Oh, the irony

DJ2 Entertainment has been making their rounds in the news lately �last month, they went public with news of their upcoming film adaptation of It Takes Two. In the same vein, this time they've signed a first-look deal with Amazon. Although DJ2 owns the film/TV rights to all kinds of games, such as Disco Elysium, Life is Strange, Sleeping Dogs, Echo, Little Nightmares, and many more, this deal basically means that Amazon gets first dibs? on any of the IPs DJ2 owns, if they want them.

With game-to-film/TV adaptations becoming more and more ?prevalent, studios and production companies ?are doing their best to grab up rights as fast as they can �and this appears to be Amazon's latest move to secure the bag.

What this deal doesn't mean is that any of these sho??ws are ??in active production, but I'd wager that that's going to change within the next few months.

Properties like Disco Elysium and Life is Strange in particular are hot right now, and would telegraph well to a serialized television format if executed well. So with all the rumors flyi??????????????????????????ng around, let's set the record straight: ?these shows aren't getting made... for now.

//twitt?er.com/Sphynxian/status/1494478686195650560

I was one of the people who previously said that a Disco Elysium show is one of my dream adaptations, but now that it might be happening, and by the hand of Amazon no less, I kind of want to take it all back. For a game that's so blatantly Marxist and anti-capitalist, the irony is not lost on its fans that its adaptation rights currently rest with the biggest corporation in the world. The worst part is, even if Amazon does go through with a Disco Elysium show, I'm going to watc?h ??it anyway, if nothing else out of morbid curiosity.

The post Amazon ha?s first dibs on adaptation of Disco El?ysium appeared first on Destructoid.

Shot from the set, too

Early last year, we reported that Donnie Yen was set to star in a film based on the game Sleeping Dogs. He would honestly be perfect for the role, seeing as how Sleeping Dogs is basically a hodgepodge of a bunch of Yen's previous films. Without even announcing the film was shooting, Donnie Yen took to Instagram to confirm that production h??as stated on the project.

I'm actually pretty excited for this. What spurred me to play Sleeping Dogs in the first place was watching Yen in Flash Point and wanting to live that in a game. What I ended up getting was something resembling Yen's film Sha Po Lang with a combination of Jackie Chan's Police Story. While Yakuza better captures the philosophy behind martial arts, Sleeping Dogs had the Chinese setting and cr??azy car chases that typify modern Hong Kong action fil?ms.

Hopefully this comes together well, becau??se I ??could use another good Kung Fu film in my life.

DonnieYenOfficial [Instagram]

The post Donnie Yen confirms Sle??eping Dogs film is in production appeared first on Destructoid.

Coming this November; or, a clerical error

UK retailer Shopto had a listing, now removed, for Sleeping Dogs HD, as spotted by Gamr Review. The listing was for PS4, Xbox One, and PC ??and carri??ed a November release date.

Square Enix re-releasing Sleeping Dogs while working on the sequel (and while there's nothing else to play on next gen) makes sense. It did this successfully with Tomb Raider.&nb??sp; It being called "HD" as a point of separation and it re-releasing on the PC makes decidedly less sense.

Still, I played it on the PS3 and was disappointed to see a friend play it on PC with the high resolution textures pack because it looked so much smoother. I like my neon l?ike I like my knitting: as pretty as can be.

Rumour: Sleeping Dogs HD Heading to PS4/XO/PC [Gamr Review]

The post Retailer lets slip PC, PS4, Xbox One ‘Sleeping Dogs HD’ appeared first on Destructoid.

Wei Shen fights off an apocalyptic cult

The DLC expansions keep coming for Square Enix's open-world crime thriller Sleeping Dogs. Next up for Wei Shen is Year of the Snake, which is out now on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. It's another standalone adventure that you'll access from the main menu, just like the previous expansion, Nightmare in Northpoint. 

