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

I finished in about 12 hours. Still plenty of side stuff to do, but I'm not all that interested in going back to do any of it. If I want to experience open world Hong Kong, I can just go outside

Edit: But I can't go to Soho and randomly break expat knees. Score one for Sleeping Dogs.

Really liking the game so far (2 hours in on PC). I like the RPG lite elements and the combat, though I'm mostly button mashing still. Can't wait to play more.

I clocked in at 18 hours by the end of the game. Spent a decent amount of time doing drug busts to practice the melee combat (this was before I discovered the fight clubs) and ended up falling in love with the combat system. Hitting people never sounded so good!

This might have been discussed already, but if you're having some strange stuttering, despite comfortable framerate, give this a read: http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...

man chasing somebody in a car while also having to shoot escort cars is tough. or maybe I am just bad at video games.

(got through it eventually, but I hope that isn't a thing that happens often)

I think the thing that bothers me the most is the lack of traffic.... yes, the apartment is extremely large for HK standards, but in general I think they captured the feel pretty well while making an open world game possible.

Yeah, exceptions need to be made for gameplay. If the traffic in any open world game resembled a real city the last thing you'd do is get in a car.

Let me add that this game is amazing in 3D. After installing a new driver, 3D vision was on by default and I was surprised to find it on when I loaded the game back up. If you think the world looks good in 2D, give it a try if you've got the hardware.

Dammit. I was secretly hoping it wouldn't be good enough to warrant a purchase. I must wish list for now. I've fallen behind on deadlines for my writing project. But once that is done . . .

the radio stations selection is uncanny, like they were reading my mind. There's a Warp Records station, a Ninja Tune station, and a Daptone Records station. All stuff in heavy rotation among my mp3s. I seriously wondered for a bit if they were pulling from my media collection until I remembered that my media server wasn't running.

There's a Warp Records station, a Ninja Tune station, and a Daptone Records station.

This was a pleasant surprise. Riding around and all of a sudden, Cinematic Orchestra comes on. Also really like that Rustie song "Ultra Thizz" (the game has it titled "Surph").

jollyeskimo wrote:

the apartment is extremely large for HK standards

Including cockroaches in the kitchen area in the first safehouse. Authenticity!

pro-tip if you're trying to raise enough cash to buy all the cars or all the clothing or something: the "steal cars" missions accessed via calling Tran on your phone can get really lucrative. I just had one worth 600k and a few earlier ones at 350-450k. Maybe it's random or dependent upon your face level or something I dunno. I seemed to be getting crappier ones earlier on but my face is maxed out by now.

juv3nal wrote:

There's a Warp Records station, a Ninja Tune station, and a Daptone Records station.

I had been considering it, but this sold me on the game.

beeporama wrote:
juv3nal wrote:

There's a Warp Records station, a Ninja Tune station, and a Daptone Records station.

I had been considering it, but this sold me on the game.

Yeah, I was initially kind of mixed on the radio stations but having these dedicated label stations (and being labels I enjoy) is really great.

Mini Review:

I really like the fighting in this game. It's not as fluid as in Batman: AA/Batman: AC, but I find it's definitely reminiscent of those two games and it's super satisfying when you can start to chain combos together, going from one thug to the next. It's probably even better with a controller.

In terms of story and tone, I think they got it just right (so far, anyway). Unlike GTA IV, which couldn't decide if it wanted to be serious or satirical, Sleeping Dogs stays pretty serious with a little comic relief -- a great combo, I think, and it serves the game well.

Overall, as a fan of Hong Kong action movies, I find the game really hits the spot -- entertaining to play and entertaining to watch. Money well spent.

So I just finished this up on PC. It's easily my biggest surprise of the year and the PC version is so far and away superior that I really have to give them kudos for that. Hong Kong on my GTX570 had my jaw open at times. The fighting is good, the driving is good and the story is dark and serious but knows when to throw in a laugh once in a while. I absolutely loved it though it's got some major issues.

Spoiler:

What's with this "dating system" that they were hyping pre-release? One girl (the one played by Emma Stone) disappeared after the first date, the karaoke one only had a second mission where you have to confront her for cheating on you, Not Ping left me a voice mail when I went to sleep at one point but it immediately got replaced by a text message so I never got to hear it and after I did a secondary mission for the Russian girl, she vanished too. Why is any of this content in here? It feels like it either wasn't finished or the system is just broken.

Spoiler:

The last couple of missions were absolutely brutal (in a "holy crap that's violent" kind of way) but it went from being immersive and disturbing to a bit silly in short order. Wei gets tortured including very clearly having his knee drilled out but he's able to pick himself up, stumble around, fight some guys and then suddenly gain the ability to run and parkour again like it's nothing. Like, what? I was actually pleased by the ending though, especially because it very clearly sets up what could be a major moral choice for DLC. I didn't unlock achievements for completing all the races and favours though and I'm kind of annoyed by that because I did every one I saw and there's none left, even post-story when you're supposed to be able to finish them all.

Lastly, I don't know why they spent who knows how much on all the celebrity voice talent. I never would have known who anyone was if I didn't know beforehand and a lot of the unknown actors did just as good a job as they did (not that they were bad, just not exceptional). Overall though, this was an absolute blast for me and if the DLC they have planned adds more story stuff, I'm totally in. Anyone who likes open world games should get this, no question.

