Crackdown wins Develop's "Innovation" prize

[Wrestlevania]

Hurrah!

Xbox 360 title Crackdown has won the innovation prize at the Develop Awards, which recognise the work of game developers worldwide.

Crackdown has been one of the most celebrated titles of 2007.

Congratulations to David Jones and the Real Time Worlds peeps.

[elmuerte]

I thought people bought crackdown so that they could play the Halo 3 beta

[DanJW]

Innovative marketing ploy though, wasn't it?

[toblix]

So, about Crackdown. I hear that it's more free-form than GTA. I liked the combined freedom and narrative of GTA. Is Crackdown just one big sandbox of enemies or something?

[Oath]

Yes, it's just a big sandbox. There isn't really much of an attempt at a story besides the basic scenario "gotta go kill those dudes!", that you're presented with at the start.

[toblix]

That sucks. No matter how fun a game is, if there's nothing to pull me along other than raised stats or whatever I lose interest fast.

[LOPcagney]

i actually think it's unbelievable that it won anything for "innovation", though. in all seriousness, the only fun to be had was jumping up buildings and kicking people off them (and I mean specifically those two activities) and the fun's over in maybe a half-hour most. it's just not as well put together as GTA, and gameplay aside, there was nothing really innovative about any of it, except of course, the tie-in with Halo 3 (DanJW is spot-on there)

[LOPcagney]

Sony won the Grand Prix award for overall excellence

oh, that explains it

[miffy495]

Actually, at this point Crackdown is my "come out of nowhere holy shit this is awesome" game of the year for 2007. It's probably the purchase I'm happiest with over the past 7 months, so good on 'em for winning. I don't quite get why the "innovation" prize, but I'm happy they have something. Maybe their innovation was that the DLC is actually worth it?

[SpiderMonkey]

Innovative marketing ploy though, wasn't it?

It would've been innovative if Zone of Enders/MGS2 hadn't got there several years before, with almost identical shenanigans.

[n0wak]

It would've been innovative if Zone of Enders/MGS2 hadn't got there several years before, with almost identical shenanigans.

Which itself was predated by "Tobal No. 1" containing the "Final Fantasy VII" demo.

[LOPcagney]

Actually, at this point Crackdown is my "come out of nowhere holy shit this is awesome" game of the year for 2007. It's probably the purchase I'm happiest with over the past 7 months, so good on 'em for winning. I don't quite get why the "innovation" prize, but I'm happy they have something. Maybe their innovation was that the DLC is actually worth it?

What sort of DLC did they offer? I don't own the game, I've just played it. I don't even have a 360 but by far that seems to be their advantage over the other two systems: the online.

[Aussie Ben]

This is what was available for the DLC. You can also download some bonus different character skins.

[LOPcagney]

This is what was available for the DLC. You can also download some bonus different character skins.

Keys to the City mode looks like a blast.

[miffy495]

And it really is. The extra character skins are free too. The only DLC you need to pay for is the pack with Keys to the City. That one is reasonably priced, and everything else is totally free. DLC done right. You can consider the first DLC pack a taster to convince you to get the pay one. Well done on the part of Real Time Worlds.

[Noyb]

Crackdown's competition can be seen here here.

SCEE Technology Group (SCE MultiStream audio engine)

Sumo Digital/Sheffield Hallam University (Super Rub-a-Dub water simulation)

Realtime Worlds (Crackdown)

Ideaworks3D (Airplay middleware)

Odd seeing so little Nintendo love from a European conference. The only mentions of Nintendo are for Red Steel (new IP) or Wii's Opera browser (best online feature). From a quick glance at the nominees, it looks like the awards are focused mainly on European developers.

[SpiderMonkey]

Which itself was predated by "Tobal No. 1" containing the "Final Fantasy VII" demo.

Owned on my gaming history knowledge! I have never heard of that Tobal game.

[brkl]

I have! MWAHAHAHA!

[Wrestlevania]

I'd say the flawless co-op was the point about innovation, not how successful some aftermarket bolt-on was.

