Well then, you’ve got to watch this video.

When Crackdown was released in the summer of 2007 a large majority of gamers purchased the game solely for the Halo 3 beta, a chance to play one of the 360′s most anticipated games early was a carrot that a lot of people just couldn’t pass up. But when they opened the game and played they found themselves introduced into an open world of super powered Agents, deadly terrorist games and one of the most addicting collectathons in recent gaming memory: Orbs. Ah orbs – for months after the game was released my dreams were haunted by the echoing “ring-ring-ring” of a close by orb and the sudden “DING” that sounded when my Agent finally grabbed it. I spent much of my summer that year playing and replaying Crackdown, not only to collect all the orbs I could, but also to share in the experience with a co-op friend – and to blow said friend out of the sky with a nice dose of rocket launcher goodness.

To say that a sequel was desired is obvious. The developers at Real Time Worlds had hit on something special, a magic violent quality that at the time a majority of gamers didn’t know they were missing. When one of the original designers for Grand Theft Auto 3 left to make his own open world super hero game, it almost seems odd that most people bought the game for a beta of a totally different game. But after the release, Microsoft didn’t want to go right onto a sequel so Real Time Worlds moved on to develop the MMO A.P.B., which seemed like a bleak prognosis for a sequel to ever see the light of day. Thankfully in mid 2009 some of the team reformed into a new studio called Ruffian Games and announced that their first game would be the anticipated follow up to the surprise hit. Crackdown 2 was a reality. For the next few months the world was teased with images of new agents with new powers, fighting against a zombie-like enemy called “Freaks”.

And now, finally, Crackdown 2 is out. And if you were a fan of the superhuman fuelled jumping platforming and orb collecting from the first game, than this is the game for you. If you are a fan of good stories, interesting plots, boss battles and a cohesive game structure, well then you may just want to look elsewhere.

The events of Crackdown 2 take place 10 years after the first, after your Agent cleaned the streets of Pacific City of all the gangs and allowed the Agency to basically take over the town. Oh yeah – your agent also sorta let out a plague that turned innocent citizens into blood thirsty Freaks every time the sun went down. So now, 10 years later, the city is in ruins. Buildings have crumbled, streets are barricaded, and the general citizenry is afraid. There is also a new terroristic threat in town who call themselves “Cell”, and they’ve taken hold of the city. In order to take control of the situation the Agency has created a new “Agent 2.0″ who the gamer gets to take control of. This Agent’s mission is simple – go forth into the city and activate these new “solar beacons” that have the ability to kill Freaks in their own lairs and also take back the city from Cell. Sounds simple right? Well in execution its that simplicity that drags the game into mediocrity.

Crackdown 1 was criticized for its boss battle structure. The three gangs that had run the city all had distinct looks and districts that were all run by a number of bosses. The game tasked the player to head to each boss location and then kill the boss, thereby taking control of that part of the city. The problem with that structure was that each boss fight turned into the tedium of running past a bunch of enemies to just launch rockets at the bosses until they died. The concept was perfect in theory but was just flawed in its execution. And with over a dozen different bosses it became extremely repetitive.

The developers at Ruffian Games heard the complaints of gamers and decided instead of trying to fix the fault, they would remove it entirely. But by doing so they also removed any semblance of structure from the game. Instead they replaced the boss battles with four main mission types:

A: Cell Strongholds. You basically go to a certain area on the map and request a helicopter drop of Peacekeepers (the game’s version of police officers). Before the peacekeepers can arrive you have to defeat a certain number of Cell opponents. You have various weapons at your disposal, from uzis to shotguns to machine guns, all the way up to rocket launchers and grenades. Just kill the required Cell and you’ve won that stronghold.

B: Freak Breaches. The Breaches as essentially the same as their Cell counterparts, only instead of human resistance you fight against Freaks – basically zombies – who attack you physically with melee attacks or by spitting acid. You call in a chopper, then kill the required number of Freaks – boom. Freak breach sealed.

C and D: Absorption Units and Beacons. Beacons are the UV devices that can kill Freaks instantly, but in order to place a Beacon you first have to activate a set of Absorption Units to do so. Each Beacon requires 3 AU’s to open up. The Absorption Units are as simple as going to a marked location on the map, killing the THREE Cell soliders guarding it and then standing on a certain spot until you’ve “activated” the unit – Battlefield style. Activate the 3 units and a new location shows up on your map, leading you to an underground Freak lair. Then it becomes another repeat of the Stronghold missions. Only this time when you call in a helicopter drop you have to actually defend a UV Beacon until it fully powers up by killing everything around you.

And that in a nutshell is the entire mission of Crackdown 2. That’s it. There isn’t even a plot told while doing these missions, no the plot is told strictly through small “audio logs” that you have to find strewn throughout the city. Otherwise all you hear is the ever present Announcer telling you to move on or how great a job you are doing. This voice in your head must have some sort of mental problem, because he can’t seem to remain silent for more than a minute as he is CONSTANTLY talking to you. And as far as I could see there wasn’t any way to mute the bastard.

