Sleeping Dogs (Formerly Known As "True Crime: Hong Kong") Catch All

The FOV is killing me on pc. The camera is way close up on the character. Gonna turn off motion blur and see if that helps.

In-game apartment's bathroom is all wrong. Too much space and that's not a toilet one would fine in a crummy HK apartment. Bathroom should be 3 ft x 3 ft.

Right, Grubber?

Played for almost 3 hours last night and I really didn't want to stop yet when I had to go to bed so that's a good sign. This is quickly turning out to be my biggest pleasant surprise of the year. This game pushes my GTX570 hard when everything's turned up but with that and the high-res texture pack (which good on them for giving us that for free), it seriously looks like a different game. Up against the videos I saw of the 360 version, there is simply no comparison. It goes from looking merely OK to pretty stunning, especially in the busier, highly lit shopping areas and such. Very impressed so far, especially considering this comes from a team whose only work to date has been a kart racer!

I find the FXAA works well enough I didn't even consider turning MXAA on.

garion333 wrote:

I find the FXAA works well enough I didn't even consider turning MXAA on.

I did the same thing. I read so much about FXAA vs. MXAA for Max Payne 3, that I'll always choose FXAA first. My 560 Ti doesn't seem bothered at all with maxed settings + FXAA.

garion333 wrote:

In-game apartment's bathroom is all wrong. Too much space and that's not a toilet one would fine in a crummy HK apartment. Bathroom should be 3 ft x 3 ft.

Right, Grubber?

Yeah, I used to live in North Point and that guy would have to pay at least US$1500/mo. to live in a place that big. He's got waaay to much space for such crappy furniture and I didn't see a dehumidifier either

Edit: That's actually a really low estimate. He might pay closer to 2k per month.

Grubber788 wrote:

Yeah, I used to live in North Point and that guy would have to pay at least US$1500/mo. to live in a place that big. He's got waaay to much space for such crappy furniture and I didn't see a dehumidifier either

Edit: That's actually a really low estimate. He might pay closer to 2k per month.

Grubber, you playing it already?
I would really love for you to do a "Let's Play" kinda report series where you play the game and make comments about what they got wrong and what they got right in terms of Hong Kong. And other snarky remarks that you see fit of course

Falchion wrote:
Grubber788 wrote:

Yeah, I used to live in North Point and that guy would have to pay at least US$1500/mo. to live in a place that big. He's got waaay to much space for such crappy furniture and I didn't see a dehumidifier either

Edit: That's actually a really low estimate. He might pay closer to 2k per month.

Grubber, you playing it already?
I would really love for you to do a "Let's Play" kinda report series where you play the game and make comments about what they got wrong and what they got right in terms of Hong Kong. And other snarky remarks that you see fit of course :D

I too look forward to his video, but this is a very fictionalized version of Hong Kong as far as I understand. I think they went for look and feel more than geography. Then again, I don't know Hong Kong well enough to know how much of it the stuck in.

Wow, saw this yesterday on steam and it looked cool but the steam forum had me down (it's usually a downer) but you guys have put me in a mind to try this...only problem is it'd take some time away from my leveling in league of legends...sooo...man i dunno!

Looks good for the most part. Putting it on my list for Steam winter sale. I have more than enough to play between now and then.

I worry that if I complain too much about the little things in Sleeping Dogs, there won't be much left to enjoy! I actually think the game is pretty fun so far. I'm not a huge fan of the way the city is portrayed, but I understand that in real life, HK would be a pretty terrible city for a video game. You'd spend half the game in traffic and the other half the game settling disputes amicably over tea.

I'll put out a video in the next week or so. I haven't had a lot of free time lately with P90x taking over my nights, but I should get some quality play time in this weekend.

Is anyone else having this really frustrating problem in the PC version where during fights, your character regularly pauses for a couple of seconds and won't accept any inputs? I'm playing with a 360 controller and this is happening a lot. I'll have finished a combo or just completed a counter or something like that and he'll just stand there but the enemies don't. I've lost several Drug Bust fights now because enemies will wind up to attack me and I won't be able to counter. It's driving me nuts because I'm losing fights for reasons I can't control. This isn't simply a result of an animation or combo not completing because he literally just stands still. Is this happening to anyone else?

