This article needs additional citations for. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2013) () () Software cracking (known as 'breaking' in the 1980s ) is the modification of to remove or disable features which are considered undesirable by the person cracking the software, especially features (including protection against the manipulation of software, serial number, hardware key, date checks and disc check) or software annoyances like and. A crack refers to the means of achieving software cracking, for example a stolen or a tool that performs that act of cracking.

Some of these tools are called,,. A keygen is a handmade product serial number generator that often offers the ability to generate working serial numbers in your own name. A patch is a small computer program that modifies the machine code of another program. This has the advantage for a cracker to not include a large executable in a release when only a few bytes are changed. A loader modifies the startup flow of a program and does not remove the protection but circumvents it. A well-known example of a loader is a used to cheat in games.

Pointed out in one of their files that these type of cracks are not allowed for game releases. A has shown that the protection may not kick in at any point for it to be a valid crack. The distribution of cracked copies is illegal in most countries. There have been lawsuits over cracking software. It might be legal to use cracked software in certain circumstances. Educational resources for and software cracking are, however, legal and available in the form of programs.

But while trying to protect movies and music using technological measures is by now almost a lost cause, the same cannot be said about video games. While copying a. FIFA 16 is currently Denuvo protected and that game still hasn't been cracked, despite being released in September. But Just Cause 3 is. To stay on the topic of Touhou a bit longer, there's even some Crack Pairing between the ladies of Gensokyo and the Kanmusu of KanColle despite them being rivals right now in terms of popularity in Japan. Sure, there's a lot of bad blood due to the Rivalry of the Fandoms between those two games, but some people aren't.

Contents • • • • History [ ] The first software copy protection was applied to software for the,, and computers. Software publishers have implemented increasingly complex methods in an effort to stop unauthorized copying of software. On the Apple II, unlike modern computers that use standardized device drivers to manage device communications, the operating system directly controlled the step motor that moves the floppy drive head, and also directly interpreted the raw data, called nibbles, read from each track to identify the data sectors. This allowed complex disk-based software copy protection, by storing data on half tracks (0, 1, 2.5, 3.5, 5, 6.), quarter tracks (0, 1, 2.25, 3.75, 5, 6.), and any combination thereof. In addition, tracks did not need to be perfect rings, but could be sectioned so that sectors could be staggered across overlapping offset tracks, the most extreme version being known as spiral tracking. It was also discovered that many floppy drives did not have a fixed upper limit to head movement, and it was sometimes possible to write an additional 36th track above the normal 35 tracks.

The standard Apple II copy programs could not read such protected floppy disks, since the standard DOS assumed that all disks had a uniform 35-track, 13- or 16-sector layout. Special nibble-copy programs such as Locksmith and Copy II Plus could sometimes duplicate these disks by using a reference library of known protection methods; when protected programs were cracked they would be completely stripped of the copy protection system, and transferred onto a standard format disk that any normal Apple II copy program could read. One of the primary routes to hacking these early copy protections was to run a program that simulates the normal CPU operation.

The CPU simulator provides a number of extra features to the hacker, such as the ability to single-step through each processor instruction and to examine the CPU registers and modified memory spaces as the simulation runs (any modern disassembler/debugger can do this). The Apple II provided a built-in opcode disassembler, allowing raw memory to be decoded into CPU opcodes, and this would be utilized to examine what the copy-protection was about to do next. Generally there was little to no defense available to the copy protection system, since all its secrets are made visible through the simulation.

However, because the simulation itself must run on the original CPU, in addition to the software being hacked, the simulation would often run extremely slowly even at maximum speed. On Atari 8-bit computers, the most common protection method was via 'bad sectors'. These were sectors on the disk that were intentionally unreadable by the disk drive. The software would look for these sectors when the program was loading and would stop loading if an error code was not returned when accessing these sectors. Special copy programs were available that would copy the disk and remember any bad sectors. The user could then use an application to spin the drive by constantly reading a single sector and display the drive RPM.

With the disk drive top removed a small screwdriver could be used to slow the drive RPM below a certain point. Once the drive was slowed down the application could then go and write 'bad sectors' where needed.

When done the drive RPM was sped up back to normal and an uncracked copy was made. Of course cracking the software to expect good sectors made for readily copied disks without the need to meddle with the disk drive.

