To tell you the truth, the first game I personally bought was Quake3 (Q3 Gold).
That game, still remains my most fav/most played game... ever.
Even after all these years, the game offers tremendous replay value and fun. Sure the graphics are quite old, but they don't look ugly.
The only game that made big impact on me after Q3, has to be Gears of War. Awesome gameplay, great graphic and engaging fights. (I played the game start to end about 11 times by now, just for the kick of shooting those damn locusts).
Now, I haven't played Crysis... but if it's anything like Far Cry in terms of gameplay then I'm sure it will be a short term novelty. Far Cry was great looking game, no doubt about it. But it lost me after mid-game. After those stupid monsters were unleashed in game the gameplay was shot to hell.
I think the visual aspect of the game shouldn't be as important as gameplay part. Gameplay, then visuals and then rest of the gimmickry like physics etc. should be the priority order. Just my two cents.