I almost feel like, if Crysis 2 is suppose to be bringing PC to consoles and with no compromises, than give us the option to toggles graphics and settings for ourselves. It's clear (at least in the state of this demo) that they're throwing too much at both the 360 and PS3; maybe it's not optimized enough, and maybe they're just trying to do too much, but the users shouldn't have to suffer for their ambition.
Uniquely to Crysis 2 there are a number of features that are bleeding edge stuff and probably the main culprits (although I still maintain that every compromise they've made has ended up worse due to their own decisions with choosing what AA to go with, and the settings of their lighting, so forth).
Give us the OPTION to toggle on or off the following:
Global Illumination (replace with simpler lighting)
Per Object motion blur (replace with general motion blur)
HDR (well this wouldn't really cause problems)
Bokeh DOF (replace with less expensive variant)
The thing that annoys me (relatively) about Crytek is how they talk like they think their shit doesn't stink. They're always claiming this or that about cutting edge performance and credit where it's due they have a great engine for high spec machines, but they go in all cock sure about how they're going to bring CryEngine 3 to consoles and it will revolutionize the console market, and this is what they end up with to showcase their engine?
I'm sure Unreal Engine 3 could implement the same effects with similarly disastrous results, but the thing that really gets me is that the game they're using to showcase CryEngine 3 on consoles has made decisions that only make any technical compromises they've had to make even worse.
They talked about how they discovered a secret way of doing 3D that has no performance impact, and then call out other devs. Except the method of doing 3D on consoles is nothing but a 2D pop out show that has been known about for years.
All they said that they were going to push graphics on consoles far beyond what they currently are at, yet there are better looking shooters on the 360 and PS3 that are Multiplatform at that.
I think Mark Rein said it right when he talked about how the Crytek guys had yet to ship a game on consoles using CryEngine 3, and that speaks for itself and to wait and see.
Given that MLB has had realtime GI running at 720P and 60FPS since like 09, I'm not even convinced that Cryteks implementation of the various techs in Crysis 2 are necessarily the paragon of efficiency (even the up-scaling in this demo is average).