Sleeping Dogs

[PZ]

Square Enix Announces New Open World Game Sleeping Dogs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xc6DM5KKm0#ws

[Fiach]

Yes, I've been watching this game for awhile now, I have the other True Crime games and I like them alot. The only misgiving I have is the "cinematic combat", it reminds me a bit of Stranglehold which I absolutely hated, because it was too interactive, if you touched anything, you wound up jumping over it or sliding across it, I found it very annoying.

The other TC games had the chop socky combat, but it wasn't as flamboyant, it was more realistic. But its a game I will most likely get, unless it sucks hard. :)

[PZ]

The reason it caught my eye is that Square Enix is producing it - I still really like Just Cause2, and I hope that the feel will be similar.

[Art Blade]

sure looks impressive, the scenes in the streets of Hong Kong ??? :-X :)

[Binnatics]

Might be a cool combo, Arkham city fighting techniques with an open world shooter idea. :)

[ninzza]

Combat trailer, looks good. This game is interesting because it's open world like GTA and has martial art moves. 

Sleeping Dogs - Combat Trailer

[Binnatics]

Yes, that looks amazing! I think I can enjoy a game like that.

[Fiach]

I thought someone had a thread about this, but I cant find it, but its out on Aug 17th and got a 9/10 in Official X Box Magazine (OXM), the series used to be called True Crime and based in different cities, but was always overshadowed by GTA.

Anyway a shift in emphasis has knocked the True Crime IP on the head and given us Sleeping Dogs.

http://www.sleepingdogs.net/

[ninzza]

That thread was created by PZ here:

http://www.openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=2790.0

This game is a sleeping hit (forgive me), it  looks fun, I might get it later. The review scores it got so far:

-Official PS Magazine (UK): 9/10
-Official Xbox Magazine (UK): 9
-EGM: 9.5
-G4TV: 9
-IGN: 8.5
-Gamespot: 8
-Eurogamer Spain: 9
-PS Universe: 9
-PS Life Style: 9

[Art Blade]

You see how good it is to choose a good title for a topic and post it in an appropriate board :)

I just merged those two topics. Cheers, guys  :)

[ninzza]

Hand to hand combat :

The environmental kills are brutal

http://www.gamespot.com/sleeping-dogs/videos/sleeping-dogs-hand-to-hand-combat-gameplay-video-6391430/

[Fiach]

Sposed to be a Just Cause costume in game if you have a JC2 save.

http://ie.ign.com/wikis/sleeping-dogs/Just_Cause_2_Costumes

[Fiach]

Got the game, I like it alot, very story driven, seems you can have a replayability due to the cops/triad faction loyalty.

Fighting is very responsive yet simple, with a "counter" system like batman, where enemies glow red to highlight that they can be countered.

Basically its a combination of eg. X,X,X, X(hold) = Light, Light, Ligh,t Kick. Or enemies that block can be grappled, then when grappled you can press "A" to drag them into a wall or a red highlighted environmental object like a phonebooth or dumpster etc. where you can deliver a killing blow to take them out of the action.

You can buy food/beverages to regenerate health or make you stronger etc.

The game reminds me somewhat of an old Dreamcast game called Shenmue, which is a good thing.

Just to confirm, you do get the Just Cause costume once you get to your apartment (and have a JC2 save). It means you hijack a car a bit more easily, but it looks really cool too, so winner all 'round.

[JRD]

I hope you enjoy it Fiach!  :-X

The trailer seems very cool with great combat moves... an evil Jackie Chan!  ::)

Looking forward to a review!

[PZ]

... an evil Jackie Chan!  ::)

... same as JRD - looking forward to your thoughts

[Fiach]

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Spent a few hours so far, its a good game, probably fair to say a great game, but it has flaws that (for me) drop it a notch or two.

Its hard for a game to do so much and get everything perfect, so with that in mind, please take what I say with a VERY large grain of salt.

Sometimes when driving and you collide withsomething that necessitates you having to reverse and then go forward (hit a wall, reverse to get on the road, then move forward), the camera will go fecking haywaire, when you are in a chase or on a ramming mission, this can be a pain in the nuts.

Combat is well implemented and quite deep. Once you get past the initial combat stages, you meet your old kung fu teacher, he has lost some items and as you recover each one, he will teach you new moves, they really did a great job in simplifying these moves, in that you very rarely move beyond various combinations of the X button, like X,X, X(hold), X. But...yup a big hairy butt....