And whilst yes, you can scrutinise the game to the point of "it's just a stats boosting thing", you can break down every game to this level of banality.

People who bought it for the Halo 3 beta paid a hell of a lot to play a demo, but got a superb game for free. It's something I think everyone should try for an hour or so at a minimum. Then try it in co-op mode.

Fully agree with Miffy, too: Game of the Year 2007 for me also at this point. Fucking brilliant it is.

[n0wak]

I'd say the flawless co-op was the point about innovation, not how successful some aftermarket bolt-on was.

I wouldn't say it's flawless. Gears of War, for all its "EAT SHIT AND DIE" faults, has a far smoother co-op experience. With Gears you can join a friend's current campaign and it places you right in there. Then you can drop out and your friend can continue with an AI controlled Dom.

With Crackdown, when you get someone joining you for co-op it takes you out of your current world and drops the two of you into a new instance. Yes, it's fun once you're there, but that transition is far from seamless. Flawless it ain't.

Speaking of co-op, I'm looking forward to "Army of Two" despite the fact that it seems to have all the same faults of Gears and it's published by EA. Hooray for a mini-revival in co-op play though!

[toblix]

About reducing Crackdown to stat-boosting, I phrased that poorly. It's hard to describe what I mean, exactly, because I almost don't understand it myself. Some examples:

RollerCoaster Tycoon

I loved this, and played it all the way through. Each map had a goal, and upon completing one, the next one on the list was made available to play. This kind of progression was, for me, totally excellent. Then, the sequel came, and all the maps were unlocked right from the start. This killed the fun for me, because there was nothing to accomplish by completing a map. The only, I dunno, "reward condition" was having completed all the maps. So I quit playing this pretty quickly.

GTA San Andreas

Although this game has a really open structure, there's a narrative, and a sequence of missions, each with its own introduction and ending movie. I played this a lot, and although I'd quickly become bored by the free-form gameplay alone, the missions kept me playing. I could spend an hour just driving around, getting police to chase me, etc. because I knew there was a progression in the game, and soon I found the next mission, then more toying around, and so on. Then, towards the end there's this part where you have to control all or most of the neighborhoods to progress. This wasn't interesting to me, because it was just like any other pointless game at this part, doing the same stuff over and over to increase some number. So I stopped playing.

Puzzle/arcade games

I only play these games if there's a progression that's not just a set of incrementing internal values. Breakquest I played all the way through because each level was hand-made and interesting. Tetris I get bored of quickly because there's nothing new, just faster gameplay. Meteos, too. Sure, the planets have differences, but they're just changes in the number of colors or whatever, gravity, and so on.

RPGs

These usually have mostly hand-made contents and stories and keep me interested, like Fallout, but the moment they start with randomly generated stuff, I'm out.

I guess I'm really after my progress in a game constantly being rewarded with new man-made gameplay elements, cut-scenes, whatever, as lame and particular as that sounds. I don't even know if this makes any sense.

[Redwall]

You don't like sandboxes. (Or you want a game and not a toy, perhaps?)

[toblix]

You don't like sandboxes. (Or you want a game and not a toy, perhaps?)

No, I don't like sandboxes, but I also don't like linear or structured games the only progress of which is an increase in some number or a new seed for some algorithm.

[miffy495]

If it helps, my feelings on San Andreas were pretty much the same (with the difference being that I stuck it out through the territory bits and got to see the fucking epic last mission) and I'm still completely enamoured with Crackdown. I really couldn't tell you why though. I often get bored with sanbox games, but Crackdown held my attention. Maybe it's the use of achievements to make you discover more and more fun things (I would never have gotten the hang of driving [or discovered the joy of the stunt system] if it weren't for that) or the fact that when you finish the story mode, you can simply reset everything but keep your character to do it over. Either way, it really worked for me, crap nonexistent story and all.

[toblix]

So, does anyone know if there are any problems with playing region free Xbox 360 games? I'm thinking about buying Crackdown from DVD Box Office, as it's almost half the price, but will I get all the updates and downloadable stuff?