Just sharing my thoughts (disappointments) on what the average session of Crysis 2 is like for me.

Log into game, re-spend my countless unlock tokens (again) on equipment I unlocked in a previous session. Notice that this unlocks new (old) skill assessments which I was already working on and that they have now been reset (yay more time sinking!). Look at my level and try to remember if it was higher when I logged off last.

Click "Join Game", immediately hit filter and select <200 ms and proceed to wait for 5 minutes while the server list of the entire world is generated and then filtered so that I can select one of the 34 Australian servers to play on. (to get around this I have actually added all the AU servers to my favourites list, I did this as soon as I realised when you query for servers on your favourite list is collects only your favourites and not the ~2000 servers in the world.)

Look at the dozen or so servers at 16/16 and the remainder at 0/16. Hit refresh, 15/16 wooo! Oh wait its new recruits/pro/classic. Refresh. 10 minutes later A server I want to play on has space (no queue ftw! great design!) too bad it feels like me and 20 other people are doing the same thing and it might take me 3 or 4 attempts to join a server (don't comment about joining an empty server and waiting, I've tried and no one joins).

Skip ahead to when I do join a server, finally I might get to play! Nope, sorry about that. 30% of the time you're joining a server in death throws about to crash and it's just going to kick you. (A good sign is if during the load screen you can hear people joining and leaving in quick succession! svckers like you tricked into thinking they too can taste the sweet Crysis nectar!)

Eventually, sometime later (in a galaxy far far away) I do get to join a server and hell I even get to play a few rounds. If i'm lucky I get to play untill i've had enough and decide to move on. Sometimes though the server crashes (I know its the server because friends who join also get kicked) and starts the whole cycle again.


Technical Issues to be looked at:

Server Browser:
- So slow, filter only hides unwanted results rather then you know speeding up the search by eliminating them and just fetching game servers that match your search.

Servers:
- No queue means near infinite waiting times to join games even during peak hours.
- Crashing. Locking up. not starting. Resetting stats. Wonderful.

Game Issues to be looked at:

Why so many game modifiers? New Recruits, Standard, Pro, Classic, Solo? What does Solo even do? Why does New Recruits even exist? No seriously? In a month or so most people won't be able to play on those servers and new people will just join standard servers because they have people on them. Classic? I'll be damned, they made a game mode where you take most of the key features away from players. And Solo, don't get me started on Solo. (Seriously what does Solo do?)

This large number of game modifiers adds more clutter to finding servers to play on. Imagine if Crysis only had 1 game mode, Crash for simplicity. Because of the 5 official game modifiers you have to have at least 5 servers playing Crash to support all the official game modes. Now imagine the reality when you realise Crysis has not one but closer to a dozen game modes. Whats that you want to play Crash? Well there are heaps of Crash(ing) servers! Oh, you want to play Crash Pro? Well there might be one somewhere, with space, maybe. This is probably one case where too many options has killed the number of servers available, and players are joining servers that are hosting game modes they don't like. Imagine wanting to play Standard but only finding Classic or Pro servers with space, no queue means you either sit there spamming refresh or join a server playing a game mode you don't want just because maybe playing is better than looking for somewhere to play. If you are looking for a specific game type with a specific game mode, good luck.

These issues needs more attention if public multiplayer is going to remain alive..

Fantastic post!

You hit the nail on the head. These thoughts mirror mine EXACTLY!

- No server queuing mean you can't join a full server.
- 6 player minimum to start a match means a new server never gets moving.
- WAY WAY WAY too many game permutations. Holy crap. Keep it simple stupid. This makes it almost impossible to actually play a mode that interests me as the servers all have obscure combinations of game type and modifiers.
- Populating a list of games should filter to my region correctly. I put in my region, why gather servers from the entire world?

And now the nail in the coffin. If I actually get into a game... Every, Single, Game, i am booted within 5 minutes to this error.
- "The connection to your opponent has been lost. You have been signed out."

The game and service is nearly there. Just spend some time cleaning it up. Be bold and cut down those game modifiers. Keep it simple and clean and this game 'might' be a hell of a lot of fun.