Crackdown is not parkour. The guys are too big and graceless. Nobody every seems to remember Galleon, the true free-running game that had the whole Assassin's Creed controls locked down years earlier. That game had total platforming freedom and the fluidity of the main character was pure beauty, How this game doesn't get more love I don't know...

MrLister

@Hand_O_Death: Wow, that's almost the exact opposite of Parkour. Parkour is pure efficiency in urban mobility. If the movement won't get you were you need to go quicker, then you don't do it. Looking pretty is a side effect, if doing something that looks ugly over comes the obstacle more efficiently that's what you go with. Free Running is far closer to a personal "art style" than Parkour was ever meant to be.

SSJPabs

So where do guns play a part in all this?

boopadoo

@Most Wanted:

Touché. Very nice.

txshurricane

i dont think i've ever played such a game, but it sounds like it could be really fun.

joelface

@Hand_O_Death:
Sorry, but I have to strongly disagree with your post.

Parkour, in essence, stems from the urge to run towards something or flee from something in the most efficient manner possible. A rooftop leap is certainly an example, ending with a roll to break your momentum evenly. In your description, making the leap "pretty" would introduce elements that are needless and would go against the fundamental belief of parkour. (According to David Belle's philosophy.)

Free Running, or freestyle, on the other hand, has elements of "tricking" (which is altogether different from Free Running AND Parkour) that enhance the action of your freestyle maneuver. If you leap, do a somersault, land into a roll and hop up to a ledge with a cat's grip, then that would be a freestyle run. Sebastian Foucan would call it "going your own way", in which you dictate what you "feel" the movement needs to be, for whatever reason. (Asthetically pleasing to your eye, for example.)

RobotPirate!

I'm sorry that many of you believe traceurs (practitioners of parkour) to be pretentious pricks. I suppose the reason is because of the amount of shit we have to deal with from people being like oh that guy is doing extreme running "hey jump off something" And just to clear this up parkour is as utilitarian as it gets. If there is a movement that doesn't serve a purpose than it is not considered parkour. Free running is creating your own path with no boundaries.

satsantokh

Parkour (or Parcour for Europeans) does want you to be as prety as possible, but Free Running just wants you to get the job done the best way you see fit. That is what the difference is. "Free" running makes the course you take yours, as opposed to a graded path.

Hand_O_Death

I think you guys should check out the interview they have on Gametrailers with the producer at EA DICE. It'll give you a better idea of what the game is about.

[www.gametrailers.com]

Also, "Parkour" should actually be written "parcours".

Kaneda

I saw a feature on that game, Mirror's Edge. It should be very interesting, but I'm still waiting for some actual gameplay.

Candlejack

I get the feeling this is going to be a game that gets all the other developers jealous.

I don't even think this thing comes out for another year or two, right?

I can't to play it though.

Biscuitcleaver

I loved Crackdown and Assassin's Creed BUT this new Game Mirror's Edge doesn't quite seem to be as appealing to me as the other two games were, But I'll just have to wait for either more info on the game for a Gameplay trailer. You never know it might just be really Fun!

MXs219

@Most Wanted: I cringed; I laughed; I simultaneously want to shake your hand and smack you upside the head.

You, sir, are a prince among men.

JustThisGuy

@txshurricane: Wouldn't that be Parker?

:)

Most Wanted

Spider-man 2 had an element of Parkour-style movement to it...

txshurricane

Is GTA not considered Parkour?

7ucky

@frostcircus: If it makes you feel any better, most Free Running/Parkour practitioners are pretentious pricks, so your cringe-alarm is well calibrated.

JustThisGuy

Free Running on the psp was okay for me, but it got repetitive after a while.

djHEAT

Whoops. A bit late, I suppose. As an example, though, see above.

JustThisGuy

As a free running practitioner and a bit of an anal-retentive stickler, I would like to state that free running is not the same as Parkour. Two distinct disciplines with different philosophies and practices. Not that huge a deal, I know, but it's a bit like calling football "soccer" in, well, any place outside of the US; it doesn't really matter, but it does to the people that care and/or know.

JustThisGuy

Just seeing the word Parkour really triggers my pretentiousness-alert cringe response. Same with free running.

I want the press to know this.

frostcircus

Parkour does not equal Free Running! Dammit!

SSJPabs

@Philonious: You must have picked the wrong 6-foot-13, bad-ass/ex-con/biker, manufactured by Epic, character. I used one with goggles or a mask or something.

He was artistic, fluid, and graceful as heck.

(Yes. 6-foot-13.)

skrame

i want a free running game >.>;

Best part of assassins creed imho.

ManjiKengo

How can you even call Crackdown an implementation of parkour? You can jump 100 feet in the air and pick up cars, it's not exactly like you're traversing an urban environment in a way a real person could. And that is, after all, the idea behind parkour.

Heartwork

@Groodle: or Blu-ray.

Most Wanted

I'm surprised that Prototype wasn't mentioned here. Prototype has some phenomenal looking Parkour animations.

+ Watch video

RenHo3k

I made a similar comment elsewhere recently:

AC is some of the most garbage gameplay I've ever experienced. Sure, it's cool watching Altair climb and jump and run across ledges - but you don't DO anything. You hold one button and he does all the rest with no further input required from the player.

That's not a game - it's a DVD.

Groodle

"Crackdown has specific Xbox Achievements that encourage players to be more fluid and artistic with their movements." I'm guess this means the time trials (which Assassin's Creed also had)? Because this doesn't sound like the Crackdown I know (and love). My Agent was amazing, but fluid and/or graceful he was not.

Philonious

Or you could just get the game called Free Running for your PSP and be done with it?

Most Wanted

i thought i was the only one who liked Getting Up, hah. I wanna try the psp free running game, if i can find it for the cheap i'll import it.

pandafresh

I have to disagree with the article. The actions you could take in Crackdown and Assassin's Creed are not parkour. I mean they even throw Tomb Raider and Ninja Gaiden in the mix. Using the gamesutra definition of parkour ever game where you can doge, jump, and grab is inspired by Parkour and that is crazy.

HurricaneDave

I always dug games that give a real sense of vertigo like Crackdown. I hope Mirrors Edge can pull that off. First game I ever got that feeling was from when I was standing on my robots shoulder in. Robot Alchemic Drive.

liquid_kore

There was already a Parkour game called Free Running. It is already out in Europe. Anyway, it is like a Tony Hawk style free running game by Rebellion and Reef.

Also, Marc Eko's Getting up had some Parkour elements in its movement design as well.

SNK-Jorge

hmm needs more guns and swords.

tajash

No long term playability how can you say that its always fun watching your character plummet hundreds of feet

GUNDAM-RX-78-2-Still HATES! God of War 1

No love for the PSP Free Running game?

I quite liked it, nothing great, but it worked quite well.

Accordion