Crackdown is the one of the most successful game of the sandbox-style genre. It is one of the game under Microsoft’s strategy to promote Xbox 360 as it can be played only on the platform of Xbox 360. It was created by David Jones, the man behind Grand Theft Auto. It sold more then 1.5 million copies in first six moths of its release. A sequel for the game is under development, it will be named Crackdown 2. Just like the predecessor genre for the game will be sandbox-style third person shooter video game. Crackdown is under the development of Ruffian Games and will be published by Microsoft Game Studios. It will be released for Xbox 360. No release dates are announced by the developers. Designers for the game are Billy Thomson and Steve Iannetta. Crackdown 2 is modeled like the previous game of the series. It will be a third person shooter in open world gameplay. The player will be a super human simply known as “Agent”, working for city-funded Agency. Just like the predecessor Crackdown 2 will support a seamless so-operative play in the main game. Only difference will be the number of players is now increased to four from two in the previous. A new mode will feature in the game, known as competitive mode will support up to sixteen players. Overall gameplay of the game will be mostly similar to the predecessor.

Plot of the game was reveled at E3 2009. Agent will be the playable character of the game. He will roam in a fictional Pacific City, which is infected with urban gang War. He assists Agency in the battle against numerous crime kings who controls the city. There are some strange looking creatures shown in the trailer. This indicates that Agent will have to deal with more powerful enemies that the previous street gangs. The game will be set many years after Crackdown. This was reported by Billy Thomson who is creative director of Ruffian Games. Previously he along with Phil Wilson confirmed that game was designed from the beginning of the series. They stated that there will be sequels for the game. later it was commented that Realtime Worlds was not working on a sequel to the game. However, Microsoft stated that they still got the holds the intellectual property rights to Crackdown and there will be a sequel very soon. The game was confirmed in the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo Conference. This time however it was an official announcement and the game was finally off to a start.

It was noted by Ruffian that half of the team that formerly worked on Crackdown in all the areas of the game development, and felt that their studio will be a perfect place to develop games sequel. This decision was later confirmed by the publishers. Development team decided to keep the sequel to be located in Pacific City. Settings for the previous game got the character of its own in the first game and the development team want to conserve these settings so that player will feel similar to the previous game. The City however got a bit more larger then the previous time. Developers avoided any possible similarity in the dialog driven cutscenes. Gameplay parts that were criticized previous time were also improved. Mechanical part of the game was kept similar, only change to the game engine is that now it will allow the display of the large view for the City. Every other thing will be unique about the game, like music of the game. Everything for the game was kept confidential with Microsoft. This will help to attach all the sensory experience of the game.

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APB or All Points Bulletin is a new name in the field of massively multiplayer online game. This game will only be available for Microsoft Windows. Based on urban drapes this game will feature two sides. One is the Enforcement and the second is of Criminals. You can join any of the two sides, Enforcement or Criminals, and form sub-groups under these. Game is designed by one and only David Jones, creator of world famous Grand Theft Auto and Crackdown. APB is developed by the developers behind Grand Theft Auto the Realtime Worlds. This game was in news for its controversial gameplay scenes. Gamers are waiting for this one as it offers you to join any of the two gangs of a modern city.

Initially it was expected that the game would be available for all the Modern day gaming platforms like PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and for PCs. But later all of the versions were denied and only Windows version was opted for the launch. It was reported by Gamespot that priority was given to PC edition by the Realtime Worlds, and it will be the first one to be marketed. However, according to Realtime Worlds they will later produce the console versions for APB, both for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

APB was planned in the year 2005 initial plan was to launch the game for, PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Game development was handed over to then newly founded Realtime Worlds studio created by David Jones. According to the plan Xbox 360 versions has to be out in 2008, but later the plan of launching the game on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 was dropped. In the meantime, Realtime Worlds developed Crackdown in 2007. It is believed that APB has some resembling features to Crackdown.

In early 2008, David Jones announced that APB would be released in 2008. Announcement was made at the 2008 Game Developers Conference. Jones noted that APB would be like a MOG where players can interact up to 25 other players at the sane time, and it would be like sci-fi massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft. One thing was clear to Jones that with a gameplay similar to these biggies he cannot compete with them. After that game was postponed for a 2009 release and it was seen in many announcement’s and interviews that APB will only released on Microsoft Windows. Console versions will join the race later. There was an industry rumor that Realtime worlds are planning to sell the game to Rockstar Games in order to change it into a Grand Theft Auto version. APB is a long awaited game and players are waiting to enjoy the feeling of choosing between good and bad. According to Realtime Worlds executive, this game is “the bastard child of everything we’ve been striving towards over the 15-20 years.”

Game is based in a modern day, in a fictional city where there a continues battle between Law Enforcement and Gangs. You can join any of the team. The two side fights daily in order to take control of the city. The territory is under dispute for the control. This continues dispute offers players to enhance their offensive as well as defensive moves. Other than that, there are other smaller missions in the game that allow you to earn more money. More money means that you can buy new weapons, vehicles and improve your characters, all these factors influence game directly. For example if a criminal gang robs a store easily then a all points bulletin is issued against them for the Law enforcers ask them to stop robbery. APB will be the first game where skills of the player determine the characters progression, not the time spent in the game. An additional feature is added to the game now players can use the Last.FM to create their own sound tracks. It was stated that a BETA version would soon follow the game.

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A nonlinear gameplay is a gameplay that offers players with challenges that can be completed in a number of different sequences. A more linear game will allow a player with fix sequence of challenges and a less linear game is the one allowing a grater freedom. For example, a non linear game may allow you a choice between paths to victory or in better words permit multiple sequences to finish the game. Some games are released with both linear and non linear elements, and some of the games offers sandbox mode which allows player to explore the game environment independently from main theme of the game.

Most games feature linear storyline, which runs on a fixed plot in a single sequence. A true linear game is the one which doesn’t have a story at all. A truly nonlinear story is the one which completely depends on the actions of players completely. A non linear story is comparatively difficult to design. Non linear stories usually preserve the overall story arc while allowing multiple solutions to a specific challenge, or a choice between multiple challenges. Most of the non linear games come with a dynamic feature for game dramatics, pacing, and difficulty called the Director. The way of directors working is called “Procedural narrative”. Instead of just having a difficulty level which just runs up to a constant level. The director analyzes how the players fared in the game so far, and tries to add subsequent events that would gave them a sense of narration and nonlinear game gameplay.

A world or game level can be linear or non linear as well. In the game with linear levels, there is only one route that the players must use through the level. In the games with nonlinear levels, players might have to revisit locations or choose from multiple paths to finish level. Like other game elements, linear level design is not absolute. While a non linear may offer players the freedom to explore or backtrack there are still fixed sequences of challenges that player must solve in order to progress in the game. Even if a player has to encounter the challenges in a fixed sequence, they must be given the freedom to identify the challenges without having presented one after the other. In a more linear game, in order to finish game player has to finish the levels in the sequence. The ability to choose between levels, skip, and repeat makes game less linear. A sufficiently large and open ended level may be described as open world or sandbox. In a sandbox mode of a game, player may turn off or ignore game objectives. This can give rise to possibilities that were not intended by the game designer.

Non linear games are preferred more compared to linear games as modern day players want to be the part of the game more and more. The feeling of narration gives players feeling of enjoying every corner of the game, as they are unable to do this with traditional linear games. Non linear games also proved to be commercial hits. Some of the famous non linear games are: Assassin’s Creed, Left 4 Dead, Grand Theft Auto franchise, Freelancer, Crackdown, Elder Scrolls series.

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