Crackdown Demo

Anyone else grab this today from the XBox Marketplace? Best game I've played in a long time - it's a little like GTA, but set in a comic book world, where the best way to get about is to jump.

The jumping really is the best part of the game - you can only start off with small jumps to begin with, but as you collect agility orbs you can jump higher and higher. Eventually you can jump huge distances - which, when leaping off the top of tall buildings, is more fun than it really should be.

The game world is brilliantly realised too. Tons of pedestrians, bad guys, vehicles, explosions, believable AI, huge draw distances - all at a solid frame rate. As a technical achievement it's quite something.

I'm just happy because it's the first game in ages to really impress me - I was worried those days were behind me!

An example of the draw distance:

That looks stunning, I gotta start saving for a 360.

Oooh.

The trailers of this game looked really good, but it seems it's going to be 360-only.

Just did a bit of reading, and it seems the developer, Realtime Worlds, is based right here in Dundee! Maybe I'll head along tomorrow and make them do a PC version. Their web site shows that their new offices are in the same building as the old Students Union bar I used to stumble out of.

Reading further, the boss of Realtime Worlds is Dave Jones, formerly of DMA Designs, who did Lemmings and the 2D Grand Theft Auto games here as well... which would help to explain the GTA-like feel.

That screenshot looks great!

I think I went to Dundee once. Visiting the developer Vis. Were they in Dundee? It was a taxi ride from Edinburgh.

Looks great - why is the bloke flying though??

I'd fancy an X360 based on this, too. I love games where you get to blow stuff up and don't need to make excuses for doing it. :D

JP -- yes, VIS were based here. Quite a long taxi ride from Edinburgh... I hope they were paying. (EDIT: I think they moved to Dunfermline, though, which is not so far.)

I thought Vis were in Leith at one point? Or was that DMA?

Dunfermline sounds familiar.

Great. Can't wait until Jack Thompson gets a hold of this. Now games aren't just murder simulators anymore, they're now also suicide simulatores.

Just wait, in a couple of years video games are going to be blamed for base jumper fatalities.

Still, I'd much rather play a GTA III style game - as opposed to jumping around a city like a pongo-ponce.

Let's be honest here - play a game where you just jump around like a farting faggot - or beat people up and steal cars and do fun stuff (other than jumping)?

Going to download now!

The graphics are wow....

@puki - you've got a way with words, but I always liked pilot wings, etc - I Imagine this is along a simlar vein - as long as you've got a 'wing' power up.... ? I don't mind confessing that I've seen a bit of scenery in my time - current job might as well have me living in holland.

Nice to see Dundee on the map, spent a bit of time in Dunfermline maself. {;->

Bunch of friends of mine worked on Crackdown.

It does indeed rock :)

What do you mean by "worked"? Did you take part in the development of it?

Well, Rik did say his friends worked on it.....

Awesome game ... has a lot of themes I really like and have tried to use (albeit somewhat unsuccessfully in my own games). This is pretty much one of my favorite games now, really fun stuff.

Good to know the 360 will be getting even more must-haves (in my opinion) when it finally gets a price-drop that's affordable for me (currently saving up for college -.-)....


I'm quite liking the fact games are starting to push draw distances, recently went back to playing Turok1 on my PC, and my god, I had to shut it off/uninstall it quick because the draw-distance was cut-off around 10ft in front of you...
(serves me right for trying to visit nostalgia land)

I quite find draw-distances immersive, as well as a touch of wow factor, been playing co-op GRAW (PC version) with my bro, and I can't help but go "daaaaaaamn" everytime we take off in a chopper at the end of the mission and watch the whole city out the windows, which draws on for miles and miles as we get carried out of the area.
(although I was majorly peeved off with GRAW PC as it was utterly unplayable on my PC from retail-version without having to download a 273mb patch to fix sooo many bugs, and add missing multiplayer components the 360 version had)

I just had a look at the videos they have at youtube and i wasn't this impressed on the first view. I looked nice but not really impressive to me. Maybe it's better if you play it. Anyway my knees hurt each time i saw him landing...

Yup, couple of friends were producers and I know (through them) a couple of coders / artists.

Love it! Awesome demo. It takes a lot of my annoyances with GTA and fixes them. The combat is still weak, but it always is in these sorts of games. But the ability to level up my various powers - fantastic! Definitely a buy for me when it comes out.

Sounds cool! Now without violating any NDA's, are they developing any for the Wii or PS3 in the future?

Great fun. Looking forward to bringing forth a Crackdown on crime. I love playing a cop, Justice is my middle name. Even better playing a cop who can throw flippin' cars at fugitives.