Topic: Crackdown demo on Xbox Live--amazing!

[scottws]

Can you get any more than 4 stars?  It looks like there is no room for any more, but I have 4 stars in a couple categories and I'm still accumulating points in those categories.

Also, man, I don't think I will ever get to 4 stars agility.  I spend my game existence getting agility orbs but I just barely got three stars last night and I pretty much cleaned up all the obvious ones in both the Los Muertos territory and the Volk territory.

Speaking of Los Muertos, I guess they aren't completely eradicated.  I actually have seen small groups of them fighting the Volk.

I also tried to climb to the very top of the Agency building.  What is it?  The Key?  Anyway, I got almost all the way up.  I got to the very top of the lowest of the three pinnacles, and believe it or not that's not anywhere close to the highest point regardless of what it looks like from elsewhere on the map.  I think you need 4 agility stars to get to the very top because there was a pipe with this structure around it that you can grab onto.  But the 2nd lowest bar is just out of reach.  I can't make it and there didn't seem to be any other way up.

I honestly felt a bit of anxiety while climbing the building.  I'm kind of afraid of heights and you are teetering on the edge of this huge skyscraper and the wind is howling.  Due to the amazing draw distance (you can basically see every area of the game), there is really a sense of scale and depth going on.

[Quemaqua]

Stop talking about this game and making it sound fun.  I kind of want it quite a bit right now.  I could seriously use a total waste of time to just go apeshit and blow off steam right now.  It's not every day that I want a fairly shallow game that just lets me screw around and have fun, but I could really dig that at the moment.  I don't really feel like thinking.  I just want carnage.

I'll be damned if this being poor thing doesn't suck.

[Jedi]

I can't wait until I tear into this game over weekend I'm tempted to pass on drinking tonight with friends and heading home after work... but I wont, I'm not that person. 

[Cobra951]

4 stars is it, as far as skill progression.  But the counters keep going until you fill them up again.  There's an achievement for maxxing out all the meters, Master Agent.  I'm there on agility.  The numbers go to "--" after "99", and the bar stays empty after that.  Sorry you're having trouble getting full agility.  That makes the big climbs a lot easier.  I don't know if it's possible to go to th top of the Agency Tower without that.  There are some very big leaps you need to make.  Sometimes you can find out-of-the-way alternatives to big jumps, but not here, I don't think.  I did get the achievements for reaching the high point on the tower, and for leaping off of it into the water.  Like you, I get anxious when I'm trying risky jumps so high above the ground.  They did a terrific job evoking that queasy sense of height.

I've beaten the game now.  Loved the boss fights.  Some are all about finding ways to climb while some others are laid out to make it difficult to find a way in.  You have to be very animated to stay alive in the inner sanctums.  The good news is that after you beat the game and you quit, you can restart with a crime setting on or off.  If you choose "on", all the gangs will be back in the streets, and meaner than ever.  Not the bosses, though.  (You can take them on under "Time Trials", something I have yet to do even once.)  With crime off, you can go after side tasks, races mostly.

Well, I gave in and got a paid Gold membership.  I downloaded the extra skins.  I tried one that looks sort of like your Gears of War character with a monocle (not the one you've been using).  Then I tried the guy with the helmet.  I like that.  It fits well with the uniforms and the agency cars.  Maybe we can go for a coop session again sometime?

I tried the semi truck cab.  Definitely that boost is a big improvement, but I still find it too unwieldy overall.  I ended up pissing off the cops with all the agent and civilian casualties I inflicted by clumsy lead-footing.  My favorite vehicle is still the SUV.  Great predictable control, and the jump ability is super.  What it does is squat down on the long-travel off-road suspension while you hold 'B', then it springs up when you let go.  Kind of like a low-rider.  I think they improved the handling of the super car.  It was too twitchy in the demo.  Now it behaves very well, except for the rare occurrence of bouncing high off the pavement (maybe small debris?) for no apparent reason.  It's annoying when it happens, and has got to be a bug or oversight.

