Definitely the most pleasant surprise of the year.

The game is so ambitious (massive open world martial arts style GTA) and when Activision slapped the True Crime branding on it and subsequently dropped the game, I pretty much wrote the game off.

Now that its finally here, I cant believe how good this game actually is. Its not gonna knock GTA or Red Dead off the map, but it plays very well, has an engaging story and is very comparable to Saints Row 3 (minus the over the top angle).

Anyone else pick it up?

How solid is the melee combat?

it can turn into a counter-fest at times, but its very solid mechanics and unlocking new moves keeps it feeling fresh.

plus the environment kills are great.

Can you get drunk?

Can you drink and drive?

Can you swim?

Can you purchase property?

Can you parachute in this game?

I know there's 6 months of pre-planned DLC. What are you copping?

>Can you get drunk?
No. At the bars you do karaoke.

>Can you drink and drive?
Nope.

>Can you swim?
Yep.

>Can you purchase property?
Nah, but you got a crib and places to keep the cars and motorcycles you buy.

>Can you parachute in this game?
No flying in the game, so no.

>I know there's 6 months of pre-planned DLC. What are you
>copping?


______________________________________________________________________________

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"
-George Clinton

It's very good. The combat is far superior to GTA's but GTA is a far more immersive experience. It's early on though so it could get better.

The hand to hand combat is done really well, I actually prefer this to Batman, and I like how there are varied enemy styles that make you change your approach on how to take them down.

Plus there are a lot more moves to do than what appears on the surface- last night I accidentally did a wallrun to flying roundhouse kick... that was an OH SHIT moment.

Damn didn't realize this was out too. I'll be on the ds2 for a while so hopefully I can eventually pick this up used.

looks interesting but i don't like the button mashing batman style combat system

Everything I'm reading about this game sounds sick... I was considering jumping on the 30% off sale a few months back, but it was too early to trust a new IP like this from Square.

Might just jump on it when it inevitably lands on a Steam sale or something.

I had NO intentions of trying this one before I did. I wasn't impressed by the commercials and once I heard it was a sandbox style game, I was ready to say nevermind. I haven't been a fan of games like the GTA series, Assassins Creed, etc. It's typically just not my thing for some reason. I enjoyed Batman...well, beyond that. It's one of my favorite games ever. So when I saw y'all compare it to batman, I HAD to try it.

This shit is fun. I redboxed it and played a good 6hours straight. The "missions" are pretty thin and the combat somewhat repetitive, but that's fine for me. It still gets over. I may even go back and check out another game this style because of how much I like this.

.

think i'll cop once it (eventually) hits $30

for HOURS at a time since like Wednesday. Once you max out all the moves, combat really becomes fun and with them planning on 6months worth of DLC, this game is a definite cop for me.

I mean damn, already? How long is the game?

depending on how many side missions you want to do.

than 5hrs at a time. I did mostly the main story missions and the drug busts. I let a lot of the phone shit slide and race missions slide. So 20 hrs sounds about right, maybe a little more for basically straight gameplay. There's STILL a ton of stuff to do and I finished the main story AND the cop missions from ol' girl. Straight dismissed me. So I still have plenty of Drug Busts to make, races, and street fights to finish to get my face value up. I'm only at a high 6 or low 7.

goddamn it's fun.
this is how you use the "true crime" engine.

lol @ the cars still exploding like crazy if you shoot a tire out during a chase tho.

BIG HINT: call emma stone (amanda) and that russian chick from k bar and go on a date with them. you'll see all the lockboxes and health shrines on your mini map.

i'm out.
_____________________
"WHOLESALE REUSABLE GROCERY BAGS!!"
@etfp

the graphics are pretty groovy, especially when it rains. The side missions and collectibles don't feel tedious because you actually get some benefit from them, the story is good and the action keeps you coming back.

I played for like six hours before i even got to use a gun in the game. And the martial arts challenges and unlocking new moves keep me going for the statues.

I'm really liking this............
______________________________________________________________________________

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"
-George Clinton

I keep trying to do these silly drug busts, mainly because I think the fighting system is really, really fun (and I'm a bit of a completist so I always side quest as much as possible before hitting the main quests) but MAAAAAAN! my sucess rate on beating up the gangs is like 1 out of 5 tries. I've had ONE go first time (mainly because the bad guys kept respawning with weapons, so I was able to down a lot of thugs quickly) but otherwise I have to try over and over until I finally get a bit lucky one time.

anyone else trying these and failing or is it just me? I can usually do okay until the grapplers get up on me, but once those fat bastards are up close on me, I rarely recover.

you need to learn how to handle each style of the enemies (never grapple the big boys)... counter is your best friend.

i strongly recommend just taking a car and running over all the baddies at the drug bust locations... you can make quick work of them by just driving through everyone.

then the fight afterwards didn't work out because the stupid ass car was limiting my movement (it was a weird back alley).

