The best game ever...

laik if u crai evri taim ="(((

REVIEW IN A NUTSHELL:

The good:

- It's free.

- It looks great for a free shooter.

- The co-op is quite enjoyable.

The bad:

- Can only be played through a web browser (Chrome and Firefox are the ones that actually work).

- Riddled with lag, bugs and errors.

- Very generic PvP gameplay. Most maps encourage spawn trapping.

- Absurd vendor unlock grind, takes too long to unlock items once you've played for a bit.

- Unbalanced weapons: the best guns are much better than the basic ones.

- Pay 2 win: the best weapons can be bought for cash from random boxes (which is a lottery = scam) and revival coins for co-op can only be bought for cash.

- Does everything to force you to donate: vendor unlock grind, high repair prices, coins for co-op.

- Many countries are blocked by IP.

- Plenty of cheaters already.

Verdict:

- Outclassed by competing titles (such as Planetside 2).

- An obvious cash cow for Crytek.

- Enjoyable for a short while, until you hit a p2w bottleneck.

- The only thing worth spending here is a little time and bandwidth.

Taking the history of Gface and Warface into account, it was little surprise that the first day of the Western Open Beta was riddled with difficulties.

While the massive influx of stress on the servers naturally made them lag even more, some people couldn't even glimpse the game.

The Gface website simply refused to load for many players using Chrome and Firefox - which are in fact the only two browsers which have always properly worked with Crytek's beleagured platform.

But among those who did manage to log in, not everyone was able to actually play.

After waiting some time to download around 2.7 Gb of game files to an unspecified location on their system drive (yes, there's still no option to select an installation path, which is something players have been asking for since the first CBT in January 2013), some players saw only a black screen with a mysterious "cannot connect to server" message.

It turns out Crytek decided to stick to its policy if IP-blocking some countries from the game (the IP block first appeared in the Crytek CBT in August 2013).

While it's understandable that Crytek would block Russian, Chinese, Korean and Brazilian players (who already have their own versions of Warface), there has still been no proper explanation as to why three European countries were blocked as well.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are all members of the European Union, but players from those countries also see a "cannot connect to server" message when they try to play the game.

According to Crytek, gamers from the Baltic EU member countries should instead go play the Russian version.

It seems Crytek still thinks Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are part of the Soviet Union - and that's a true insult to the people and history of those countries.

Crytek's terms of service demand that German history is respected on Gface, but yet Crytek seems to think it's ok to disrespect the history of three European countries.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were annexed and occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, under the terms of a treaty between the USSR and Nazi Germany (the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact).

It seems someone at Crytek HQ skipped history lessons at school.

With just 2 days left until the Warface Open Beta begins in Europe and North America, thousands of players are no doubt hyped about finally getting access to the game, after waiting for several years.

The creation of Warface began all the way back in 2008 at Crytek Seoul, but development was promptly shifted to the company's Kiev studio, which had never even developed a game before.

Warface was first launched in China and in Russia in early 2012.

The Russian version is by far the most popular, as it has been in Open Beta since April 2012 and has never been region-locked. Millions of players from all over the world have had a chance to try the game since then.

The Russian version has been so popular because it runs on stable servers and through an optimised client. The system requirements are pretty low, meaning you don't need a high-end rig to enjoy the game.

And while Russia, China, Korea and Brazil enjoyed their versions of Warface, the Western gaming community sat around asking the obvious question: what's taking Crytek so long to release an English version?

Well, that's where things got a bit complicated.

In February 2012, Crytek started the Closed Beta face of Gface - its innovative social network /slash/ gaming platform. Some pretty big promises were made, including cross-platform gaming and extensive cloud services.

But there were no games on Gface for many months. It was only in January 2013 that Warface was finally brought online there, with Trion Worlds responsible for the publishing efforts.

But Crytek did not take the simple road of making a convenient client for the game (like they did with other versions). Instead, the Gface version of Warface launches and runs only through a browser - Chrome or Firefox being the ones that actually work. Closed Beta testers begged for a client, but Crytek stood firm on its decision to stick to a browser platform.

But with no in-game chat besides the Gface chat function, plenty of problems crept up. Gface chat began to break down on a daily basis, meaning players had no way to communicate before starting a match. The performance of the Gface version was also a letdown hardware-wise, as the game ran less smoothly than the client-based Russian version.

After several months of questionable performance, Trion Worlds and Crytek announced they were taking the game offline for "an extended period", to prepare it for Open Beta.

That was back in April 2013. What followed was several months of waiting, without a single explanation or announcement from Crytek or Trion. Towards the end of the Summer, Warface mysteriously vanished from Trion's website. And still, nothing was explained.

It was only thanks to media leaks, that players discovered Crytek itself had assumed full control over Warface, and was preparing to self-publish the game on Gface. A second Closed Beta began in August, as players were given access to the game for several hours a week, and then waited for days while Crytek made tweaks to its new servers.

Performance was choppy, in fact it was even worse than the Trion version, but most players had faith in Crytek and held out with patience, helping find bugs and submitting bug reports.

After a couple months, there was seemingly little improvement. Players ran into old game bugs, which had been patched up in the Russian version of Warface many months before. The Gface platform itself also remained bugged, as game chat would still break down for players on a daily basis. Some players were still being kicked by the anti-cheat mechanism while they were simply trying to record a gameplay. Frequent server disconnects also plagued Crytek's Closed Beta.

Players expected the CBT to last for several more months, which would presumably allow Crytek to polish its servers, the platform and the game.

But to everyone's amazement, Crytek announced it was preparing to go into Open Beta in October.

The game shop was brought online, allowing Closed Beta players to start spending real money on the game.

But none of the old problems had been solved. Performance was still choppy, PvP was laggy for most players, and the Gface bugs would constantly get in the way of a smooth gaming experience.

And now, with just 2 days left until Open Beta, many players who've already tried the game are less than optimistic.

Warface has been in Open Beta in Russia for 1.5 years, meaning Crytek has had plenty of time to polish the game and learn from any mistakes it has made.

The result of their work with Gface and Warface will soon become available to the massive Western audience, which is less than forgiving.