For those of you that were fans of the original, and amazing if I may say so myself, Crackdown the sequel is very similar and yet has many differences from what I have seen so far. As of yet I have not finished the game but intend to down the road. The game has the same feel with a whole new twist that is both good and extremely challenging. In the first game your goal was to take down drug lords and gangs, in the second this is still a focal but only one slice of the pie. The game opens up with news of an outbreak of people infected by a virus that carried over from the end of the first game. The “Freaks” as they are called in the game are basically a plague onto the people of Pacific city and need to be neutralized.

The game plays just like the first one in that it is still the open world action filled sandbox with something unique for all kinds of gamers. The leveling system is built primarily around orbs that envelope the entire city. The orbs are color coated depending on the ability you are trying to level up. For example agility orbs are green and are scattered on building tops and ledges, the more you collect the more points you get towards gaining a level. When you level up with agility it makes you run faster and jump higher. The other skill orbs available for leveling up are driving, strength, weapons, and explosives.

For gamers with ADD, myself included, this game is a bottomless pit. I say this simply due to the size of the map and the endless possibilities, not to mention the ability to climb buildings, throw vehicles, and tear up the city alone or with friends. Lets get serious, who doesn’t want to climb buildings, kill people, kill mutants, and more?

We have quite a few new releases coming up this month.  From Lost Planet 2, Skate 3, Red Dead Redemption & Super Mario Galaxy 2 to at least name a few of the amazing titles coming out this month. I do plan on getting around to these games real soon but I am currently playing Alan Wake, a psychological horror game with wicked twist to the story line. I am going to give you a quick run down of the game play with the story line, but don’t worry I’ll try not to spoil it to much.

So many of you probably have seen the trailers for this game and think oh its another 3rd person shooter.  Yes that is true but it adds another element to the shooting aspect that makes the game feel different from other shooters.  This feel I’m talking about is using the flashlight to actually harm your opponents and using light sources to harm your opponents. You also have a couple of different light sources to destroy the enemies, from a flare to a flare gun and even flash bang grenades.  Now most of you are thinking that is lame, but it goes really well with the story line and makes the game play a lot more interesting and fun.

So for the story line you play as a writer named Alan Wake who is going on a vacation with his wife. This vacation spot used to be real famous for fishing until the volcano erupted at the bottom of the lake, and now its famous for its deer hunting.  Anyways you end up on a cabin in a lake and the next thing you know you wake up a week later not remembering anything that happened, with your wife missing. With her gone and everything missing you feel nothing but alone and cold in the dark, but this darkness has taken over everything in the town and now you must find out where it came from but most importantly find out what happened to your wife.  What I really like about Alan Wake is how they lay the story line out.  Each little play through you go through is an episode of what happens and it all leads up to one big finale like a TV show, and my favorite part is how they keep informed of whats going on.  So if you completely forgot what happened on the episode before you and are starting a new one, it will do a previously on Alan Wake in that cool narrators voice.

I give this game 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.