Sleeping Dogs

[The+Deleted]

http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/01/back-fr ... hong-kong/

Square Enix London studio Lee Singleton made the admission in an interview with Gamasutra. However, the publisher has not picked up the rights to the IP, and that the title will be rebranded to reflect otherwise.

“It’s too early to say what the name will be,” said Singleton, adding that removing the True Crime name would be “pretty straightforward.”

United Front Games are still working on the title, as it was when Activision was publishing the game before its cancelation. Singleton wouldn’t be drawn on release timings or formats, though. It was originally due to release this year for PS3, 360 and PC.

He admitted that it was a “done deal” between Square and United Front after it had seen the potential with the game from the developer.

“When we met the team at United Front Games, it was a done deal in our eyes — we instantly recognized the huge potential in the game and the team. UFG is an incredibly talented team, who have individually worked on some of the biggest games in our industry, and this talent shines through from the moment you walk in the door.”

True Crime: Hong Kong was announced back in December 2008 at the Spike Video Game Awards, and was shown various times to media, but was canned by Activision in February because it would not “be at the top” of the open-world genre, according to comments made by Activision COO Eric Hirshberg in June.

[Shadowman]

So this game is due out next week, is anyone else looking forward to it?

I've been keeping an eye on it and finally cracked and preordered the PC version after watching the vid here:
http://www.vg247.com/2012/08/08/sleepin ... new-video/

The game looks like its a mix of GTA and Yakuza and I really like Hong Kong as the setting. I remember really liking the original True Crime depsite its short comings so hopefully this game will manage to be everything I wanted from the original - A good open world game with decent shooting and hand to hand combat with plenty of fun side stuff to do.

[PlatinumSpectre]

Yeah I've had it pre-ordered for a while now. Quite excited about it. It's got good reviews so far. First new game I will have bought since Dragons Dogma!!

[Mr Marvellous]

Have it coming too, hated the other true crime games but this looks decent enough and far enough removed from the other games I will give it a chance.

[Andy Kurosaki]

The review in Official Xbox 360 Magazine gave it a 9 and claims "it's almost as good as GTA!". I sincerely doubt it's anywhere near 'Rockstar' standard. But having said that I'm willing to give it a chance. It'll be a rental though, not going to Day One it.

[Shadowman]

My copy has now shipped from Shopto There's some free day one DLC for the PC version in the form of high res textures, here's hoping my PC can run them ok.

Reading some of the day one impressions it sounds interesting that they are trying to focus on melee combat rather than it being another TPS (and sounding more and more like Yakuza the more I read/see which is no bad thing). According to a couple of reviews though the gunplay is "disappointing".

[therealjaxon]

Sleeping Dogs - from the scrap heap to the top of the charts

18 months ago the code behind Sleeping Dogs lay abandoned. A year and a half later, the game has been hailed as a triumph and sits proudly atop of the UK charts.

Sleeping Dogs began life in 2003 when Activision released the Luxoflux developed True Crime: Streets of LA. That game won a decent-ish reception from critics, but never successfully elevated itself above the sea of “Grand Theft Auto clones” that were flooding the market at the time.

Its 2005 follow-up True Crime: New York City improved on its predecessor in some respects, but was given a tough time for its technical imperfections which were blamed on the rush to get the game out in time for the Christmas market.

Crucially, TC: NYC fell short of Activision’s sales expectations. But in a market still bossed by Grand Theft Auto, Activision didn’t feel able to abandon its one viable GTA-like IP.

So in 2008 new studio United Front Games began work on a new instalment, True Crime: Hong Kong, which was announced in late 2009 for a 2010 release. However, in August 2010 a delay to 2011 was confirmed, but just weeks into 2011 Activision announced that the game had been abandoned.

Why the cold feet? Activision blamed quality concerns, but the truth was that the games market of 2011 was very different to the games market of 2003. Sales were on the slide, elongated console lifecycles were causing every publisher to alter their strategies.