As time went on more sophisticated methods were developed, but almost all involved some form of malformed disk data, such as a sector that might return different data on separate accesses due to bad data alignment. Products became available (from companies such as ) which replaced the controller BIOS in Atari's 'smart' drives. These upgraded drives allowed the user to make exact copies of the original program with copy protections in place on the new disk. On the Commodore 64, several methods were used to protect software. For software distributed on, subroutines were included which attempted to write over the program code. If the software was on ROM, nothing would happen, but if the software had been moved to, the software would be disabled. Because of the operation of Commodore floppy drives, one write protection scheme would cause the floppy drive head to bang against the end of its rail, which could cause the drive head to become misaligned.

In some cases, cracked versions of software were desirable to avoid this result. A misaligned drive head was rare usually fixing itself by smashing against the rail stops. Another brutal protection scheme was grinding from track 1 to 40 and back a few times. Most of the early software crackers were computer hobbyists who often formed groups that competed against each other in the cracking and spreading of software. Breaking a new copy protection scheme as quickly as possible was often regarded as an opportunity to demonstrate one's technical superiority rather than a possibility of money-making. Some low skilled hobbyists would take already cracked software and edit various unencrypted strings of text in it to change messages a game would tell a game player, often something considered vulgar.

Uploading the altered copies on file sharing networks provided a source of laughs for adult users. The cracker groups of the 1980s started to advertise themselves and their skills by attaching animated screens known as in the software programs they cracked and released. Once the technical competition had expanded from the challenges of cracking to the challenges of creating visually stunning intros, the foundations for a new subculture known as were established. Demoscene started to separate itself from the illegal 'warez scene' during the 1990s and is now regarded as a completely different subculture. Many software crackers have later grown into extremely capable software reverse engineers; the deep knowledge of assembly required in order to crack protections enables them to in order to port them from binary-only drivers for to drivers with source code for and other operating systems.

Also because music and game intro was such an integral part of gaming the music format and graphics became very popular when hardware became affordable for the home user. With the rise of the, software crackers developed secretive online organizations. In the latter half of the nineties, one of the most respected sources of information about 'software protection reversing' was 's website.

Most of the well-known or 'elite' cracking groups make software cracks entirely for respect in the ', not profit. From there, the cracks are eventually leaked onto public Internet sites by people/crackers who use well-protected/secure FTP release archives, which are made into full copies and sometimes sold illegally by other parties. Today is formed of small groups of skilled people, who informally compete to have the best crackers, methods of cracking, and. +HCU [ ] The High Cracking University (+HCU), was founded by (+ORC), considered a genius of reverse engineering and a legendary figure in RCE, to advance research into (RCE). He had also taught and authored many papers on the subject, and his texts are considered classics in the field and are mandatory reading for students of RCE. The addition of the '+' sign in front of the nickname of a reverser signified membership in the +HCU.

Amongst the students of +HCU were the top of the elite Windows reversers worldwide. +HCU published a new reverse engineering problem annually and a small number of respondents with the best replies qualified for an undergraduate position at the university. +Fravia was a professor at +HCU.

Fravia's website was known as '+Fravia's Pages of Reverse Engineering' and he used it to challenge programmers as well as the wider society to 'reverse engineer' the 'brainwashing of a corrupt and rampant materialism'. In its heyday, his website received millions of visitors per year and its influence was 'widespread'. Nowadays most of the graduates of +HCU have migrated to Linux and few have remained as Windows reversers. The information at the university has been rediscovered by a new generation of researchers and practitioners of RCE who have started new research projects in the field.

Methods [ ] The most common software crack is the modification of an application's binary to cause or prevent a specific key branch in the program's execution. This is accomplished by the compiled program code using a such as,,,, or until the software cracker reaches the that contains the primary method of protecting the software (or by an executable file with a program such as ). The binary is then modified using the or a or in a manner that replaces a prior branching with its complement or a so the key branch will either always execute a specific or skip over it. Almost all common software cracks are a variation of this type. Developers are constantly developing techniques such as,, and to make this modification increasingly difficult. Body Satisfaction Scale Pdf. Even with these measures being taken, developers struggle to combat software cracking.

