XBox Games With Gold Finally Gets Good

Ever since Microsoft's Games with Gold promotion began, the games it has included have always been so very in demand and new and that's not an absolute lie or anything covered up with sarcasm.  Actually it's totally a lie covered up by sarcasm because that's kind of what I do.  Some of the bigger retail (which is the key word here) titles that have hit the service are Gears of War (as in, the first one), Assassin's Creed 2 and Halo 3, all of which would've been fantastic gets....a couple years ago or so, but right now, are merely a bit silly.  It'd be akin to Playstation Plus offering you a copy of Heavenly Sword or the original Uncharted in February.  Of course, I cannot say that won't happen, since Sony has said they won't redo games and the well will dry up at some point, but still, relevancy is a big deal and it's something that's been sorely lacking from Games with Gold.  That all changes next month.

Sleeping Dogs will be January's first Game with Gold, being free from January 1st to the 15th, where Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light will finish out the rest of the month, but that doesn't matter so much.  I'm sure it's a fine game and blah blah blah, but Sleeping Dogs.  You might remember, but I liked Sleeping Dogs.  I liked it a lot.  A whole lot!  So any and all opportunity for the game to be played by someone who otherwise has not played it (what is -wrong- with you, by the way) is a good one that I encourage.  Encouragement might sound vaguely like threatening, since it might sound like I'm saying anyone who doesn't play Sleeping Dogs for the insane price of Free deserves what they get, but of course, what I -mean- is "nothing".  In that they get nothing.  In that they lose.

Good day, sir.

Er, anyway.  XBox Live Gold is almost required for those who have a 360 and/or indeed, an XBone, so this has a potentially far reach.  As such, there better be some people picking the damn game up, if just to get ready for Triad Wars which is actually going to be like Sleeping Dogs in most aspects if a screenshot confirmed to be from Triad Wars is any indication.  Because it certainly looks like an open-world game from that at least, and I'm most happy about that.  My worry that they'd delve into something silly for a new iteration of the franchise was definitely not misplaced because of Squeenix, but I'm glad that it was at least unfounded in some way.  Still, this is definitely something to celebrate in any case - the game will only be a little over a year old when you get it for free through Games with Gold which is a milestone for the service as far as I know, and it might just be an indication of the offerings coming in the future.  Even though I don't have a 360, nor Gold because of that, it's still something that we can all hope for, because hopefully some worthy competition will keep Playstation Plus shining now that it's more or less required for the PS4 as well.  Since we'd all hate it if Sony got complacent because of that.

It's kind of amazing that Sleeping Dogs has been free on everything -but- Steam now

I Finally Started Sleeping Dogs Nightmare in North Point

It's been a while since I played Sleeping Dogs properly (admittedly, I have tossed it in here and there to re-enjoy some of its virtues), so with Halloween just around the corner, it seemed like a good time to hop into what was definitely a Halloween-themed DLC pack.  It also just seemed like a good time to play Sleeping Dogs again aside from the whole "I have 20 other games that I haven't even opened yet" thing, but, you know, small, petty details and such.  Which is also ignoring the fact that any time is a good time to play Sleeping Dogs, which is something that I alluded to in the past and still feel is true now.  And even with the different framing of Nightmare, Sleeping Dogs remains Sleeping Dogs.

Admittedly, that's both a good thing and a bad thing in some different ways.  Sleeping Dogs had one real flaw with it, and that was the story-telling aspect of it, which did not improve with Nightmare, at least not at the start.  Indeed, "tongue-in-cheek" is what I'd use to describe what Nightmare in North Point cobbles together and calls a narrative for the story framing that it uses to set itself up.  They don't attempt to sell you the premise, but instead agree with you that it's ridiculous by its own merits (because Jiang Shi, or 'Hopping Vampires' have overrun Hong Kong thanks to Big Scar Wu, aka Smiley Cat, who has escaped from the underworld) and just run with it, which isn't a bad thing.  I just wish, like Sleeping Dogs proper, it had been fleshed out more, since it seems like I'm just fetching things and running around just because.  However, that's a flaw in the narrative's structure more than anything.

You see, Nightmare in North Point is supposed to take place in a single night (or so it seems), thus you're not really expected to play the game like a sandbox game, which is really weird since it -is- a sandbox game and they put things all around the map as a Sandbox game does.  The urgency is set up to max, making you want to play each story mission after another and doing that robs you of a little enjoyment that the game can realistically offer you with the free-roaming and exploring of the city.  As stated, there's at least three types of things scattered around the city - Hell Shrines, Energy Sources and Yaoguai - that encourage you to get around, but if you follow the narrative, you're merely concerned with chasing down Big Scar Wu and putting a stop to his shennannigans.  As a result, I suppose you -could- save all the extra bits for the part after you're done with the story, which might even be 'thematic' depending on the conclusion, but I think treating a sandbox game like a completely linear experience is an exercise in frustration.

However, all the good things about Sleeping Dogs come back in aces and spades because it is still very much Sleeping Dogs at its core.  After putting some time into Grand Theft Auto V (which I have yet to sit down and really write about in any real fashion, something that will be fixed soon enough) coming into another sandbox game is different, and I find that I've had to break myself of habits that GTA V ingrained into me, but it's honestly been a breath of fresh air.  It's surprising just how many facets of Grand Theft Auto V are just out-dated and, quite frankly, bad when compared to other games of the same genre.  It has everything to do with evolution, as so many of V's mechanics are just straight-ripped from games that we played on the early days of the PS2.  We have, indeed, evolved beyond furiously tapping X to sprint faster, and we have, indeed, evolved beyond the almost non-existent amount of ownership the game allows you to have on all things that are not simply your character and their actions (i.e. material possessions, really), but you wouldn't know it, simply playing GTA V.

Doing things in Sleeping Dogs is practically refreshing with the experience in San Andreas under my belt, and I'm honestly taken back by that.  Driving is, ironically, a big complaint for just about any Grand Theft Auto game, V included, and it's just so much easier in Sleeping Dogs, even if it is a bit arcade-y I imagine.  Combat is no question - Sleeping Dogs was built around it and it shows, where Rockstar's latest barely attempted to upgrade the piss-poor system from IV.  I'm even a little partial to SD's gunplay, but that is admittedly more because of my opinion of the system in general than me feeling it 'should' be one way or another - I really just like the slow-mo John Woo stuff over 'proper' cover-based shooting because I get that enough everywhere else.  One is also reminded of SD's evolution of the 'Collectible' aspect of sandbox games in terms of "being able to unlock the goddamn locations on the map" (other games have done this too, admittedly), which is something V also failed to join us with.

Basically, the point is that I'm really enjoying Nightmare in North Point because it's more Sleeping Dogs and Sleeping Dogs is really great.  The new variety of enemies is nice - Jiang Shi and Yaoguai both fight differently than the combatants the game already sported which are still present (as possessed people and/or spirits) - and the general aesthetic adds a new flavor to the game.  I'm not sure if there's been other additions aside from a slightly altered moveset (for when you fight Jiang Shi, since slapping a paper talisman on a thug's face might not really do a whole lot) and the obvious stuff, but it feels good coming home to my favorite game of 2012 in the way that I'm doing it.  Especially since I have something else to weigh my experiences against to make my favorite game from 2012 seem all the better.

some of the stuff is pretty bad like, "All chinese magic is based on Antifreeze!" because what the fuck

The Sleeping Dogs Universe is Set to Expand

I loved Sleeping Dogs.  I loved it so much that it was my Game of the Year last year by a clear majority, and I found myself gnashing my teeth for another go at it, even if it was just a straight-up replay of the game in its entirety.  With Squeenix being...well, Squeenix, I had started to wonder if we'd actually see anything else from the series, however, but always hoped and assumed that news would be forth-coming.  That hope has paid off, as United Front Games are working on a game called "Triad Wars" which will be set in the Sleeping Dogs universe.  However, there is...a couple things that get me worrying because as you all know, I am sort of prone to worrying about literally everything.