After the conclusion of Sleeping Dog's main story has been completed, Year of the Snake finds Wei Shen back in the police force full time. He's been busted d??own to a lowly constable until he is fully trusted by the Hong Kong police, but a series of bombings by the mysterious Cult of the Snake puts him back in the action.

I only played Sleeping Dogs a few month??s ago, so I able to enjoy the other DLC packs alongwith playing the main game. Having another standalone expansion seems seems a great excuse get back into the game for a few hours. 

The post Sleeping Dog’s ‘Year of the Snake’ DLC has a trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

Cause havoc with a weaponized supercar

The Wheels of Fury add-on for United Front Games' Sleeping Dogs has now launched, providing players with an insanely badass-looking supercar with roof-mounted mac??hine gun??s, four-wheel steering, and an EMP pulse weapon.

However, your supercar won't start off with all those fancy features; Wheels of Fury also comes with five new missions to bite into, and with each mission you complete you'll unlock a new upgrade ??for your car -- sounds quite fun.

Wheels of Fury is available on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and PC for 320 Microsoft Points or $3.99, respectively. For those downloading Wheels of Fury on PC/Steam, be aware that there is no Russian-language support for it; if you're playing Sleeping Dogs in Russian, the DLC will not launch unless?? you change the language.

The post ‘Wheels of Fury’ add-on for Sleeping Dogs out now appeared first on Destructoid.

Year of the Snake is the big new expansion

I only just finished playing Sleeping Dogs a few weeks ago but I'm excited to dip in for some more DLC in 2013. The Zodiac Tournament and Nightmare in Northpoint were some fun additions to the main game, and the upcoming Year of the Snake looks interesting.

If Zodiac Tournament was inspired by Enter The Dragon and Nightmare in Northpoint was inspired by Chinese ghost stories, then I'm hoping Year of the Snake is some classic era Jackie Chan inspired action. Wei Shen will be back in his police uniform h??elping the Hong Kong police investig?ate the sinister Cult of the Snake.

The next story expansion is Wheels of Fury, where Wei must take down a fast-paced 18K smuggling ring. The other three packs are Movie Masters, Law Enforcers and the Monkey King, a?ll of whi??ch will contain new costumes, weapons and vehicles.

Man, now I really want to watch Police Story, who's with me? 

Sleeping Dogs getting five more add-ons before?? March [Polygon]

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Trailer and Trophies emerge

With the Chinese New Year on February 10, is it time for another Sleeping Dogs add-on? That would make sense, anyway. A short YouTube video and Trophy list for Year of the Snake, an un??announced downloadable?? content pack, have made the rounds today.

One of the Trophies references cultists which, I assume, would have to be the unusual fellows with the costumes there at the end? of the video. Reactions seem to be somewhat mixed for United Front Games' DLC thus far -- would you still be down for more? I haven't gotten around to playing any of it yet, myself. Not enough time!

Sleeping Dogs: Year of the Snake DLC details leak [Eurogamer]
Sleeping Dogs Trophy List [Exophase]

The post First look at ‘Year of the Snake’ DLC for Sleeping Dogs appeared first on Destructoid.

According to job listing on official site

After surprise success Sleeping Dogs and surprise disappointment LittleBigPlanet Karting, all eyes are on what developer United Front Gam?es will do next. The developer's site had a listing for "a next-gen console? title" job, which they have since updated to read "our console titles." So, United Front Games is making a next-gen game with multiplayer.

This job listing for a network/multiplayer programmer position requires "knowledge of common multiplayer features such as matchmaking, invites, game lobbies, lea??der boards?, stats, etc."

Yeah, not much to go on but still exciting. You know what this means, right? Watch Dogs better watch its back before this next-gen Sleeping Dog bites. Hah? Right!? ... wait, what? I'm fired? For writing ??a bad pun? That seems kind of ha?rsh but alright. Geez.

Cached job listing [via NeoGAF]

The post Slee??ping Dogs dev at work on next-gen, mu??ltiplayer game appeared first on Destructoid.

