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What was your favourite US racing location in Burnout 3: Takedown?

Silver Lake

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crackdown 2 out this week

Submitted by SUFFUR on Mon, 07/05/2010 - 12:05

and a video that just sells it for me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dddXqcvqJPQ&feature=player_embedded#!

it has become my wake call and start to the day!

Forums:

Life, the Universe and Everything except Burnout!

SUFFUR

Tue, 07/06/2010 - 01:25

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Got My Last...

Hidden Orb Tonight/ this morning, the sound of it'stone ring pulled me to completeness and just before Crackdown 2's release sweet!

Patience is something I taught myself, so I never know when it's going to run out?

SUFFUR

Mon, 07/19/2010 - 17:17

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So been playing Crackdown 2 for more than a week now, it seems longer, and sometimes shorter, as i got a lot of stuff done quicker than the original, then again with the 'ping up-on-the-D-pad' it is easier to find orbs, got them way faster on this rendition of the game.

Anyhew, there has been a lot of bad reviews of the game, Crackdown 2, and I think very unjust.

Most people did not even buy Crackdown except for the Halo Beta, and that's fine, but Crackdown was a great game and all it lacked was 4 player co-op and maybe some more for multi-player action. Crackdown 2 has this and more.

Ok some people say it is not that better graphically, and the only difference to me is the draw distance has been manipulated and the sky is just not as good as the original, and in the original they slowed the game down (as in to much information beingcalculated at once cause bog down with the game or console) but then again i don't spend time looking at all the graphics over there, i need them right here for the minute and what i see before me is a Comic/Cartoon'ish style of game that works for the game play. (true if it looked like that first video that would have been amazing but that's for the future)

The manipulation enables more fun with friends than ever. Though there is a lack of items to collect and blow up in the second one, and i think there was more debris of a dirty city/s in first one, from trash in the air and gas canisters and tanks of propane etc and stuff scattered on the road, though the second game has loads of burned out cars and stuff to go with a wreaked city.

I think to make stuff work, a lot of stuff was stream-lined out of the second game to help with the 4 player co-op so stuff does not get messed up.

It plays as well as the first, i still get vertigo, and still have trouble gripping walls, but it has been improved in the second game. Targeting is the same or better than the first, but to be good you got to stop relying on it anyway especially for multi-player.

And that is one thing that could be added, a sensitivity slider for the controls, for look and even movement, as well as a lock for driving and on foot, as i have to keep changing via the menu every time i jump in a car, outta lefty into righty for any car action i do, and can slow the game and make it really frustrating.

People have even argued it is Crackdown 1.1 rather than 2, and i get the feeling, but save a year after the game was out people on forums and web sites were begging for a new game and willing to pay top price for it, even wanting to donate to the 'any' company that would make it, just so there was 4 or more player action. Got that!

And going by job applications for Ruffin a few years ago they were looking mostly for artists, to re-draw the city, it would seem for that 'just been bashed by lots of freaks look'. If the game was like Battlefield, the city would need to be rebuild on a regular basis for the amount of damage we (day,blo , lucan, xan, myself and other great agents) do the city in a 4 to 8 hour session in the game.

It works for me, and they added so much beyond the 4 player co-op.

From the Glide suit, which is amazing piece of game-play, and brings such a new feel to the game. Throw in the chopper and you have fun and amazement. And the controls for the chopper are the best i have ever used in a game, and going to check if i can have the same set up in BFBC2, as i think I can haz some skill back on that game too, lol.

When you get 4 friends trying to glide around the world and knowing that one simple mistake can make fighting for height sound like a Oasis concert on PCP without the music, you soon realize when it works it is an achievement to be earned not gained!

When you see someone do the Agency race in a chopper, you know that doing it by foot is harder but more fun when 3 of you are doing it in a chopper because you can and it's like the greatest virtual roller coaster you have ever been on, then try it with 3 choppers at once, (soon it will be done with 4), but that's hair raising to say the least! And as like a Burnout game, the constant swearing at making a small mistake could cost you, you know you'll try again till either you make it or walk/glide away and try something else, it works for Crackdown, it did not work so well for Paradise, unless we had a driver that could get out of the car, lol!