The trademark filed for the game, as far as I know, is simply "Triad Wars" and not "Sleeping Dogs:  Triad Wars", which is well, kind of the thing you -don't- want to do.  I hope it's a sub-title and it makes the most sense to be, what with it being set in the same universe and keeping that brand recognition is key, but I don't know how trademarks work in terms like that.  "Triad Wars" on its own is incredibly generic and that leads into another point that deserves a little worried thought to it.

This is Squeenix we're talking about.  Granted, it's United Front Games developing, but Squeenix has the whole thing by the balls, you can bet, and we all know where Squeenix has been buttering their bread lately.  Or at least trying to.  And failing pretty uniformly.  Chances that this game, since absolutely nothing about it was announced by the name (potentially just half of it) will be a mobile/tablet game are far too high for my liking because they're present at all.  The idea is that it'll be a PS4/XBone game, of course, but I'm not putting anything past Squeenix, especially when the trademark, as stated, is simply for something called "Triad Wars" which will go well right next to all your other iOS games.  I can't name any of course (aside from Angry Birds), but you know what I'm getting at.

Assuming that we're not expecting the worst, one can only dream of what might actually occur in a Sleeping Dogs sequel, especially one (hopefully) sub-titled "Triad Wars".  Wei Shen obviously spent the majority of his time trying to shut down some of the Triad factions and members, but you can't always get rid of all of them, and the game could take place in the aftermath of the first game during a rebuild time or something along those lines.  Of course, it could also be a prequel that shoes off the establishment of the Red Poles in the Triad and their respective rises to power.  Or it could even be a game that runs concurrent to the events of Sleeping Dogs while Wei is running around, stirring up the pot and trying to get them all taken down.  The possibilities for another Sleeping Dogs game are honestly a bit astounding and it does manage to get me excited and hopeful despite a complete information blackout until 2014, apparently. 

It's going to be a long, hard wait, but at least I have plenty of things to keep me occupied while I wait for news about the game.  Fingers crossed for a PS4 game to play alongside the Tomb Raider sequel so that I can tell Squeenix that I really do actually support their non-Final Fantasy projects.  Since, you know, they apparently need to be told that.  Excessively.  Loudly.  So that they can't say the best/fastest selling iteration of an IP's sales are "not what they expected".  Because they're dumb.

just give me some more environmental finishers and we're all peachy, United Front Games

My Games of 2012 - Number One

1.  Sleeping Dogs

For all my hand-wringing and second-guessing, it was more or less never about this game.  I didn't go into voting with the express intention of putting Sleeping Dogs in my number one spot, though I wasn't at all surprised when I put it there.  It felt right, because goddamnit I really love this game.  Of course, you all know that because I have gone on and on about it over the last year when I was playing through, finishing and absolutely completing it.  So, much in the same vein as how I covered AssLib, I would like to re-post some of the bigger sentiments I had about the game and then talk a little bit more about how my perceptions have changed and such with time, given that I haven't actually put a lot of time back into the game after Platinum'ing it, due to, you know, there being a whole hell of a lot of games that I've had to play in the recent months.

So I'll just throw this down to get this started:  I love this game.  I pretty much love everything -about- Sleeping Dogs and I am actually a little surprised that I enjoy it quite as much as I do.  But I really do, I throw hours after hours into playing it and never get bored - I just get tired or I just have to really do something -else-, but the game is easily one that I could see myself marathonning sometime down the road for no purpose other than to enjoy it all over again.  I never do that outside of cases where, like, my save got lost or there was a trophy patch or something of that sort because I simply don't have the time.  But I would -make- the time if the time was right to replay Sleeping Dogs from scratch.

Obviously what differentiates Sleeping Dogs from just about every other open world game out there is that it is a game that fully intends for you to play it using melee.  Yes, there are shooting bits, sometimes even with cover involved, but let me let you in on a little secret:  If you're playing Sleeping Dogs by plinking away at dudes from cover, you're being a pussy.  Guns are not guns in Sleeping Dogs, but power-ups, things that you use to take out a few guys while running at a pack, as you might use, say, the hammer in Super Smash Bros.  Best usage of guns in the game is not taking cover and popping up, but vaulting and getting that sweet sweet slow-mo going.  Vault and run at your enemies and make sure they all get a new hole for a third eye to keep it going, but more importantly, to be the baddest fucking Wei Shen you can be.  If you can effectively take out a room of guards who keep flooding in without staying in cover for more than a second at a time between setting off slow-mo vaults then congratulations, you are using guns in Sleeping Dogs the correct way. 

One of my own personal favorite environmental bits is not any of these types of things, but rather just using gravity effectively for fun and profit.  There's not -very- many areas where it's viable, but with the useage of the grapple-dash and the running throw, you can turn an uppity gangster into a projectile aimed at a car twenty feet below and that, my friends, is a rush.  I never have hit a car yet, but as far as instant kills go, getting a running start and throwing a guy off what is basically just a covered bridge over a road is something that I could suggest will never get old.  Even when you don't have the unabashed freedom to throw them directly off, having the ability to, after wearing a foe down, basically clothesline them over a railing to the road below or what have you is still fun in itself.  Similarly fun, but rather confusing, is the fact that the game suffers from a case of the protagonist being the only man alive who knows how to swim.  That means anyone who hits the water instantly dies.  And when you have a lot of areas where there's water and no real barricade around it....well, I'm sure you can imagine just where that leads.

[...]

The true beauty of Sleeping Dogs, for me, is that I am retroactively nostalgic for this game already.  I just 'finished' the game earlier today, but I remember all sorts of things as you would only remember a game from years gone past, with the same amount of fondness involved.

I should start by saying that, all of that?  Still true.  Still definitely true and, in many ways, even moreso now than it was then.  I have been itching in the worst way to actually just start playing Sleeping Dogs over again from scratch and I can tell you right now that, when I do, it will not be the last time I do it. I look forward to embracing the acquisition of power almost as much as I anticipate having it, and will enjoy being able to employ Wei Shen's full arsenal again.  After earning it all over once more.  Sleeping Dogs is definitely a game where they journey is just as much fun as the destination, as they say, and even when you reach the destination, there's still plenty of things to do with the many collectibles that the game has (which is will give you maps to in a sense) as well as the fight clubs and random mooks on the streets to use your skills against.

What really gets to me, I think, is how absolutely in its own league that Sleeping Dogs truly is.  There's just no other Melee-focused open-world game out there on the market.  Possibly Arkham City, I suppose, but I haven't played that just yet and it'll likely be a while before I do so.  Even the Yakuza games aren't completely Open-world, nor do their battles exist in the map itself (just yet), so that's a different case as well.  Yet, rather than being something that wears out its welcome, Sleeping Dogs shows us how rewarding something of its kind can be.  It eschews that which a lot of games have made almost standard for this generation in gun combat for something a lot more technical, visceral and, in my own opinion, enjoyable.