Best of 2012

Are you ready for some action? Some excitement? All day long, we're dropping our picks for the best games of the year and we move now to the best action/a??dventure title. Of all the categories we voted for in 2012, this one actually brought us some of the most difficulty in declaring a winner. The votes are in, and it's mighty close.

As a reminder, here are our nominees for best action/adventure of 2012:

• Dishonored
• Hotline Miami
• Max Payne 3
• Sleeping Dogs
• Tokyo Jungle

And the winner is...

Sleeping Dogs 

In the end, Sleeping Dogs walks away with our best action/adventure game. With? an open-world design offering a multitude of activities, exciting chase sequences and a brutal combat system that provides ample opportunity to take advantage of environmental elements, there is no denying that this is a fully-featured package.

Stagger??ingly beautiful (particularly on PC), players are made to feel as though they have been transported into a world where street fights and criminal enterprise are around every corner. Hong Kong is alive, bustling with?? activity, and as much a character as Wei Shen himself. You will utterly lose yourself in its bustling crowds and energizing atmosphere.

A game which almost never saw the light of day, Sleeping Dogs em?erges as a front runner in the very best games of the year. Kudos to Square Enix for having the foresight to pick the project up when it was floundering. If they hadn't, w??e would never have had the opportunity to enjoy such a stellar title. That would have been a true crime indeed.

The post The winner of Dtoid’s best action/adventure game of 2012 appeared first on Destructoid.

A fighting tournament on a hidden island, you say?

As previously expressed by United Front Games, there's plenty more downloadable content planned for Sleeping Dogs across PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. While much of it is the obligatory cosmetic- and item-focused stuff that many of us aren't concerned with, there is at least one more substantial add-o??n on the way.

It all starts on November 14 with the Dragon Master Pack, which is essentially a combination of five separate pre-order packs. United Front is also releasing the Drunken Fist Pack, the Square Enix Character Pack (which looks rather funny), and the Gangland Style Pack.

What seems the most interesting is the Zodiac Tournament Pack -- it introduces new gameplay to Sleeping Dogs. The premise revolves around an island off the coast of Hong Kong that has fights to the death, because of course it does. Beyond a pair of outfits, there's supposed to be multiple arenas, new enemies, bosses, and cutscenes. Pardon me while I rewatch Enter the Dragon.

Dragon Master Pack
Featuring five pre-order packs in one, the huge Dragon Master Pack is the ultimate collection?? of killer content for Sleeping Dogs, adding high-speed highway shootouts, martial arts monks, police ?patrol missions and more. Each of the below packs are included, also available to purchase separately:

• Triad Enforcer Pack
  It’s a high-speed shoot-out in Triad Highway; armed with a high-capacity machine gun, fight a tide of Triads… after your head. Death by 1,000 Cuts puts you in a brutal fight club taking on the Triads with a razor-sharp golden cleaver. Wear the Triad Enforcer outfit for added Face and more punishing damage.

• Police Protection Pack
  Catch criminals like a true SWAT officer with the Police Protection Pack. Unlock the exclusive High Speed police mission featuring the SWAT outfit, SWAT Police Cruiser car and SWAT Assault Rifle.

• Martial Arts Pack
  Unleash the power of the Shaolin with the Martial Arts Pack. Unlock the Shaolin Warrior outfit (with increased melee damage), the Shaolin Showdown mission and Wing Chun dummy decoration for your safe house.

• GSP Pack
  Dress like Mixed Martial Arts champion Georges “Rush” St-Pierre with this collection of shorts, t-shirts and bandana, and devastate your enemies with GSP’s signature flying punch. Also adds increased grappling and throwing damage.

• Deep Undercover Pack
  All the style of an undercover agent. Unlock the Plain Clothes Detective outfit (with a reduced heat penalty), the Undercover Police Ghost Car and a CB Radio for your safehouse.