Also going by my title if i was bored why not go play Crackdown 2, as Mr Han says' to much of a good thing can become a bad thing', and i have been wanting to write about Crackdown 2 for a little while now, so use the time to practice my writing skill, which though not improved i have become a bit faster, lol.

So back to the game! The introduction of the Mag mine is amazing from a creative point of view, the amount of uses this little mine has gone through from testing 'Agent Merry go round' where a mine is placed on the spinning beacon and a car with an agent test subject is then attached to see if the car and agent with spin around around, early test show that car and agent are to heavy and the mine slips under the spinner, but if using 4 mines with oil barrels and an automatic agent skip rope is created, then sweet!

I have built webs of cars and trucks across the spans of Pacific City, ladders of them to high up places, got Bugbong one of 'is hidden orbs on the ferries wheel, which took an hour but so much fun and determination to get him up there and i think he was a Level 3 agility at the time.

Last night was the use of a skip to build a catapult, but Lucan thinks he can make a trebuchet, which i am waiting to be seen in build form, but the skip was funny as hell, as it kept me and Day occupied for a few hours, with floating all sorts of stuff at the same time, tension of the mines, the use of Quacker's and sachell charges for blowing up the holding Mag mine to fire the skip up wards or 'over there towards other stuff that will blow up'.

The Cluster grenade is a scary explosive, it can cause many 'splosions and blow up anyone one near it, and i'm sure most have gained a unique death from my over enthusiasm with just chucking a load into a freak breach, lol. But i am like that mouse form Valiant 'Sabotage' I should cry as i Play!

But sometimes the Skip did weird stuff with the physics, or it was the mass of Mag mines everywhere in such a small space that may have more than dented our reality in our game world, as sometimes the skip would be pulled that much harder from one mine that it would disappear into building to be lost and the search would be on to find another skip or leave the area long enough for another to re-spawn.

Ok i miss the transformation of the cars and if was still here what would the chopper transform into with a lvl 6 Agent, lol something that even Rambo would even go 'where's that jungle i was living in peace at again, because that's one big fracking chopper! what was that chinese dragon movie idea again?!'(though a bit more mumbled).

The sound space in the game is amazing from the alarms to stereos, to the explosions to gun fire, it all sounds great and distance appreciated, ok Mr. Black, or Bad Guy Dude or the da boss in the black suit, The Agency Man, does go on sometime, but when he kicks off it's funny as hell as i start shooting the duped peace keepers for a while just to wind him up more, lol. And it can all be mute with the sound option screen anyway. Hell the menu system in the came cover most based for everything from gamma, to where the orbs are on the achievement list, use it, hell you can extract to any resupply at any time, though i think it's best to save and quit sometimes and jump back in.

This game is far from P.C. as you can get, without the serious gore factor or over done swearing (i mean it's not Saw or Deep space), the quips the citizens and peace keepers came out with crack me up, and they always get a thump or a single shot to ping off the helmet to show I am the enhanced one not you general public! And that one leg can kick your sad ass across the map, Capish? And to send it over the edge, ripping said leg off and beating then Peace Keeper to death would be a serious game engine over haul, lol. But if i could i would, you can have alot of fun with a clone Agent!

Ok I said i missed the sky from Crackdown but the sea in Crackdown 2 is great, it has waves, different colours, from blue to greens and just works with the style of the game, you want shiny, play Army of Two, another game missing lefty btw, but graphically a 'shiny game' but not as say shiny as Bio-shock, and ok it does not have water effects that work like Hydro-phobia but it's a blow tihs up type of game, when you shoot the water it does the 'peppered water effect with sound effects to', and does splashes for explosions, it works better than the original.

Ok maybe I'm not writing it as quick as I should, but I hope others will fill in any gaps I do leave out, with saying this game is better than the original for game play, you can argue there are some things wrong with game, but there were problems with the first, some stuff is the same from scary camera angles to falling through the floor, but the Ramp truck orbit flight still runs, get your tickets by just asking and allow for a little set up time and your off and out of the map, and some gained car skill to boot.

