Sleeping Dogs

[dbdynsty25]

I've been hearing good things about this game recently and it looks pretty badass. GTA type sandbox game but with much better hand to hand combat. Check it out...comes out August 14th I believe.

http://www.sleepingdogs.net/

[MizzouRah]

Looks great...

[pk500]

Watched the trailer for this game last night. This looks ridiculously good. GTA on steroids.

[dbdynsty25]

Seems like quite a few PC only enhancements as well...which I'm down with. Not sure which version I'll get yet, but leaning towards the PC.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/9/322985 ... ew-trailer

[dbdynsty25]

Guess no one else is as hyped about this game as me. Release date tomorrow. All over it.

[ScoopBrady]

Guess no one else is as hyped about this game as me. Release date tomorrow. All over it.

Oh, I'm interested in it. I thought it wasn't out for another couple of weeks though. Look forward to your impressions.

[Diablo25]

Guess no one else is as hyped about this game as me. Release date tomorrow. All over it.

I'll be looking forward to some impressions.

[10spro]

Wondering whether I should trade Max Payne 3 (which I haven't finished yet) towards SD.

Kotaku's view:

http://kotaku.com/5934272/sleeping-dogs ... aku-review

[dbdynsty25]

Wondering whether I should trade Max Payne 3 (which I haven't finished yet) towards SD.

Kotaku's view:

http://kotaku.com/5934272/sleeping-dogs ... aku-review

Why not finish MP3 first...it's not that long anyway.

[RobVarak]

Joystiq's take:

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/08/14/sleeping-dogs-review/

Sounds promising.

[Gurantsu]

I'm downloading it from Steam now. A buddy got it on PS3 and he's digging it. He said the combat feels a lot like Arkham City, and that the city seems a lot bigger than he thought it would be.

[dbdynsty25]

Whoa. GTA with a legit fighting system. Better than I even thought it would be. I am totally down with this after about a half hours worth of play.

[pk500]

Whoa. GTA with a legit fighting system. Better than I even thought it would be. I am totally down with this after about a half hours worth of play.

Tjung on HGH.

Seriously, more impressions, please!

[RobVarak]

Played a couple hours last night and still barely scratched the surface. Really enjoying it so far. There's a fair amount of cut-scene time in the first half-hour or so, but once it puts you on the street it's a blast.

The fighting is so much fun. Reminds me of the Batman games, but a little more visceral. Great sound effects really add to the fun.

Loved the combat training where they show the different types of thugs. Really helps when you start dealing with groups of baddies on the street.

Too early for much more detail, but I like what I see so far.

[TCrouch]

Played for a couple hours myself, and the combat (like everybody else is saying) is really impressive for an open world game. You might fight a bunch of guys in an alleyway, but the amount of stuff you can do is crazy.

You combo with your X button, and instead of a light and hard attack button, you have both on one. You tap it for light attacks, or hold it for hard attacks. So if you want to close the gap, you simply hold X and he does this sliding sidekick to close distance quickly. Fire off a jab with X and then hold it and he goes into a knee to buckle them over. 3 jabs and holding X goes into a spinning roundhouse kick to the chops. The counter system is identical to the Arkham games, where you hit Y when one of the guys flashes red. It's a very intuitive combo system and you start feeling like a Kung Fu asskicker in minutes.

But the awesomeness shows up when you start having guys blocking and you have to press B to grapple them. You can be comboing all day long, but if they're blocking it doesn't do anything to them. If you grab them, though, you now have even more options. Things around you may glow red, and if that's the case you can walk them over to it and press B and put their face in a grinder or throw them into a speaker or slam a door on them, etc. Or you can use the RT to perform a Judo throw in any direction you move. Or (my favorite), you can hold A to sprint while you have them grappled, and run their head right into a wall/door/railing/etc. It never got old grabbing somebody and sprinting their face into a railing. Not once.

The driving seems to be a bit twitchy (especially on the motorcycles), but it's easy to control. Having points deducted for hitting things is an interesting twist, since you're an undercover cop. Some chase scenes and timed missions become a little more tense when you're attempting not to hit people and parking meters because it drops your score.

Overall, it's bloody awesome. I was splitting time between this, the Madden demo, and Darksiders 2 last night. It's a tough call between DS2 and this as far as which one's better IMO. But I was telling my wife it was nice to pick up a couple of games and have ZERO buyer's remorse after a full night of playing.

