ALRIGHT. It was about 8 months ago now that I was thrown the idea of putting down some ideas of what I thought would be great for Crackdown 3.

I just read that thread again, and that is now the goal lol
Sorry it took me so long, I will begin

-Story structure:
I have to be honest in this department: Crackdown 2 put more story and theory into its structure then Crackdown 1 ever did. Period. Say what ya want about their failures but the audio logs and Crackdown archives say complete otherwise. I mean come ahn I even wrote a few chapters of where they could go. The critics claim that Crackdown should get rid of the "Go anywhere, do anything ya want" element. They can go eat outta Paris Hilton's ass for all I care. James Cope and Billy Thompson made it clear that the intention was to stay true to the fact that Crackdown always gave you the option to truly go anywhere you wanted at anytime. Its one of very few games that still does that. Other than Just Cause 2 but lets be honest, Just Cause ended up restricting your collection of guns and vehicles too.

At one point I saw in Crackdown 2 that Ruffian played with the audio towards the end of the game in old Shai Gen territory when Thorne and her cohorts sabatouged the Helmet the agent was wearing-It put me under the impression that we were going to be rebelling against the agency. Sadly though, we didn't. But I see why we didn't though. Ruffian wanted to take the story in a direction that ensured that the agency and cell would exist as predominate forces in future crackown games. Like the COG and Locust in Gears. That called for the story to trail off in the agency taking Pac City and Thorne escaping with a dna sample of the agents.

But I digress: The Tactical Helmet was a perfect element to use in the game because it allowed us to feel narrative actually apart of the story while at the same time, controlling teh outcome of what happens. Few games in media have that ability.

They say that Crackdown is about you, so make the story come to you. Experiment with holographic imaging and Tactical based positioning to control the story and maybe even introduce some collectible cinematic logs to tell the back stories of Thorne and the Whistleblowers!

-Combat:
Never had a problem with combat. Period.

I think it would be nice to introduce grapple moves in crackdown. Its blowing my mind away to imagine what I could do with a sniper if I got my hands on him...

Next Gen weapons are a commodity in Crackdown. The UV weapons and energy based weapons are a must to see in the third installation. But please GOD bring back the invisibility cloak. Predator aint got shit on me...

Now I also would like to see the aiming system brought to a more free aim form of precision targeting. Like gta 4, allow the reticle to touch more forbidden areas of the anatomy-shoulder, stomach, chest, toe, neck, etc. And speaking of forbidden anatomies...

-Physics Engine
Havok is one of the best engines out there. I say that because it plays with less gravity and ragdoll physics. What better engine to use than this for Crackdown!?!?!?!?! Now if you payed attention to the insurrectionists selling items and weapons, and even vehicles-you saw very clearly how the havok engine played with the apc's movements. He turned, walked, ducked, held his gun in a funky gangsta way, squatted. I mean he was free! His motions were so fluid it felt like watching a movie. The animation and rendering engine for crackdown 2 was great! Nw that they got money an improvement should be eminent.

-Music
Crackdown has some of the most unique music that I've ever seen in video gaming. Thats mainly because in free roams the music game is meant to be independent of mainstream and unique. I remember reading somewhere that Ruffian went out over 120 requests to artists for....wait for it......CUSTOM MADE TRACKS. Do you understand the weight of that? The music composer wanted to make a custom version of 120 songs. Thats insane shit.
Keep it up with the originality.

-ORBS :)
Oh my jeezass. Orbs are the crack in crackdown. The spice in my enchilada. The white girl to my Tiger Woods. The reason I think their one of the greatest things in free roaming is because like flags in Assassins Creed, they prompt the roamer to explore and discover the architecture of the city. Every where I've been I've been because orbs were like the bread crumbs that lead me there. Now take Fallout for example-your prompted to discover for loot, weapons and money.

Just Cause 2 has resource items, GTA has the birds and hidden packages, although these things are nice unlockables, their not apparent and OPEN. You usually have to spend hours in an area for one package. You can get an orb in 10 seconds.

They're also a reward for your venture to new heights, abilities when you discover that about your character. What better way to explore ourselves then by exploring the city! Its genius. Now I love renegade orbs. Annoying and unfair as they may be, they add a new formula to the roaming because unlike the climbing aspect of afility and he venture aspect of hidden, their all about a chase. Another element that shows you the arcitecture of a city that you might otherwise not have noticed. As are driving renegade and last but not least: Online. This showed us the true fun in having friends in high places. Dependent on co op and communication, you and your friend are partners in the hunt for them.

The hunt for orbs are perfect. I WANT MOOOOOOAAAARRRR. Give us 1000 agility orbs, 500 hidden, hundreds for renegade, and hundreds for online while adding some new variations of orbs. More means more discovery, and it makes getting the achievement that much more glorious.

Get rid of orb ping. That is all.

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Great read man, covered most of the stuff I'd like to see.

The combat has definitely improved from the first game to the second. Looking forward to see what they can come up with for the next game with the combat.

I agree with just about everything you said. Much more of a story than the previous one, improved combat, better weapons and definitely an impressive physics engine. Music seemed to be quite a disappointing part though. I don't care if the music is custom or taken from somewhere, I just want good music. If they could only IMPROVE the combat and not CHANGE it in the next game, I would be a happy camper. Great write-up, really couldn't say it much better.