Anything but the very biggest IP was suddenly considered too great a risk.

The market was now awash with GTA clones, and Activision simply lacked the appetite to compete with what were now bigger, more successful franchises. In the same way it abandoned Guitar Hero when the market got tough, Activision left True Crime for dead.

Square Enix, however, saw things differently.

Once the preserve of RPGs, the new West-facing publisher (buoyed by its merger with Eidos) was on the hunt for Western style IP. With titles like Just Cause 2, Kane & Lynch 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Batman: Arkham City and the upcoming Tomb Raider on the cards, the company was understandably on the hunt for its very own GTA-contender.

And it saw that in TC: HK. Of course, it also recognised the need to start afresh. With no claims to the Truce Crime IP, Square Enix forged a new identity for the title – Sleeping Dogs.

The game itself also underwent some fundamental changes. It backed out of the “bigger, better, badder” race and instead focused on delivering what rivals could not – an exciting sandbox world AS WELL as engaging combat, both melee and weapon.

It also focused on honing the atmosphere of the game. Its Hong Kong setting was always a distinguishing factor. The trick was to make the most of it.

The game was released last week and has been an undoubted success. Sleeping Dogs debuted at the top of the UK All Formats Charts yesterday, beating none other than Nintendo’s New Super Mario Bros 2 in the process.

And it’s no surprise that there was much to celebrate within the walls of the Square Enix offices yesterday.

"We are extremely pleased with the opening weekend of Sleeping Dogs and it's great to see that players are clearly enjoying the fantastic new features it brings to the genre,” UK sales manager Andrew Larcombe told MCV.

“The market has been quiet recently, but we're confident that Sleeping Dogs is a game that you will 'have to have' and the buzz it's generating across the forums is a strong sign that it can continue to stay near the top of the charts through the peak period. There's always at least one new IP every year that catches people off guard and can launch a new franchise and we think this is the one.

“Big thanks to the incredible talent at United Front Games for creating Sleeping Dogs and to all across Square Enix and the trade for helping it become such a deserved success.”

Its commercial success comes on the back of a strong critical reception, too.

The game has an 82 per cent average on Metacritic with OPM UK writing: “This is the game Saints Row has spent a decade desperate to be, a rollercoaster open-world adventure set in an environment that’s fun to explore and doss about in, packed to the brim with rousing missions and happy diversions and other amazing stuff. It’s unquestionably 2012’s most brilliantly brutal surprise, and you’re duty bound to check it out.”

[rumblecat]

Brilliant game, probably even better for not being forced into being a True Crime title as well.

Love the city, the way it looks in sunshine or rain, the glow of neon at night... driving felt a little clunky at first but it's clicked, hand to hand combat is brilliant, it was eight hours or so before I even touched a gun. Just a lovely attention to detail as well, loads of nice little touches all over the place. Really feels like a lot of care and attention has gone into this. It's a small thing but I loved how blood soaked you can end up getting from fighting... really adds to that Hong Kong crime movie feeling.

[sleepery jeem]

Couldn't find the sleeping dogs thread so stuck it here instead.


Sleeping Dogs October Download Content...http://eu.square-enix.com/en/blog/sleep ... ad-content

[DifferentClass]

Now I know lots of people played this so the fact there is no thread for it, frankly, doesn't surprise me, because it's boring. But I wrote a relatively large post about it elsewhere so I thought I'd put it here too.

But what is the GTM consensus on this game? I dunno. But here is my inital impression from playing an hour on it since it's on PS+ for gratis, now.

I've only played it a little but I don't think I like it. I remember when it was getting shown off before it came out the devs seemed to have this mission to make an open world game where all of its components would make good games in their own right. The combat would be like that of a dedicated action game and the driving like that of a racing game, which is a bold and respectable challenge to take on.

But I don't think they've managed it.