[dbdynsty25]

Whoa. GTA with a legit fighting system. Better than I even thought it would be. I am totally down with this after about a half hours worth of play.

Tjung on HGH.

Seriously, more impressions, please!

Didn't get to play enough to give some thorough impressions like the other guys. A little busy these days.

[pk500]

Whoa. GTA with a legit fighting system. Better than I even thought it would be. I am totally down with this after about a half hours worth of play.

Tjung on HGH.

Seriously, more impressions, please!

Didn't get to play enough to give some thorough impressions like the other guys. A little busy these days.

I can remember rocking our kids to sleep with my foot in their car carrier while playing games. Multitasking, my boy.

[dbdynsty25]

I can remember rocking our kids to sleep with my foot in their car carrier while playing games. Multitasking, my boy.

Apparently I shouldn't have gotten the game on the PC then...can't stick the kid under my desk. Hahaha...dammit. Lesson learned.

[dbdynsty25]

Broke out the 360 controller on the PC and I'm much happier...it's a lot easier to control the combat and fighting w/o the mouse and keyboard wonkiness. The game was so badass I didn't really notice it until I got the 360 controller hooked up. Downloaded the high res texture pack and damn, game looks awesome. First time in a long time a console game has been actually ported correctly to the PC.

[TCrouch]

I think trying to control the game with a mouse and keyboard would be tough, for sure. I've been playing it on 360 and got much further last night. Once I started unlocking more combinations and moves and leveled up my cop/triad/face experience a few times, it got more and more fun. Driving around is actually fairly enjoyable, and some of those motorcycles are just flat out awesome. When you get a crotch rocket and get up to speed, it feels FASSSSST. So much so that I sort of slow down because the screen is shaking and it's actually a bit unnerving.

But it keeps coming back to the combat. There are some missions I've played where you have to hack security cameras and monitor the feed to capture crimes in the act, or sneak around and capture photos on your cell phone, in addition to the typical "go in, beat everybody down and get out" missions. Overall it's an incredibly impressive game.

[Spooky]

How different is this game from GTA? I seem to always buy the GTA type, open sandbox games and lose interest quickly. But once again, this one has me intrigued.

[dbdynsty25]

How different is this game from GTA? I seem to always buy the GTA type, open sandbox games and lose interest quickly. But once again, this one has me intrigued.

Quite a bit different really. The same theory and concept is there, but the combat is WAY better, the driving is WAY better and the story actually means something. Watch a few video reviews on Youtube and you'll see what I'm saying.

[fanatic]

How different is this game from GTA? I seem to always buy the GTA type, open sandbox games and lose interest quickly. But once again, this one has me intrigued.

Quite a bit different really. The same theory and concept is there, but the combat is WAY better, the driving is WAY better and the story actually means something. Watch a few video reviews on Youtube and you'll see what I'm saying.

That's a good sign, considering I generally enjoyed my time with GTV4, but didn't particularly love the combat, driving, or story (it was a case of the sum being greater than the individual parts).

Plus, I imagine it's going to feel like more of an escape to explore the streets of Hong Kong vs. Liberty City, which falls within the "familiar" category in terms of environments.

Having just started Mass Effect 3, it will be a while before I have a chance to play this one - but at the moment, it looks like my next purchase.

[TCrouch]

Feels very different to me, since you have so many options in combat, and generally end up kicking somebody's ass with fists/crowbars/knives/cleavers instead of guns. I heard guns come into play later on, but I've got some perks that allow me to quickly disarm foes with firearms, so curious to see how that works out.

Simply driving on the wrong side of the street made it feel very different to me, but wandering through some of the markets and checking out some of the impromptu gang fights has been a ton of fun. Never did much exploring in GTA, just point to point to point.

[webdanzer]

Most fun I've had with a modern open-world game in quite some time.

Love the fighting, and actually really enjoy how the protagonist is presented. Neat character so far that I enjoy inhabiting.

Story is interesting enough so far too, despite an early abundance of 'mature language' there for its own sake.

I don't like the FOV, though. Too close to the character and too limited. I want to gawk around at Hong Kong. It sometimes feels like I'm in a dungeon corridor when walking the city!

Didn't have high expectations, but the game is definitely exceeding them so far.