Mad Science

February 28th, 2007Blog0 comments

Today, odds n’ ends:

LCC Show: It was a good show. Spartan Culture Night was probably the highlight for me. I’m not sure if you know this, but I am half Spartan.

Crackdown Mini-Review: For the Xbox 360, Crackdown is a GTA-genre freeroaming sandbox game featuring a constantly evolving Robocop-like protagonist. The more you engage in various activities (beating down criminals, sniping them from the rooftops), the more your various attributes increase in power. Eventually you can pick up trucks and throw them at people, and leap onto rooftops from the sidewalk.

The gameplay is tight and the nearly mission-less structure is a breath of fresh air. Without a plot to follow, you are given free reign to assassinate the game’s minibosses in any way you choose. Also there’s co-op.

One interesting difference between this and the GTA series is that since you’re operating on the side of the law in Crackdown, killing civilians is a no-no. As a result, your auto-target doesn’t target civilians, and if you do wipe them out (in explosions, for instance), your attribute growth takes a hit.

Compare this to GTA where they pretty much want you to kill civilians. There’s no reprecussion for killing them and they often say stupid, irritating things as they walk past you. Civvies in Crackdown often give you the thumbs up for rescuing their asses from criminals. So I personally try to play in a way that limits collateral damage as much as possible.

Another thing about Crackdown: It’s the first time I’ve ever seen in-game advertising. It’s true — in this dystopian, barely-hanging-on-to-civilization future, there are billboards for the Dodge Caliber. These billboards presumably are refreshed by Xbox Live.

I don’t mind it much. It’s not exactly subtle but it’s not distracting either — but if you were a corporation, would you want your products associated with a grimy, hooker-infested virtual city?.. It’s unreal.