This is because it is very common for a professional to publicly release a simple cracked EXE or Retrium Installer for public download, eliminating the need for inexperienced users to crack the software themselves. A specific example of this technique is a crack that removes the expiration period from a time-limited trial of an application. These cracks are usually programs that alter the program executable and sometimes the linked to the application. Similar cracks are available for software that requires a hardware. A company can also break the copy protection of programs that they have legally purchased but that are to particular hardware, so that there is no risk of downtime due to hardware failure (and, of course, no need to restrict oneself to running the software on bought hardware only). Another method is the use of special software such as to scan for the use of a commercial copy protection application.

After discovering the software used to protect the application, another tool may be used to remove the copy protection from the software on the. This may enable another program such as,,, or to copy the protected software to a user's hard disk. Popular commercial copy protection applications which may be scanned for include and. In other cases, it might be possible to a program in order to get access to the original or code on a than.

This is often possible with and languages utilizing compilation. An example is cracking (or debugging) on the.NET platform where one might consider manipulating to achieve one's needs. Also works in a similar fashion in which there is an intermediate language before the program is compiled to run on the platform dependent. Advanced reverse engineering for protections such as,,, or requires a cracker, or many crackers to spend much time studying the protection, eventually finding every flaw within the protection code, and then coding their own tools to 'unwrap' the protection automatically from executable (.EXE) and library (.DLL) files.

There are a number of sites on the Internet that let users download cracks for popular games and applications (although at the danger of acquiring malicious software that is sometimes distributed via such sites). [ ] Although these cracks are used by legal buyers of software, they can also be used by people who have downloaded or otherwise obtained unauthorized copies (often through networks). References [ ]. • Kevelson, Morton (October 1985).. Retrieved 27 June 2014. The origin of the term probably lies in the activity burglars perform in the still of the night. • Tulloch, Mitch (2003).

Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Press. • Craig, Paul; Ron, Mark (April 2005). 'Chapter 4: Crackers'. In Burnett, Mark.

Software Piracy Exposed - Secrets from the Dark Side Revealed. Publisher: Andrew Williams, Page Layout and Art: Patricia Lupien, Acquisitions Editor: Jaime Quigley, Copy Editor: Judy Eby, Technical Editor: Mark Burnett, Indexer: Nara Wood, Cover Designer: Michael Kavish. United States of America: Syngress Publishing.

• ^ (2013-01-22).. This can be the only reason you have come to the conclusion that a modified startup flow is the same like the imitated behavior of a protection, like an EMU does it. • Shub-Nigurrath [ARTeam]; ThunderPwr [ARTeam] (January 2006). 'Cracking with Loaders: Theory, General Approach, and a Framework'. CodeBreakers Magazine. Universitas-Virtualis Research Project. A loader is a program able to load in memory and running another program.

• Nigurrath, Shub (May 2006). 'Guide on how to play with processes memory, writing loaders, and Oraculumns'. CodeBreakers Magazine.

Universitas-Virtualis Research Project. • (2013-09-29).. Test.Drive.Ferrari.Racing.Legends-SKIDROW was released with a 'Loader' and not a cracked exe. This is why you see the original exe renamed to 'TDFerrari_o.exe'. As this is not allowed and in this case considerably slows down the game with Xlive messages while starting and playing the game, you can see why we have included a proper cracked. • (2013-01-21).. Yes our 'method' is a loader and our competitors have used the same method for 'cracking' xlive games like this.

From the original on 2014-09-13. UNNUKED: game.plays.full no.issues crack.is.fine no.single.byte.patch.used protection.bypass.means.not.active.means.removed protection.does.not.kick.in.at.any.point this.or.removal.makes.no.difference [ZoNeNET] • Cheng, Jacqui (2006-09-27)... • (November 1998).. • ^ Cyrus Peikari; (12 January 2004).. 'O'Reilly Media, Inc.'

This article is about the 2007 video game. For the Sega arcade game, see. Crackdown Director(s) Phil Wilson Billy Thomson Matthew Obst Series Release •: 20 February 2007 •: 22 February 2007 •: 23 February 2007 Mode(s), Crackdown is an developed by and distributed by for the. It was released in North America on 20 February 2007, and worldwide by 23 February 2007. Crackdown was conceived by Realtime Worlds ' founder,, who also created and. Set in the fictional Pacific City, the player controls a biologically enhanced Agent, tasked with defeating three crime lords and their organized crime syndicates. The Agent's abilities improve by defeating both crime lords and their supporters, as well as by completing optional activities, such as street races and scavenger hunts.

