I bought Crackdown around this time last month, in that crazy time where Halo 3 beta's were being handed out, and nobody knew exactly when you would get to play or how. When people claimed that Crackdown was not going to be any good, and people would throw down $50 just to get in to the Halo 3 beta. Crackdown was on the ground, being kicked from all angles, and with no mercy. I for one, thought Crackdown was one of the best games of last year. I never finished it though.

With Microsoft retail points in hand, and an oppurtunity to get Crackdown for only 9 dollars, I figured I would buy it to finally finish the game. My roommate watched as I loaded the disc, and within moments, we were going through the same OH SNAP moments that it produced last Febuary. We laughed as we sent cars flying end over end through the air, climbed buildings, and round housed kicked enemies the lengths of football fields. It's been over a year, and Crackdown has not lost it's OH SNAP factor.

I advise you to play Crackdown, or finish it if you still have it. I understand it is a bit derevitive. I know it's controls aren't the greatest, and driving sucks at first. I know that the game is also easily beaten, but it's from these complaints that games get better. Thats' why I believe of any new IP from last year, Crackdown is most deserving of a sequel. It was a fresh offering in the sandbox genre, so polluted with crap, and it's more likely that other crap games will get sequels, like "25 to LYFE: Real Real Real Gangsta Addition," or "NARC 2."

So in hope that maybe a gamespot editor who is passing by, or anyone who cares enough about this great, but forgotten game, may one day run into the dev's of Crackdown, here is my list of things I want in a Crackdown sequel.

1. Larger Map, with vastly different zones: All three zones are city space. One is more futuristic, one is more "ghetto," one is industrial. It's obvious you were going with the whole city of corruption theme, but I think that if there was ever a sequel, steal a page from San Andreas. It balanced spaces out, and in turn created a whole "state," to play in. Crackdown would be perfect for this, especially with the driving upgrades, which might allow for some great high speed chases.
2. Event based missions, I enjoyed the free form approach to taking down targets only so much. It was a nice change of pace, and allowed you to attack based on your strengths, but at the end of it all, I didn't feel like I accomplished much. You killed your target, and it was back to work. Sure you got a message telling you how you changed the city, but that's just not enough. I want to chase these guys down in cars, I want to climb up buildings as thier helicopter tries to get away. I want to pick up and throw thier bodies off a high rise in a dramatic Die Hard moment. I want the villians of this city to come alive, and you can do that by making event based missions with some story to them.
3. Fix the driving, especially early on. It's just so frustrating. Your a super agent, who can't preform a proper u turn? What school did you graduate from that didn't teach proper driving skills. I like how leveling up driving got you a cooler agent-mobile, and weapons on them. I say leave the driving skill to the player, and let the vehicles upgrade into massive killing machines instead.
4. Local Co-Op. Online co-op was great, and it's a blast shooting a friend off the Agency tower and laughing at his demise. It would be even better if I could do that, and take down bosses with him next to me.
5. Fix the aiming, it's rather jumpy, and the limb targeting just isn't all that great. Once you get the rocket launcher, it just fire away and watch the bodies fly. Weapons are great, but I find myself melee fighting instead, not because shooting is terrible, but because it simply isn't as fun as kicking people. Perhaps weapons should have the same rag doll effect, with well placed shots sending enemies in to the air. But for the most part, I just want a better aiming system.

Well, If you managed to read this far, thanks! If not then (shakes fist!) but still, I believe Crackdown was dismissed by many and deserved a better fate. It's a long forgotten game by many, and Game Informer seems to be the only place that even mentioned it in thier end of 2007 awards. With that said, I am going to go back and kill more bosses, and try and get a co-op buddy.

I completed the co-op campaign last week with my girlfriend and we really enjoyed it. It was fun, it needed some more polish and maybe a few gameplay tweaks, but we really enjoyed it. We probably will try it on the hardest setting for S's and giggles.

So now that she is out of town and I am on my spring break, I figured I would try it's online mode. It's 2v2 matches where you compete by completing objectives, and earning money. It's premise seems great, but it actually is pretty bad. Maybe I was expecting more of a traditional game type, but my team mates never have head sets, and never want to complete the task at hand. The aiming and cover mechanics are completely useless in the online arena and at the end of a match, it just isn't satisfying.

