But Can It Run Crysis?

Crysis was released in November 2007 by Crytek and Electronic Arts, and was developed on the (then) latest version of the CryEngine, which also powered Crytek’s first title FarCry. It was amongst the first games to ever utilize Microsoft’s Direct X D3D10 API framework, which was exclusive to the Windows Vista operating system at the time, a feat prided by the Crytek developers, also stating that the game has over 1 million lines of code, uses over 1 GB of texture data, has over 85,000 shaders.
Since it’s release, Crysis has received universal acclaim, hailing it as the first true next-gen experience, with a MetaCritic aggregated score of 91 and multiple game of the year awards.
One of the earliest uses of the phrase comes from the bit-tech.net article on the game, stating that “The question ‘Yeah, but can it play Crysis?’ [has become] a comical catchphrase addition to most graphics card reviews.” The article also questions the necessity of such taxing features on the game at release, and if this was a step in the right direction for gaming.