Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The line is a joke about hardware: whatever shiny machine you are showing off, can it handle the game that once brought every graphics card to its knees? It outlived the game's own difficulty and became a snowclone, with 'Crysis' swapped for whatever title is currently the hardest to run. It also works as a gentle tease aimed at anyone bragging about their rig.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for CrysisShow the scene
Crytek's first-person shooter Crysis, published by Electronic Arts, arrived on Windows PC on 13 November 2007 as a showpiece for the new CryEngine and one of the first games built around DirectX 10, which needed Windows Vista. Its graphics were so demanding that even high-end rigs struggled at top settings. Hardware reviewers and forum posters began asking, of almost any new gadget, whether it could run Crysis. The question never comes from a character or a scene; it is a PC-gaming catchphrase, and Crytek later even made it an achievement in Crysis 2.
Sources (2)
- Wikipedia: Crysis (video game)Infobox release dates; lead paragraphReference checked
- Know Your Meme: But Can It Run Crysis?Origin and Spread sectionsReference checked
Context reviewed