should perhaps be noted I'm not higher than lvl. 2 on anything at all, I just spent last night dying on these b/c I was determined to get a handle on the fighting system (and I was improving) and the fighting is definitely my favorite part so far.

and yeah, I've tried just countering and only doing 1 or 2 punch combos to follow, but I don't down anyone and while I do that the grapplers move in on me at which case I'm hosed. my best tactic so far is to counter a bit, throw some punches, then grab someone and sprint with them to smash them into something, rinse/repeat after I created some space for myself so the fat bastards can't get me that quick.

anyway, it's fun, I spent like an hour or two just doing dumb drug busts last night. it's not really tedious when the combat is so rich.

and do story missions to find jade statues to learn new moves.

the car thing works better in some of the more open drug bust locations... tight quarters ones gets too trick to maneuver.

In fact they haven't blocked at all so far. I've had some success spamming them with short, hard combos while waiting to counter someone that comes up from behind. Anyone who's skinny without a knife I grapple and throw, if they're wielding knives I tend to wait for them to attack, do a counter then follow with a short combo to put them on the ground.

Failing that I use my smart car to run them over.

and there's like 17 enemies, it starts out with 7 in this big ass lot by the water. I ran over 11, then 6 more came, It took me a while but I got it.

eventually i just grabbed a car and ran most of them over.

i'm out.
_____________________
"WHOLESALE REUSABLE GROCERY BAGS!!"
@etfp

I JUST FOUGHT LIKE HALF DOZEN DUDES AND DID THE DIM MAK THE WHOLE TIME. BEASTLY.

i'm out.
_____________________
"WHOLESALE REUSABLE GROCERY BAGS!!"
@etfp

found this couple embracing in the streets, pulled a running tackle into them, brought the broad to the ground, administered the quick punch to the face for the KO, then grappled the boyfriend and broke his leg, you know, just for fun. couldn't stop laughing for some reason...

but seriously the fighting is coming together and this game is really, really fun. reviews I read didn't give enough credit for the setting, the exotic feel of Hong Kong *really* works. this game is great.

O Miss Elizabeth, you just want to come out here and yuck it up for the Macho Man? *grabs bat from crowd*

>O Miss Elizabeth, you just want to come out here and yuck it
>up for the Macho Man? *grabs bat from crowd*

i miss those games. no countouts, no dqs and my folding chair. mmmhmm.

man i ran down an alley and laid out every person i ran by.

i'm out.
_____________________
"WHOLESALE REUSABLE GROCERY BAGS!!"
@etfp

... coming from a publisher with very little PC experience in general.

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/sleeping-dogs-proves-that-an-unlikely-champion-of-modern-pc-games-is...-sq

There's tons of positive word of mouth buzz going on around this game now... it's starting to feel like it could be a sleeper hit on the level of Borderlands was in 2010.

I wanna buy it now, but I just know it'll be $40 in a month

at greenmangaming.com. Use code: GMG30-AUGUS-TWINS

Applicable for both Sleepings Dogs and Darksiders 2

i dont know what exactly, it just feels way more solid than gta, maybe its the low expectations factor, or the fact that the story is way more complex, using the city as a backdrop to the character development rather than making the city be the star? not sure, it just works s well and is so atmospheric.

Last night I had a good ol time starting it up.

in real life earlier.


It was only early on that there was a stretch of repetitiveness in the pugilism for me...before the Triad levels and martial arts moves started rolling in. Now the challenge is remembering to use just the right move at the right time for max fun factor in a giant melee.



Oh, and motorcycle races are ridiculous. SO FRIKKIN FAST.

=MC^2 just came on. I was all ready to hop out the car for a mission, but nope. I rode around town to that shit!

demo is dope as he!!

During the time I played I was mostly on some station that was leaning HEAVY Brainfeeder, I remember hearing GonjaSufi and Flying Lotus back to back. Not sure if that's Hong Kong authentic but I'll allow it.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." © Jay Bilas
"I don't read pages of rap lyrics, I listen to rap music." © Bombastic
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=cs_top_nav_gb27

10 AM PDT

hopefully $29.99

http://card.mygamercard.net/lastgame/rjcc.png

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Thanks for the heads up!

