I want this info for certain reasons. 

Probably not. It looks decent, but I've seen better, especially this year.

It's not as well optimized as it could be, so if you are talking about a test of a computer's power then it isn't perfect. However, I played through most of it recently and the argument can still be made that it is the best looking game currently available.

EDIT: I should mention that I haven't seen BF3 on PC, so that invalidates my opinion somewhat.

It is still one of the best looking games out there. Modded Crysis can look even better. Just look for Crysis TOD art, it is quite impressive.

No

While it looks great (considering its like what 5 years old? man crysis was beyond its time) games like the witcher 2 look considerably better. Battlefield 3 also looks better and has some pretty open environments in its multiplayer so is more comparable.

Also mods don't count !

I think BF3, Crysis 2, The Witcher 2 and Metro 2033 all look better, but Crysis 1 with mods might actually look better still (I haven't tried it out myself). It's more taxing on the system at least.

It's not as well optimized as it could be, so if you are talking about a test of a computer's power than it isn't perfect. However, I played through most of it recently and the argument can still be made that it is the best looking game currently available.

EDIT: I should mention that I haven't seen BF3 on PC, so that invalidates my opinion somewhat.

For a game that was released in 2007, it still looks better than 90% of the games on the market. 

@H2Oyea said:

@nintendoeats said:

It's not as well optimized as it could be, so if you are talking about a test of a computer's power than it isn't perfect. However, I played through most of it recently and the argument can still be made that it is the best looking game currently available.

EDIT: I should mention that I haven't seen BF3 on PC, so that invalidates my opinion somewhat.

Ok, so what would be a good game to test out a PC's power? Right now I think I'll go with Portal 2 since it seems like a fun game and it's pretty cheap even at retail ($30). Is it any good for testing out the PC?

This sort of comes down to what exactly you are testing. If you just want to compare one computer to another then Crysis will do fine. If you want to know "what is this machine capable of?" then what game you go with will depend on what class of machine you are looking at. The Source engine is really efficient, so it will be great for low-end machines but won't tell you much about high-end ones. You might want to look at Farcry 2 or BF3 for those.

@H2Oyea said:

@nintendoeats said:

It's not as well optimized as it could be, so if you are talking about a test of a computer's power than it isn't perfect. However, I played through most of it recently and the argument can still be made that it is the best looking game currently available.

EDIT: I should mention that I haven't seen BF3 on PC, so that invalidates my opinion somewhat.

Ok, so what would be a good game to test out a PC's power? Right now I think I'll go with Portal 2 since it seems like a fun game and it's pretty cheap even at retail ($30). Is it any good for testing out the PC?

Portal 2's graphics aren't very demanding. It's a pretty game, but it's not going to push your system. If that's what you're after, The Witcher 2 is a reaaaal beast of a game to run, especially with the supersampling feature activated. Battlefield 3 is also in the same league, though it won't tax your system as much as it doesn't use that feature.

Battlefield 3, Metro 2033 and The Witcher 2 all look better I think.

The Witcher 2 being my personal pick for the best looking game out there. That game is just beautiful, although Battlefield 3 on the Grand Bazaar map is also stunning on ultra.

When you start seeing HD texture mods for games, you'd know there are PCs out there that could run it better.

Also, try Cryostasis - It's not demanding because the game looks amazing, but more because the game is horribly optimised. Regardless, it's definitely worth playing.

Hard Reset is also another good choice - it even has a benchmark tool included in the game.

Far Cry 2 - Running this on the highest settings requires a fairly high-end system; the game also looks wonderful.

Alice: Madness Returns - Actually a fairly demanding game (mostly due to sloppy optimisation), but, you'll need a good system to turn PhysX up to maximum. It's worth it though, since this is probably the best physX I've seen in any game.

From what I've heard, if you want to use the gold removal filter mod, Deus EX: Human Revolution takes a lot of power to run.

GTA 4: icenhancer - A mod which makes GTA 4 look amazing; I haven't tried it, but I've seen screenshots and it looks incredible.

BF3, Crysis 2 (DX11 patch) and Witcher 2 would probably have to be my picks. Also I imagine one reason why The Witcher 2 is so taxing is because the game is still using DX9. I bet if it used DX11 optimization, it would perform better than it does now.

Out of the three it would probably be between BF3 and Crysis 2 DX11. Crysis 2 with the DX11 patch on the highest settings looks phenomenal while BF3 on max settings can also look spectacular especially on larger maps.

Maximum PC uses Crysis as a PC benchmark, so yeah. However, they also use Quake III, so there's that.

Is this GPU analyzer a viable way of checking whether your video card is ready to handle a game? This could be a better alternative instead of having to buy a game and then find out your PC isn't good enough. 

I would probably say that Crysis 2 with the DX11 and enhanced textures patch, metro 2033 max settings, and The Witcher 2 are the new ways to tell how beast your PC is.

(Mine runs all of those at max with no problem..... just saying.)