Of course that isn’t all there is to do in Crackdown 2, there are a wide variety of side tasks that you can do to waste your time. There are rooftop races to test your jumping and ability as well as car races that test your driving ability. In truth these “races” are more “get to the next checkpoint” than actual races against other people, but they are still a fun diversion and actually give you a sense of accomplishment for completing them. There are also Car Jump Rings strewn throughout the city that you can jump various vehicles through. The real fun in those is trying to figure out the best way to get through them. New to the game, and tied to one of the new abilities of your Agent, are the “Glide Suit Rings” that are similar to car jumps – only you have to use your Glide suit to freefall through the rings in order to complete. But you only earn the Glide suit by almost fully maxing out your Agent’s ability rating, and the suit itself feels broken as its not the easiest thing to control and never does what you want it to do.

Also returning to Crackdown 2, much to the chagrin of recovering addicts everywhere are the Agility and Hidden Orbs. As gamers will remember from the first game Agility orbs are the glowing green balls that seem to be on top of every building in Pacific City, you must jump and climb your way to the top of these buildings to grab the orbs – doing so will earn you points to help level up your agents jumping ability, the higher the level the higher you can jump and the more orbs you can reach.

Hidden Orbs are blue balls that when found grant points in all of your abilities. But these are not as out in the open as Agility Orbs, hence the name “Hidden”. You are to look in every corner and crevice to find these gems – and thankfully the developers made this chore easier in Crackdown 2 with a new sonar ability. Just hit “Up” on the d-pad and your mini-map will briefly show you every orb in your immediate vicinity. Its extremely helpful for all those players out there who have to catch them all.

The developers have even added a trinity of new orbs to find and collect. Renegade orbs come in two flavors – Agility and Driving. These orbs actually move away from your Agent and you must chase them down, since they actually require more skill to grab they reward you a greater amount of points for each selective skill – either driving or agility. There are also Online Orbs. These are orbs that only show up if you are playing a co-op game and once caught they reward all skills similar to the Hidden Orbs. With all these orbs put together and the audio logs there is nearly 1000 collectable items around in Pacific City this time around, which is quite a lot.

And speaking of Co-op, Ruffian Games has doubled the amount of co-op players from 2 to 4, so if you can find three friends with the game you can have 4 super powered agents running through town causing havoc. The only caveat to this is that only the host is able to record game progress. What this means is the 4 players are playing in the host’s world – whatever missions are completed are only recorded in the hosts file, so if you do a bunch of strongholds and Freak breaches in a co-op game that you aren’t the host of, when you go back to your own single player game you’ll have to do those missions all over again. A nice bonus though is that no matter who the host is – your own orbs will be visible, so each player only sees the orbs they need to obtain and whatever they collect is reflected in their own game so you don’t have to do any backtracking in the single player game to re-find orbs you may have gotten online.

There are also a few multiplayer games that support up to 16 players, but these are mostly deathmatch games that, while fun, certainly aren’t going to hold anyone’s attention for very long. The extremely fun “Rocket Tag” mode returns that outfits every agent with a rocket launcher for some explosion-y fun, but as I said its merely a diversion.

Crackdown 2 had a lot of potential to be the open world game to beat. Super powers complete with insane leaping ability could have led to a great game. If the developers had the foresight to add a great story with maybe a new location I would’ve been able to recommend the game without a second thought. But instead they created a game that seems like a copy of a copy of the original – it looks the same and sorta feels the same, but there is fraying around the edges and the color is faded. The orb collecting and leveling up are just as fun as they always were, and you can never get enough of the great explosions you can make – but without a solid backbone of plot and progression those things just don’t make a great game.

If you really want to just waste away a couple of afternoons finding all the collectibles then I’d say its well worth a rental. But if you’re looking for an actual game, you’d be better served looking elsewhere.

Now, get a look at this screenshot gallery of Street Fighter X Tekken, straight from San Diego Comic-Con!

Kazuya Mishima looks right at home in these screens, he could totally be a Street Fighter boss if he wasn’t tied up in all those King of Iron Fist tournaments. What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

The two companies will be developing versions of a game pitting their trademark fighters against each other, with Capcom responsible for “Street Fighter X Tekken” (pronounced ‘Street Fighter-Cross-Tekken’) and Namco developing Tekken X Street Fighter.

The two producers showed off a teaser trailer featuring a pre-rendered Ryu squaring off against Jin Kazama, in the inky Street Fighter IV art style, before announcing the game would be available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. And then Ono gave the crowd a demo. Holding up a Blu-Ray disc, Ono showed attendees a playable version of Capcom’s game. It features Street Fighter IV mechanics, with an extra tag feature that lets players tag in new fighters – in Ono’s demo he showed off a team of Ryu and Chun-Li vs. Jin Kazama and Nina Williams.

Harada further announced that Namco’s version of the game will play in Tekken style, with fighters duking it out in a 3D arena instead.

However, neither game will be available for some time. Ono suggested fans “enjoy Marvel vs. Capcom 3 while they wait.”