Check their forums. People seem to be having similar issues. the main 360 controller related issue is that the controller is connected to a USB hub and not directly to the mb.

MeatMan wrote:

Looks good for the most part. Putting it on my list for Steam winter sale. I have more than enough to play between now and then.

I purchased it at 12 minutes into that vid...cool:)

garion333 wrote:

Check their forums. People seem to be having similar issues. the main 360 controller related issue is that the controller is connected to a USB hub and not directly to the mb.

Hmm...my controller is plugged into my front USB ports but it doesn't run through any kind of hub or anything. I'll take a look and see what's up. I have two other USB ports on the front that run to a separate USB 3.0 controller so maybe that will work better.

A much better GB Quick Look of the PC version of the game with Vinny is up.

This seems to hit all the buttons of what I like in open world games. I went from not remotely interested in that game to really excited for it over the past week. Especially the PC version which looks ridiculous. I have way too much of a backlog to justify buying it right now (I haven't even started Saint's Row 3), but I'm certainly picking it up at some point.

Anyone playing on 360? I'm not a graphics ho, but it sounds like people are saying the PC version with the HD textures looks outstanding. I played Saints Row 3 and never minded that it didn't look like GTA IV, but I certainly wouldn't mind if it had.

So, any word on the 360 version's graphics? I vastly prefer playing games on my console for the couch comfort factor, and a single player open world game screams console to me.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Anyone playing on 360? I'm not a graphics ho, but it sounds like people are saying the PC version with the HD textures looks outstanding. I played Saints Row 3 and never minded that it didn't look like GTA IV, but I certainly wouldn't mind if it had.

So, any word on the 360 version's graphics? I vastly prefer playing games on my console for the couch comfort factor, and a single player open world game screams console to me.

From all the videos I've seen the 360 version looks like. It's not that it looks bad, just that the PC version with the texture pack looks noticeably better. But you're getting the same game experience on whatever platform you choose.

As for my controller issue, I checked the official forums and there are more than a few people complaining about it there. This one twit keeps posting the same solution in every thread, even though it's irrelevant to most of us. It's sounding more and more like this is a glitch they need to patch. If so, I'll probably put this aside and start Darksiders II cause the delay is making fights very hard even at the stage of the game I'm at now.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Anyone playing on 360? I'm not a graphics ho, but it sounds like people are saying the PC version with the HD textures looks outstanding. I played Saints Row 3 and never minded that it didn't look like GTA IV, but I certainly wouldn't mind if it had.

All the videos I've seen online suggest the game doesn't look bad on 360. It just looks kind of generic, washed out and has a poor draw distance. Keep in mind that this was a game where development went cold for long stretches of time twice, so it kind of looks like engine tech from games about 3 years ago. If that doesn't turn you off, it'll probably be fine. Nobody seems to be complaining about massive issues with performance or framerate hitches or anything.

For what it's worth, I think I'm getting close to the end of the game, and I've never hit a loading screen or instance. Everyplace I can go on missions is accessible before and after that mission. Also of note is that the game has gradually introduced new mechanics as I've gone along. Planting bugs, hacking cameras, picking locks, etc. would become tiresome after awhile, but they hit a decent pace of introduction so that I felt like something new was added about the time i needed it. Finally, the collectibles I've seen all have real gameplay ramifications. No longer will collecting feathers in my open world be acceptable

So Steam download a multi-hundred megabyte patch and the version number now shows as 1.2. No announcement or patch notes that I can find though. Hopefully this fixed my controller sticking issue.

1.2gbs for me. Yay. Anyway, looks like there's no notes out for this yet on the official forums. Oh well. Let's hope the patch didn't break the game for me.