I'm not going to go on and on here as I've done that more than enough in the past.  Sleeping Dogs is my Game of 2012 by virtue of being the game I enjoyed the most and the game I found most important because of what it did.  Though it may not completely and totally overshadow other games, especially the others on my list, it has that certain something, that special quality that makes me gravitate towards it.  If you haven't gotten yourself a copy of it, then what the hell are you waiting for?  Go out and procure, return home and savor it.  Enjoy it.  Even if you have bought and played it, give consideration to dipping into its pleasures once more.  I know I will, because the game is a rare treat and one to savor from time to time.

Nightmare in North Point DLC Looks Wonderful

One of the first bits of Story-related (or at least has -a- story in it) DLC has been announced finally and it is a doozy already.  Scheduled for a Halloween release, Nightmare in North Point brings the undead to Sleeping Dogs' version of Hong Kong, but not quite in the way you're picturing, nor anyone is saying.  As a base stance, however, that they promised six months of DLC and choose to head it up with this is pretty damn ballsy (not counting the piddly packs released last week), and it does set the bar high so I hope they're willing to reach it again or perhaps even top it.  Provided the DLC they come out with isn't too big a file size, I'll be more than willing to part with some cash to pick it up, and I'm really, really looking forward to Nightmare in North Point specifically, though I suspect they could release a DLC where Wei Shen runs around in a Tutu kicking girl scouts and I would look forward to that as well simply because it means more Sleeping Dogs which is a thing to celebrate in my opinion.

The misconception with Nightmare in North Point, however, is that people look at it, see undead and go 'whelp, ZOMBIES' and either stop caring or get really angry about it on the internet.  The problem with that is that they're only partially right - and one Youtube comment actually brings that to light more than any other.  I'm not going to give credit or anything, since you shouldn't care about Youtube comments, but someone said "Oh great, Sleeping Dogs was such a nice, atmospheric game that was mostly down to Earth and now they're throwing in zombies." and most people probably think this.  But to United Front Games' credit, which seems ever lasting because the -things- these guys do, they -are- still keeping it setting-specific, in that what's going on is rooted in Chinese mythos.  The guys running (well, likely hopping) around Hong Kong are Jiang Shi which are basically the middle point between Zombie and Vampire for Chinese lore.  As reanimated corpses, they do not gain complete control over the body they inhabit (sometimes, they're the product of possession) forcing them to hop about, unlike the slow shambling (or swift running, depending) of 'traditional' zombies.  They hunt only at night, stealing life force from whatever they happen to catch before returning to a cave or a coffin to sleep the day through for the next night's hunt.

The being that has brought the Jiang Shi is most likely a Yaoguai, or a Chinese demon basically, by the 'name' of Big Scar Wu who is presumably a former Red Pole.  I say 'former' because he was made an example of by the boss at the time who had him stabbed 42 times before thrown into the grinders at the Smiley Cat Food processing plant where he was presumably made into cat food.  In actually keeping theme with the Yaoguai bit, Big Scar Wu has returned in something of the form of an animal spirit, specifically the "Smiley Cat" itself as he wreaks havoc for having been wronged.  So really, the DLC, as far-fetched as it is, still -does- manage to capture, to encapsulate the things that Sleeping Dogs did in its own story and presentation which I think is absolutely brilliant.  And that requires some dedication to pull off - dedication that I can certainly admire even more than I already admire United Front Games for what they've managed to do against the odds already.

What's got me really excited for the DLC, however, is just the new things that it seems to offer from just that minute-long teaser video.  First off there's a new outfit that I -know- I recognize from somewhere and then the video goes on to feature not only a new weapon in a Jian or Chinese Straight Sword (at least, it looked like that) but a new move where Shen knocks a Jiang Shi off its feet and then kicks it with an impressive amount of force, perhaps superhuman amounts, sending it flying off.  That states that there will likely be DLC-specific abilities and items, both in wearable and wieldable fashion beyond what was shown, and this excites me greatly.  The prospect of having something 'new' in Sleeping Dogs is tantalizing, forcing me to prevent myself from drooling a bit  It would be embarrassing if it was a lesser game, but that's certainly not the case here.  Hopefully it'll be under a gig and I'll be able to buy it and enjoy it!

Platinum Get - Sleeping Dogs

I've talked about my opinion of trophies at length and I'm pretty much not going to rehash that statement again, since it's basically "I like them, they're awesome, they have me do things I wouldn't normally do" and never was that truer but for Sleeping Dogs when I finally got my shiny Platinum Trophy for it earlier.  And I could just say that if there were ever a game that I would -want- to have an actual trophy to display (or a digital one for like Home or something) for getting it in a game, it would be...well, probably Nier.  Or another game.  But Sleeping Dogs would be up there, certainly because it would be a thing that I could look at and invoke fond memories from which is something I think we take for granted a little.  The true beauty of Sleeping Dogs, for me, is that I am retroactively nostalgic for this game already.  I just 'finished' the game earlier today, but I remember all sorts of things as you would only remember a game from years gone past, with the same amount of fondness involved.

I mean, I said it best last week I suspect when I said that I just absolutely love Sleeping Dogs as a game, and I'm certainly going to try and do my best to not just reiterate that over and over again, but it's going to be hard to do, I assure you.  I should start talking about the process of getting the Platinum trophy itself rather than just gushing about the game, considering the topic of this post and all.  I will say that it was pretty much timed well since, when I got it, I was pretty much at that point where any more would have been too much.  My entire remaining bit of the game was:  gambling, driving a car clean for two minutes and delivering all of Tran's cars which was.....quite a lot, really.  More than I had imagined.  Throw in a little purchasing as well when I got the money (It became a non-issue in a hurry with some of Tran's higher-end cars paying off) and it was pretty much a lot of -not- running around and punching mans specifically.  I snuck some of that in, of course since that's the whole focus, but it showed off enough variety in the game, I think.

Those areas were also, more or less, the things I ended up putting off til last for a reason, I realized.  The best source of gambling income, unless the other Mahjong parlor had high stakes, was cockfighting, particularly the west-most spot at the docks where you can throw down a $100,000 bid for a return of twice that, or a cool $100,000 for your winnings total.  With $1,000,000 being the tier for Gold, that's just ten wins that you need, but it is....well, a process that's not very interesting or involved.  It's novel, certainly, but it's pure luck and chance whether or not the rooster you throw money down on will win.  You have no chance for input whatsoever and you need to get 10 wins to get that out of the way.  More if you lose one (since the total is based on your net earnings) so it practically invites save scumming if you are a baby like that.  I am a baby like that.  Because I didn't really want to do the ten to win it (actually more, I had net losses from earlier attempts at Cockfighting without thinking about it) and I certainly wasn't going to add more onto my plate for whenever fate decided to be fickle.

I had a really, really unpleasant experience with the clothes as well, since at one point, I guess I just -didn't- buy the things I meant to buy which lead to a lot of confusion at the tail-end of my quest.  Basically, I hopped in a car and set the markers to the nearest clothes store, went in, bought everything and repeated until I'd gone around the entire place, to each clothing store and stand.  When I reached the last one, I was minus 17 items which required, basically a re-do of that entire process just so I could -actually- buy clothes I'd apparently only looked at ten minutes prior.  It was unpleasant but because of my own inability to pay attention, I suppose, not because of anything the game did or did not do.  But it was one of the myriad of simple tasks I had to finish up before my ultimate goal was received, and with the money I'd made from the other jobs, it was a simple enough matter.  I ended with quite a hefty sum anyway and still had cars to pick up and deliver -after- that.  It was, in fact, a delivered car that offered me my last bit of completion that granted me three trophies at once - the one for getting all the jobs complete, the one for getting 100% completion and, of course, the Platinum trophy.  It was a sweet moment and made all the better as I drove to the highest-end apartment you get on the west-end, let Wei get some rest, saved and got out of it to sync.

