Crackdown 3 had quite a huge presence at E3 this year, and it looks like Sumo Digital are really working hard to ensure that it turns out great. The developers recently spoke to Gamesindustry.biz regarding what their approach has been to developing the game, and how previous entries in the series shaped that approach.

Paul Porter, the Managing Director at developers Sumo Digital, described his experience with the Crackdown series as probably being quite similar to what many other players felt with the games. He described having a lot of fun with the first game, but then feeling quite frustrated with Crackdown 2. The second game, as we know, was not very well received by fans of the series, and Porter assures us that they are taking a very different route with Crackdown 3. 

As for how exactly they plan to make something worth playing with Crackdown 3, Porter’s answer is simply that they are working on making a good game. “By creating a good game,” was his answer when he was asked about how they plan to go down a different route than Crackdown 2. “It’s a bit of a glib answer, I’m sorry, but as you know the release date’s moved back, confirmed as February next year, and that’s great news because it gives us the time to polish a game that’s pretty much done, but make it better and better. The way to make the best games is you finish them, then finish them again, and then finish them again. That’s what we’re doing with Crackdown 3.”

The multiple attempts at reworking the game in order to make it better might explain why it has been delayed so many times. We’ll just have to wait and see what the final product is like when it’s finally out. Recent reports have indicated that this last delay is the last time Microsoft are willing to delay it. Read more on that here.

It first started with Corporate VP of Microsoft Game Studios Phil Spencer tweeting that it would, “Personally going to be a good day tomorrow, looking forward to a games announce (sic) coming early in the morning, fun part of the job.”

Now, Ruffian Games – who developed the underwhelming Crackdown 2 for Xbox 360 – has tweeted that, “Morning! Feels like a good day for announcements doesn’t it?” This of course leads to speculation that the game to be announced for tomorrow is from Ruffian.

Will it be a sequel to Crackdown or a brand new project? Spencer wasn’t exactly coy about wanting Crackdown 3 to happen. Let us know your thoughts and speculations in the comments below.

Crackdown 2 was a follow-up to the first title, developed by Realtime Worlds (who then brought out All Points Bulletin for PC), and followed the chronicles of the Agency, a super-powered law enforcement organization looking to clean up crime in Pacific City.

Ruffian Games, the development studio behind Crackdown 2, is in the hiring market. A good portion of their open positions directly relate to next ten console development, which means that we can expect some next gen action from the studio in the near future. The job ads were place in the Scottish Games Network’s classifieds.

Here’s the description: “We need up to 3 engineers for a large C++, next gen console project that we are working on for ship next year.”

Rumors have been running rampant regarding the development of Crackdown 3, although there has been no confirmation on the subject. Phil Spencer of Microsoft has been vocal about the possibility, but has also stated that a next gen Crackdown would need the right team.

Either way, Crackdown 3 or not, the more next gen games we’ve got on the market the better. With different developers offering their talents to testing the software’s limitations, the more we have, the better feel we’ll get for the full extent of next gen capabilities.

I have not seen this advertised anywhere but the Crackdown 2 DLC is on sale now at 50% off.  Both DLC packs including the ‘Toy Box’ and ‘The Deluge’ are 240 Microsoft Points instead of 560 Points.  This sale may be for today only so jump on it if you want them.  The Freak Head and Level 5 Agent suit for your Avatar is also 50% off while Crackdown is now available on Games on Demand for $29.99.

First on my gripe list is the single player. If you played the first game you will be retreading old ground. The storyline of Crackdown 2 is tenuous at best, as The Agency that makes the agents you play as is attacked by a terrorist group called Cell. On top of that mutants are running all around the city at night. To combat this, The Agency has deployed the first result of their new cloning program (you) who, as in the first game, will clean up Pacific City. The agency has a plan to take out the mutants/zombie (called Freaks) by destroying their homes using beacons which are powered by absorption units – which are guarded by Cell members. Observant players of the original may remember encountering the occasional frenzied enemy (again called ‘Freaks’); the series of free tie-in animations available on Xbox Live suggests that these were early versions of the mutant hordes you now face.

Raining explosive death from the sky remains an integral part of Crackdown 2

The gameplay is  too similar to the original for veteran players to find fresh. Like in the first you can level up your abilities by finding orbs scattered around the city as well as completing challenges: Agility, Firearms, Driving and Strength. One of the bad things about this is that at first the game can be a bit dull, especially when the vehicles, weapons and  explosive weapons first available at the agency load-out screen are rubbish. But for some reason even later missions require you to level up every ability to level 4 out of 6. This can be frustrating especially for the agility which requires lots of jumping and exploration. My preferred method of levelling was waiting until night for the streets to fill with Freaks (and killing them is fun, but not as fun as running them over in a sports car).