Stop talking about this game and making it sound fun.  I kind of want it quite a bit right now.  I could seriously use a total waste of time to just go apeshit and blow off steam right now.  It's not every day that I want a fairly shallow game that just lets me screw around and have fun, but I could really dig that at the moment.  I don't really feel like thinking.  I just want carnage.

I'll be damned if this being poor thing doesn't suck.

I hear you.  As I've said recently, my life is in a weird state right now, and it's better that I not get into any details.  But if things were as they should be, I would not have gotten the system or any games.  I hope to be more at ease with it all someday.  I'd advise in your case, don't get any more broke unless you absolutely have to have it.  Being broke to the point of numb hopelessness is not something you should ever let yourself fall into.  Trust me.

Having said that, everybody went apeshit over Gears of War, and I guarantee you there is a lot more happy playtime in Crackdown than in that sacred cow.   

[Quemaqua]

Well, I, uh... cracked.  Okay, bad pun, but I have the game now.  And while I really regretted it walking out of the store, as soon as I popped it in and started just screwing around, I was totally happy.  I think it was worth what I paid for it.  Just driving around and jumping all over the place is great fun.  I haven't been paying any attention to anything else.  Have about 90 of the agility orbs and a couple stars in guns and driving.  Good stuff.  I don't know why Gerstmann (I can never remember how to spell his name) didn't like the races much.  I had a total blast with them.  The jumping ones are fun, and I thought the driving was pretty cool so far.  A bit wonky at the start, but not that bad, and after one star you're pretty much cool.

Took over a couple of the safe points or whatever, killed a couple criminals whose territory I just happened to wander through in my obsessive quest for green dots.  Woo!  The combat is quite fun, though the enemies themselves feel a little... flat.  I moved the difficulty up a notch from the default, so it's one below "insane" or whatever it's called, and it really isn't hard at all.  I'm almost thinking I should have cranked it up all the way.  Maybe it gets tougher later.  Either way, it doesn't matter.  I'll probably beat it and then try it again later when I feel like just causing havoc again.

[Cobra951]

Woohoo!  Welcome to the fold!  I hope you love the game as much as I'm loving it.  What's there is first class all the way.  Hope there's enough of it for ya.  Cheers.  Go get 'em, agent.

[Quemaqua]

Fortunately, for a game like this, all you really need is a big city, and it seems to have that.  All sorts of little hidden nooks.  I even went back to see if I could get on *top* of the Keep, and you can!  There's even a race!  I thought that was awesome.  So even if I totally decimated the game and stuff, I could just start over and it would be just as fun.  It's a great screw-around game when you just don't feel like thinking too much or following a story.  I'm really happy so far.  Want to try some more driving stuff next...

[Cobra951]

I can't get over how well done everything is.  Look at the car you're driving even.  That's real environment mapping reflecting off of it.  The physics are good enough to become 2nd nature.  The sights and sounds, wow.  You should see them in 720P.  (Are you getting good HD out of this on your 4:3 monitor?)  I absolutely love how the brightness adapts to the ambient light wherever you are.  That is so natural for human vision, but where have you seen it done like this before?  I can't think of a single game that adapts the luminance scale to the evironment.  Our vision has a contrast ratio of zillions to one, but only 100:1 at any given time.  The game engine follows our natural tendency to adapt fully to current lighting conditions.  Everything is so dynamic and full of activity, yet with few exceptions, the motion is perfectly fluid.  It just feels so right.  The NPCs may be shallow, but they serve their functions well.  I hope and pray there are sequels to this.  It would be a great franchise to develop and exploit, like GTA.

[Quemaqua]

I completely agree with you on the lighting stuff.  I was pretty impressed by that.  It's subtle but really well done.  And yeah, everything seems pretty well put together so far.  I was having tons of fun with the SUV, driving all over crap like a monster truck.  Heh, that was good times right there.

[scottws]

The lighting stuff is like HDR from HL2 The Lost Coast and Episode 1 and also like FarCry 1.2.