Pretty dissapointing because I liked the idea of 2v2 matches and using strategy, seems that isnt' needed. Perhaps I am just being too harsh, or It just isn't for me.

But in hine sight, I agree with the GS review, but not with ther comments about the single player campaign, I am more docking points from Army of Two because of it's multi-player.

Ike

Snake

Ness

Thats how i roll

I keep Halo 3 in my game collection for one reason, and one reason alone.

My girl-friend loves the game. Consequently I love the game when we co-op.

In three years of dating (as of tuesday!) we have beaten a great amount of co-op games together. It's what we do on rainy days, boring nights, and days we just don't want to socialize beyond our apartment. It's our escape, and the Halo series has been a welcome game in our lives. In fact Halo is the series that we go back to more than anything, even more than Gears of War, our second favorite.

Why? The Co-op is just so much fun.

We had funny moments, where we accidentally stuck someone, and moments where we got frustrated and had to stop playing. We had crazy moments where I was about to die, and she barged in with the shotgun to save my ass. I had to device strategy so we could respawn, and when it all went to hell, my girlfriend suprised me when she could handle a group of brutes, then saying "it was all luck."

The Halo games are full of great moments that absolutely have to be expierenced with a friend.

We don't care about the story, or what armour we unlock. Just recently we have tried to get the skulls, and maybe in a few months we'll try the meta-game. For us, Halo 3 is just fun, and that's it.

I don't play Halo 3 when she's not around. I have plenty of friends who like the game, or would want to Co-op it. The one time I did Co-op the game, with 4 players, it was fun, but it wasn't as fun. They were very serious about achievements, and the meta game. They got mad when you made stupid mistake. I felt like the little grunts that are next to Master Chief. I didn't want to screw up, because some body might give me crap for just having fun.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for my girl friend, or maybe it was how serious they were. The game became a chore, and the fun was quickly lost.

The best moments I have in gaming recently are with my girl friend.

We beat General RAAM on insane together. We just beat Legendary on Halo 3 together. We conquered Earth Defense Force 2012 piss drunk nearly the whole game. We are Mario Kart fanatics, and our drinking game offshoot of the classic 64 game has become a weekend staple with friends before going out. We dueled in Virtua Tennis, and we are both anxiously awaiting Army of Two and GeOW2.

My girl friend made me realize something. We really take our games for granted some times. We get so caught up in graphics, or story, or hyping our games to be something they may not be that we forget to just enjoy the game. When I try to get her excited about a new game she only asks "is it fun," not "will it have 1080p native support?" or "will it fun at 60 FPS all game?"

When you play with someone who is so "pure," to the gaming world and untainted by the world of fanboyism and hype, you realize how fun games really are, and what you have been taking for granted.

You aren't a true gamer if you are not at least excited about one of the following things.

1. The PS3's resurgence after a abysmal start.

2. The release of Smash Brothers Brawl. and Mario Kart soon after.

3. Microsoft's adventure heaven in Ninja Gaiden 2, Too Human and Fable 2 this year.

4. Metal Gear Solid 4 and Gears of War 2.

This generation has finally become a competition. While the Wii ran away with last year, sales wise, the games side has been quite a dog fight, and 08 looks to be even better.

Fan boys will fight to the death over who is getting the best games, and whose console is the best but at the end of the day, this year is all about the gamer. This year looks to offer more new and exciting games than last year did.

This year has already gotten to a great start with No More Heroes, Burnout Paradise, DMC4, and Lost Odyssey. For two months, I am so backed up in gaming that I wonder if I will ever be able to play my games, and get good grades in my courses!

March should be a very promising month, with Smash, Army of Two, R6 Vegas 2, Dark Sector and MLB2k8 and who can forget April's juggarnaut in GTA4. I predict GTA 4 to shatter Halo 3's single day sales record. Of course it's a bit easier because it's multi plat, but I think it will double what Halo 3 achieved.

