Anilrgowda

Microsoft Announces Crackdown Release Date and Demo
By: César A. Berardini - "Cesar"

Dec. 21st, 2006 11:09 am
Microsoft Game Studios announced today the release date for Crackdown, which will be available on store shelves on February 20, 2007. A month earlier, on January 18, a single-player and online cooperative demo will be available on Xbox Live. Below is the press release with the announcement:

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Justice Is Served: "Crackdown" on Crime This February
[quote]The highly anticipated Xbox 360 title "Crackdown" explodes onto Xbox Live Marketplace with an exciting single-player and online cooperative demo Jan.18, followed by its arrival on store shelves Feb. 20.

Pacific City is overridden; crime controls the streets. Three powerful gangs have taken the once-great metropolis hostage, and the police have proven powerless in their efforts to regain control. Only the Agency - with genetically enhanced agents of justice - can provide citizens with some sense of hope.

Brace yourself. Justice is coming to Pacific City.

On Jan. 18, gamers will get the chance to battle their way through the roads and rooftops of "Crackdown(tm)" as the Xbox 360(tm) title's explosive demo lands on Xbox Live® Marketplace. And for the ultimate payback, they will combine forces in online co-op play for twice the thrills and double the retribution.*

Gamers will arm themselves with high-tech weapons, transformable vehicles and incredible, gravity-defying superskills in preparation to take back Pacific City when "Crackdown" storms North American store shelves Feb. 20.

From Realtime Worlds, "Crackdown" pushes the action-driving hybrid genre into the next generation with the first-ever truly 3-D playground. Gamers will level up their Agent's strength, agility, firearms, explosives and driving skills while scaling the fully vertical world of "Crackdown." This M-rated game incorporates revolutionary co-op gameplay throughout the entire free-form campaign. Creating a volatile cocktail of judicial oppression, players will clean up the streets of a truly interactive world when "Crackdown" hits store shelves at an estimated retail price of $59.99.

I have been keeping close tabs on this game since it was announced, but recently have really begun to get excited about it. All this week IGN is profiling Crackdown, and the more I read about the game and see the most recent videos released from the game, the more excited I get.

Xboxyde just released a couple of hi-def videos for Crackdown and had this to say about a recent build they played:
CRACKDOWN HANDS ON IMPRESSIONS

Righty, I've been lucky enough to play a bit of this the last week or so. It's difficult to talk about much that is new, but I shall give it a go.

First things first, the art style. It's definitely an aquired taste as you will see from the screens. I don't have a problem with it personally and a colleague of mine loved it. From up high, the city below you looks impressive. The lighting it's more difficult to say because of the cel-shaded style but there were times when it did look purdy.

Frame rate rock solid in this build I hasten to add. I see a lot of stuff when it's not done and usually stuff that isn't optimised totally. This felt really good to be noteworthy, and I'll imagine they will have had a few more weeks to tweak before RTM.

Gameplay is more difficult to assess as I was going through with cheats and a bumped up character. I quite like the way your abilities are improved by "doing things" . Win races, driving abilites go up, shoot and kick people, your weapon and combat skills level up accordingly. There aren't a huge number of levels, like an RPG but when you do reach the next one, there is a very noticeable difference in what you can do.

One thing the game does really well is emphasise the vertical paradigm. The world extends upwards even more than it does along the ground. Some of the buildings are VERY high so there is tons to explore. Your ability attributes are increased by discovering "Agility Orbs" and there are a LOT of these. You will need to find at least some, because missions can get very difficult if you are unable to make the right jumps. Jumping around the city is very much like the Incredible Hulk game, only done better, in my opinion.

Speaking of the city, it's very much alive. Lots of people and cars milling about the place. To think they actually had to reduce the traffic!

As for the mission structure, it's quite nicely laid out. Everything is available to you at the start of the game, you could head straight for the higher ups in the gang but I imagine it will be balanced to make it hideously difficult to cut corners. I couldn't explore much in this area during my time.

You do get a briefing for each "Mission" or target which gives you some background and intelligence on the location so you can plan one of several ways to approach the target.

Unfortunately I couldn't play co-op either, but I think that will be the DE FACTO way to play this game, or even just to mess about. With two people, you could really create some crazy stuff in the world.

Other nice touches, being able to focus on limbs/heads was quite cool, you could do the same for cars (i.e. aim at the petrol tanks!) . Explosions look great, as you can see

The achievements look dead fun, but I can't reveal what they are :P

This I can say at the moment, the game is shaping up nicely and the move from October 06 to February 07 seems to have done miracles for getting this game together. Crackdown is showing every sign of being 2007's first AAA sleeper. I can't wait for the demo next month, and by the time the actual game comes out, most of us will be wrapping up Lost Planet and on the hunt for the next big thing