I think that's really the best way to leave it until the start of six months of DLC comes out, since there will apparently be story content within its offerings and that will likely be all I'm interested in.  I'm all for supporting the devs and such, but I don't have the money for luxury packs at the moment, and not even the time for the story ones I'm getting.  But, so long as it's actual, weighty amounts of content, then United Front Games has my money because I'll gladly do what I can to further the success of this game that I am simply enamored with.  It's thematic, I think, to just put Wei to bed as I'm putting the game to bed for a time - I have to move on to other games to clear out my backlog some, unfortunately.  I'd love to toy around in Sleeping Dogs' sandbox a little more, because it's honestly just enjoyable, but there's things to be done.  Rather than insult you all with a "Letting Sleeping Dogs lie" play on words here, I'm just going to point out that I could, but didn't, and then bid you a good night.

Let's Talk About Sleeping Dogs

Have a seat.  Please, have some tea.  Get comfortable, because we are going to have a little chat about Sleeping Dogs, and I think by the end of our talk, you will understand why it is possibly my Game of the Year already.  I don't take that statement lightly as you might know, since I get myself all in a tizzy over putting together my GotY list, but I feel...well, really, really strongly about Sleeping Dogs, so it's a statement that I make with full knowledge of what's being said.  This is precisely why I'm just going to be throwing down some of my opinions on it (read: gushing) instead of attempting a review because the review would not be fair at all.  Though, I suppose reviews are just opinions and thus aren't meant to be 'fair', but well you know what I mean.  Anyone can write up an essay saying "This game is amazing and I love it" in so many ways and call it a review, but it is probably not mechanically one, and I fear that my attempt would come off as that, and I'm just not going to try to force myself to come up with points of contention.

So I'll just throw this down to get this started:  I love this game.  I pretty much love everything -about- Sleeping Dogs and I am actually a little surprised that I enjoy it quite as much as I do.  But I really do, I throw hours after hours into playing it and never get bored - I just get tired or I just have to really do something -else-, but the game is easily one that I could see myself marathonning sometime down the road for no purpose other than to enjoy it all over again.  I never do that outside of cases where, like, my save got lost or there was a trophy patch or something of that sort because I simply don't have the time.  But I would -make- the time if the time was right to replay Sleeping Dogs from scratch.  I think that might sort of convey what I'm trying to get across here, but I am trying to be as emphatic as possible so you walk away absolutely knowing where I'm coming from.

Obviously what differentiates Sleeping Dogs from just about every other open world game out there is that it is a game that fully intends for you to play it using melee.  Yes, there are shooting bits, sometimes even with cover involved, but let me let you in on a little secret:  If you're playing Sleeping Dogs by plinking away at dudes from cover, you're being a pussy.  Guns are not guns in Sleeping Dogs, but power-ups, things that you use to take out a few guys while running at a pack, as you might use, say, the hammer in Super Smash Bros.  Best usage of guns in the game is not taking cover and popping up, but vaulting and getting that sweet sweet slow-mo going.  Vault and run at your enemies and make sure they all get a new hole for a third eye to keep it going, but more importantly, to be the baddest fucking Wei Shen you can be.  If you can effectively take out a room of guards who keep flooding in without staying in cover for more than a second at a time between setting off slow-mo vaults then congratulations, you are using guns in Sleeping Dogs the correct way.

Of course, using your fists, using melee weapons, now that's the -actual- right way to play the game and that is refreshing in this day and age.  Not only is it a game that encourages you to use melee, but a game that actually encourages that and facilitates it with a rather in-depth, fascinatingly deep combat system in itself.  It is a Martial Arts game, make no doubt about it, and it really wants you to get that feel of making dudes get served some visceral damage via Undercover Cop fists.  Not just content with giving you the ability to hit square for some punches like -another- game that will not be mentioned that had previously been touted as 'the sandbox game', you have a full on combo system with various shades of hitting square and holding it which works better than it sounds, as well as grappling which leads into one of the defining aspects of Sleeping Dogs as a whole - Environmental attacks.

I could go on and on about Environmental Attacks on their own merits and might just very well do that here because from the very beginning, when Sleeping Dogs' media consisted solely of a live action trailer (and some screenshots) I had wondered just how fully the game would utilize the environment.  Previous games had taught me to expect that it...well, -wouldn't-, but why would it be in the trailer if they had no intention of having it in the game?  Because it looked cool?  Well.....yes.....but anyway, my point was that the trailer offered peaks into the environment being a factor and in the end, it did not disappoint which just gets me all giddy inside.  I love this aspect of the game, since not only are the environmental attacks deliciously brutal, but they're ever so useful in combat as well, offering you a quick way to take out a few guys to ensure they don't get a really good surrounding of you going down.  Which is a valid concern to have, as even though the enemies tend to attack one at a time, Assassin's Creed style, that one at a time can happen one right after the other and tear off a chunk of your health if you're not careful.

Particularly of use are these attacks when you're going into Drug Busts - areas where you have to clear out an area of some thugs before you hack the camera there for the time when they congregate there again to meet up with their supplier whom you identify for a good bust in the comfort of one of your safe houses.  Oftentimes you'll be tasked with taking down something like a dozen men and when they aren't wielding weapons, you are free to grab them and run them around to any and all environmental attack areas as you may desire.  My own personal strategy consisted of running into the area with a car and taking two guys out quickly with its own environmental interactivity, namely throwing one guy in the trunk and then brutally slamming the car door against the other guys head until he was soundly brain damaged and out of the fight.  Two down, only so many to go, and depending on what was handy, it could have gone very easy or very not so easy.

One of my own personal favorite environmental bits (I'm going to be tired of typing environmental really quickly) is not any of these types of things, but rather just using gravity effectively for fun and profit.  There's not -very- many areas where it's viable, but with the useage of the grapple-dash and the running throw, you can turn an uppity gangster into a projectile aimed at a car twenty feet below and that, my friends, is a rush.  I never have hit a car yet, but as far as instant kills go, getting a running start and throwing a guy off what is basically just a covered bridge over a road is something that I could suggest will never get old.  Even when you don't have the unabashed freedom to throw them directly off, having the ability to, after wearing a foe down, basically clothesline them over a railing to the road below or what have you is still fun in itself.  Similarly fun, but rather confusing, is the fact that the game suffers from a case of the protagonist being the only man alive who knows how to swim.  That means anyone who hits the water instantly dies.  And when you have a lot of areas where there's water and no real barricade around it....well, I'm sure you can imagine just where that leads.

While it's not as advanced as it -could- have been, if you believe that, it's still ways beyond what it actually really needed to be to satisfy me, I think.  While I don't want to say I would've still been happy with less, I likely would have because what we have in the game proper is -wonderful- and I'm rather surprised it made it in as it did, especially with some of the more brutal environmental attacks.  Still, fire was a little underutilized for being featured fairly prominently in the media, and there really wasn't any opportunity to immobilize with the environment, just kill and maim.  Well, I suppose throwing someone in a trunk when you can later recover them from it counts as immobilizing, but you know what I mean.  Melee weapons were very much pick up and swing until it breaks and there could've been a little more done with them than that, I feel.  Well, you can -also- throw them, but, well, that's not quite as much more as is kind of necessary.  Still, nothing that really detracts from the experience.