I don't think the combat is that great. My expectations are probably ruined by people that say 'it's like Arkham games' when it really isn't. The combat in the Arkham games is good because of that build up of momentum you get in big crowds. The momentum that comes from spotting characteristics such as the guy that has a knife, the one that has a gun or a shield, and them using the right move to sort them out without losing momentum. That's why that combat is great. Sleepy Dogs is more like Ass Creed, or at least what I remember of it, in that it's just about waiting for them to attack and then pressing the counter button. It's not even as good as the combat in the Yakuza games that adopts quite a traditional brawler style. And it just feels... wobbly. I don't like it.

Then you have the driving, which has that heavy but weirdly slippery thing going on which is like the rubbish Need for Speed games. Getting around is as much fun as maneuvering a heavy trolley about. I don't like it.

Then we get to the characters and stuff. To get to what I don't like about this stuff is I have to use an example from a film. There is a scene in Jet Li's Fearless. It's a film set around the 1900s I think... maybe later... but anyway, there is this scene involving a Chinese, upper-class business man and some English member of the government who works at the English embassy... I dunno, I've forgotten the details... but the details aren't important.
The point is is that both of these characters speak both English and Cantonese and how and when both these characters use both these languages is important to the dynamic of the conversation. The Chinese fellow is an aspirational man who uses it to raise his profile while the English bloke is aware of the language comes loaded with imperialism and power, though understands how to use Cantonese to get people on his side.

The point I want to get to is: okay, I can see how an English speaking guy could fit into this situation, but why is everyone speaking English most of the time with the odd bit of Cantonese to give it some oriental flare? Why are these guys just speaking Cantonese; why is the English all American English? What the **** is going on here? I'm confused. It's just random. It's hard to get what's going on.

After playing this and inFAMOUS 2 I think I have come to the conclusion that I was way too hard on Arkham City. I may delete this and download that instead. They got the odd thing wrong but they got more right than everyone else.

[Shadowman]

I swear we had a SD thread here last year... at least I remember having a pretty decent discussion with a few other people on here about the game.

I got the game on the PC and loved it. I loved the greater focus on hand to hand action compared to other open world GTA style games, the moves seemed fluid and you have the right amount of depth in the moves list. Driving was ok, nothing amazing but I still found driving in SD to work better than in GTA IV. Gunplay as well, not as solid as say Max Payne 3 or Gears but still worked well in the game.

What I loved apart from the combat was the environment. I spent ontold amounts of time exploring the cities in the game, every back alley and market. The attention to detail (especially on the PC version) is amazing and its backed up by (in my opinion) one of the better stories in an open world title. Unlike most of Rockstars output the characters seem well written and don't come across as jerks quite so much...

[DifferentClass]

Yeah, I think GTA V may have to up its game a bit now this happened. It's combat it certainly better than in that. The driving in GTA IV I think is so much better than this, though. easily. The driving in GTA IV was probably my favourite thing. The handling was like a chase movie, all wheel spinning and body rolling. It felt great.

[maf-me-quick]

Sleeping Dogs is okay. It's a standard open world crime game, no more, no less. It's not bad but you can't just do GTA 3 any more. The games outside of R* that are still doing this don't seem to get that.

[Blakey]

There wasn't a thread when I was playing it back in January so I put all my updates in the 'Currently Playing Thread'

This was my summary from when i completed it:

Clocked Sleeping Dogs a couple of days ago, took me 19 hours to clock it.

Thoroughly enjoyed it I must say, I loved the setting, the story and most of the main characters, the story could've been a tad longer and the gun-play could've been tightened up a bit but I can't complain, loved every second of it and thoroughly recommend it to anyone who hasn't played it yet, especially as it's cheap as chips in Game etc. at the moment.

Absolutely loved it I must say, it wasn't perfect (the third-person shooting mechanics were a bit blazé) but I still thoroughly enjoyed it, and hope there's a sequel.

[RYAN WHITELAW]

I loved it. So much fun. And that's why I play games.