How in the hell did you get to the top of the keep with 1 agility star?  I have 3 and I can't make it, though I can get really close.

[Quemaqua]

I should clarify that I didn't get to the very top.  I just meant on top of its island as opposed to being in its underground garage.  I couldn't jump up through the holes there so I actually had to swim to it from a city area then jump up a wall.  So I wasn't sure you were actually allowed to do it because I didn't find the holes that led back to the garage until I accidentally fell into one.  =)  Once I got up to 3 stars I realized I could just hop through the holes and go up.

And I don't recall FarCry having that kind of lighting effect, but it's been a really long time.  And I never played the Lost Coast thing.

[iPPi]

I will be buying this game in the near future.

[scottws]

Oh, ok I get it.  The game world is amazing how it's all seamless.  I mean GTA was amazing but you still had to load crossing the bridges.  In Crackdown, like you said, you can actually just go ahead and swim between the islands.

And you can go inside and outside and not have to load between them.  It's pretty amazing really.

[Quemaqua]

I wouldn't say amazing given how many games are adopting the whole seamless concept these days, but it definitely works flawlessly.  The only data swap pauses are when you do something noteworthy and the game autosaves.  Otherwise I haven't noticed a single hitch in frames or a load time of any kind other than to load the game up.  I can dig it.

I also tried swimming beyond the confines of the city island.  You can swim a pretty amazingly far distance from it, but eventually there's a barrier of some kind that bounces you back every time.  I was hoping you could swim around the "globe" or something and come out the other side, heh.

Played a couple more hours today, and I'm really hooked now.  Cranked the difficulty up to the highest (psychotic) and it feels just perfect.  Negligent behavior gets me killed before I know what hit me, and being a bit more cautious and thoughtful nets me better results.  I think one step down from psychotic is actually probably ideal, since the weapons ramp up a lot and there are tons more guys over in Volk territory, but I want the game to last me a while and I like having bad guys around to kill.  If they all vanish on me too fast, I'll be sad.  So yeah, haven't even beaten Los Muertos, just like 2 bosses and 4 supply points.  Got a supply point in the other 2 areas also, but only one.  Those areas are pretty tough still.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I played this at a friend's house a couple of nights ago and it was pretty fun, we leveled up the physical strength quickly and started throwing cars from overpasses on the highway and all kinds of other silly stuff.  If I had a 360 I would definitely be picking this game up.

[Quemaqua]

Well, I finished taking out Los Muertos last night, and took over all the supply points there.  It was good fun.  The last fight was surprisingly easy.  I actually had more trouble with the arms supplier guy and the chop-shop guy.  Chop-shop guy in particular.  When they use that HMG against you it's like instant death.  On Psychotic I had to try it like 5 or 6 times before I got it right.  Arms dealer was maybe 2 or 3 tries.  Final guy I got on my first try, and I hadn't actually taken out the arms dealer by that point, either.  Still, on this difficulty the game presents a pretty good challenge for what I think the game needs.  I want it to be pretty hard so it'll last longer, heh.

Maxed out my agility, and finally got 3 stars for strength.  Only at 2 for driving and one for explosives.  The explosives just take freaking forever to go up.  Driving is slow too, but at least you have races for that.  I got over 300 of the agility orbs thus far, and 80-something of the hidden orbs.  Have captured several supply points in the other districts, but that's about it.  Only killed one Volk guy, I think, and the Yakuza-style dudes are still pretty tough.  Especially if they've got those damned rocket launchers.  Those things are paincakes.

[scottws]

I thought collecting driving stars was the easiest.  Just spend some time running over gang members.  It was the first thing I leveled up all the way.

I was having trouble with explosives for awhile until I found a grenade launcher.  Now it's agility.  I'm barely level 3.  Not sure how many agility orbs I've found, but it's a fair amount.