If anything detracted from the experience, it was just two factors:  The storytelling and the soundtrack.  In direct contrast to Chance, I'm just really not a fan of the music used in the in-game radio stations and while it seems like a little thing, it's...really not.  You spend a -lot- of time in a car in Sleeping Dogs, as you do most sandbox games that don't let you fly around like Electric Jesus or like you can control gravity itself, and if you really don't like the music that's offered, it gets old really really quickly.  I should clarify rather quickly that there's really no song that I dislike, just that there's also no song that I like enough to make it all worth while.  Rain Wizard by Black Stone Cherry comes close, as I'm always happy when that comes on Roadrunner Records, but the rest of it is mostly things I can take or leave.  It really makes me long for the ability to play music off the HDD, but I can understand how that's not generally an option since, well, these guys paid a -lot- for the music rights and they're not just going to let you circumvent that so you can listen to the version of No More Mr. Nice Guy that you expected to hear when you saw the title in the radio station text.

Much more substantial of an issue is, as I mentioned, the storytelling as I feel that it takes a backseat to the actual acting and gameplay of the game for the entirety of it.  There just...wasn't quite as much -binding- there as I would have liked, as it seemed like I would complete a mission, get about a minute of content and then the next mission it's like a whole mess of issues has been resolved otherwise.  Guys who hated you are now completely on your side even though all you really did was kill dudes, and there's absolutely no more conflict on that front for the rest of the game.  Similarly, trouble seems to spring up out of nowhere and you find yourself in increasingly bad situations with little to not context surrounding it other than the general gist of the narrative in that "the other triads are dicks", no matter who they're with.  You get -enough- for a mostly cohesive story, but I wanted -more-, even at the risk of some folks likening it to one of those 'movie games' where there's more cutscene than game (even though there assuredly isn't).  I just wanted a little more all aroudn to make the story just that much easier to follow and stay up with, that it had that much more detail work to it so you felt a little more than you would have normally (even though the characters are developed mostly well enough to give you plenty of feelings on them regardless) so it drew you in just that much more.

I literally cannot really fault any other part of the game, nor will I attempt to for any reason.  I just enjoy it all far too much to do that, and it's more or less because of all that that I will again say this is probably my Game of the Year at this point.  It's mostly done and I haven't dipped into -quite- as much as I anticipated, I suspect, but I have dipped into more than normal, and while I really love Sleeping Dogs, I really loved Lollipop Chainsaw, Yakuza:  Dead Souls, Gravity Rush, and so on and so forth as well.  It's....it's going to be a hard time come the end of the year/start of next year, but I look to it with a little more aplomb than I did last year.  My options are more varied and more numerous this year, but games like Sleeping Dogs might just help me put things into context with each other in separating what I really liked with what I thought deserved to be really liked by me.  Which are oftentimes far different things, I've learned, but in the case of United Front Games latest effort, I'd say it's the latter.

Some Fairly Early Sleeping Dogs Impressions

People who follow my Twitter or at least give a little looksee to the Twitter widget on the side know that I had quite an adventure today in actually getting to the point where I can play Sleeping Dogs, which I haven't played prior to today, despite buying it on release day.  And by quite an adventure, I mean I popped the game in when it was an appropriate temperature in my room, what with still being in a goddamned heat wave, and expected to play the game.  I was incorrect in thinking this, as a 348 MB patch awaited me.  In the near two hour download of that (And people wonder why I insist on saying I hate the thought of a digital future) I busied myself with Twitter and catching up on some Treasures of Montezuma Blitz which I have sorely overlooked in favor of simply binging incessantly on Youtube videos since, despite my misgivings, the App appears to offer -most- of the videos I want to watch, it's just an issue of getting to all of them without the aid of descriptions or playlists or anything of the sort that is there to assist you in this process on PC.

Anyways, the point in pointing all of this out is that by the time I actually got to the point where I can play the game two hours later with the update and game installed when it was much hotter in my room than previously, forcing me to throw caution to the wind, I was not a happy fellow.  I was grumpy, indeed, and I had a very real fear of Sleeping Dogs not being able to remove this from me, so that I may enjoy the game.  I thought it would be the ultimate annoyance; here was this game that I had yearned for, pined for, been so excited for for as long as I have, and everything would conspire against me to ensure that my experience with the game would be an ultimately negative one.  Really, I just thought that, after everything, after how grumpy, annoyed and such I was by the point I made it to the point where I could play Sleeping Dogs, I wouldn't enjoy it.

I was very, very wrong, thankfully.

Sleeping Dogs' intro is not the greatest intro, but I say that because I had to wonder if this was possibly the greatest.  It is a very good intro, certainly, which is why I went to that extreme first, but I am confident that it's not the greatest simply because the intro does not wholly involve the greatest part of the game itself which is, clearly, the combat.  It is there after a chase scene and after laying the ground works for this genuinely being a crime drama story, but I consider that like the first chapter or so if this were a book, not the prologue.  It is highly enjoyable nonetheless and as it opens up more and more, the game leaves you more and more to be happy about, even though you understand completely that you're being fed things at a deliberate pace, at least, the instructions for tools that you already have and can use regardless of your story progress.  Your basic tools for melee, the attacking and countering, are given to you exactly when you need them, and to be honest, that's all you really -need- for the most part, though I look forward to seeing the intricacies the game ends up delving into.

Something that I learned before I was told was that every car, and it has to be a car as the motorcycles lack the pure bulk to do so, has the ability to ram other cars with a push of the square button and a direction, provided you're going at a distant speed and have not, in fact, -just- rammed someone already.  Without that knowledge, pushing square was simply an exercise in confusion as, suddenly, my vehicle went this way for reasons unbeknownst to me, for values that I didn't comprehend.  I tried to use it as a navigation assistant, a quick-shift to move -away- from obstacles and other cars with limited success - it seems I will simply have to get better at drifting, as the game enjoys putting you behind the wheel of a car, and I shudder to think of car chases where I cannot figure out how to move properly in them.  As a method to move -into- cars, with destructive intent, the ramming action works just as intended and is quite enjoyable for that; allowing you to make rather short work of anything that just so happens to be in your vicinity.

Another thing that I stumbled on just prior to being informed of, is the fact that some cars allow you to pull a tire iron from their trunk for whatever mayhem you could think of doing with a tire iron.  It proved quite useful in my adventures as you might imagine, but the funny part is how I was told about this little tidbit.  You see, the game has side missions in the form of 'Favors' that you do for seemingly random people (though the tasks themselves are not randomized, I'm sure) and one such man asked me to help him get back at a rather rude racer.  He tells me that in a race his opponent knocked him off track at the last moment simply to win, and he was not standing for that, so if I was gracious enough he told me that he would enjoy hearing that the man's car was found a little roughed up.  I rushed to the nearest parked car, grabbed a tire iron from the trunk and hopped in, driving to the designated spot where the game prompted me to get out, ready to take the business to this rather bright yellow vehicle.  The game then tasked me with retrieving the tire iron from the trunk of said race car.

The awkwardness of the scenario was palpable as I considered the turn of events, possibly more than the game itself had done.  Here I stood with the very instrument the game desired I acquire, albeit from a different vehicle, yet it seemed to insist that the one in the trunk of the target car was the one I wanted, perhaps a better one.  Or perhaps it was simply a matter of it being the tire iron that had been in the car itself.  Or, even more possible, I was simply making a deal out of something that didn't matter because the scenario was funny in my head.  Dutifully, I dropped the tire iron I had and moved to retrieve the other, this better one, so that I could begin my work.  And it was good.  Part-way through the owner of the car came by and we had a little fun.  Or rather, I had fun, as I doubt he was too pleased with getting his face slammed into the hood of his own vehicle.  Repeatedly.

