To put it in marketing language (from all companies, not just MS), we\'ve moved beyond the era of \"GTA Clones\" and into the era of the \"action-driving\" genre. However you want to classify it, Crackdown looks like it will bring something good to the Xbox 360. It helps that Microsoft has tapped Real Time Worlds, which is headed by David Jones, and whose key members created the original Grand Theft Auto as well as Lemmings. So something good could happen here.

The hook of Crackdown is that you are a supercop in a futuristic city taking out the biggest kingpins of future-crime. That much sounds pretty typical -- sort of Blade Runner meets True Crime LA. But what sets Crackdown apart by leaps and bounds is a robust and unique style of co-op multiplayer. Via Xbox Live, gamers can enter the city together and form crime fighting teams. Exploring giant skyscrapers from top to bottom, back alleys and crowded streets, all with the help of a friend, leads to some cool, free-form gameplay.

There\'s plenty of time to learn more about Crackdown, which is currently scheduled for a Fall 2006 release.

Official Features Listing:

• Brilliant Experience from a Legendary Game Designer: From Dave Jones, the creative mastermind behind "Grand Theft Auto" and "Lemmings" comes "Crackdown," an explosive masterpiece set to define open-world, free form gaming in the next-generation.
  
  
• True Next-Generation Visuals: Harnessing the power of Xbox 360, Crackdown players enforce justice against the backdrop of a crime ridden metropolis, massive in scale, monstrous in scope and meticulous in detail. The unique presentation style employs a highly stylized rendering technique that turns the game into a living graphical novel.
  
  
• Cooperative Gameplay ? Double the Mayhem: From its initial concept, to final design, Real Time Worlds focused on delivering dynamic, engaging cooperative gameplay for double the carnage, action and intensity.
  
  
• 3-Dimensional Free Form Gameplay: For the first time ever, an urban playground has been created to encourage players to explore and exploit the full width, depth and height of a city. Players wage war on the syndicates by taking part in high-octane chases on foot and on wheels while using any appropriate route along, around, across, over, under or through the environment. Freedom abounds as it's up to the player to determine how best to complete the non-linear objectives in a myriad of wild and creative ways.
  
  
• Over-the-Top Action: All strategies and tactics are acceptable provided players reclaim the streets by unleashing the awesome abilities inside each Agent. As players develop and hone their gameplay skills, their Agent's genetic tendencies will increase allowing players to realize their Agent's full potential. Players will be able to run at dazzling speeds, take death-defying leaps, handle the most incredible weapons, perform impossible vehicular maneuvers, move massive objects and deliver bone-crushing blows.
  
  
• Music as Environment: Over 100 licensed tracks, spanning a wide range of styles and genres, give audio identities to characters and locations in Crackdown. Coupled with a next-generation use of 5.1 surround sound, gamers will know just from the music and sound effects they hear which crime syndicate is headed their way.
  
  
• The Environment is Your Weapon: Low on ammo? No problem. Thanks to an amazing amount of props and a deep physics system players can use whatever they can get their hands on as weapons ? from trashcans, vehicles, even people ? to clean the streets of crime. In Crackdown the actions you take last longer than when the player runs a block away too. If the player wants to stack up vehicles and then run away to corral vehicles toward an obstruction, the players 'masterpiece' will be there when they return as the game reacts to how the player plays. In Crackdown, players use the world as one huge chemistry set where the possibilities are endless and the outcomes are wild.