The gameplay is nonlinear: instead of following a rigid mission sequence, players are free to select the approach to completing their missions and activities. The game features a two-player cooperative play mode via. Crackdown, initially planned for release on the original console, was envisioned as a vast world in which players could experiment and explore freely.

Microsoft Game Studios bundled specifically marked copies of Crackdown with an access code to the multiplayer of the much-anticipated Beta. The game sold 1.5 million copies in its first six months of release. It received critical acclaim and has garnered several awards for its innovative gameplay. A sequel,, was released in July 2010 by Ruffian Games without Jones' input, and a is planned for and in spring 2018, with support from Jones.

Contents • • • • • • • • • • • Plot [ ] Crackdown takes place in the fictional metropolis of Pacific City, whose several districts and areas are divided among four islands. The city is controlled by three crime organizations: Los Muertos (which means 'the dead ones' in ), of origin; an gang, the Volk ( for 'Wolf'); and the formerly above-board Shai-Gen Corporation, from. Normally, a -like organization called the Peacekeepers kept the city under control; their forces, however, were overwhelmed by the sudden rise in crime. The city, therefore, sought additional help from 'the Agency', an organization that, in addition to outfitting and supporting Peacekeepers, has used advanced surgical and technology to create known as 'Agents'. The Agency is based out of a former hotel in the very centre of the city. The player takes on the role of one of their Agents, and is tasked with systematically bringing down all three organized gangs, while keeping both the populace and Peacekeepers safe.

The Agent's actions are continuously monitored by the Agency, and its Director (voiced by ) provides continuous reports to him of his progress. Throughout the game, the player roams Pacific City, systematically eliminating the leaders and subordinates of the three gangs. Upon defeating the gangs' Kingpins and generals, the Agent must put down a final riot by the remaining gang members in the area which after completion will cause that city to be almost crime free.

Once all three gangs are fully exterminated, in the closing cutscene of the game, the Director reveals to the Agent that there was an ulterior motive for the Agency's actions: the Agency had secretly empowered the three gangs in the first place to instill fear in Pacific City's residents, thus creating a need for the Agency to control the city, and acceptance in the populace when they did take over. The Agency Director's comments suggest that the Agency will replicate this plan in other cities across the globe to create a. Gameplay [ ] Crackdown is a set in a environment, akin to. After selecting one of the predefined Agent characters, the player is assigned to defeat the Kingpin of each gang, though there is no precise approach to do this, leaving players to select their preferred method.

While the player may face the Kingpin and his bodyguards at any time, they can improve their chances of taking out the Kingpin by facing and defeating the various Generals responsible for certain aspects of the Kingpin's offense and defense, removing them from play. For example, by eliminating a gang's weapon dealer, gang members will no longer be as heavily armed or will fire fewer shots to conserve ammunition; assassinating the gang recruitment officer similarly reduces the size of the Kingpin's protective force. It is at the player's discretion whether to kill the Generals or skip them entirely before facing the Kingpin. However, the gangs cannot be completely eradicated from the city without tracking down and killing all Generals and Kingpins. In Crackdown, the Agent can use many super-human powers, including enhanced strength, to defeat his enemies.

Much like other sandbox games, the player uses, guns, and explosives to fight the opposing forces, and can run, climb buildings, jump across rooftops, or use vehicles to navigate the city. Crackdown features a series of character-based skills that can be upgraded to increase specific traits that can be used in combat, driving, or on-foot agility. These skills include: 'Agility', which increases the Agent's ability to jump, run, and swim; 'Driving', affecting how well he can handle a vehicle and uprades it; 'Explosives', which affects the power and range of explosive weapons and explosive power; 'Strength' that increases the Agent's strength, namely by increasing his ability to lift and throw, as well as how hard he can strike an opponent and increses health; and 'Firearms', which improves the character's aptitude with weapons. Crackdown 's skills make few concessions to realism: character abilities are similar to those of or characters. This concept is further highlighted by the ink-like outlines drawn around in-game characters.

