Crackdown 2 confirmed: see the trailer here

Earlier this year, I got one of my gaming wishes when a third Max Payne game was confirmed. Last week, I got the news that Alan Wake was indeed live and kicking. And now? My current wish list is complete, with the title that's been at the top for a couple of years now coming to fruition.

I hated the first hour of the original Crackdown. It was a sandbox game that relied on you having special powers, that you had to spend the first part of the game earning. But as soon as I started to get those powers, I was locked in for a solid weekend bashing my way through to the end. Leaping over huge buildings was simply exhilarating - although the incoming Prototype, which I'm currently reviewing, certainly gives it a run for its money - and it was the champion of the early Xbox 360 release catalogue.

And yet its success seemed to catch many by surprise, because a couple of years floated by with no hint of a sequel. Developer Real Time Worlds instead moved on to the fabulous-looking APB, which is also now firmly on my must-play list when it gets released, and I figured that was that.

But I was wrong. For Real Time Worlds is indeed at work on Crackdown 2, and the game has been pencilled in for release in 2010. This is, simply, majestic news. There's also a trailer to go with the announcement, and its mere presence on the planet has turned me into a man blubbing in the corner with joy. I don't even think it's that great a trailer, either. But no matter, here is it...