UPDATED: Now Co-Playing: Crackdown 2 (Xbox 360)

UPDATE: Day 2
After our first night of playing together I wasn’t sure how I felt about the full game. The demo really surprised me with those pre-chievements and a focus on Getting Stuff Done in the brief 30-minute time period. Playing the full game we found ourselves sticking to the same area as the demo, like lab rats that run the same course even when the maze changes. The endless pursuit of Orbs, though, finally drew us out of our shell and into Pacific City’s new (but still old) cityscape. We put in some good work taking over the rebel group, Cell, and their numerous strongholds and lighting Absorption Units to thwart the mutant freaks. Light up three (or more) Units and you can then journey underground, where most of the game’s new areas are, in order to defend a light bomb until it activates. It winds up being pretty random and sloppy — dashing all over to punch, shoot, and explode specific freaks — but it is a new mechanic, at least for Crackdown. I think inFAMOUS did something similar but I didn’t play much of that.

It wasn’t until this morning when I was at work that I realized just how much fun I’m having playing with Katy; all I could think about was playing more Crackdown 2. Making progress, hunting for Orbs and the general tomfoolery of crossing paths with Katy as we explode things is just dumb fun and the kind that I haven’t had so effortlessly since the original. How much longer all this proves to be entertaining remains to be seen but for now it’s a blast!

PREVIOUSLY: Seeing how Katy and I are planning to play as much of this one co-op as possible (yes, we own two copies and two Xboxes) I thought I’d try to live up to the ‘Now Playing’ idea and keep up with our adventures as often as possible. Already there’s been a few surprises and I just now got to the title screen.

For starters, all new copies of the game come with a Marketplace code for a free Agency Helicopter toy for your Xbox Live Avatar (see!). There was a 0-Day Title Update that patched god-knows-what and as soon as I got to the main menu I was hit with some BA~GOINKs! Thanks to the demo’s pre-chievements we’re both 100 Points richer right out of the box which also unlocked an Avatar Award in the form of an exclusive Orb T-shirt. This game just keeps giving! I’m going in now to see what’s new in Pacific City until Katy gets home and we team up for the first time.