I'm a Orb hunter, and i have done the hunting, and the last one appeared in an area i have been over a dozen times, so I think sometimes the game hides them for a little while till your are ready to gain it.

I find the glide suit races hard but don't have many left to do, same with the races (foot and driven) and the agility orbs (foot and driven) and the stunt rings are fun to work out. In truth I think I'm ready for the multi-player, and may open a private room to see what the arenas are like, and if possible get a room going just to test a 16 man glide-a-thon, just to see what it looks like?

It is all about what i see that is fun and cool, and still not got that hdmi capture card yet, and wish i did because some of the stuff i have seen in the game is worth sharing, a good example is Blo firing of a rocket that looped to looped 3 times around three roof struts before exploding! It was like it was chasing it's own tail and talking of that, seeing cop cars being chase by cell in donut circles or HGV's accelerating away at the sound of gun fire and drive/jumping over the cars in front of them, yeah you could argue that ain't right to happen in a game, but in Crackdown 2 it does and it's funny as Tommy Cooper on E's. (If he did them and he was still alive and it was ok for a giant man in a fez to hug you a lot while telling 'my wife/mother in law' jokes while doing magic, that looks easy but isn't.)

I like Crackdown 2, enough that i was upset i did not get a real Crackdown 2 T-shirt! With my pre-order or that i may have not got the discount i should have got when i bought it, hey I work there it should be cheaper, but even the price is ok, if you got it for less than £40. It's not a "AAA" it's a "B Movie Cartoon Title" and other than some tweeks, it is great fun for those who loved the first, and in truth owning both games and playing them both now at the same time is just lots of fun.

I can't wait for a third, if we get a third? As money makes games and Crackdown/2 are big games and need people to buy them to make an even greater experience. Oh and try and buy them new, but understand that if you just get the DLC it will help.

Ok I have missed out loads, but I'll pass it over to someone else to carry on, or if I come up with something else with comment in as soon as I can.

Not a review but blog'iew, lol.

It's a blow tihs up and kill the bad guys type of game, or friends or friends of friends, or just anyone in the way of your Agent. And the space that you're in lets you do just that! Can't wait for the DLC('s) and hope it is reasonable priced.

So listen up and listen good! This is the voice of the Agency... buy this gnikcuf game before you ssip me off!

He would be a great genetically modified end boss, you know for the third one, all giant and weapon'ed up, lol, of course it would have to be perfected by then, so he could get away for the 4th one, with us hoping, gliding and jumping all over the world, lol.

Patience is something I taught myself, so I never know when it's going to run out?

lucandx1

Thu, 07/22/2010 - 14:51

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Crackdown 2 penny's worth

Having played this with Suf and leapt all over the city, glided round it, driven through and over it I think that this game has been given some unfair and fair criticism. A lot of the reviews mentioned that this felt more like a rushed update or DLC for the first game which, I find to be a little harsh but, to be fair on Ruffian Games they were given a very short timespan in which, to design, build, test and market the game.

For what they have taken from the first game and crammed into the second in such a short time should not be so readily dismissed. They included 4 player online co-op a set of 16 player multiplayer modes as well, add into that new vehicles, melee combat, the ability to glide around the city, new orbs to gather and new stunt rings too. If given a bit more time Ruffian may have had the opportunity to be able to polish the edges on some of these.

There have been some subtle changes in the controls, the camera still has a nasty tendency to shift to a position which, makes viewing the next jump pretty much impossible. But, as it is a fully rotatable camera you can usually correct that with a bit of right stick work. The gliding mechanic is a very clever addition; the idea of swooping about the agency tower is now possible. The contrail indicators are also a handy addition letting you know when to pull down on the left stick before you face plant the the pavement.
The new stunt rings fit in here as they're designed to take advantage of the glide suit, after running around the city there is a set of these new rings leading down inside of a skyscraper with a last one just outside, it's almost like a dive bomb into a recovery just inside of a building before flying out of it. The glide can cover some distance and if you ignore the swooping to gain height and speed you can gauge a jump and glide across without having to flick the left stick.