Skills are usually improved by gaining orbs, which are released from defeated enemies. The type of orb released varies, depending on how the player dispatched the foe; for instance, killing an enemy with a gun will earn Firearms orbs, while running them over with a vehicle earns Driving orbs. More powerful enemies release more experience orbs. However, Agility orbs are awarded differently: they can be earned by either climbing buildings and seeking them on rooftops, or by killing an enemy from a high altitude. The player can also compete in 'rooftop races'—a race through a series of across the rooftops of Pacific City—or car races to gain Agility and Driving orbs, respectively. A few special orbs, well-hidden, increase all character abilities when found. A final way to collect orbs is by earning, which rewards the player with orbs from every skill category.

Each skill has five levels—beginning with zero stars, and ending with four—with a numeric gauge on the display to indicate how close the player is to the next level. Should the character die, or injure civilians or Agency peacekeepers, their experience gain will be slowed, making it temporarily harder to improve the character's traits. The entirety of Pacific City may be explored from the start of the game, allowing the player to locate the hideouts of each General and Kingpin, which can be made easier by accessing supply points scattered around the city. Once a supply point is unlocked, the player has the option of returning there to travel to any other supply point, restock on weapons and ammunition, or drop off newly acquired weapons, to permanently add them to their weapon selection. Should the player die, they can at any open supply point. While exploring, the player is likely to come across enemy resistance, with their aggressiveness based on how badly the player has damaged that particular gang recently.

If the player is too aggressive against the non-gang residents of Pacific City, including the Peacekeepers, they are flagged as rogue, and Agency hit squads are dispatched to take them down. Crackdown features an online two-player mode that allows drop-in play. Both players may explore the city freely, with the other player's position noted on the map. Players can fight alongside each other, and also inflict friendly-fire damage. The state of the city, including which Generals and Kingpins remain, is determined by the host player's progress. Both players are credited with the defeat of a General or Kingpin in the game—which will affect the state of the guest's progress—but are required to obtain supply points and gain experience independently.

Co-op players can race against each other in both rooftop and road races, should they both choose to participate. Development [ ] Crackdown was envisioned to exceed the gameplay of, giving the player 'toys' to create their own in-game moments that could be verbally shared with others. The crackdown logo is in the shape of the agency tower, modified. The entire playfield was to be open at the start, requiring the need to create a progression for the player, while still allowing for experimentation. Realtime Worlds had hired a number of former Grand Theft Auto developers who experimented with refining the game's sandbox element.

'It was a big part of the idea to just let people do things', Realtime Worlds producer Phil Wilson said about the gameplay; 'testers would do things we were completely blown away by'. Dave Jones, CEO of Realtime Worlds, described the concept of the game as 'How do we reward somebody for just having fun?' They had initially planned to have 200 Achievements for the game towards this purpose, exceeded the then-current cap of 50 set by Microsoft, and pressured Microsoft to lift the cap.

Microsoft subsequently increased the maximum number of Achievements in a game to 80. Through playtesting, the team noticed that many players performed certain out-of-the-way actions, such as climbing to the top of the Agency Tower.

They created in-game content to reward the player for performing these actions; for example, they created a special rendering procedure for the clouds during the in-game day/night cycle. The renderer would behave differently each day, and could only be viewed from atop the Agency Tower. An initial fear of Jones' was that in the early part of the game, when the Agent is underpowered, the player may not realize the potential of the game and would not complete it; 'People weren't quite sure, because at that level, you're kind of like most characters in most other games'.

Jones also expressed concern that 'This game does not look good in screenshots'. They took two major steps to overcome this. First, the demo for the game on Xbox Marketplace allowed for accelerated growth of the player's abilities. Second, the full game included five in-game movies that would be presented early on to the player that would give them a taste for what a fully powered character could do. Wilson stated that development of the game began in 2002 with a target release in 2005 on the original. Nine people were involved in the initial development for twelve months with plans to expand to 35 during full development.

By February 2004, they were able to provide a playable demo, but recognized there were still several challenges with the game's progression. For example, the team introduced 'skills for kills' where skill points were only rewarded for killing foes instead of allowing the player to gain them by less risky opportunities. They also included the frequent reporting of the player's current chance of success for a player of defeating a Kingpin to prevent the player from being frustrated by trying to fight Kingpins beyond their level. By 2004, Microsoft brought the team the Xbox 360 hardware and suggested moving the game to that system, with a release date in the spring of 2006. By November 2004, the whole of Pacific City was in place, and cooperative mode was possible. However, in January 2005 they switched to the 4 engine, which caused many problems and was considered a 'gross mistake' by Wilson. Microsoft was able to provide additional programmers to help during 2006 to correct the problems, just in time to create a demo for the 2006 Convention.

