squeeze a little more bang out of their bucks, but the cheaper you go, the more you’ll pay later when that rig is out of date and the games you want to play require faster components with better features. While consoles have an average life-span of about 5 years, PC gamers have to constantly keep on their toes if they want the latest, fastest hardware because the cycle of obsolescence comes round almost yearly. The reward for staying ahead of the curve, however, is usually paid off with stunning graphics and features that won’t be available on consoles for at least a few years. Internet multi-player? Online community leader boards? Voice chat? All of these were standard features in most PC games years ago… Even something as simple as downloading a demo version of an upcoming game was something most console gamers could only dream about. And as far as visuals go, it’s hard to argue with a game like “Crysis”.

“Crysis”, being developed by Crytek and set for release in the not too distant future, is certainly pushing the edge in graphics. When stacked next to photos of actual locations, gamers found it hard to tell the difference between in-game screen shots and photos taken of existing locations in the real world. Even when watching demos of the game being played, it was hard not to be impressed. Small glitches popped up here and there, but for the most part, it was a visual treat to behold. But with all the special effects like motion blur, depth-of-field, and physical objects being blown apart, is there any meat to “Crysis’” bones? When it comes to game-play, I’m excited to say that the answer is “Yes!”

Watching an EA representative play the game at the Digital Life conference recently held in New York, we watched as he ran through a number of scenarios — playing the same scene a few different ways and showing off all the neat things you can do. Thanks to the power of a nanosuit, your in-game avatar has the ability to go invisible, sneak up on the enemy, grab him by the throat, and toss him in the air. We were shocked and amazed at just how much fun it looked as the gun tilted upward and began shooting the victim in midair. He demonstrated some of the physics and destruction models in the game by cutting a tree down with rifle fire, and then shot an explosive barrel set inside a storage shed, which brought the whole thing to the ground. Then, turning around, the EA representative asked us, “How far do you think that mountain is from here?” as he pointed at a mountain on the screen. After switching his weapon to the rocket launcher, he took aim and fired. Moments later, an explosion could be seen at the peak of the mountain which seemed to be miles away. We watched on as the representative dispatched the remaining enemies and then turned the controls over to a waiting gamer in the audience. The collective opinion seemed to be very positive, and I don’t think anyone there wasn’t impressed. Of course, there is a catch: all this power comes at a high cost.

When Crytek released the system requirements for “Crysis”, the public was not amused. Some, myself included, actually believed the specifications would be much higher. As it turns out, my current system meets and exceeds most of the requirements while falling short of the suggested requirements. When I built my current PC earlier this year, I had the foresight to buy a motherboard that would not only support the current crop of Pentium 4s, but would also accept any future Core 2 Duo chip that I would purchase in the next year or so, when the price of these chips come down a bit. Aside from that, there is the issue of my DirectX 9 video card which simply will not do for the DirectX 10 effects — the motion-blur and destructive environment effects, specifically. I can still play the game in DirectX 9, I just won’t be able to take advantage of the extra features provided by DirectX 10. That’s OK, though; I’d still need to upgrade to Windows Vista to take advantage of DirectX 10 in the first place and I’m in no hurry to do that. Where that leaves me is with just enough horsepower to play the game but not enjoy the full range of its graphical capabilities. The good news is — and this is something that seems to be lost on most of the people who balked at “Crysis’” high requirements — that the CryENGINE 2 was designed to be playable on PCs that are approximately 2 years old while being advanced enough to still look good on PCs 2 years from now. In fact, most PCs won’t be able to max the settings in “Crysis” for a good while yet. What that means is, by the time I’m ready to upgrade to a Core 2 Duo, Vista, and a better video card, the game will still look just as good as any game yet to be released. Until then, I can scale the game down simply by turning off certain effects and lowering the resolution until I get an acceptable frame-rate. Of course, this is true in theory; I won’t know, definitively, how well the game runs until it actually comes out. Until then, we can only take the word of Crytek CEO and President, Cevat Yerli, that the game will scale down and be playable — albeit, the game won’t be much to look at, but I’ve certainly seen worse and it still promises to be a lot of fun.

The bottom line is “Crysis” does have some high requirements, but as a PC gamer, it’s nothing I haven’t encountered before, and there are plenty of early adopters with high-end machines who also expected the requirements to be much higher than they are. But even for those gamers who don’t have über-systems and can’t understand how Crytek hopes to recoup the cost of a game so few can play — and therefore, won’t buy — welcome to PC gaming. In this world, it’s all about niche. Here, the hardcore are certainly the minority, but they are the ones who are driving this mad, graphical arms race. For those of us who still remember the day iD Software announced that “Quake 3: Arena” would REQUIRE a 3D accelerator card, “Crysis” is just one more game in a long line of games that had us running to the nearest PC store for new hardware. As much as we liked to complain, it was simply a sign of the times. Adapt, or die.

Crysis system requirements as listed on Joystiq:

Minimum System Requirements

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

Recommended System Requirements

* OS: Windows XP / Vista
* Processor: Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
* Memory: 2.0 GB RAM
* GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS/640 or similar

Supported Processors: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista) or faster, Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista) or faster, AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or faster.

Supported chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT or greater; ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Radeon X800 Pro for Vista) or greater. Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported. Integrated chipsets are not supported. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required.