CES impressions: Crysis, Hellgate London,Halo 2 PC

Gamespot has CES impressions of, among other games, Crysis, Hellgate London, World in Conflict, Halo 2 Vista PC and Age of Conan.

IGN has CES impressions of Hellgate London, Age of Conan, The Darkness, and Shadowrun.

Crysis: Throughout the entire demo all the graphical features of Crysis dazzled us. The use of motion blur and depth of field made any kind of sudden motion seem more realistic. Trying to use the iron sights of a weapon is also cool, as sun glints on the metal and the depth of field blurs objects that aren't in focus. The high dynamic range lighting and extensive shadowing made the level feel sun-drenched. In terms of sheer fidelity, the DirectX 10 version was noticeably better than the DirectX 9 version of the game that we've seen on previous occasions. Both versions look amazing, but DirectX 10 simply looks better.

Hellgate London: Roper walked us through character creation. You can create a male or female character with an extensive amount of customization options, ranging from body features to build and height. Then he showed off the opening levels, including a beginning quest to recover the prosthetic leg for a poor little boy. The only problem is that the leg is the possession of a giant demon. You'll have to venture to the surface and battle hordes of demons to recover it, and that gave Roper a chance to show off the randomly-generated levels, so each game of Hellgate: London won't play the same way twice.

World in Conflict: The demo at the show focused on the same battle between US and Soviet forces for an American town located in the midst of a wooded wilderness. Again, we were captivated as we saw huge lumbering aircraft transports swoop down low to deliver reinforcements to the battlefield, and the demo showed Soviet forces moving en masses to capture the various strategic points in town. Soviet helicopter gunships swooped low over the town, only to be shot down by surface-to-air missiles. Then American infantry came into view, and the demonstrator showed off some of the tactical support options that you can call into the battlefield. In this case, a napalm strike to wipe out the troops on the ground.

Halo 2 Vista PC: In terms of geometry, the Windows version of the level looked identical to the Xbox version, but there are a number of graphical improvements in the PC version. For one, the game can run at a much higher resolution than it can on the Xbox. That coupled with the higher-resolution textures make for a cleaner and crisper look to the entire game. Character models also looked a lot better, as you can discern a lot more detail on the standard Master Chief character model.

Age of Conan: According to Funcom's Jorgen Theraldson, the development team spent most of the holidays working hard to get DirectX 10 support into the game in time for CES. The results have paid off. Age of Conan is one of two games on the show floor using DirectX 10 (Crysis from EA and Crytek being the other). The DirectX 10 version looks better than the impressive DirectX 9 version of the game. There's more foliage than in the DirectX 9 version, as well as better lighting and shadowing and better-looking characters. Funcom showed off the visuals using a looping in-game cutscene, and we got to see some incredible reflections on water surfaces when the camera flew through a port town.

The Darkness: The physics engine, which is a little more extensive than that of Half-Life 2 and others, is put to work using the tentacle arm. By targeting major environmental objects, you can grasp them and carry them around. This becomes particularly handy when you're low on ammunition for your dual-wield pistols or if you're just keen for a spot of gratuitous mayhem. For instance, it's possible to uproot cars and use them to deflect bullets or as a battering ram to bash down gates and obstacles. If you're feeling particularly bloodthirsty, you can go so far as to grab a human grunt and flick him repeatedly into walls or other enemies. You can also fire any guns you happen to be holding at the time using the right and left triggers, opening up the possibility of a combination of blunt force and projectile damage. Hot. This early into the game, we're positive that there will be a great deal more to the physics than simple object manipulation. As it stands, we're eager to see some of the puzzles the team at Starbreeze come up with.