[Quemaqua]

Hmm... couldn't be too many if you're only level 3.  There are a lot more orbs in the game than you need to level up all the way, especially if you win a rooftop race or two.  But then again, like Cobra, I was totally having fun with that, so I just ran all over the place collecting them for quite some time, fighting whoever I happened to come across along the way, which I'm sure is why I got that one up to 4 first.  Sounds like you've been focusing on other stuff.  Next thing on my to-do list is go back to the Keep and get to the top... I got almost all the way at 3 stars but there's one final jump you can't make until 4.  Arg!

As for driving, I've been running over lots of bad guys, but I guess you just have to do it obsessively to level up a lot.  I've made some jumps and done some races, though I've probably gotten more points from just driving over guys since I haven't won a lot of the races.  If you're using a civilian car things get tough if you flip it during the race.  Sometimes you can grab another and be fine, other times you're screwed.  So I've lost more of those than I've won, though I think I've done maybe 6 of the stunt jumps or so.  There are still several I know about that I can't figure out how to do.

And my explosives have definitely gone up since the grenade launcher, but I still don't care for the explosives as much as the other stuff.  They'll probably be more fun once they've got a bigger blast radious.  I got my first star, so I'm guessing the results of 3 and 4 are pretty spectacular in comparison.

Anyway, I must again thank you both for going on about this game here.  It ended up definitely being money well spent.  =)

[Jedi]

Oh man I cleaned up much like Q has done and found the final crime fight really easy, I had hoped that it was going to a mess of charnage and death... but it wasn't. Last night I only played for an hour or so and tried my hand at a few races and roof top races, fun stuff, though I do run over a hell of a lot of people though  
I ventured into the Volk area and captured the first supply point, man there was fun fire coming at me from all directions! And those crazy bastards drive troop carriers!

oooh and I picked up some sweet weapons from the weapons dealer (boss) then the crazy Volk dropped a nice shot gun and a M16! This game is so much fun!

[Cobra951]

I have a 2nd game going now, stored on the memory card.  (I think using 2 storage devices is the only way to restart from scratch without losing your progress from before.)  I'm playing on the middle difficulty, Ruthless.  I'm thinking of pumping that up to Psychotic, but I'll wait to see how it goes with the Volk beforehand.

Orbs are definitely the quickest way to ramp up agility.  You also get little boosts by taking out enemies from great heights.  The grenade launcher is fun for a while, but you guys really need to get a hold of a rocket launcher.  The firefly is the best.  (It's the one being used in the video in the blue sphere, during the opening titles.)  It homes, and has 20 shots, 5 loaded at a time (5/15).  It's not that hard to get.  You just need to be in the right area to find it.  Of course, it's better to surprise the guys carrying these than to shoot it out with them.  Heh.

Que, that chop shop is best handled in the safety of your SUV.   

I've found a couple of holes in the geometry.  I fell into the "wrong" side of the world once last night ("behind" the polygons).  The game is admirably bug free, but it is not perfect.  Once in a while, the game stops putting out gang vehicles entirely.  I noticed this while going for the Repo Man achievement.  You have to hijack 100 gang vehicles, and that means pull the gang dude out of the car yourself.  The only way to do that is if you have no gang wanted level.  (You don't kill them in any way.)  Otherwise, they jump out of the car and start shooting as soon as you get near.  Once this happens, I can cruise the entire world, and not find a single gang vehicle being driven anywhere not related to a boss.  If I save & quit, then restart, the gang vehicles are back.

The other flaw I've noticed is with the annoying announcer.  At first, it seemed like all the cues for what he said were correct, and I found that unusually good.  But lately, he'll say stuff that has nothing to do with what's happening.  Most often, it's the "impressive ascent" one, when I haven't changed my altitude in any way in a good while.  There should be a way to shut him up anyway.  I've heard everything he has to say.


Edit:  Hey, Jedi.  Glad you got the game.