Wilson admitted that when Crackdown was first unveiled, the team thought the game was too early to debut. 'By the time we got to the end of pre-production we were woefully understaffed and over budget', Wilson commented.

Microsoft found that by October 2006, the game had fallen into the bottom 30 percent in test player reaction of all games currently in testing, and the bottom 50 percent in interest, though the numbers improved after a month. To help the struggling game, Microsoft decided to package the Halo 3 multiplayer trial with the game. 'It was a great boost', said Wilson.

Jones also was positive about the tie-in with the Halo 3 trial; 'We kind of knew Crackdown would need as much help as it could get to get into players' hands. Like we've always said: It's a game player's game. It's not something that's going to sell in screenshot. So [the Halo 3 beta] was good'.

A map of Pacific City from Crackdown, demonstrating the sectors used for debugging the game Pacific City within the game consists of 495 'city blocks' which the player could travel among, according to ' Jami Johns. Each block had to be tested separately, so Microsoft Game Studios designed a software tool to track issues when the game was in testing. For example, the tool was able to identify blocks where the performance dropped or the game crashed, allowing the developers to redesign the area to remove the issues. A further tool was used for the 'seams' between city blocks, and included a screenshot just prior to any problem, which significantly reduced the debugging time for the game; this tool was further used with.

However, the team had found some bugs during testing that actually worked well as game mechanics without throwing off the game balance. For example, the ability to drive the Agency up a vertical wall when the player has maxed out his driving skill was originally a bug within the game.

Promotion [ ] A Crackdown demo was released via on 23 January 2007. It was originally dated for 18 January 2007, but was delayed due to 's certification process. This demo includes both single player and co-op play, but does not allow for jump-in co-op as seen in. Silver account members received the demo one week later. The demo lasts for, at most, one hour, with a timer starting when either the player trains a skill to the second level, has eliminated two of the gang Generals, or has been playing for a half-hour.

At that point, a 30-minute timer will start, after which the demo automatically ends. During the demo, in-game skills can be trained up to the highest level, and this occurs at an accelerated rate in order to give players an example of higher-level abilities. The Crackdown demo quickly broke download records for Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace by becoming the most downloaded demo over a 24-hour period and a seven-day (week-long) period.

In the week after its release, the Crackdown demo was the second most played Xbox Live game after Gears of War. The demo went on to become the most downloaded and most played overall by March 2007. Every pre-ordered and specially marked copy of Crackdown included an invitation to the beta test of the highly anticipated.

The Crackdown game disc was required to download and launch the Halo 3 beta through the in-game menus. On 10 April 2007, announced that the beta would become available for download for those that own this copy of Crackdown on 16 May 2007. This beta was playable for three weeks from when it was downloadable. Downloadable content [ ] On 19 February 2007, a free downloadable pack was made available for the game. The pack includes four new playable male agents, three of whom have unique, upgradable headgear. A free was released on 11 May 2007, which allows the player to reset gangs, makes it easier to find orbs, improves stunt ring visibility, enhances targeting and camera angles when driving, and provides several other minor fixes. This update also includes a new ground strike attack.

Two packs of downloadable content were released on 10 May 2007. The 'Free-For-All' pack, which is available free, adds a mode called 'Keys to the City' to the main menu.

It allows the player to impound any vehicle and store it at the Agency and allows the player to enter a 'Keys to the City' mode that allows them to alter the Agent's statistics or create several items, and other effects, but disables progress within the game. 'Gettin ' Busy' bonus pack, introduces new vehicles and weapons, new side missions, and street racing.

As of 6 September 2007, the 'Gettin' Busy' pack has been purchased from Xbox Live around 200,000 times. The May 2007 title update and downloadable content were linked to a which reset a number of players' saved games when they played the game's co-operative mode. The developers apologized for the glitch and offered a temporary workaround, however, saved games already lost to the glitch were not recoverable. On 16 May 2007, a further title update was released, resolving the issue, in addition to fixing issues with access to the Halo 3 beta. Soundtrack [ ] The main theme of the game is 'Paradise Bird Theory'.

