Crackdown Crackup.

Last night I was playing Crackdown, a new game for the Xbox 360.

For those of you not familiar with the game, it’s a sandbox game where you can beat the snot out of criminals. You are essentially a super-cop, who in the course of the game becomes more super. There are lots of guns and explosions and leaping about. It’s fun stuff.

One of the Achievements in the game is scaling to the top of this huge building. Skyscraper tall, you have to leap from ledge to ledge up to the top.

I have a small fear of heights. So much so that even looking at a tall building from the ground gives me a feeling of falling.

And leaping up this building, just watching it on my TV, hearing the imaginary wind whip past me, filled me with the very same feeling. I had a physical and emotional reaction to something that was very much not real. My palms got sweaty. I had to stop a lot and try to calm myself down. A video game gave me the same feeling as if I was myself trying to climb to the top of this building. In the end I only made it about 75% of the way (its not an easy task even without the fear of heights).

So that got me thinking, what other games have had the same effect? What games have produced a strong emotion, either positive or negative?

Next week I’ll give you the first of the ones I came up with.

I’ll give you a hint: there are dogs involved.

-x

(Tune in tomorrow for Sneak Peak Friday.)