One more thing I wanted to mention is the car-race design.  It's surprisingly well done.  It could have been just a last-minute add-on to give the game more length, but not so.  Each race is unique in some way.  Each race is best suited to one particular vehicle, and in one case, it's not either of the obvious ones.  Offroad, highway, city, against traffic, through parks, airtime required--lots of variety.  I consider Road Warrior a real achievement.  Excellent side quest.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, I've learned to just tune him out.  He wasn't bad for a while, but he's beginning to show signs of getting old fast.

[Jedi]

"that was special" was a funny one after failing to complete a car race under time.
I did find one car race a little annoying its one of the off road races, now in a SUV or a jeep its easy enough the hard part is knowing which turn to take. The check points are spread out and there's a few intersections and turn offs between some of them - the first few times it was a guessing game and once I guessed totally wrong and it killed the race for me. 

I think I need to up the difficulty a little I'm not dying very often and while I consider myself good - I'm not that good 
I just remembered I got the achievement for killing 500 gang members without dying... yeah I think it's a little too easy.

[Cobra951]

Keep glancing at your map down in the corner while racing.  It will show you the next checkpoint when it isn't obvious otherwise.  Some races you'll need to practice to get right.  There's one in Volk territory that will have you tearing your hair out for a while, until you figure it all out.

[Jedi]

Keep glancing at your map down in the corner while racing.  It will show you the next checkpoint when it isn't obvious otherwise.  Some races you'll need to practice to get right.  There's one in Volk territory that will have you tearing your hair out for a while, until you figure it all out.

Yeah I was looking at the mini map becuase I couldn't even see the next check point, but I think that one is more of a case of practice. Hopefully I can jump on the console tonight after work.

[HxCeddie]

Well I caved in and got this game, and damn, it's fucking fun. I'm still on the first part, but if anyone wants to play co-op, I'm down.

[scottws]

Keep glancing at your map down in the corner while racing.  It will show you the next checkpoint when it isn't obvious otherwise.  Some races you'll need to practice to get right.  There's one in Volk territory that will have you tearing your hair out for a while, until you figure it all out.

I know which one you're talking about.  Is it the one with multiple paths... some of which are airborne?

[Cobra951]

Actually, no.  I forget the name now, but it's through the urban streets.  It is truly difficult to beat.  I don't want to spoil anything.  You'll know it when you get to it.

Well, Ed, if I see you out there, I'll join in sometime.  Make sure to get the 4 extra skins for your character, because without them our games won't like each other (error out of co-op because of the difference).

[Jedi]

Well I completed (well under time) that race I was moaning on about, I used the Agency SUV and now I have two stars for everything but explosives. That SUV is mad fun in the city but on the dirt tracks it can become a bit of a bouncing ball!  But it was fun.

Got a nice case of vertigo today too doing a few rooftop races such a cool feeling!

[scottws]

Oh, a tip for driving stars:  use the supercar.  With the SUV it's too easy to drive over the cars and trucks of the gangsters and therefore miss them.  With the supercar it's easy because you go under everything so even if they are on the other side of the car, they are toast.

[HxCeddie]

My problem is that I have to set up something in advance. I'm rarely online because of the fact that my school's internet connection is one of the worst things that any man has ever created. I can only get decent speeds online past midnight or so, which sucks. However, in two weeks, I have spring break so I can play whenever I'm not working. I'll keep whoever's interested posted, but I really really want to play this online with someone.

And I'll be sure to download the new skins.

[Cobra951]

Oh, a tip for driving stars:  use the supercar.  With the SUV it's too easy to drive over the cars and trucks of the gangsters and therefore miss them.  With the supercar it's easy because you go under everything so even if they are on the other side of the car, they are toast.

You can use the Supercar to launch everthing.  It's so much fun.  What I like to do is hit the gang car, pan around to see where it's going to land (the shadow sometimes helps) then line myself up.  When it lands, if the guys didn't get killed by the impact, I'll hit them and the car as soon as they get out.  Mwahaha!  If you're going fast enough, like on a highway, many times you'll kill them just by launching their cars.