I ended my journey in Sleeping Dogs today simply running around and enjoying the aspects of the open world as you are wont to do in open world games.  I partook in a little reckless driving, explored environmental attacks by breaking random women over the backs of benches in a rather grisly fashion, and tried, unsuccessfully, to acquire a handgun from the local police and retain it, simply to have a piece to walk around with.  As my time holding a firearm was short, I didn't explore the shooting mechanics, but in a sense I find that liberating.  I'm missions, plural, into the game and not once has it tasked me with firing a gun, even though the mechanic is there.  There had not even been a scenario where I could in all good faith -have- a gun, which is equally tantalizing.  All I really wanted from Sleeping Dogs was an Open World game that focused on melee, on having -good- melee, and I should say that it has done well enough on that front.  Delicious.

Sleeping Dogs Gets a Combat Trailer

So as we know, I have been very eagerly awaiting more and more information on a lot of games, but one of the higher priorities, after the last couple trailers and bits of information anyway, has been Sleeping Dogs.  After recently learning that it got a lot of influence from The Protector, the game shot way up on my 'want' list and I've been gnashing my teeth hungrily for some proof of this, some actual showing of the influence that can be taken from The Protector.  And I gotta say, the trailer doesn't deliver a lot on that front, but it does deliver -some-, but what's more important is that it looks awesome.  Mostly.  I mean, let's face it, that footage isn't near final product or at least it shouldn't be, and as such, I look at it more as an indication of the spirit rather than the end result.  And the spirit is really hitting on the buttons that I want it to hit on.

Let me first direct you to "The Protector Moment" as I saw it about thirty seconds into the video, and this is very clearly from the movie and I don't care what anyone says otherwise.  If you've seen The Protector, you know that the fighting style used by the main character is basically "Capture and Destroy" which is exactly what's going on there.  I'd wager to say that it was a move directly used -in- the movie, honestly, but that's beside the point.  That right there is -awesome- and I want more of it.  There's a couple more instances of this style of thought, specifically a disarm and one of the counters, but that knee stomp is classic capture and destroy, it's what drove the movie, and it's what I want to do all the time.

The thing I like about the trailer is that it sort of is pretty basic in the combat, showing off things you'd expect - Roundhouse kicks, takedowns, the classic judo flip and the like.  Then it reminds you that weapons are a part of the game and will likely be a big part in some fights.  If I can extrapolate a little information, it looks like you can specifically finish off opponents with melee weapons as opposed to basic slices and the like.  I mean, that's just what I'm guessing based on the guy jumping up in the air and slamming a butcher's cleaver down across a guy's head.  Then also bringing one down on the neck of a guy laying on the ground all defenseless.  It's quite brutal, as the developers promised and it's rather glorious in that aspect of it I must say.  Still, I would've liked to see more than just knives used to show off the weapon system.  (Yes, there was a flash of a lead pipe, but you get my point.)

Then after all that fairly basic stuff, we get to the fifty-five second mark to see a guy get impaled on a fucking pipe.  Read that again.  Our protagonist, an undercover cop, picks up a guy and slams him down onto a pipe that impales him through the fucking midsection.  This was about the moment that I said "Holy shit!" and flailed my arms around in the air as would an excited little girl do.  The next ten seconds were nothing short of awesome (barring a few animation things) and did more than any live-action trailer with pretty good music could do in terms of hype.  This is what I want, game developers.  I want to be able to slam guys into meathooks.  I want to be able to turn a table saw into an impromptu brain surgeon.  I want to set a guys head on fire with a stove.  This sort of visceral environmental interactivity was something I only dare dream of back when the only trailer was a live action one and to see it given form and life is more than I could hope for.

At a certain point, I do remember that this is a combat system for an open world game, and I start to realize that that does mean there will have to be a few things given up.  So I can look at the animations and the effects in a softer light, but at the same time, if we've seen anything it's that games can offer us fairly decent animations in an open-world environment.  One only needs to look as far as inFamous 2 to realize that, and especially so, given that the original game was oft-criticized in that department.  (with good reason, unfortunately)  At the same time, I enjoyed the hell out of inFamous 1 despite the stiff NPCs and the like and I can imagine that if the above trailer, in the unlikely event that it is close to the final look, I will enjoy it regardless.  But I can't help but hope for a little more, I suppose, since I really want this to succeed.  So here's hoping for just a little bit of tightening before release!

Some Interesting Sleeping Dogs Information

Siliconera had a neat interview with a couple of the head dudes from United Front Games to find out a little information about the upcoming game, Sleeping Dogs, which I have been really interested in as you might know by now.  It has a storied history already because of its inception and rebirth, but we've been over that before, and this post is more about the future of the game anyway.  Information has been a little scarce on it so far, as is normally the case, but with this interview, we get a nice little peek into the inner workings and the thought put into the game so that we might be able to think and imagine how the end-product will actually turn out.  A few nice little tidbits have been parceled out here and there but there's one little factoid that I am particularly interested in, and it's pretty much the single bit I picked out and went "Yep, making a post about that" when I saw it.

The actual name of the article at Siliconera is "Sleeping Dogs' Fighting System Inspired by Tony Jaa Action Flick "The Protector"", which is....a little familiar round these parts.  I mean, I may have talked about it a while back because I thought it was a fantastic martial arts movie.  Oddly enough, I was beginning to think that I was the only person to actually know about the movie since trying to talk about it to others always ended the same way:  Showing them two clips and then going "Yeah, I told you it was awesome" when they're blown away.  But I've never actually been able to talk about the movie with someone who has shared knowledge of it prior, which is a little frustrating.  So seeing it referenced by an outside source was a little surprising at the least, as well as highly encouraging.  If I may quote a section...

I think the first piece of reference material we used was a scene from Tony Jaa’s The Protector. What we knew from the get go is we really wanted to have a combat system that incorporated multi-directional combat, the ability to grapple and counter enemies. We wanted to combine strike based gameplay with a lot of environmental interaction. Environmental interaction has always been what we consider the key hook of our gameplay. It’s something we try to bring about in all of our systems. Making one big violent sandbox was our initial concept.

[...]I remember when Mike first came aboard and started working here he sent me this clip from The Protector – it’s the scene where he goes up the spiral staircase.  It’s an amazing fight scene because he uses melee and he uses the environment. There are no camera cuts. It’s all continuous. Mike said with the team’s experience I feel confident we can deliver that and that was in the fall of 2007.

I hate linking the same video twice, but it's topical and totally worth it:

If you're going to reference anything for a combat system for a video game this is definitely on the fucking list and I'm absolutely ecstatic that Sleeping Dogs is going to have this influence in it.  I can only hope they really get to this sort of level of interactivity with the environment and the surroundings, because that would be amazing.  It does seem like, at the very least, they're taking the core to heart, since it's at least -attempted- at length in several different areas and in several ways, though they won't go into detail.  "There is a fish processing plant action scene that has particularly violent props in there. I won’t spoil them, but those are some of the my favorites." Is about as in-depth as they'll go which, on one hand, I can respect that.  On the other hand, goddamnit, stop holding out on us.  I want to look forward to some environment interaction as seen in the live-action trailer the game lead with, which makes a whole lot more sense now.

