Crackdown

Okey dokey, another game here called Crackdown. All the information supplied below was not from me, I merely copy and pasted it.

I also haven't had chance to read through it all, but know most of it is very useful.

Part 1:-
Ladies and gentlemen, it sounds to me like GTA is finished.

The new Game Informer came in today and the cover story is a world exclusive on Takedown, new game from Rockstar concieved by David Jones, creator of the Grand Theft Auto Franchise. Free Roaming will never be the same again.

What could possibly make such a huge difference? I have four simple words for you:

"Online multiplayer including Co-Op."

Players will be on the other side of the law this time - you play a member of a crack police squad put together to put an end to the gangs that are running the city. Your goal is to systematically destroy all 3 gangs by locating and killing key members. Gone is the mission structure of old, this game will be true free roaming, no missions at all. You start your mission when you turn the game on and you finish your mission when every gang member is reduced to a blood splatter on the sidewalk.

Also included will be RPG-style character development, you character has several skills each of which will improve with use. Want to improve your skill with firearms? Shoot a few gang members. What to be a better driver? Run them over instead.

The article reports that MOST, not just a few buildings, will be open for you to walk inside. You could eventually find yourself going building to building, room by room on a quest to destroy a gang stronghold. Your actions will also have a direct effect on your opposition as well. Each of the key members of the gangs supplies them with something. Take down the recruiter and their numbers will be greatly reduced, kill the car supplier and they'll all be walking from now on, etc.

I haven't even read the whole article yet and already I'm more excited about this game than I have been about ANY game since GTA3 was first announced. Oh yeah, did I mention the graphics look absolutely phenominal? It's like a mixture of old-style GTA and new-style GTA with the camera zooming in and out depending on what's happening on screen.

If you haven't considered an X-Box 360 yet, you may want to start thinking about one right now.

CONTINUED

Part 2:-
Sorry everyone, just realized I didn't really provide any back-up to the claims I was making aside from mentioning a magazine that is probably scarcely available over there. Anyway, Game Informer is one of the larger game magazines in the US which is part of the problem. When they get an exclusive they make sure it STAYS exclusive for at least a month, usually longer. Usually I'd direct you to www.gameinformer.com to see the cover but they still have last months issue up right now. The magazine just came in earlier today so I imagine it'll be updated on the site by tomorrow or the next day, judging by the past. I'll keep an eye on it and link to the cover picture as soon as they post it. The full cover spread saying "Crackdown: Can The Creator Of The Original Grand Theft Auto Do It Again For The X-Box 360?" should be enough to gain your trust for now, right?

Anyway, as I said earlier I didn't get to read the whole article, just a quick glance over while frantically checking message boards and reading e-mail AND getting ready for work. So here's a less frantic look at it, grab some popcorn, this'll be long, LOTS of awesome-ness to cover:

First off, big oops here - it's not Rockstar, I saw GTA creator and assumed right away without actually checking the publisher. It's being published Microsoft Games and developed by Real Time Worlds, the new company created by David Jones who sold DMA Designs which is now known as Rockstar North. Takedown will be the first release by RTW which has apparently been scooped up and added to Microsoft's 1st party cap.

The basis of the game is the Agency, a secret government agency(shocker) charged with protecting the last safe refuge in a city overtaken by criminal organizations. You and your team(this is where the co-op comes in) are basically their last resort, a group of volunteer mercinaries pumped full of experimental drugs to the point of being superhuman. This means you'll freely be able to leap over buildings, lift vehicles, and use, and I quote, "terrifying heavy weaponry." This next part just sounds so cool I'm gonna take it word for word out of the article:

"Eventually it will be possible for an agent to pick up a car, carry it to the top of a building, drive it off the edge, bail out in mid-air, and then precisely shoot the gas take on the way down, which turns the plummeting vehicale into a burning, explosive wreck as it craches into the side of a building."

'Nuff said.

Anyway, the safe zone of the city is slowly becoming smaller and smaller as the three gangs - La Merta, Volk, and Cai-Shen Corporation - become more and more powerful. Your job is to eliminate these gangs by locating and killing seven key members of each gang. As I mentioned earlier, each of these key members has a special task that he manages so as you take down key members it'll have direct effect on the gang they are tied to, as I mentioned earlier with the recruiter and the vehicle supplier. In addition, you have 5 skills: strength, agility, firearms, explosives, and driving. They will go up as you use them to kill gang members allowing some RPG-like character customization. I like the idea of a cop with superhuman strength, deadeye accuracy, and action movie driving skills myself but maybe you prefer explosives expert agile enough to run up, drop a grenade down your pants, and be on a rooftop 3 blocks away before it explodes, so have at it.

The early "mission" if you want to call it that will be to get your skills up so you can reach heavily guarded areas. The example they give is starting in front of a 5 story building holding one of the kingpins you need to take care of, now you just need to get to him. They mentioned Metroid where you're always shown the way to go before you can actually go there, you need to aquire new skills first. This is where the abilities comes in, if you do a lot of running and jumping, you might want to scale the walls, or maybe you're a driver? Drive a truck through the front door, it always works in the movies. Firearms your thing? Climb to a rooftop far away and snipe all the major threats before they even get a chance to see you.

