I guess it helps that I never played Infamous, Prototype or Saints Row. I did play GTAIV for about 8 hours before tiring of it. I'm not really a sandbox person, but Crackdown just hit all the right notes.

Crackdown had that perfect balance of how much shit you can fuck up before the Agency is on your ass compared to GTA. So much so that it is never frustrating. Plus scaling the buildings to get away is a blast.

Nobody is arguing that Crackdown was a lot of fun. But it was over three years ago and, speaking for myself here, I expected a sequel that took this long to come out to look and feel more improved than that.

Yeah, and I just recently put in over 50 hours on Just Cause 2, which blows the original Crackdown out of the water. So taking so many steps back in a sandbox game after getting used to the current standard, which is so far beyond what it used to be, is nothing if not disappointing.

Played the demo last night and actually came away a bit more impressed than before. The game looks better than the trailers though still behind by todays standard. Look at Red Faction with it's open sand box play and it's detail and look is solid.

Overall I can see where the co-op fun factor is a big selling point along with "use whatever" which we did last night. used a lightpole to a street sign to a steel I-beam to just beat the crap out of anyone. And if not doing that then just run them over or punch and kick them around. Even in the demo you get a sense of there's allot of space to move and check out. I'm leaning to getting the game now.

And that's my situation as well. I'm smack in the middle of Just Cause 2 (23hrs maybe), and to go from that to Crackdown 2 is a huge step back.

So considering that and the unopened copy of Red Dead Redemption sitting on the shelf, it'd be pretty hard to justify spending a whole lot of time/money on this game at this point, especially when I essentially already played it three years ago.

i played the demo today and kinda enjoyed it. I really like that the power ups seem to occur much faster than in the original game. I agree, the graphics are not where they should be but, the lack of eye candy did not detract from my enjoyment of the demo.

The demo has sped up power ups.

I've played the demo about as much as I did with Red Faction when it came out. I went ahead and pre-ordered from Amazon for the $10 game credit and four Agency-Issued Armors plus it's $4.00 off and free ship.

I had to go over to www.Xbox360Achievements.org to get a list of the demo achievements details. I played with a friend and it was fun and can see where four players it'll be totally laughable mayhem.

Yikes, the first game actually looks better.





Same city, weaker graphics - they should be embarrassed charging $60 for this rehash.

Weaker how?

The first game just has more "pop" to it, with seemingly better textures, explosions, framerate and just more going on, save for the gaggle of zombies in the new game.

Watch the HD version of that vid. Crackdown 2 just looks dull. The vivid color palette of the original game has been dumped for the favored Unreal grey/brown color scheme. It just doesn't look good.

I've actually played the demo so I don't really need to compare it to a video.

The color palette is different yes. It's not as vibrant as CD1 yes. But those don't equate "weaker" for me I guess.

I am calling bull on this one...I love the first Crackdown, my son still plays it all the time. On my tv, no doubt about it, I don't care what you say about drab and shit, Crackdown 2 demo blows the first one out of the water. It is not even close...not even close in the "well this one has more red, and texture is better here" Crackdown 2 is not an amazing looking game, but on my screen it is more colorful than Crackdown 1...I am looking at 1 right now...

Crackdown 2 is way better looking guys....The colors are rich, and there is less burring than the first one. It just seems to pop compared to the first one, almost like watching a dvd vs blu-ray.....

The first game really shows its age...

after looking at that comparison video, there's no question crackdown 2 looks better. it does seem a little darker, but there is significantly more detail in the game than the previous one.

I played the demo also, but a side-by-side comparison is very handy.

Yeah, but rarely do videos on the internet look like they do once they're on my television, so I'll go off of that. But again, the changes to the palette doesn't equal weaker to me. Of course I'm also not taking issue with them using the same city either. After 2 years since I played the first and the changes to the environments they did make, I'm not sure I'd notice too much of a difference anyway.

I played the demo at PAX East and the first thing I noticed was how colorful it was.

crackdown 2 is darker, but the first one at times seemed washed out....

True, although in the video Crackdown 2 definitely looks like it has less detail, right down to the menus.

This is one thing that bugs me. I'll admit I haven't popped in the first game in a long while, but I recall it being a vibrant game. Lots of colors, lots of daytime action, etc. I think the demo starting out in the shipyards with all the colorful crates is misleading. Once I left that area it felt pretty drab. They even dropped the blue HUD for a dull slate gray. Ugh.

It's not a deal breaker though, as 5 minutes in I was already hooked on Orbs again. As long as it's fun, I'm in. I do think MS screwed up by going with Ruffian over Realtime Worlds on this one.

on all those counts. I don't mind the same city with minor differences. People didn't bitch about GTAIV, so why Crackdown?

My complaint is less with the graphics and more with the city itself. The city in Crackdown 2 looks lifeless. Most buildings seem to be generic blocks. And NPCs are just wondering aimlessly.

Compare it to any recent open world game like Infamous or GTA4. Buildings have personalities. There are storefronts. You can give someone directions in GTA4 like "Take a right at the diner and a left at the pizza place".

It just seems like a step backward for sandbox games.

Because the GTAIV add-ons were just $20 DLCs, which actually added more to that game than Crackdown2 adds to the first one.

And the simple fact that there's even a debate as to if it looks better than the 3 year old original is pretty pathetic for the sequel.

Yeah..but most of the debate boils down to the equivalent of "It totally needs more graphics!" So I'm always sure to consider the source of the debate.

Not the DLC, the fact that GTAIV is the same city as GTAIII.

Hard to argue with that.

Sure you can. The guy saying it is the one that started the debate in the first place. Self fulfilling prophecy and all that.