Many have criticised the graphics of Crackdown 2. I agree there has not been much improvement over the original, it’s far from being the ugliest game on the Xbox 360 (I’m looking at you, Condemned). While Pacific City in the first game was subdued (becoming brighter as you dismantled the gangs), the buildings and bridges in the sequel are all broken and partially destroyed due to mutant and terrorist attacks. This makes climbing or jumping up buildings a horrible chore instead of the joy it was in the first game. For starters not everything can be used for climbing, only window shelves and planks of metal sticking out of buildings. Things that look climbable aren’t but contradicting that are some objects which (would never be climbable in real life) are. The best example of this is the agent’s seemingly magical ability to cling, gecko-like, to the smooth curving sides of the various pipelines. The voice of the agency gets pretty annoying right after the tutorial missions. He is the same dry, condescending commmentator from the first game and many of his comments have been ported directly from Crackdown 1 and those which haven’t are just as annoying.

Pacific City remains the setting. Graphical upgrades are minimal.

As with the first game exploration is one of the highlights, but now especially with 500+ orbs to find. The main orbs you’ll be exploring for are the agility orbs, which are quite simple, find them in high or annoying-to-get-to places and nab them. Another type of orb is the Renegade Orb which can be collected to boost agility and vehicle skills. The Renegade Orbs require you to chase them until you touch, for agility you’ll be on foot and for vehicle of course you’ll have wheels. The Agility Renegade Orbs take forever to catch as they are faster than your running speed and they move around high places in circles. Many times you will be jumping for them but falling and failing miserably. For the vehicle Renegade Orbs all you need is a fast car – I recommend the Agency Supercar but you also need to know how to powerslide as many of them go around corners.

There are many weapons ranging from sniper rifles to rocket launchers to rubber duck-shaped bombs. All of which can be acquired from the Agency drop point (where you respawn or collect more ammo or a vehicle). The fighting is basic providing only a short combo hit unless you level up the strength. You can pick up massive objects but you cann’t do much with them and the throwing animations look awkward. With so many weapons you need a decent targeting system which this game gets all wrong. You cannot switch between targets which become a problem when fighting more than 20 Cell terrorists, and the most annoying feature is that each time each time you try to lock on an enemy it goes behind him or to the side to lock on a car or an explosive barrel – which gets you killed.

The Agent’s armour has been altered to resemble that of a Space Marine… FOR THE EMPEROR!

The missions are very repetitive: take out this Cell stronghold which has over 30 well-armed members swarming you – but its okay, help will be here after you have finished the job. The Freaks missions are the same: capture 20 absorption units surrounded by 6 enemies, then defend the beacon from freaks as it charges up over 5 minutes. While you are traveling around Pacific City you will run into cadres of Cell who fire at you in tens making sure you don’t survive. Night and day they shoot you with rifles, shotguns and even rocket launchers which follow you. All this makes the game much tougher and makes you cower behind a large object to heal. But the best part of single player is still blowing things up.

The big news is that the Multiplayer has new things to add over the original. First that Crackdown 2 can be played with 3 other friends in 4 player co-op. If you join a game everything you do there is kept in single player, except story missions. There are extra orbs to be found in co-op which is so much fun, either teaming up with your buddies or just kicking them about. In co-op the entire city is available to explore without tethers which lets you go around killing freaks, taking over Cell Strongholds or again just knocking each other out or playing explosive tag. The competitive side is less appealing with only 3 modes: the typical team/deathmatch and Capture the flag. With the inconsistent targeting the experience isn’t welcoming. The multiplayer is only fun for co-op, where nothing else matters, except orb collecting.

Gripping pipes – how do they work?

Overall Crackdown 2 is too much like its predecessor. The Co-op is only online but offers more fun and explosions; while competitive modes aren’t so great. Lacking a good soundtrack the same song is played over and over again at different tempos. Crackdown 2 will offer some fun with big explosions and fun Co-op but suffers multiple major setbacks.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

Crackdown 2 will be getting some new DLC which includes a mode called ‘Deluge’ where up to four players fight off waves of mutants much like the “Horde” modes we have seen before. In addition, another mode called ‘Capture the Orb’ will be added and is just life capture the flag with up to 16 players. The ‘Deluge DLC pack will be available on November 17, for 560 Microsoft Points and it will even have a trial version to test drive the DLC which I think we should see more often in DLC packs. You can play the full Capture the Orb mode online and a single-player “sample” of Deluge mode with the free trial.

This add-on will be the first to add integration with the Windows 7 Phone using Bing Maps. If you have Crackdown: Project Sunburst (Tower Defense Game) for the Windows 7 Phone you will be able to unlock bonuses in Crackdown 2’s “Deluge” mode, such as extra support and power-ups. This also works both ways where playing ‘Deluge’ Mode will unlock weapon upgrades in Project Sunburst. Crackdown: Project Sunburst for the Windows 7 Phone is out this November.

Crackdown 2’s newly released DLC, Toy Box (seriously, Toy Box) is riddled with bugs and glitches. Shacknews spotted players complaining of said glitches in the forums of the Ruffian Games website.

