Crackdown 2, the Xbox 360 sequel to the bestselling 2007 shooter, comes out today, and three Sound Design for Visual Media grads – Robbie Elias, Noa Lothian, and Kyle Fraser – were part of the relatively small Microsoft team responsible for the sound.  Including lots of things going boom.

“I actually recorded and edited all the explosions used in Crackdown 2,“ Robbie says. ”We recorded them just outside of Seattle using a friend of a coworker of ours. It was a blast. We got some great source for me to use. The most interesting sound came from burying a hydrophone three inches under the ground, where the explosions were being set off. It sounded like a great low frequency sonic boom.”

Collectively, their work on Crackdown 2 involved recording everything from Tesla electric sports cars to broken glass.

“My favourite sound in the game was the shopping cart,” he explains. “Kyle actually beat up a shopping cart from a local grocery store. It sounds great.”

“Kyle still has not returned the cart.”

Photo courtesy of Robbie Elias