I'm seeing plenty of kudos for the PC version... but if I have a crap PC, any thoughts on whether I'd be better sticking with the 360/PS3 version?

beeporama wrote:

I'm seeing plenty of kudos for the PC version... but if I have a crap PC, any thoughts on whether I'd be better sticking with the 360/PS3 version?

If you don't have the ability to run the high-res texture pack, it will probably look similar to 360 or PS3. But if your PC is still within their requirements, it will probably still look and play great and it's $10 cheaper there too.

I think it's extremely well optimized for pc and depending on what you mean by "crap pc" it should run on anything from the past 4 years or so.

For those on the fence, GreenManGaming has this game for 10% off, plus there's a 20% off coupon floating around (DERHE-RRDER-RINGE). Not sure if they stack.

Edit: The front page says 10% off, but not the game page. The coupon does work for the game, though.

There's a demo now for those on the fence.

I think this is my game of the year so far. I'm trying to come up with a game this year where I've had more fun, and I don't think anything else is even competing.

I've never been a huge fan of Grand Theft Auto, but this feels like Grand Theft Auto where you actually care about the plot, and the fighting and shooting mechanics aren't afterthoughts.

Driving was a little simplistic coming off of marathon sessions of Driver: San Francisco, but I'm not complaining. (I'm finishing all the driving missions with like a full minute to spare. I just wish I could shift to take down fleeing vehicles.)

It's interesting to pull back a bit and see how many other games they've synthesized into this one: Arkham Asylum, Assassin's Creed, Max Payne, GTA. It seems so logical seeing all those mechanics hammered together.

garion333 wrote:

I think it's extremely well optimized for pc and depending on what you mean by "crap pc" it should run on anything from the past 4 years or so.

Yeah, it's only a year or two old, but sort of a big-box cheapie (got it from Woot actually). I've never actually bought a recent PC game in my life, so I've never had to consider specs; anybody smarter than me want to give me a recommendation whether PC is good given these specs?:

AMD Athlon II X4 645 (3.1GHz) Quad-Core
6GB DDR3 (PC3-10600)
ATI Radeon 4200 (2943MB shared)

Oh. Not good. The HD 4200 is an integrated graphics chip, not a graphics card. The long and short of that means it's not really made for gaming. You can play older stuff (WoW for example) but most anything from the past few years isn't going to run. Sorry.

Is this a laptop or desktop?

total tangent/derail/rant: I hate how minimum/recommended requirements usually list particular video card(s). Why do I need to know how my graphics card ranks against any other one? I think I'd prefer something like a 3d benchmark rating or *shudder* a windows experience index score. Anything that doesn't require me to know about video cards I don't even own.

juv3nal wrote:

total tangent/derail/rant: I hate how minimum/recommended requirements usually list particular video card(s). Why do I need to know how my graphics card ranks against any other one? I think I'd prefer something like a 3d benchmark rating or *shudder* a windows experience index score. Anything that doesn't require me to know about video cards I don't even own.

Boxes are tiny, so there's a popularity-based formula in what video card(s) make the requirements list. I also imagine that any game that starts with "NVidia, the way it's meant to be played" will not include ATI specs and vice versa.

Just had a really funny insident happen. I was driving to the dojo with a stolen taxi when right before the entrance I powerslided and clipped a women. She proceeds to panic, drop her purse and enter the taxi. The protagonist just comely turns his head, while holding a gun and says "Do I look like a f-kin taxi driver". Women exits the car.

Freaking out of no where and hilarious.

It's a pretty good game, my only real complaint is that it isn't very deep. The vast majority of the skills you learn seem fairly pointless, there seems to be next to nothing to spend money on. These two things make most the side missions and collectables feel very pointless. That being said still quite a bit of fun.

Oh also had a fun mission that sort of glitched. It was a side mission to escort a car while being chased by some motos. I'm not sure what happen but all of a sudden the spawn rate tripled. I was fighting a freaking hoard of them and it was awesome. Then our car blew up. When it reloaded the mission fixed and was much more boring.

master0 wrote:

Just had a really funny insident happen. I was driving to the dojo with a stolen taxi when right before the entrance I powerslided and clipped a women. She proceeds to panic, drop her purse and enter the taxi. The protagonist just comely turns his head, while holding a gun and says "Do I look like a f-kin taxi driver". Women exits the car.

Freaking out of no where and hilarious.

It's a pretty good game, my only real complaint is that it isn't very deep. The vast majority of the skills you learn seem fairly pointless, there seems to be next to nothing to spend money on. These two things make most the side missions and collectables feel very pointless. That being said still quite a bit of fun.

Oh also had a fun mission that sort of glitched. It was a side mission to escort a car while being chased by some motos. I'm not sure what happen but all of a sudden the spawn rate tripled. I was fighting a freaking hoard of them and it was awesome. Then our car blew up. When it reloaded the mission fixed and was much more boring.

You need to go buy more clothes. There are lots of levels of perks, and each 'outfit' requires you to visit multiple stores to complete it. The bonuses you get actually help quite a bit. Also, make sure you visit the docks and talk to the vendors there. I was surprised at how much you can buy. Personally, I banked my cash for a super car, but you can add a lot of vanity things to your apartments if you care to. Finally, remember buffs. An occasional massage will keep you in top shape for beat downs around town.

Wei Shen has a rock solid GI tract.