You can play Crysis on high and/or very high settings depending on your hardware and what settings you use.
Main things to consider are Resolution and Anti-aliasing. Sadly most "hardcore" computer hardware review sites only test in absolutely ridiculous resolutions such as 1900x1080 with full AA.
To this day, no available machine or collection of hardware can max Crysis at those incredible resolutions with AA. For many, this means Crysis has yet to be "beaten". However, for the sane among us, achieving high or very high settings is easily possible if you go easy with the resolution and the AA.
To be honest, it is very difficult to tell the difference between high and very high settings unless you are looking a side by side screenshot.
However, if you insist on buying crappy, overpriced, prebuilt machines (even the often flaunted XPS series from Dell) then you are just hurting yourself and your chances of getting a decent experience out of the game.