Seriously, PhysX is amazing. I've only played 2 games that really utilize it so far and those are Mirror's Edge and Cryostasis. I'm only up to the 3rd or so chapter in Mirror's Edge (beat it on 360 but it lacked PhysX) but the scenes I've seen in it so far have been ridiculous. Cloth swaying in the wind and being destroyed by gunfire or fast movement looks insane. The water in the treatment plant falling and splashing everywhere looks orgasmic. Running around in the office building being chased by police shooting at you with glass breaking all around you is ridiculous. All these effects are mostly just after-thoughts to the game though.
Cryostasis, a game which isn't coming out in the US until mid-summer, is SO cool so far. I don't see why it hasn't gotten more coverage from sites because from what I've played so far (only about 45 minutes) has been pretty cool. It reminds me of Condemned in a way, with its creepy atmosphere and first-person fighting. The premise of the game is that you're in a really cold place on some kind of a boat (Antarctica? Alaska? Either it hasn't said yet or I just wasn't paying attention to the subtitles) and your body warmth is your health. You run across heat sources and heat up in front of them to regain your health. The real gimmick of the game comes in the form of reliving the lives of other people. You're able to change what happens to them by doing this. The first time I was allowed to do this was when I found the frozen solid body of a man encased in ice. The reason he died was because the ship I'm in was being flooded and he didn't make it to the top where there was no flooding in time. I relived his life and was able to make it there so his body encased in ice disappeared in the present and I was able to get past where the encased ice used to be.
I'm really digging it so far and the PhysX in the game makes water and flooding look absolutely insane. The only problem is that I noticed my video card was running at 86 degrees Celsius (Mirror's Edge did this same exact thing to my video card because of PhysX) but I can fix the problem by changing my fans. I leave my tower fans at the lowest speed (out of 3 different settings) and my video card stays at 50% fan speed at all times. The other day when I played Mirror's Edge I set my tower fans to the 2nd setting and put my video card at 100% fan speed and my video card only got up to about 60 degrees Celsius. Anyways, if you've got a KICKIN' RAD PC then download Cryostasis and the English interface patches. This game is pretty amazing so far. I'll take some screenshots the next time I play (when I get out of class this evening) and post some more about the actual game itself.