During combat, to make it easier, the game will auto target an enemy, so you will knock an enemy down and try to hit them again, but the camera will select a different enemy, making you turn your back on the previous one, leaving you open to a counter attack that you cannot stop, in the normal course of events, this is not a problem, but in a fighting contest with 6 rounds and increasing numbers of enemies, I lost a contest in the last round, I would think quite unfairly, due to this auto targetting.
The fight was long enough that I didnt want to do it again, just in case I got screwed over again by the system, but on the plus side, the contest did make me more combat efficent and more confident for run of the mill in game fights.

Sometimes its not clear what you have to do, I was told to beat up a couple of guys, I went to the area and a guy attacked me, so I wound up killing him (by accident... honest), that made everyone run away, I didnt get a mission fail message or a mission completed message either, all I had was a red dot near where I was standing, I climbed up walls to see if the guy was on a roof or something, where I couldnt see him, to no avail, so I went to the mission giver, he wouldnt talk to me, went back to the area, people kept running away from me, in the end, I just punched random people in the area and I got a message I had succeeded, but there was nothing to mark out who I should have hit other than a red dot on a mini map in a place with people running around scared of me.

[Fiach]

OK, on to the good, the game looks great and you play missions for the cops (you are undercover) and the triads, as you progress the cop missions, you level up one set of skills as you progress triad missions you level up another set of skills and as you find items for the kung fu teacher, you level up combat skills.

You can also buy food and beverages to augment your skills/stats (increased melee damage or increased health etc.).

I think the game is not as bonkers as Saints Row or as ironic as GTA, I would think it plays to the same tune as Just Cause, more than the other games, as it's quite earnest in its story telling, naturally it doesnt have the huge map like in Just Cause, but sometimes less is more ... or whatever :)

[JRD]

I've been reading some reviews of this game (that's only before you get deeper into the story, Fiach!  ;D ) and it really seems like a game I'd have fun with!

IGN says it's a great game where the story is what grabs the player. I saw some videos and it seems to have quite a lot of different things to do... you get a lot of driving and shooting too, not only Hong Kong Foo stuff!  8)

Keep us posted Fiach!  :-X

[Fiach]

I dont know if you ever played the True Crime games, but this would be their spiritual successor. It has lots to do, collect items for clothing, find Incense Shrines to augment your health, on top of the chop socky, you have gun skills to eg. disarm people with guns, a kind of aiming bullet time, you have the driving of course, but it all seems more grounded in reality, in comparison with its competitors.

I think you would like the game mate, even though the world is not as expansive as JC2 or with the diversity of travel available in that game. I like Saints Row because its bonkers, yet I dislike GTA (never finished any of them yet tbh), but I do like this game alot.

One thing I miss from the other games is the radio adverts and the Talk Radio shows, also, so far the music on the radios is not of the iconic calibre of the GTA series.

If you ever played the Yakuza games on PS2 or PS3, and liked them, then you would like this game, it also reminds me a bit of Shenmue (Dreamcast game).

[JRD]

Never played any of those games you mentioned but love and have finished all GTA games since Vice City!  ::)  :-D

I like when games are grounded to reality though... JC2 is fun but it's so big I get tired just by thinking about moving around and get sidetracked too often so I haven't moved forward in the story!  :-[

But this one sure does look like a game I'd enjoy... too bad (?) I have a few games to finish otherwise I'd give it a go... I can always wait for a STEAM fire sale though!

Keep us posted, mate! Nice read!  :-X

[PZ]

...Sometimes its not clear what you have to do, I was told to beat up a couple of guys, I went to the area and a guy attacked me, so I wound up killing him (by accident... honest)...

:-X

Fiach, still playing games so we don't have to!

Seriously, looks like an interesting game  ;)

[ninzza]

If you ever played the Yakuza games on PS2 or PS3, and liked them, then you would like this game, it also reminds me a bit of Shenmue (Dreamcast game).

I played Yakuza 3 and Yakuza Kenzan, a semi open world samurai gansta spin-off sets in feudal Japan. It's for Japan only, I  imported it from an only store based in Hong Kong. I managed to  finished it 2 times thanks to a trategy guide on gamefaqs and currently playing through the 3rd time. I like the combat in this series, especially the revelation heat moves are spectacular and brutal. I'm planning ti picking up Yakuza 4 soon as from what I've heard and seen, it looks like it's better than Yakuza 3.

Although I like Yakuza but I wish it has some driving, shooting.

So how is the combat in this game compared to Yakuza 3 and 4 ?  Does it have any flashy martial arts moves ?

[Fiach]

Not particularly flashy, but as I said earlier, it's simple but effective.

I think there is a Y5 but I saw a gameplay video and its more of a run n gun kinda thing.

[ninzza]

It's not Yakuza 5, it's a spin-off called Dead Souls. Yakuza 5 will comes out in Dec in Japan.

[Fiach]

Ah, good to hear, thanks :)