Something else that is a little more exciting for me personally is their approach to guns, which saw a fairly heavy focus so far as well.  The team understands the difficulty in trying to balance melee with shooting and, no matter what, you're going to have to have your feet firmly planted in one camp, even if you're leaning into the next.  For Sleeping Dogs, it sounds like the feet are planted in melee as they try to really have firearms that are worthwhile but not too good, nor too bad.  Described as "power ups", guns seem like they'll supplement the core combat, which will more focus on you getting to a foe to melee them, rather than hanging back and pumping round after round.  You're not going to keep guns for a while; it seems when it's out, it's gone, meaning as I said, the focus seems to still be on melee.  As you all know, I love me some friggin' melee combat, so this is making yet another tantalizing game for me to purchase in this flood of games.

It's safe to say that Sleeping Dogs has had a place on my radar, but with every mention it seems to move closer and closer to the center...which is good and bad.  As I said, I have too many games already, both unpurchased and purchased, so it's not like I need another one to look forward to.  On the other hand, it's always nice to be excited about something because, well, how often do you really, truly get to be genuinely excited for things?  Fairly often, yes, but it's not reliable, and it's not a constant, so we really should enjoy every single time and every single moment that real feeling kicks in.  Here's looking forward to part two of the interview which will likely either get a few bits editted here, or if it's big enough, will be a post all on its own.  Until then, I'm going to go watch The Protector again and see if I can count just how many bones get broken during the fight scenes.  Because it is a lot.

Sleeping Dogs Gets a Non-Live Trailer

And it works.  Last Month when the Live-Action Trailer for the game came out, I took a metaphorical scalpel to it and analyzed damn near every aspect of it because as a hype agent it was perfect, but as a tool to give anything looking like information about the game itself it was rather poor.  Such is the case with Live-Action trailers after all, which is the point I made and, while this is a story trailer and not necessarily a gameplay one, this will give us at least a -little- more insight than a live-action trailer could ever hope for.  So, in the tradition I've sort of put forth with the first one, let's have a little fun with this one as well, yeah?  Because nothing says true appreciation like taking single moments and elaborating on them for entirely too much time, given that they're mere moments in a game that will likely span in the 30+ hour range.

The very first thing that becomes apparent when you watch the trailer is that extra attention seems to have been paid to the voice work which is always, always welcome.  It seems to take the standard Open-World cutscene approach to showing off the story which is an obvious tried-and-true method at work, so I'm definitely not complaining about that either.  I saw Open-World because the game is obviously going to be an open-world game as, not only were the last True Crime games Open-World (which is how Sleeping Dogs started, you may remember), but it just works for this type of game.  If not immediately apparent from the premise alone, there are quite a few clips that show off walking about and driving and such, which all suggest open-world elements at the very least.

However, one of the things I tried to work out from the live-action trailer was if there would be environmental factors which are always cool if they exist, but a lot of games don't take advantage of them.  However, there might just be a glimpse of such a thing to be found at 0:30 when our main character slams somebody half-into an open furnace.  Brutal, cool, and environmental all in the same - I can dig it if it's true.  If nothing else, the game certainly seems Melee-focused which as we know, I am quite a fan of that, and to back it up, there's several instances of fist-fights going on in ways that seem to be more in-depth than your standard action game "Punch, punch, punch" style.  Limbs breaking, the above mentioned environmental factors (also evidenced at 1:34 where he slams the guy on that barred skylight) as well as weapon usage (the knife directly after the moment above) all seem to be in it as they were in the Live-Action trailer.  This is good.

Of course, gunplay is present as should be expected, and in a perfect world and/or game, having gunplay and melee in a game should mean they're both refined, but neither things exist so we can only hope that the presence of one doesn't downplay the inclusion of the other.  Based on the assault rifle while hanging out of a moving car scene, it likely won't be that complex but it never should be; it's aiming and shooting after all.  The smoothness of the execution is what matters and nothing else.  Speaking of hanging out of a moving car, that would be part of the driving I mentioned though it's possible that he's merely the passenger.  I imagine Hong Kong cars are designed counter to North American standard so he's hanging out the left-side and...just now I see the driver in the right side.  Whatever, I'm leaving that stuff because it's very obvious already that I'm typing this as I watch so it'd be disingenuous to not leave that stuff in.

So let's see.  We already know about the Human Shield element from the screenshots released around the time of the first trailer, this one has hints of an at least semi-deep melee system with environmental elements as well as hints of using weapons in the melee system.  Driving mechanics are almost guaranteed and they do show a variety of vehicles (Motorcycle, Car, Jet ski and/or boat, can't tell what he's jumping out/off of at 1:47) so that's likely in.  Minus a few bits that are still iffy no matter what (Dismemberment mostly, but more environmental stuff as well), this is pretty much the game the Live-Action trailer wanted to show, but in a more spectacular fashion than the game itself could show.  So I suppose in that respect, the live-action trailer certainly did live up to its own hype, or at least it has a real good chance at it.  Definitely worth looking into when it comes out.

Music! What I've Been Listening to Lately Edition, Take Two

I'm going to level with you guys:  I am absolutely beat.  I probably overextended myself a bit today doing some work for family and friends and since I got home, I've been feeling awful.  I haven't really been able to compose my thoughts well enough to write and there is, again, not really a whole lot to write about.  I hate to fall back on doing another music post so soon after the last one, but these are fun and good to write at the moment since there's little else that I'd rather do than curl up in bed and listen to some nice tunes.  I might just do that come bedtime and get back to the normal routine tomorrow; hopefully do enough of Alpha Protocol that I can effectively write about it, instead of imagining all the cool stuff that's going to happen.  Because cool stuff -is- going to happen, you know.  I believe it.

You might recognize the first song is "Sleepwalking" by Photek (featuring Linche) from the Sleeping Dogs post from the other day because it is, of course, what started me in listening to it.  I can't really pin down just what it is about the song that I like, though I really like the vocals and the low-key of the entire thing.  The first time I listened to the whole thing, a good ways in I was afraid it was going to turn into dubstep and have this sickdrop, as they call it, in the middle then do some sort of breakdown that would ruin the entire thing.  But instead it just remains fairly moody throughout which, while it won't always strike a chord with me, it has been doing as much lately.  Still, it's a fairly nice song regardless, and I've been enjoying it quite a lot.

I gotta hand it to whoever put together the reveal trailer for Sleeping Dogs because they picked the perfect song for it, really.  Despite the laid-back nature of the song, the low mood of it, it really lends itself well to some real action-packed scenes like are present in the trailer.  It's very theme and/or cinema-friendly really, which is just another thing in its favor.  There's really not a lot else that can be said about the song really - I just like listening to it and relaxing to/from it.  I could probably set it up through some sort of speaker system in a lounge, grab a chair and a book and have a good few hours with it on in the background while I catch up on some reading.....I would need a lounge for that first.  Still, a man can dream.

I've pretty often thought that it really doesn't matter, for me, the contents nor the context of a song, but whether or not I like the mood of it.  Which is fairly evident in my writing, since I'll always tell you the mood I -get- from certain songs.  So I like to think that it's this mindset that allows me to un-ironically enjoy 'pop' songs without worrying that I'm being too mainstream or something otherwise awful if you've ever been a music snob.  Generally, I just turn on the radio nowadays and flip through a few stations (I have a SiriusXM radio which makes it a little better, selection-wise) between the pop stations and the rock stations and I just stop on whatever sounds good.  That's pretty much how I found "Domino" by someone named Jessie J, and it's just one of those songs that has a good mood that I can enjoy.

