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Although it has been considered as one of the favorites for the "Game of the Year" prize, Crysis didn't exactly bring the first person shooter-revolution everyone had expected. Except for the "in-game visuals" chapter (where it completely "pwnz" any competitor, winning the "Best Graphics" award at this year's Spike TV gala), the game didn't impress at other chapters, many reviewers and hardcore players accusing Cevat Yerli and his cohort of programmers that the gameplay (especially the multi-player) is quite shallow and lame. (I still remember one interview that Gamereactor.com took to Bernd Diemer, Crysis' game designer, during which the latter boasted with the fact that all previews for Crysis include only early levels of the game, because Crytek has developed these outstanding alien enemies which should forever change the way we look at an in-game AI. It turns out that fights against Koreans are much more satisfying and demanding than those against the cold-blooded aliens).

Nomad's nano-suit is apparently less attractive for US gamers than it was a bit more than a month ago, if we are to believe NPD's latest estimates. Since its launch on November 13 and until December 1, Crysis sold only 86,633 copies- a sort of a mini-disaster for Yerli and his brothers. Crytek invested millions of dollars in development, optimization (they've worked hand in hand with Nvidia at the drivers' level, which means the Germans have had access to secret GPU technologies) and in promotion, but the truth is, at least until now, that Crysis hasn't met expectations.

The other high-profile title that didn't live up to the hype is Unreal Tournament III for PC. Launched on November 19, UT III sold only 33,995 copies in the US until December 1. It's true, a period of approximately 11 days is not significantly relevant for a game's sales, especially considering the heavy competition (COD4, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect or Super Mario Galaxy), but hell, we're talking about THE Unreal Tournament, right?

Sure, we can find many culprits for the lack of success of the two titles. In Crysis' case, it's all about the bad education of the public (looking at the water reflections, the explosions or the soft shadows, many gamers have unfortunately deduced that  in order to run the game at a decent frame rate you'd have to give up an arm and a leg, when the truth is you can play it on 2 year old configurations) and the absence of a revolutionary FPS gameplay that should complement the outstanding performances of CryENGINE 2. As for Unreal, critics have lauded the fast-paced action and the good looks of the Unreal Engine 3, but... Call of Duty 4 is better. According to the same NPD estimates, COD4 for Xbox 360 sold more than 1,565,404 copies in the US until December 1, almost double than in Activision's most daring dreams (~840.000 units).