Players have been complaining that after the installation/download of the all new Downloadable Add-On, Crackdown 2, upon being booted, freezes on the title screen. Others says unlocking certain Achievements can set the Achievement voice-overs in an infinite loop. These problems are reported in both, the paid and the unpaid versions of the add-on.

Ruffian Games co-founder, Gaz Liddon posts on the aforementioned (and linked) forums: “We have confirmation of what the issue is now. The paid part of the DLC was incorrectly configured when mastered. Users experience one of two things:

* Game hangs at title screen
* Game runs but achievements from DLC borked, VOA repeating and eventual slowdown.”

He later goes on to apologise for his development team’s mistakes, and says: “We’re completely gutted here. The whole aim of this DLC was to provide a decent sized package at a low price with a lot of great free stuff so we can make the people who played CD2 happy. The exact opposite has happened and frustratingly it’s down to issues we can’t fix ourselves.”

However, he has reassured Microsoft will come up with a patch for these glitches soon: “That said there’s a lot of attention on this at MS and there -should- be a decent fix soon.”

He has also adviced players to NOT zap their caches, rather:

* Delete Toybox DLC
* Delete your profile (just the profile, not the items attached)
* Recover your profile
* Redownload DLC

On this solution, he says: “We’ve just tried this here and it works. After you’ve done that there is still an issue caused by the packaging that means you won’t be able to access the new achievements that come with the ToyBox DLC which should be resolved by a patch. We are waiting for information on that from MS.”

We, too, will keep you posted on this matter as more news comes our way. Till then, you can do what Mr. Liddon has adviced you to. If that doesn’t work, you can eat your Crackdown 2 disc, choke on the shards and die.

No, don’t do that, that was just a joke. No-no! Stop! Argh, too late. Rest In Piece, GB reader.

For 560 MS points, you will get:

• Two new vehicles: the Agency ATV and the Squad chopper
• Five new toys: Mass driver, portable launch pads, stickler grenades, Thrusters and Mags on Grenades
• Two Avatar awards
• Ten new achievements that total up to 250 GS
• Eight agent suit colors

Don’t forget this DLC will give you the opportunity to unlock avatar clothing through this DLC that was previously unattainable.

Stay tuned for more news and update on GamingBolt.com.

The hardware sales saw a 12 % increase in sales, when compared to those of July 2009, with the earnings of $313.8 million, handhelds and consoles put together.

Also, it looks like the Xbox 360 has regained the momentum it had lost in the past few months. After becoming the highest selling console in June, and second highest selling system overall (second to the DS; check the full figures here), the Xbox 360 has taken a step further, and has become the highest selling system of July in the States, according to the newly revealed NPD figures. With a 443,500 units sold, it has topped even the DS and the Wii, which sold 398,400 units and 253,900 units respectively. In fourth place was the PlayStation 3, with 214,500 units sold, and the PSP tail-ended the list with just 84,000 units.

These strong Xbox 360 sales can probably attributed to the newly released Xbox 360 S and the newly invoked $50 discount on previous Xbox 360 models. Also, we’re pretty sure the looming release of Halo: Reach and the casual-friendly Kinect have been attracting a lot of players to Microsoft’s home console.

As opposed to the hardware sector, where the sales were on the higher sides when compared to the figures for the same time last year, the software sales saw a drop of 8 %, with sales worth of $403.3 million for July. NCAA Football 11, EA’s recently released Football sim, took the first and second places- the Xbox 360 version sold a total of 368,000 units and topped the charts, while the PS3 version came second with sales of 298,800 units sold. Crackdown 2 was in third place, surprisingly enough, and seemed to be coming along pretty impressively with sales of 193,000 units. Super Mario Galaxy 2 was close behind, finishing in fourth place.

Here are the entire sales figures:

JULY 2010 US GAME SALES

OVERALL DOLLAR SALES
Games: $$846.5 million (-1%)
Hardware: $313.8 million (+12%)
Software: $403.3 million (-8%)
Accessories: $129.3 million (-2%)

HARDWARE SALES
Xbox 360: 443,500
DS: 398,400
Wii: 253,900
PlayStation 3: 214,500
PSP: 84,000

TOP 10 GAMES
1. NCAA Football 11
System: Xbox 360 | Publisher: EA | Sales: 368,000
2. NCAA Football 11
System: PS3 | Publisher: EA | Sales: 298,800
3. Crackdown 2
System: Xbox 360 | Publisher: Microsoft | Sales: 193,000
4. Super Mario Galaxy 2
System: Wii | Publisher: Nintendo | Sales: 193,000
5. LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4
System: DS | Publisher: Warner Bros. | Sales: 141,700
6. Red Dead Redemption
System: Xbox 360 | Publisher: Take-Two Interactive | Sales: NA
7. LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4
System: Wii | Publisher: Warner Bros. | Sales: NA
8. Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky
System: DS | Publisher: Square Enix | Sales: NA
9. New Super Mario Bros. Wii
System: Wii | Publisher: Nintendo | Sales: NA
10. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
System: Xbox 360 | Publisher: Activision | Sales: NA