2008 has started much faster than I anticipated, and as a gamer, I couldn't be happier. So why don't we put down our flame shields, and just relish in what will be 2008.

360 -

The Club

Lost Odyssey

GTA San Andreas (beat all but this one)

Wii -

Mario Kart Double Dash

No More Heroes

Personally I'm a fan of Kevin V but I have to seriously dis-agree with the 7.5 score.

L.O. has a great story that like any great RPg, gets better and better as the game goes on. The characters are very likeable, and Kaim is an excellent hero. The thousand years of dreams concept tugs at your heart, while giving you insight into who Kaim WAS and what he is now. The battle system is so old-school, and it's nice to play a game that avoids the glitz and pomp of "next gen," and instead delivers a solid action. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

I am 10 hours in to the game and I am yet to have a load time that made me groan. The game does get choppy at some times, especially in graphic heavy areas, but it never pulls you out of the game.

I just wonder why games aren't allowed to be old school these days. People were really hyped to have a JRPG that was old school and played to what makes JRPGS great, and then all of a sudden its not next gen enough. We always clamor for games that return to the classic days with amazing graphics, and then a game comes and does it and suddenly we shun it as old and hackneyed.

Sakaguchi is back in my opinion, and I am anxious to see other JRPG offerings on PS3 and Wii. I'll go ahead and call this the most under-rated game of 08 so far.

In the effort to not shamelessly promote myself at all....ahem

You can read the article I wrote concerning the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner I attended last Saturday. I interviewed the crazy mobs on the street, and a few former members of Bill Clinton's administration. I ran in to a few Senators but they would not let me interview them because I was student press and they were liable for what they told me. (Not nice stuff either, about those damn Republicans, you can figure it out)

I was unfourtunately not published by the school paper. They ran a story instead where they interviewed 5 people who said the same thing. It wasn't interesting but alas I am a freelancer to them, and they have Seniors who would rather die than let me get published on the biggest story of the month. I'm not trying to say my story was better, I just want to say I felt thier story left out the people who mattered, the voters.

The good is that I have a good piece of Journalism that I believe is worthy of throwing in my portfolio. I also got to be part of something really special, and see two historic canidates speak in person. So while I didn't achieve my goal this time, I did gain some valuble expierence.

So check it out, and leave a comment, I do appreciate it. Then check me and other writers out in SW Monthly, the greatest fan zine for fan boys.

Where Blue Dragon failed, Lost Odyssey hopes to excel, and that is in the story. Blue Dragon was not a bad RPG. It had a fun battle system, and it was delightfully old-school. The story on the other hand, never got going, and by the middle of disc 1, you could care less about Shu and his shadow dragon.

Lost Odyssey is in the same vein. Old-school RPG action, with the tradition JRPG story-telling. Let's just hope that you will care about it from the get go. That's what makes Chrono Trigger and FF7 so great, the stories draw you in immediately and never let go.

Just got back from the Democratic Dinner in Richmond Va. I am a student journalist, and for my class I had to go find my own story. Well Obama and Clinton were in town, every major Democrat was in town, and I had no ticket to the event.

So how does a journalist get in? He begs, borrows, steals and lies. Well not all those but I got in. After being sent around by nearly 10 different representatives of the party, and VCU, I was given a wrist band and allowed in to the event.

I interviewed the thousand some nuts who stood on Broad St. chanting, waving signs, and showing thier American Pride. One couple even dressed thier dog up for Obama! After the man on the street interviews, I took my wrist band and got in line with members of the party, former senators, and people who worked with past administrations. I was finally let in and the event started.

I saw Hillary speak. She's got stage presence, but just isn't that interesting to hear.

Barack Obama was the main event, he didn't come on for quite some time, and I endured through a few boring speeches from minor members. He came out to the loudest cheer I have ever heard in VCU's basketball arena. Richmond = Obama-land.

Now I'm back with nearly 15 interviews to sort through, short clips, and lots of photos. I'll post my story when I finish, but I'm in no rush, my deadline isn't until Wednesday.

Not bad for a student journalist I think.

Photos will come soon.