360: Crackdown

[Kernel Error]

Crackdown demo came out today!!! long DL 1.45 GB

[GorroXXII]

looks interesting...

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/c/crackdown/

[wihadmin]

I'll be DL'ing thsi demo as well.

[Multiplex]

Looks like GTA meets unreal tournament?

[wihadmin]

Some more info here

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2006/1221-crackdownoncrimethisfebruary.htm

Wonder if there's multiplayer vs mode in the demo.

Edit: Looks like the game only have 2-player co-op mode. No vs mode. I think it'll be kinda like GoW co-op where you can just jump in the single player story line and make it co-op. But that's about it for the multiplayer aspect of this game.

[Knottwobad]

I downloaded it tried it and deleted it. The graphics are awful is the first thing I noticed and as far as the gameplay goes just another low grade arcade type shooter. I prefer a need for at least some amount of tactics. Lame in my eyes.

[wihadmin]

the graphics are cel-shaded. That's a like or hated graphical style.

The game play looks like Hulk Ultimate Destruction. Kill kill kill. It's basically a shooter in 3D world.

[Father Goose]

My quickie review:

The good: I actually enjoyed the cel-shaded graphics. I like the physics of the huge jumps and the super speed running. I enjoyed picking up dead bodies and clobbering other gang members with them. Unlike Saints' Row I actually recognize some of the bands in this game. When you get your guy all pumped up (I know it takes way longer in the real game) you can do some sweet stuff- jumping over a building while blasting the crap out of guys is pretty funny. Makes you feel like you're in John Woo meets Batman meets Hulk. For me this is a good, but if you like games more realistic, you'll hate it.

The bad: The targeting system sucks ass. Period. Two gang members come up in a car. When they get out of the car and you try to target, you lock on to whatever is nearest your reticule- in this case, oftentimes the CAR. WTF? This also results in it locking on to bad guys who are impossibly far away while a guy in the foreground is pumping you full of lead. Lastly, it does NOT unlock when you kill a bad guy- often a bad guy will go down, and you'll release and depress the trigger, only to have it lock onto the bad guy's corpse while his buddy 5 feet away is shooting at you. Real useful, thank you.

The confusing: Is the game going to be this franticly paced in the real thing? They call it a sandbox game, but geez, it's a sandbox filled with scorpions. You only get a few seconds of break in between gang members arriving to shoot at you. Maybe in the real game, busting up gang strongholds and stuff will slow down the flood of criminals, allowing you to spend more time exploring areas you've liberated.

Overall I enjoy it a lot. It doesn't have a GTA feel at all to me, because of that pacing. My wife won't mind it like she does GTA, because I'm killing bad guys in this one. I already traded in some dead weight games to put down towards this game, so I feel good about my purchase.

I just hope the Halo 3 beta thing comes on a separate disc because I couldn't care less about Halo 3's multiplayer. :)

[Knottwobad]

The whole thing felt a little to cartoonish to me and reality is somewhat of a factor but I also found the targeting system frustrating as hell.

[FiLTHY_SNiPER]

I was going to ask how this game plays, but you guys pretty much summed it up.
I can't stand games that have frustrating targeting systems (ie. Scarface).

[wihadmin]

I also noticed that it was targeting the car instead of the homies. Given a choice between this and Hulk ultimate destruction, I'll take Hulk.

[Father Goose]

I will buy it. For a couple reasons.

1- I don't buy the Grand Theft Auto games, or any similar games. This is because of an agreement with my wife. I won't get preachy or anything like that but we agreed not to get any games that essentially reward you for high levels of violence towards innocents or cops. Yes, I have some Saints Row achievements. Nobody said I couldn't play at Mother Goose's house. But we didn't want to reward the developers with money for something like that.

So pretty much, I don't get ANY sandbox games. All of them except for True Crime seem aimed in the same direction as GTA. And while the first True Crime was okay, the sequel was so poorly reviewed I never even looked at it.

So I want a sandbox, and this is a huge sandbox.

2- I like the system of pumping your guy up and ending up with some hulked out super cop.

3- While the targeting system may result in a broken controller, I still find jumping OVER a building and gunning down a drug dealer in mid air pretty fun.

[Drayu]

HATED the controls! promptly deleted it.

[wihadmin]

I didn't mind the controls. I don't like the gameplay though. It's endless shooting at bad guys. I swear the cops shoot at me too for some reason. Plus the bad guys respawn at the same location if you go too far away from that location and then come back. I found it mildly amusing to just go around the city to collect the orbs instead of killing the bad guys. I am glad there's a demo to try out. I think the majority of the people who'll pick up this game will be the die-hard Halo fans looking for the beta key.

[Knottwobad]

I will take Rainbow 6 over this game any day.

[Father Goose]

I will take Rainbow 6 over this game any day.

No duh. :)

But they're entirely different games. This satisfies my need for just blowing the s*&# out of everything.

If you listen to the voice-over dude, it sounds like in the real game accomplishing missions will affect the city, and therefore some things like the pacing. If you kill that chick, it should slow down the arrival of new recruits. Kill the weightlifter guy and Los Muertos gang members will not be as powerful in their melee attacks. I don't know if the demo actually shows this stuff but I hope the real game does.

