Crash Bandicoot in CryEngine 2 looks cool. Kinda...

Ever wanted to see Crash Bandicoot rendered in cutting edge CryEngine 2-enabled glory? No? Well, it doesn't matter because it's happened anyway. This is a fan-made reworking of the original Crash Bandicoot, complete with dense foliage, bloom lighting and some rather lovely shadow work - all the traits we've come to expect from this rather wonderful graphics technology. But we can't help but feel that it's lost something along the way...

The original Crash Bandicoot on PSone stands tall as a masterful example of getting the most out of a console in its tricky early days. The quality of the animation, from the Naughty Dog kennel logo at the start to Crash's cheeky eyebrow waggling, is still as good as anything you'll find on Sony's first PlayStation. And it is quite ironic to think that Crash is yet to appear on PlayStation 3 in a new 3D platform game, considering he came from the team that now makes Uncharted.

Above: That's a mighty lush jungle by anyone's standards

The most commendable part of this project is the faithfulness to the original. In fact, some of the scenery looks more like the original game than the original game does... if you follow.

Above:N. Sanitybeach renderedin the CryEngine 2 mod, with the same scene in the real game (inset)

But should a PS3 Crash remake look like this? Yes. The quality of the environments here is excellent and if something of this quality can be achieved with a mere mod, a genuine current gen Crash remake would look magnificent. But it does need to get its soul back. WASD PC controls are making Crash move like... well, the guy in Crysis 2, funnily enough. All the fancy shadows in the world can't hide the fact that this looks like Crysis man in a Bandicoot costume.

20 Apr, 2011