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It's been five long years since Xbox fans have seen a new entry in the action-packed Crackdown franchise. After revealing a CG trailer last year at E3 for the next entry in the franchise, Microsoft also announced that the former series creator, Dave Jones, was heading up the project and bringing with him new technology that would allow the game to tap into cloud computing features.

After skipping E3 2015 in favor of Gamescom, Microsoft and developer Reagent Games recently revealed the first ever gameplay for Crackdown 3, showing off an impressive destruction mechanic. As the trailer wowed the audience, fans were later presented with a bit more information about this new feature and how it ties into the main game.

While being able to topple city-wide blocks may sound incredibly fun, game director and series creator Dave Jones revealed that players will only be able to completely destroy the world in the multiplayer portion of the game. With the core experience of single player revolving around saving a brand new city from organized crime, the developer wanted to limit the amount of chaos and destruction players could inflict on the city. Even though players won't be able to wipe the city clean, gamers will still be able to utilize destruction on a much more limited scale.

The story campaign isn't the only reason for the chaotic destruction options being locked inside of the game's multiplayer mode, as Crackdown 3 requires Microsoft's online cloud servers to handle the complex equations and processing requirements being done behind the scenes. Once the main Xbox hardware is tapped out, power shifts online to the Azure servers, where the game gains access to even more functionality and processing ability. With the added horsepower and technology, Crackdown 3 has access to 20 times more power than it would with just a single Xbox One console.

Even with actual gameplay from Crackdown 3 now out in the wild, there's a lot that's still unknown about the title – including further details over the game's multiplayer mode. The same can be said about the general 2016 release time frame, though in an interview this past week at Gamescom, Dave Jones did narrow the window a little revealing that the Reagent Games team was targeting release sometime next summer.

Cloud computing is a term which Xbox One fans may be familiar with, as Titanfall was another semi-exclusive Xbox title that relied on Microsoft's Azure servers to handle more complex processing and load while also cutting down on development costs. Forza Motorsport 5 and Forza Horizon 2 also used cloud computing for their Drivatar technology which created AI racers who are able to learn and drive like a person's actual human friends.

What did you guys think of the first gameplay from Crackdown 3? Are you looking forward to taking down buildings and leveling whole neighborhoods? Let us know in the comments.

Crackdown 3 is coming to Xbox One sometime in the summer of 2016.

Source: IGN