Crackdown features over 100 tracks of and music by a number of independent and video game musicians, including,, and. Music supervisor Peter Davenport was in charge of selecting the music for the game, a task that took three years to complete. Davenport was allowed to select music from any source given the premise and missions within the game, and worked with the audio leads at Realtime Worlds to shape the full soundtrack, keeping it to a 'dark and ominous' vibe, rather than 'super high energy'. Reception [ ]. Pacific City, the setting for Crackdown. The Agency Towers can be seen in the left background. The game has been well-received for its long.

Reception Aggregate scores Aggregator Score 83.35% 83/100 Review scores Publication Score A 8/10 8.3/10 9.0/10 8.5/10 4.5/5.0 7.8/10 4/5 8.0/10 9/10 8.5/10 5/5 Crackdown was critically acclaimed by game critics who praised the open-world approach. Reviewers commented highly on the graphics of the game, both in its detailed city and large, and the cel-like shading of the characters; said that 'it's just better to let a game approach reality on its own aesthetic terms than to go hyperrealistic'. Stated, 'It's an absolute blast to play, and arguably one of the finest superhero games made thus far', and stated, 'Overall the thrill of jumping like a mutant kangaroo from rooftop to rooftop is unrivaled!' The co-op play feature over Xbox Live was well received; wrote, 'Being able to pick and leap into any of your friends' or even complete strangers' cities is likely to keep that buzz going though', and 1UP agreed, remarking 'That it represents the best, if not the first, online multiplayer sandbox game on a console is just gravy'.

Reviews did critique the lack of any appreciable story within the game, and how short the core game itself may be; IGN argued ' Crackdown won't last that long, it's uneven, and the story and the music are weak sauce'. Crackdown was not expected to be a good game, due to it being tied to the anticipated Halo 3 multiplayer beta. However, the game surpassed many expectations; in his review, 's Gabe Graziani asked readers the rhetorical question; 'Notice that I didn't mention the Halo 3 beta offer during this whole article? That's because it's completely irrelevant when looking at Crackdown, it's a solid game that delivers exactly what it promises: a giant sandbox to blow the crap out of'.

The game was named the 2007 'Best Action and Adventure Game' and 'Best Use of Audio'. And also won the 'Best Debut' award at the 2008. The game received the Innovation Award at the 2007 Develop Awards, held by magazine. Listed it as one of the top 50 games of 2007, citing its unique experience and several other elements.

They listed the agents as the number eight top heroes of 2007 and climbing the tallest building in the city as the number nine top moment of 2007. Sales [ ] Crackdown premiered to very strong sales. During the week of its worldwide release of February 2007, it was the top selling Xbox 360 game in North America, Japan, and the UK. The game was the top selling game in North America for the month of February 2007, selling 427,000 units. Ultimately, by the end of 2007, the game sold 1.5 million copies worldwide.

It received a 'Gold' sales award from the (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom. The game is not sold in Germany due to the decision not to rate the game; according to, this was due to pending legislation at the time to create criminal penalties for games that included 'cruel violence on humans or human-looking characters'. Main articles: and Wilson and lead designer Billy Thomson had previously confirmed that Crackdown was designed from the outset to be a long-running series of games, stating that sequels for the game are very likely to be produced, especially if Crackdown performed well commercially.

However, during the Industry All Stars event in September 2007, Wilson confirmed that Realtime Worlds was not working on a sequel to the game, saying 'Microsoft was a little late in stepping up to the plate to ask for Crackdown 2, and by then we had already started working on bigger, better things'. However, then-corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, Shane Kim, stated that Microsoft still holds the rights for Crackdown and that a Crackdown sequel was still a possibility. Realtime Studios manager Colin MacDonald clarified that if they have the resources after completion of, they could approach Microsoft to discuss a sequel. At Microsoft's E3 conference on 1 June 2009, it was announced that was at that point of time being developed by a Scottish develop, formed by members of the Realtime Worlds team. Along with the announcement, an accompanying trailer was released. Crackdown 2 was released on 6 July 2010 in the U.S. And Canada and on 9 July throughout the rest of the world.

A third title in the series,, was announced at Microsoft's press conference at the in June 2014 (under the name Crackdown) as an exclusive under development at and Reagant Games, with former head and series creator being involved in the project. The game was then formally revealed in August 2015. References [ ]. Retrieved 2008-05-23.

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And ran it into the ground? The people had to experience firsthand absolute anarchy before they would accept unconditional control. You are the portent of a new world order, Agent.

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