The new vehicles all handle differently, slightly lacking on the agency vehicles though as they seem to have kept the original roster and subtracted the morphing animation you got when you had levelled up your driving skill; but that's a minor thing. The helicopter is a blast and handy for getting certain stunt rings done, you can carry several players on the skids of the chopper and they can they do their glide stunt rings from a better height and angle which, can be a god send in certain areas. the vehicle stunt rings can be done mainly with the Agency SUV and it's jump trick, but there have been times where running through the city a supercar has gone airborne at pace. Usually, ending up a heck of a lot shorter and more crumpled impaled like a dart into a building.

The freaks and cell are good as enemies as they offer two distinct styles. Cell will come at you guns blazing whereas the freaks will run or lope and try to beat you up in a freaky type way. Once you get up to level 2 strength the freaks don't seem to be an issue until you go for a beacon; which are the main missions of the game. Get power nodes turned on go to a drop point call in a beacon and defend it whilst it charges up. The freaks in some of the beacon mission are huge and take heavy artillery to bring down.
Cell on the other hand will flood an area once one their own fires a flare gun, but with a reasonably well developed explosives skill you can clear them out quite easily or with a fully developed strength skill do a ground stomp and clear the area of cars, cell and anything really not nailed down. Cell have strongholds you take over to gain places where you can spawn vehicles or get weapon drops; not quite as integral to the game progress but very handy when being chased by a mahoosif horde of freaks wanting to whale on you.

The graphics took a bit of a beating, but they are fine for the job that they have to do and the style is very good for crackdown as it lends itself to a more comic book style. Not quite cell shaded but in some instances it does look very much like a graphic novel. There's a lot for the graphics of the game to do with all of the civilians running round and the freaks plus cell and the new methods of transport and gliding; if it were amazingly good looking the frame rate could stall and the game would lose it's fluidity.

The voice of the agency returns and has got some brilliant quips and one liners but, he can't be turned off. You can change the voiceover to that of the original game and play through with that instead. The voice of the agency is there to give you the story really as you play through, but as it really boils down to jump here, collect that and defeat this bunch it's a bit light in the game.

The weapons have had a few new additions the UV shotgun great for getting rid of freaks and also for blasting unsuspecting agents into a new post code. Several new grenades added for a bit of variety a high explosive, remotely detonated C4-esque duck, the mag mines and cluster grenades are a few to keep an eye out for. I still think that a Trebuchet is possible may take a little more time to sort out. The slingshot on the other hand is very good, especially if you have another player in the car as you let go.
It is possible to mag mine a car to a helicopter as well, which can help with stunt rings if the pilot's steady enough; which, with the controls of the chopper even a hamfisted numpty like me can do.

The main thing that should really be pointed out though is that this game is an open world game or sandbox if you prefer which, basically says here's a city here are some new gizmos to play around with and as a bonus to when you max out your skills you get rewarded with new attacks or a glide suit. All of which, is geared to allow you make as much fun of Crackdown 2's world as you want; a few nights back Suf and Daylight had a spider's web a mag mines set up holding up most of the vehicles in a small area and were leaping about setting off random mag mines to see what would happen. When a skip suddenly gains enough speed to break away from gravity at a rate of knots and nail several enemies as it fires along a street it can be very entertaining.
As can gliding around in a team of four people after having leapt like nutballs off the top of the tallest building in the city or from a helicopter which, can get sketchy if you're the pilot as the blades get a bit close.
I feel that as quit a few people had played the first game they were expecting something that would blow their socks off and may have missed the point along the way. The city is still there and huge maybe with a few less issues with grab holds for when leaping around like a loon, throw in new vehicles, a glide suit, new orbs, new stunt rings and races, 4 player co-op, 16 player multiplayer and upcoming dlc; for a short amount of time a lot has been done.

As far as I'm concerned having played the first game and the second I have enjoyed both of them, each has their own little foibles but, that's to be expected of any game and a sequel. The main thing that still sticks out is the fact that Crackdown 2 is fun and it's very easy to lose yourself for stupidly long periods of time messing around before even tackling a beacon mission. You are given the whole city right from the off, no need to let other areas open up you can drive, glide or fly over to whichever one you want.

I think that just about covers most of it, and possibly most of my browser screen.