In any case, R6 is still a far better overall game, except for the ending ;) I'll buy Crackdown and enjoy it for what it is.

[Knottwobad]

I liked Just Cause better for the sandbox slaughter better.

[Father Goose]

The full game is out. I love it. The haterz can take a flying leap over the moon :)

The targeting system does and always will blow ass. But who the hell needs it? I can KICK A SEMI TRUCK OVER.

I have already beaten the first gang. They were pretty much pushovers, and the next gang is much harder. Also, I played hours and hours of the demo so that helped me beat the first gang too.

So far there is a great balance between invincibility and vulnerability. I feel like I'm in the Matrix, but even so, piss off a gang enough and things will get harder.

The only thing I don't like is that there isn't an endless sandbox like in GTA. Once you kill off a gang, that's IT. You can still roam around, do the races, build up your agility and whatnot...but there aren't any more gang members in that area. While the citizens probably like it, it means I don't get to kick as many people off roofs.

[Kernel Error]

Yeah im enjoying it too, i finished the first gang and have just started the second. If you feel like stering it up in the areas that youve already beaten you could alway go nuts and kill the citizens then the police will come after you :D.

I had a lot of fun too just standing in the middle of the highway and shooting ppls tires as they passed. There are some fun physics involved and for what ever reason it doesnt flag you as hostile to cops. then get enough cars together and put a few remote bombs and BAMMMMM!!!!! :D :D

I'm likeing this game..... FG if you want to try some Co-op tonight ill be on aroundj 7:30 central. Or anyone else for that matter :D

[Crotch-Rot]

Did you guys see this free download?

http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2007/02/19/crackdown-four-new-agents-free.aspx

[Kernel Error]

Thanks Crotch

yeah i got that.... it said there were dls available when i started the game

[Father Goose]

My favorite- block the highway and watch the high speed cars wreck!

All it's missing is the voice: "SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!! Watch cars CRASH into each other at INSANE SPEEDS!!!"

Ah, good times.

[Father Goose]

Well, I beat the game tonight. It wasn't hard. It was only on "Tough", but I really don't care.

This game was super duper fun. No, it isn't GTA. It doesn't have side stories, weird missions, or any of that stuff. It is straight forward through and through. Kill....every....bad....guy....

When you are done beating all the bosses, I was very worried- After you have "cleansed" a gang, they all disappear. So what fun would I have running around in some bizarre utopia? Sure, shooting out tires and blocking the highway with propane tanks is funny, but I wanna max out all my attributes!

No problem! When you beat the game, you can continue to play with "Crimes On" or "Off" so that you can either wreak havoc in relative peace or continue to fight criminals to make your guy even CRAZIER.

The positives:

Total freedom. Once you get used to the controls, you feel pretty much like the Incredible Hulk with a rocket launcher. There are worse feelings in this world ;)
The physics. One reviewer said the Havok physics engine made the game look sillier than it is. Hmm. Well, when I super-kick a bad guy off a roof and into traffic, I like the "silly" rag-doll flopping. Seriously, if you're not giggling when you kick a guy so hard it's like he hit warp factor 9, you are probably too busy playing an RPG to notice Crackdown anyway.
The gangs. Other than Los Muertos, they didn't have to resort to the typical criminals. The Shai Gen, for example, are a trully bizarre mix of hillbillies, hippies, yuppies, etc. Just listen to the weird crap they spout.
The length of the game. By the time you hit endgame, you'll be at max skills in your personal favorite areas, but you'll still have a long ways to go, if you want to. The GTA games never kept my interest for long because the main story was always too long considering the mischief I could get into in the city. Once I'd "unlocked" the whole city (not a problem in Crackdown) I usually would just stop playing the story mode anyway.My big negatives now that I've beaten it:

Game is super buggy. Sound will freeze, bad guys will spawn and UNspawn sometimes, other bizarre audio visual glitches.
Driving is super ghetto. All that stuff they showed about cars guns and stuff? Who needs it? Once your agility is at 3-4 stars, you can get anywhere pretty much as fast or faster than a car anyway. I will keep playing and try to get 4 stars in driving JUST for the achievements, but mostly it's lame as hell.
The music- some of it is cool, a LOT of it is pretty boring. But how the hell would I even know? You can't hear it unless you're in a car, so it takes an audio back seat to the sound of gang members threatening to sexually assault me. This sucks because some of the tracks, especially the Spanish-language rap tracks, actually are cool.

[GorroXXII]

Nice write up FG! I may rent it for a week or two, sounds like the kind of game I like to play, and I did enjoy the demo! I like just driving around, finding bad guys, and killing em!

[Knottwobad]

Nice write up FG! I may rent it for a week or two, sounds like the kind of game I like to play, and I did enjoy the demo! I like just driving around, finding bad guys, and killing em!

While you are at it try out Just Cause. I had a blast with that game too.

[GorroXXII]

While you are at it try out Just Cause. I had a blast with that game too.

I'll do that! I think I'll be picking up crackdown this weekend!

[Kernel Error]

New content due next week on the 16th plus the Halo beta should open also.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/crackdown/news.html?sid=6170410

The new race mode looks fun as hell with weapons and you can get out of your car and set up traps to blow other ppl up as they try and race by.