While the graphics, aside from the main character models, are not fabulous the game environment will be 100% interactive meaning you can smash anything you see, stack it or use it as a weapon. So if your guy isn't super-agile but you still want to use the rooftop entrance to a building, you could maybe take out a few guards in an alley, stack up a bunch of cars next to the building and make yourself some stairs. A distinctly next-gen feature is said to be just how long an object will stay there after you've done something to it. We all know the GTA disappearing car trick, you park a car, do something, walk back(or more often run back with FBI and Army firing away at you) not even five minutes later and hey, no car! Crackdown will have a built in system to recognize things it shouldn't "clean up" so if you threw a crate at a wall in an alley somewhere, it might put it back in place fairly quickly but if you stack some objects or park a car somewhere the game will rocognize it as something that was done deliberately and thus it will stay there for a long time, allowing you more freedom to wander around and come back. It'll be nice knowing you can park that Lambo in front of the gang HQ and know that when you come out after doing the job, likely with several people shooting at you, it will still be there.

Oh and for added cool factor, don't you just hate it when you want a fast car in GTA and you're looking and looking and looking and finding nothing but station wagons and taxis? An agent doesn't have these types of problems, while you can take any vehicle you see, you can also call for you super special Agent-mobile, no it's not actually called an Agent-mobile. They mention a suped-up SUV, a semi, and a sports car that "had unnatural downforce, allowing it to grip the road through tight turns at riciulous speeds." Sounds like fun, these vehicles will automatically change and grow in power as your driving skill goes up. So while early on you may just have a plain old semi, later on it may turn into a steel-reinforced semi with a battering ram on the front. The other skills will also be reflected visually in the game, obviously strength will make your character bigger, agility will be represented through costumes somehow(dude, pleeeeease tell me I can become a full fledged ninja with the costume and everything? A ninja with machine guns how SWEET is that!! ) Firearms experience will be your ticket to bigger, badder weaponry, they didn't mention explosives.

In addition to just looking more like a badass, these effects will have added purpose online, they act as a badge, if you are a superhuman freak that could lift a bus up and throw it at them, they'll know it right away when they see you. The game will be fully playable start to finish online over X-Box Live, you'll be able to start a game and play front to back with the same person or you could just pop in and play with some random person on Live for a while then go back to solo play. Since the multiplayer is online there will be no restrictions on how you have to play it, you can stick together and work as a team or split up and have one person attack one stronghold while the other attacks a different one. To further build the community aspect of the game, there will be a huge list of accomplishments to attain and the game will keep track of records from players all over the world and actively transmit these records to the whole community of Crackdown players. Amongst the things tracked will be the top Agent overall, the #1 gangster killer in the whole world as well as community goals such as players collectively killing 5,000 kingpins. They say their goal is to make players feel like a real part of the Agency, like you are working with other agents around the world collectively and in a way, competing with each other. So, if you want to take a break from killing gang members you could check out the various challenges and accomplishments and try to get your name in the Agency record books.

Just when I thought this was the coolest thing I've ever heard, they dropped another bombshell. Downloadable content. Not just some crap, rip-off downloadable content either, they specifically mentioned new gang compounds and skills.

Excited yet? Do you you STILL think I just made ALLLLL of that up myself? If you do, stick around for a couple days, GameInformer will be updating their site soon enough. Release date is list as Spring 2006, if they meet that goal, this one could rule next summer and holiday season, Sony had better be able to walk the walk because the X-Box 360 hype machine is in full effect and I am sold, 100%. Rockstar's got their work cut out for them as well, Rockstar is the product of the GTA franchise, they were built on it and the man that built GTA is now their biggest competition.

***End***

As I said, I didn't write this, nice one to whoever did though. From what i've read it sounds amazing!

erm..sounds great, lol.

Recognize a few bits of it, but not heard the name before.

Sounds amazing! I hope they dont over do the superhuman part of the game as it would make it 'feel' better if it was more realistic IMO.

Anyway I managed to track down a couple of mag scans. Looks good.








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Reminds me of Destroy All Humans, love that game, cow throwing has never been so fun.

Is there any half whack story as to why he can lift up cars and hurl them?

Hmmmmm, thought this sounded good. But, im not impressed with the scrrenshots.

I like a nice, realistic game. Not some game where you have super-stregth people been able to do stupid things and have guns attached to there arm.

SS's have defiantey put me off

This game is looking very sleek indeed, I can't wait to get some more info and footage.

I have added a few screenshots to the site, if any of you are interested

Never heard of this before, and I have to agree with Thornbag, when reading it it sounded ok, but on seeing the screenshots although nice, to give of a superhero flair, which Im no big fan of.

Then you will both be proved utterly wrong come next year This game will be truly awesome.

Preview is now online.

trailer,looks good, looks like a gta/super hero type game.

as regards the ability to throw cars and the like, you will not be able to do it at the start of the game, your charactor will have to be trained to do so. the reason behind doing it is that you will be a member of a genitically enhanced super squad of cops, charged with restoring order in an orderless land.

Originally Posted by Swish Then you will both be proved utterly wrong come next year This game will be truly awesome.

Ohhhh how Swish was right!

Originally Posted by Thornbag Ohhhh how Swish was right!

Damn right!!!