And done. This was a fantastic ride from start to finish for me. By the end of the game, I found the melee combat was my favorite part of the game. I didn't have any control issues, though I found that certain things I tried to do that failed cause a momentary stagger, which I think is actually part of the system. By the end, I was definitely being thrown more goons, but that's when it hit me....I am amazing! If I screwed up, I paid for it. But if I was on my game, I felt like the star of a movie.

I found the story to be surprisingly good too. Lots of twists and turns. I even found all of the little side mission things each had a unique approach or twist. Some were continued stories, but the unique ones were rarely the same thing. Plenty of things that brought to light the struggle the character had to go through as an undercover cop. When I finished the final fight, it was a fist-pump whoop out loud moment.

One thing I want to call out too is the lack of 'bosses'. There were plenty of set pieces that threw wrinkles into my approach, but as I was fighting my way through the ending sequences, I realized I was using each and every skill I'd learned in the game. No wasted movements, and the work required to learn/earn my skills and perks felt like it paid off.

One of my favorite open world/action games ever. Seriously good stuff.

P.S. remember to visit the docks at some point, amazing number of things for sale there. Also, make sure you look into changing your clothes, as certain sets give different bonuses. The melee damage set I wore most of the time had a definite effect.

P.P.S. You can continue exploring the city after the final mission

Just saw the latest patch notes up on Steam.
Looks like it mainly focuses on fixing the keyboard/mouse support.

Not sure about your controller issue PA.

Sleeping Dogs version 1.3 update tonight!
In anticipation of the European launch of Sleeping Dogs and in response to some of the feedback generated by the PC gamers on the forum we’ve prepared a patch that aims to improve some PC-specific features as well as fix some bugs that have been reported by the community. The full list of changes is below:

Improvements & Bug Fixes
• Fixed several bugs where NPCs would not path through doors properly – this corrects the issue where Naz stops running in the first mission of the game
• Added HD Textures for UI screens (only available with the free HD Texture Pack DLC installed)
• Improvements made to reduce the frequency of erroneous “don’t lose your target” warnings in missions where you are chasing an NPC
• Significant improvements to mouse support on various options screens
• New Keyboard/Mouse option which makes the keyboard & mouse the only input devices even if a controller is connected
• Several minor text bugs corrected
• Fixed an issue where mouse clicks would sometimes be ignored in the UI
• Fixed the keyboard and mouse camera controls in the Phone Tracing minigame

Wow, that didn't suck. I'm kind of blown away by how much it didn't suck. The story was pretty interesting, the main character was someone you wanted to root for and the gameplay (aside from the non-vehicle shooting) was fantastic. I seriously went into this game expecting to hate it, but it's definitely my sleeper hit of the year so far.

I'm still going to do a video for it eventually, but I don't know... It was an OK approximation of real life Hong Kong. The only major criticism I can think of has to do with language. I don't expect triads to use English so much, much less speak it without typical HK (i.e. Canto) accents. Too much English all around, but it's an understandable concession for mainstream audiences.

Fun game; recommended at full price if you like open world games and HK gangster films. Recommended at $20-30 otherwise.

No! No, no, no!

There are too many games! No!

Awww man! The fall ramp up starts earlier and earlier each year! Between this and Darksiders 2, it seems like a super solid way to launch into the fall gaming line up. Wallet aching...must...resist...urge...so many games...

Are you guys completing it already? Is it a short game?

Scratched wrote:

Are you guys completing it already? Is it a short game?

Steam says I put in about 25 hours, I'd guess 24 actual gameplay. I was having too much fun I think, and have paid for a serious lack of sleep this week.

That said, I have lots of side content I can still go back to do, and for the first time in a long time I'm want to do it. I'm not going to get 120 Skyrim like hours out of this, but it's definitely not short.

I found a shooting part ... man, i cannot get the mouse and keyboard controls to work for this. Having sooooo much trouble aiming/controlling the camera. It was workable but not perfect till i got the shooting.

May try hooking up a razor gamepad this weekend and going and posting my impressions of the mouse flaws on teh home forum in hopes they patch up mouse controls.

The mouse controls are just BAD.