Hey Jedi, after spending an obscene amount of time in this game, I've concluded that the SUV is by far the best all-around vehicle.  It has the most reliable handling, can take you just about anywhere, and seems to offer the best protection from bullets.  (But it pisses me off that a rocket which will only take part of your armor away and daze you if you're on foot, will kill you dead in an instant if you're inside any vehicle.)  It can also turn on a dime when you get good with the 4-star ability.  While 'B' is pressed, the thing sticks to the pavement (or even walls) like glue.  It will hop after several seconds, but if you time it right, you can make good use of it without the jump hurting anything.

[Jedi]

Yeah I think I like the SUV the most (but I like how the super car looks) when I first took it out for a real spin it didn't take me long to realise that I could just roll over the cars, and its just so forgiving! But then again the Super car just bumps everything out of its way which can be fun for races.
Oh and another thing, you know that stunt ring just outside the agency tunnel (into the first area) the super car couldn't make the distance to go through it, but the SUV can. It just lurches out of the tunnel and flys for miles through that ring!

[Cobra951]

You can't jump at all in the Supercar.  It has a lot of downforce.  That can be a pain sometimes.  Even small hops to clear something can fail.  The SUV just hangs up there.  Wait until you get 4 stars in driving and figure out how to put the 'B' ability to good use.  You'll be able to get to some crazy high places.

[scottws]

Ok, I finally got back into this game and beat it last night.  Now what?  I tried going around looking for driving races, but I couldn't find any that I hadn't done.  I know there are some, but I can't find them.  It seems so boring now.

It would be cooler if you had increasing levels of police/gang resistance like in the GTA games.  I wonder why they thought it would be a good idea to leave that feature out.  Also, I notice that sometimes in the middle of you causing mayhem, the police/gangs decide you aren't a threat anymore and leave.

[Cobra951]

The AI is lacking.  (I had the most difficulty trying to take well-protected bosses out when deep inside buildings or way up high.)  When the cops decide to take you out, they behave exactly like any of the gangs in death-squad mode.  They throw everything they have at you until the circle thing empties out, then it's back to business as usual.

Did you do all the footraces and such?  I never did finish those.

[wizall]

So, I've played the demo twice in a row today.  I really enjoy it, even if it is pretty simple in scope (gameplay-wise).  I'm gonna try to find it used today.

Did anyone bother with the "Gettin' Busy" DLC?

[Cobra951]

Wow.  Time travel. 

The longterm fun of the demo is in seeing how far you can develop your character before time runs out.  You don't advance so quickly in the real game.  Keep the demo even after you get the full game, if you can.  It's like a speed-play game mode.  I had to give it up to make room on my hard drive for other stuff.

[Quemaqua]

I don't even know what the DLC is.  No Live connection.  Game is fun stuff, though.

[wizall]

Yeah, I've been playing it nonstop the last 5 hours.  Killed all the bosses of the Mexicans and now just boosting stats, finding agility orbs, that kind of thing.  It's a hell of a good time.

I will say, I spend absolutely no time in the vehicles except to run people over. 

Man, there's something really satisfying about seeing those orbs rush at you when you kill a gang member.  Nice touch, that.

Aside from that, I can see why the game didn't get amazing reviews.  There doesn't seem to be much beyond this.

[Cobra951]

Epic bump!

I had forgotten what an insane amount of fun this game is.  I'm replaying it because I got the digital version free with XBL Gold.  So now I have it both ways (disc and digital).  It didn't take me 5 minutes to get fully into the game again.  After a short while, I started a new campaign under a different profile (the only way to do it without deleting an old save).  For the past 2 nights, I've been up until the wee hours playing "The Hulk" again.  It's just so . . . liberating?  I can't explain it any better than in my old posts.  See above!

The game has aged well.  The mechanics still feel spot-on, near perfectly honed.  The visuals have been superseded by more modern games on the system, but not the fluidity, visibility under all lighting situations, or the depth of field.  These are superb.

Anyway, it's free with Gold until the 15th or so.  Grab it while you can.