Pretty cool stuff, the combat does feel a lot like Arkham Asylum/City, and that's definitely not a bad thing. Will get this at the first price drop.

http://www.gamestop.com/xbox-360/games/sleeping-dogs/99134

http://www.gamestop.com/ps3/games/sleeping-dogs/99135


for both PS3 and 360.

finished it last week, don't see a reason to keep it.

this game feels like it was cobbled together from the trimmings of other, superior games. like some kind of mutant meatloaf consisting of 4 different meats and somehow still being tasty. all the systems are good, but not quite as good as they could be. when i take in the game as a whole it's very impressive but the individual systems are just middling (smooting) to pretty good (fighting)

the city layout is very interesting to me. this is the first time i've seen a whole open-world city that looks like it was explicitly designed for street racing (not counting actual racing games like burnout, nfs most wanted, etc.). what's also interesting is that the city is comparitively small. it just looks big on the map. i'd estimate that at least 30% of that map is inaccessible. the city also feels empty, even when there are people around. there seems to be a dearth of activity in the city. i don't know what it is about rockstar that lets them breathe life but united front games definitely doesn't have it

the story is a joke. video game writers are terrible. the voice acting is fine

it's a good game. i'd compare it to dead island, in that they both came out during a lull for their genre and benefitted from it and they are both janky as fuck

most fun ive had with a game in a bit. never felt laborious which is good because i can only play games in one or two hour stretches these days. the combat was so simple and fluid. the soundtrack was great. overall just a really cool experience i'm glad i didnt sleep on it.

i know it's not GTA, but compared to Saints Row or the Yakuza games is it like those? or is it like True Crime (i regret spending 20 hours of my life on that game, i had no other games at the time)

Its funny that you mention the True Crime bit because the
first time that I saw Sleeping Dogs advertised, I was like "Yo, dat looks alot like the new True Crime that was supposed to be in development". Didn't actually know that it WAS True Crime that
fell thru some politics.

At any rate tho, the demo was hot and Ima def' cop.

It doesn't really get exciting to the third act. There's not enough variety and the AI sucks. Furthermore, gun and car storage are ridiculous. You can't store guns and you don't unlock the ability to get them until practically the end if the game.

Then again I didn't have to grind due to downloading from PSN+.

I wouldn't pay $60 for this. It's only worth about $25.

a big appeal of open world games (well, GTA) for me is I know quite a few girls that just like to dick around in them, but without any cheat codes I can't let any of the girls who think Chinese people are funny take a crack on beating them up in this because they can't get any cool guns or cars or heat cheats.


Plus, there's just something about the driving that isn't as charmingly PS2-like as the driving in, say, Just Cause 2. I played a solid hour of it and haven't really been back; I dig the hell out of watching the Giantbomb dudes play this game, but I can't make it work for me in my (extremely limited) time with it so far.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." © Jay Bilas
"I don't read pages of rap lyrics, I listen to rap music." © Bombastic
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

Once you unlock slow motion shooting and hijacking the game opens up.

>You can't store guns and you don't
>unlock the ability to get them until practically the end if
>the game.

Really I don't see the point of guns unless you're in a car or a scripted event. Shit.


i'm out.
_____________________
"WHOLESALE REUSABLE GROCERY BAGS!!"
@etfp

and no other games, except maybe Worms, Super Stardust or The Sims, period.


It kinda keeps the game from being in the rotation on those kind of nights. I mean at least an equivalent to the GTA4 "my punches are as strong as the tank's cannon and can launch you into the sky" cheat would be nice, or the heat up/down codes.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." © Jay Bilas
"I don't read pages of rap lyrics, I listen to rap music." © Bombastic
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

***SPOILERS BELOW***
























The final mission didn't feel like one. The missions that transition each apartment should've had the feel of the final mission.

There wasn't nearly as much to do as I thought there would be.

What was up with that BS ending? I want sleeping dogs 2 with Wei trying to balance his affiliation with the SOY versus his status as a detective.

Dating was almost completely pointless.

What happened to Ricky and his girl?

How come Wei didn't arrest the one black guy voiced by Serius Jones?

This is not a $60 day one purchase. They have a lot to work on for sleeping dogs 2.

DLC is on sale on PSN until 5/28 any of the packs worth getting?

no new content

and I think I checked it pretty recently hoping there would be new content, too, but it was still just unlocking items you can access via regular gameplay anyway.

could be wrong, but that's what I recall.

>no new content
>
>and I think I checked it pretty recently hoping there would be
>new content, too, but it was still just unlocking items you
>can access via regular gameplay anyway.
>
>could be wrong, but that's what I recall.

i looked into it there are some new content two dlcs have trophies nightmare in north point (or something close to that) this guy comes back from the dead and all takes place in north point and then year of the snake which the story is there is this bomb setting cult you have to stop. i grabbed both since they were on sale with playstation plus. i completed both (neither was hard or took too long). year of the snake was ok, didnt really like nightmare. i wouldnt recommend either but would buy a sequel to sleeping dogs if it ever happens

I def liked Year of the Snake more, that dumb Nightmare b.s. (*cringe* Why'd They Do THAT???) I enjoy these cop missions though more than I should, was the same way on GTA

found all 12 jade statues without help & felt like a G.

Got 2 silvers, debating on heading back for that Platinum Trophy I just dont have the time.

Still in the mddle of Darksiders, Vanquish, Dues Ex and Red Dead and Rage. Gotta complete another of those this weekend. Still trying to head back to GTAIV for a complete run through before September