Out of all of the mobile gaming titles that Microsoft was showing off at its pre-Gamescom event in Cologne, the one that most caught Pocket-lint's beady eye was Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst. 

Project Sunburst is the latest Crackdown title and brilliantly uses real-time backdrops from Bing Maps, based on your location, to provide an endless array of gameplay environments. 

The game uses the Windows Phone 7's geo-tagging functionality to pin-point where you are, and you can build bases to defend against the “freaks” in real locations.  

The freaks won't simply crawl over the tops of buildings either, they use the roads and access routes to try to storm your stronghold. So if you travel to a location in real-life, and the access roads are limited, you may want to consider firing up the game and building a base. 

You can also team up with your friends to increase your defence's strength, with the individual locations of your buddies adding to the power of your coalition. Plus, any bonuses you or your friends earn on the Xbox 360 version of Crackdown 2, or the Crackdown Facebook title Chucks Ducks, can also be carried over to Project Sunburst. 

Pocket-lint spoke to Justin Robey, senior producer at Microsoft Games Studios who explained the social part of the Windows Phone 7 title: “The cool social part of this that we've built in", he said. "The further you travel away from your house, and build bases, the more points you get".  

“When you put your friends in, you can all coordinate. For example, I'm up in Seattle, you're over in the UK and if we get a friend of mine in South Africa, we could activate three beacons and take out half of the United States worth of freaks”.

The game also continues to run after you close it down. Your pals can defend your base and earn you money and you can also return the favour. 

We've seen games before that use Google or Bing Maps, but this is the first big release from an established developer.  

Exciting times for Xbox LIVE and Windows Phone 7.