Though the Crackdown franchise has a new development team in Ruffian Games, the upcoming sequel hopes to retain the best qualities found in the original Xbox hit. You'd think the task is made easier when former Realtime Worlds employees form part of the developer, but creative director Billy Tomson and producer James Cope believe there is still room for improvement.

In an interview with Joystiq, the pair discussed Crackdown 2's vision and its attempt to perfect the open-world formula. Read on to learn more about the limitations of the original engine, memory complications, the omission of female playable characters, and plans for future content.