While Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are hogging the big E3 spotlight, Windows-based PC gaming is not going completely unnoticed. A great case in point: Crysis, a Windows-exclusive shooter that is likely the best-looking game in the entire LA Convention Center.

Crysis, to be published by EA, is currently under production by German developer CryTek, which made a big splash in 2004 with its gorgeous, award winning, South Seas shooter Far Cry (published by Ubisoft). Crysis is as stunning and then some, even at this early stage in the game. Set in a similarly tropical setting in the not-too-distant future, the game allows you to take control of a US Special Forces soldier investigating a sphere that crashed on an island in the South Pacific.

Of course, with typical computer-game flair, this ain't your daddy's basic recon mission. The North Koreans soon show up to check things out as well, and then the big mysterious object itself cracks open and reveals that it is actually--surprise--an alien spacecraft here to conquer the Earth. However, the predictable plot heats up with an icy blast from the alien ship that freezes the entire jungle, so one moment you're fighting in a tropical paradise and the next you're in a replica Antarctica surrounded by palm-tree popsicles.

Both settings look incredible, thanks to the robust CryEngine 2 (a more advanced version of the game code that powered Far Cry). The jungle segments are (thus far) easily the most impressive, however, with a ridiculous amount of detail in the foliage. If not for the bullets flying everywhere, you could swear that you were watching the Discovery channel in high-def.

Too, everything in there can be moved. Or, better yet, destroyed. You can mow down whole sections of the jungle with automatic weapons, or use the leafy fronds of bushes and trees for cover as you creep towards an objective. Both of those options will constantly be on offer. Your soldier will be equipped with a customizable nano-tech suit that allows you to blast or sneak through most levels. Whenever you feel like doling out the ol' ultraviolence, you just turn the suit's armor on. Likewise, whenever you decide that stealth is the better part of valor, you switch the suit into camouflage mode.

Naturally, Crysis gorgeousness will require a pretty high-powered PC to play it. CryTek is developing the game to take full advantage of the as-yet-unreleased DirectX 10 and the next version of the Windows operating system, Vista, while raw horsepower under the hood will be mandatory if you want to run this puppy flat-out and see all the jungle's worth of particle effects as on display at E3.

As for the when of it all, CryTek is invoking the ol' "when it's done" clause while intimating a late winter (07?) release date would be good for everybody.