Just in case you haven't seen this:

http://www.thenevermind.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1003

That's OK. I've got past that part now, but have come across 2 since then, and I'm really, really stuck on this third one that I have encountered. I have already loaded up very early saves, but they haven't worked.

Well I think I shall definitely be waiting for a patch before I get it. Apparently Wigo has completed it and enjoyed it a lot, apart from the bugs.

Relic is the buggiest mission by far... I still can't get past it - the mission objectives are all screwed around.

What happens with this mission?

I'm thinking of buying it soon, a patch is around the corner and the special edition is only £35.

I completed the game, finally, in Delta mode. It was difficult because of all the bugs.

Heh, the bugs suck. I think I'll get it around XMas time, when a couple of patches have been released, improving performance and reliability issues.

Played it at Wigo's was alright, but slightly buggy and I didn't like a couple of things about the play.

Necro time!

Finally got round to finishing Crysis and I must agree with pretty much every review. First ~60% of the levels (thankfully, higher percent by time) were excellent, nice open levels to allow you to choose how to play but the alien levels... urghh "go here, shoot this, don't go any other way cos they don't exist now". As for the last level, that was possibly the worst FPS level I've played in ages, not helped by the fact that it was impossible to get a playable framerate even with EVERYTHING on low (still at 1920x1200 though), which looks aweful (like a game from the early 00s). Whoever made that level must have done a really bad job, cos I had previously been running it with the odd stutter using CCC mod on level 5 (which makes it look absolutely amazing, BTW).

So yeah, an excellent start ruined by the end levels and the bugs (I had to enable devmode just to finish the Relic mission - 2 checkpoints refused to trigger on that level, as I think I said in another thread).

Might give Warhead a go next, bought it in a fairly recent Steam sale.

I had this happen so much.

I think I know the major thing that went wrong with the alien levels - they were all gimmick based (which often leads to linearity):
Zero-G
Escort mission
Area defense
Vehicle gunner
Turret usage
Flying
Crazy boss battle thing

There's a few other points I thought of aswell, mostly criticism (because there's not much else to say positive other than the first levels and graphics were amazing - don't get me wrong, I thought the game was brilliant).

The aliens were just broken as an enemy - no weakpoints, they flew and seemed to have much greater awareness than the Koreans. If forced you to play the last levels as a run and gun, contrary to what all the first levels were. Add the ones which loved to melee just being annoying (and very hard to hit, especially with the lag on the last level) and they felt completely out of place.

There was not enough ammo in the last level/boss fight area (I ended with 1 minigun bullet, 2 gauss ammo and about 40 pistol ammo).

A lot of the guns were lacking:
SCAR - not enough ammo, abandoned at the beginning and never returned to, maybe during the alien missions.
The sniper was mostly pointless without the ability to suppress it, made you really obvious when used and by the time a high powered range weapon was really needed (nanosuits) you had the gauss rifle.
Minigun was actually pretty pathetic.
As was the alien weapon - especially as it was basically the only weapon option for the mission you got it in due to ammo problems.
SMG seemed pretty pointless next to the assault rifles.

The weapon attachments (grenade launcher and tranquiliser) ended up being pretty pointless as switching to them was a hassle - they needed a dedicated key, especially the grenade launcher, which is something to use in a firefight. The tranquiliser actually seemed pretty pointless anyway - a silenced headshot did the same job but better.

The suit modes were a bit unbalanced:
Speed mode didn't last long enough, I felt that one of it's jobs was to get between cover safely, but it got you about as far as the cloak did but with less safety. I did find it good for the occasional run and gun with a shotgun, but there were usually too many enemies for that.
Strength mode also felt a tad pointless - I only used it for jumps and steadying shots (and punching doors on the last level).
Interestingly it sounds like these have been fixed in Crysis 2, with speed and strength mode being integrated into armour mode and activated when needed.

Anyway, I think that's enough bitching for now.

That level where you approach the crash site and it begins to tower above you gives you that sort of overwhelming feeling, like a reverse vertigo of sorts. I really liked that stage. I agree with pretty much everything you said above.

The one just before it goes all alieny on you? Yeah, I agree, it was really well done and I felt it was ramping up nicely, then BAM it turns into every other meh shooter ever, just prettier.

*CLOAK, ENGAGED*
*CLOAK, DISENGAGED*

I've got to mod those sounds for Spy in TF2 :3

Activate ubercharge - MAXIMUM ARMOUR.
Bonk juice - MAXIMUM SPEED.
Bring out fists or maybe activate kritz - MAXIMUM STRENGTH (not a very good fit for this one).

Actually, I didn't really get the sounds - they were a bit overblown (slight immersion breaker).

I really liked the inside of the alien spaceship, I thought that was very well done as well.

In general though, I enjoyed the game. Hell, am I the only one who liked the aliens?

I enjoyed the game, and felt the aliens were okay, they just seemed completely out of place with the rest of the game. I was really enjoying the openish world tactical shooter and it turned into a run and gun. I just didn't like anything about the aliens - the way they fought, their weapons, their flying in random directions.

I found the game very tedious personally xD (no flame just my opinion)

I actually found the same the first time I went to play it, but enjoyed it a lot more when I went back. One of the nice things about it is that you can choose the way you play it, though it definitely favours the slow cloak/sniper approach, which can be quite tedious (atleast not hugely exciting). Might be worth another shot if you haven't played it for a while.

Just finished Warhead now. I was disappointed that there was only 1.5 missions of the open world style of the start of Crysis 1, but the more linear aspects were much better done in this game. There were also a lot more Koreans all the way through (include basic soldiers, which were. I ended up playing it more as a run and gun/hide type game, which was actually enjoyable in this game.

Other thoughts (warning - spoilers for both Warhead and Crysis):
It was quite short.
The last boss was a joke.
The story was really sucky (especially having played Crysis - it takes place between the mission before the tanks and the final level and revolves entirely around that alien you see on the aircraft carrier at the end of the original game, which gets destroyed very shortly after, makes the story feel rather hollow).
Where was the awesome gun in Crysis? That gun you get in the last mission would have made an excellent addition to the last level (and would fit story wise), even if it was Psycho using it.
The amount of nanosuits in this game took me off guard. There were far more Korean nanosuits than in the original and there was also an entire other squad of US nanosuits at one point (and they talked about what I must assume were another squad). Kinda ruined the elite super soldier feel, though I guess it was necessary with all the ice based levels.
Sometimes level direction was really off - I kept getting lost because the way forward wasn't particularly obvious or seemed like it shouldn't be the way.
The cutscenes were quite nice, definitely helped give Warhead a separate feel to Crysis (it was clearly meant to be a more action-orientated game).
The time you got captured (yes, they like using that one) actually made sense this time - you got knocked out by a close EMP or something blast from the captured alien rather than just been snuck up on by the kind of people you'd been dominating for ages.

So yeah, pretty decent game, more actiony than the earlier levels of Crysis and better done than the later levels, though I would have loved to see more open world sneaky stuff again.