Obviously, some might worry that enjoying that means certain things that aren't positive since it's popular, but I do enjoy it.  Again, more for the mood and feel of the song, the upbeat nature it has, than the actual content of it or anything like that.  Which isn't me even protesting too much or anything like that, nor does it need the qualifier.  I'm basically just rambling because with a song like this, there's only so many ways you can say "It's upbeat and I like that, and it's got a generally happy mood and sound and I like that too!"  The vocals are decent to good at parts and the song is fairly basic in itself, but there's just that little fun spark in it that makes it something you (or at least I) want to listen to.

As I said, I generally switch between pop and rock stations to find something that sates my musical desires at any given moment and that's how I found the last song here as well.  Finishing us out with a little bit of rock, this is a song that is actually a cover, and the band doing it is a band that I hadn't known about prior to hearing this.  Aside from hearing their name a whole bunch in years prior, but I could've sworn they were in a different genre of music then.  They could have been, of course, since I haven't looked into them (I care about songs, not bands or artists), but this is definitely rock and since then, I've heard a few more songs by them that are in the same genre.  Regardless, Five Finger Death Punch is a pretty neat band name and this cover of "Bad Company" is pretty good to listen to for me.

It's really really good at points with the vocals and while the quality (and this is song-side, as far as I can tell, not to do with the video) isn't spectacular, it offers quite enough to be enjoyable to get the blood pumping as they say.  Though, I've heard quite a few other songs I should've put here instead, but I couldn't think about them at the time, so that would suggest there's a reason I went with this one, eh?  It's a good song in its own right and maybe I just went with it because of the band name since, again, Five Finger Death Punch is a pretty great band name.

That's been kind of a peek into what I've been listening to a lot lately.  Hopefully you can enjoy at least some of it as well (if nothing else, then Sleepwalking at least, since I really think that's a fairly genuinely good song) and maybe it'll even expand your musical horizons a little bit.  Or maybe you've heard all these songs before, don't like them and your horizons are perfectly broad the way they are.  I dunno.  But this is what I wanted to write about tonight, eventually, when I was actually able to sit down and get to writing, so that's what we got.

Sleeping Dogs AKA Live-Action Trailers Are Cool but Dumb

Above is the announcement trailer for Squeenix's newest game, Sleeping Dogs, which you might know better from it's former name of True Crime: Hong Kong.  Last year, it was announced that a plethora of games under Activision were getting the axe in an attempt to separate themselves from the downfall of the Plastic Instrument Genre and among those games was True Crime:  Hong Kong for some reason.  It was a real shame, of course, since True Crime:  Hong Kong was quite a ways finished, or at least it seemed that way to anyone on the outside looking in, but those are just the breaks as they say.  That is to say, that would have been the end of the line, had Squeenix not bought the rights, but not the name for the game and have been working on it with United Front Studios since.  Clearly, the game needed a little more than a name change and some tweaks here and there, but it's looking to be about ready given the fact that it was officially announced now.

Of course, what degree of 'ready' the game actually is can't really be gauged by anything tangible at the moment.  This is because, as you can tell, the live-action trailer does little to show off the actual game, which is a major downside of these types of things.  The upside being that it looks really cool.  I imagine it gives a rough approximation of how the game could theoretically be played, maybe, but unless I see that in game footage and not in a cutscene, it's not really relevant whatsoever.  Aside from, again, being really, really cool.  Because it is, I have to give them that.  I've been watching it again and again as I've typed this up purely for reference points and I can't help but enjoy it.

So let's pretend, for a moment, that we can actually take away something from this trailer that represents the actual game itself.  Besides the obvious, like the main character, his involvement as an undercover cop, and who might be his handler for the mob, or at least one of them.  Let's just talk gameplay elements here since there are quite a few things shown off that could conceivably be in the game proper.  First off, we could infer possible 'stealth' elements to the game, if just in hiding weapons on your person, possibly getting weapons on-scene of wherever you have to go.  Second, as our main character grabs the guy with the briefcase, this indicates, possibly, a way of taking 'hostages' or 'body shields' which would certainly not be out of character, I suppose.  Then we have possible environmental interactions when our main character snags his hostage onto a meat hook and then throws the chain of the handcuffs to the briefcase over a pipe, ensuring that he couldn't get anywhere.  This is all from roughly 20 seconds of footage here.

Following that, we have a fight scene which would indicate a melee system that isn't a surprise whatsoever.  Of course, over the fight itself, there's various elements that, if they could be implemented, would certainly 'deepen' it and tempt people to call it a Third-Person Shooter/Brawler, rather than a Third-Person Shooter, but I'm not entirely convinced.  First off, we have counter-attacks and, beyond that, environmental counter-attacks which might not be so hard to implement on their own.  Then we have a crude weapons system, which is likely a given, though it's laced with another element of environmental involvement that I really really don't see happening, but would like to.  Namely the guy bursting into flames when a flammable substance (the alcohol from the bottle) is ignited from a nearby open flame in the kitchen.  While more Hollywood than facts, that's kind of what action games are, and would certainly add another layer to melee combat, though I don't see it happening.

Evidence of the weapon system actually having depth itself could be inferred from the disarms our main character takes advantage of through the entirety of the fight.  Namely grabbing the Fire Extinguisher from one of the guys attacking him, as well as picking up the knives scattered about that have been used and lost by their wielders in a multitude of ways.  More evidence of environmental factors come up when one of the enemies is pinned to the wall by the one of the knives I just mentioned, that becomes a wielded weapon by the MC again moments after it's used.  As is the butcher's knife, which shows the possibility of weapons being used as projectiles as well which isn't too far-out, I suppose.  Though I really, really doubt weapons will be multiple use like the trailer leads you to believe.

Dismemberment, as it's shown in the trailer, is highly, highly unlikely, but it does once again show off the 'hostage' mechanic, as well as how you can use one to your advantage defensively and offensively.  That is followed by another example of weapons used as projectiles which is itself followed by another example of counter-attack, though this one is with a weapon and shows off something more specific; a counter-kill disarm.  Then you have the staple cover system, another disarm, and more melee fighting, complete with a full-on melee finisher.  Which would be exceedingly awesome and add, once again, another layer of depth that I would really, really appreciate myself.  Anything to make it a brawler with gunplay rather than the other way around would make me happy, but again, I'm not getting too worked up about it.

As for the chase scene, that could either indicate driving mechanics, interactive cutscenes, or just really neat looking cutscenes; the kind you wish you could be playing.  If I had to wager anything, I'd say the jump would be purely scripted/done in cutscene, rather than with a QTE or even a command, but as I've said with the rest of this, it's hard telling.  And that's really the entirety of it there: all I have to go on is this really cool, but not really helpful whatsoever trailer.  Is it entirely possible that absolutely nothing about the trailer will be true to the game?  Of course.  Is it possible that they actually -tried- to make sure the trailer included elements that are going to actually be in the game?  Absolutely.  We'll only be able to know when we see actual gameplay and, thanks to me being incredibly nit-picky about this one single trailer, we have a few things to be on the look out as far as possible offerings go.  We all know what I'm hoping for, so only time will tell.

Update!:  Because I am apparently kind of dumb or something, I didn't really look around and it turns out there are a few screenshots of gameplay, and Chance has been so kind to upload them.  So go on over and give them a look; As expected, it shows the MC taking a human shield, then shows him about to punch a guy, and also on a motorcycle which could still be Driving, Interactive Cutscene or QTE.  We won't know for sure for a while, but at least we know a tiny bit more than we did.