Of course, if you want to get your engines revved now, you can always check out the trailer!

It seems Microsoft wants to do everything they can to keep that magic $400 price tag despite rumors that Nintendo is dropping the Wii to $149 in the wake of Kinect and Move’s launch later this year, but if any 360 bundle can move units at $400, it’s HALO.

The big surprise is that the game will only cost 400 Microsoft Points, a price that isn’t making Capcom any money according to Keiji Inafune, Capcom’s head of R&D Management Group and Executive Producer for Dead Rising 2.

“We’re not making any money on this,” Inafune said during today’s Comic-Con panel for the game. “I went against the company’s wishes and went for the 400 MSP price point.”

“With Dead Rising 2: CASE ZERO we had two goals: provide newcomers with an easy point of entry to the Dead Rising universe, and give fans of the series an insight into what took place after Frank West survived the outbreak at the Willamette Mall,” Inafune said in a prepared statement. “We have certainly achieved both of these ambitions but I am equally pleased that we are able to give gamers so much unique and entertaining content at such a great price.”

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero introduces players to the sequel’s main character, Chuck Greene, and takes place two years after the original Dead Rising. In this prequel, Chuck is trapped in his hometown of Still Creek, caring for his infected daughter Katey.

The prequel also introduces players to the concept of combo cards, which allow Chuck to combine items together to make new weapons to fight off the zombie horde. Players who buy the game will also be able to carry over their level – up to a maximum of 5 – skills, and prestige points into the main game, as well as a number of outfits, for the fashion conscious among you.

At this time, Capcom has no plans on bringing Case Zero to the PlayStation 3.

[source] Kotaku

Over this weekend, Comic-Con visitors will be able to check out playable versions of Chun-Li, Doctor Doom, Super Skrull and Trish, from Devil May Cry. Chun-Li and Doctor Doom we’re familiar with, they’ve appeared in a number of fighting games before, including the VS series. As for the newcomers, Super Skrull wields the combined powers of the Fantastic Four, which we suspect will make him like a speedy Dhalsim. That could be interesting? Then you have Trish, which we don’t have any expectations on, yet. But she’s fast! She’ll be a fun character to play for all the speedsters out there.

On top of this foursome, Marvel.com has revealed screenshots of Thor and Amaterasu, from Okami.

But wait, there’s more!

On top of all these other reveals, Marvel & Capcom commissioned comic book artist Jim Rugg to create a special Comic-Con t-shirt, featuring a number of MvC3 matchups – though the last pair is silhouetted, it’s clear that it’s Viewtiful Joe and Dormammu. Who is Dormammu? Short answer, he’s a Doctor Strange villain.

Of course, you want to see these new characters in action, don’t you? Well, feast your eyes on the trailer!

It looks great, we can’t wait to play it.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds is slated for release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011.

The game is being developed by Spicy Horse games, with American McGee at the helm.

“Alice is a classic fiction, infinitely rich with memorable characters, places and experiences. Our approach to Alice: Madness Returns takes this colorful world and reinvents it with psychotic personalities and pervasive insanity,” said American McGee, Spicy Horse Games Co-Founder and Senior Creative Director. “We can’t wait to share our vision with Alice in Wonderland fans and gamers around the world.”

Alice: Madness Returns is slated for a 2011 release on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This should settle the questions and speculation that’ve been circulating since the product’s announcement at E3 back in June, though most retailers seem to have had it pegged. In fact, Microsoft itself seemed to have accidentally leaked the pricing info only a few weeks ago.

The Kinect will come with both the proprietary cable to connect it to the new model of Xbox 360, which will both power and control the device, as well as a USB cable and power cord so owners of previous Xbox 360 models can use it as well.

On November 4, Microsoft will also be selling a new bundle that includes the new Xbox 360 model, with 4GB of internal flash memory and the Kinect kit for $300.

“I think Kinect absolutely presents a unique opportuity to reach a much broader audience than we’ve spoken to before,” said Aaron Greenberg, product manager at Microsoft.

Plants Vs Zombies will release on XBLA in early September at a price of 1200 MS points ($15 dollars). The PC/Mac version will be released as a compilation pack with Zuma and Peggle for $19.99, though the time frame for that release is listed as “Late Fall 2010″. The retail version will also be available in a “Game of the Year” edition that will include the game and a Zombie figurine  for the same price – though it isn’t clear if the “GotY” edition will also feature Peggle and Zuma.

The XBLA version should feaure all the same levels and wackiness of the PC version, but PopCap also release a list of some of the features available in the new game.

• A total of seven game modes, including two new multiplayer modes: Co-Op and Vs. Mode
• 12 achievements and 21 minigames – more than any other adaptation, and including the exclusive Heavy Weapon-inspired minigame
• A goofy new way to track and share progress online, where players create their own custom house and cruise down the street to see their friends’ cribs!
• The highest resolution of any Plants vs. Zombies adaptation to date at 1920 x 1080
• All 50 levels of the original Adventure mode along with Puzzle, Survival, and Zen Garden

Look for the game in September!