Unlike Gears of War, Crackdown doesn't seem to have the same high cult momentum. Yet, each day we're hearing more about Crackdown, seeing advertisments for it and being baited with Halo 3 betas.
What is it we're being hyped to buy? Crackdown is an action/driving hybrid with the first truly 3 dimensional playground. Explore the full width, depth and height of the city as you are the law tasked with cleaning up the streets of Pacific City.
Does it sound like Grand Theft Auto? Perhaps it does, it is developed by the brain child of GTA, David Jones, so it is not surprising.
Microsoft may be attempting to build a new GTA-like franchise to draw people further away from the PlayStation 3 (PlayStation is traditionally known to "own" the GTA franchise). Now, with the GTA franchise being less exclusive to Sony and Crackdown being published by Microsoft Game Studios, it is a win-win situation for Microsoft, we think.
Will the game hold up to all the hype? Or are we going to shell out USD $59.99 just for a Halo 3 beta and get some type of GTA clone?
Ad campaigns will be running through many game magazines: Electronic Gaming, GamePro, OXM, Game Informer, Play, Hardcore Gamer. You'll see them on Xbox Live Marketplace and all around the Internet. The game release date is 2/20/07, over a month away and we don't see the hype wagon slowing down.
Many gamers are getting mixed signals - is the game going to be "totally awesome" or are we being baited with Halo 3 beta invites because Microsoft knows the game won't hold water on its own?
The demo will be available on January 18th, 2007. Hopefully, the game will be as impressive as the money we're going to lay down for it (so we can get into a Halo 3 beta?)