Drunken Fist Pack
With the Drunken Fist pack, Wei unleashes this exclusive fighting style. While in combat, filling the face meter will enable Wei to drink from a flask of potent alcohol and perform unique special moves and powerful counters unavai??lable to the sob??er man!

• Rediscover a classic fighting style with this unique outfit!
• Sway like a drunkard, hit like a mule…
• Enter the Drunken Stance and perform special moves and counters

Square Enix Character Pack
Become a silent assassin, augmented warrior or ??king of chaos!  Wei Shen dons new disguises in this pack, with three new outfits and three new weapons from Square Enix's Hitman, Just Cause and Deus Ex games.  Each outfit includes its own buff and signature weapon.

• Hitman outfit
  Agent 47’s suit grants reduced attention from the police and comes with a silenced Silverballer.  Assassinate your enemies with stealth, Hitman style.

• Deus Ex outfit
  The Sarif Industries armor reduces gunfire damage by 33% and comes with a futuristic, fully automatic combat rifle.  This technology really is decades ahead of its time.

• Just Cause outfit
  The Rico Rodriguez custom outfit allows you to hijack vehicles from a greater distance and comes with Rico’s signature pistol, which can fire explosive shells.  Liberate those drivers at high speed!

Gangland Style Pack
Get Wei Shen freshly inked-up in a trio of tattoo schemes in this?? alterna??te costume pack. Topple the Triads in street style with a Japanese Yakuza, Russian Mafia, or Maori Mongrel Mob tattoo, each with their own buff.

• Yakuza style
  Painstakingly applied with the traditional 46 needle irezumi brush, this tattoo will slow your heat rate by 50%

• Russian Mob style
  A complete history on your skin, increasing gun accuracy by 50%

• Mongrel Tribe Style
  Leave no doubt which side of the law you are on with a 40% melee damage increase

Zodiac Tournament Pack
Join Wei Shen for the fight of his life in the second gameplay-extending add-on pack.  Invited to an exclusive tournament on a hidden island off the coast of Hong Kong, Wei must overcome the b?est-of-the-best as he takes on fighters from across Asia in a fight to the death. The Zodiac Tournament invites you to become the dragon and unleash your fists of fury!

• An exclusive new island off the coast of Hong Kong, featuring multiple themed fight arenas, numerous new enemies, bosses and story-extending cutscenes

• Two new unlockable outfits featuring new looks and powerful new fighting moves

The post Here is what’s next on the DLC front for Sleeping Dogs appeared first on Destructoid.

United Front to 'explore other aspects of Hong Kong cinema'

Ahead of this week's Nightmare in North Point downloadable content for Sleeping Dogs, producer Dan Sochan has spoken with Official PlayStation Ma?gazine about what's next on the post-release front. Namely, Unit?ed Front Games has more where that came from.

He says that "Square [Enix], from the very beginning, were showing that they believed in us and believed in this game as a potential franchise." This of course brings add-on content into the equation (to a greater extent, anyway). Sochan says they have "six months total DLC planned" right now and to expect packs which "explore other aspects of Hong Kon?g cinema and ones that are ?a little more serious."

At this point, Sleeping Dogs has got to be one of the most prom??inent games in my backlog. If nothing else, this talk of a possible franchise should put more pressure on me to prevent that from slowly slipping ??through the cracks. Or maybe they'll finally get me to buy a "game of the year" edition should one get published.

Sleeping ??Dogs producer says Square “believed in this game as a potential franchise”, 6 months DLC planned [Official PlayStat?ion Magazine -- Thanks, de5gravity]

The post Sle??eping Dogs developer ha?s six months of DLC planned appeared first on Destructoid.

Also magic

Sleeping Dogs next downloadable content is called Nightmare in North Point and i?t's bringing on zombies! Well, not in the traditional zombie s??ense.

The DLC sees Big Scar Wu rising from hell to exact revenge against the Sun?? On Yee. Poor Scar was stabbed 42 times before getting stuffed into a grinder at the Smiley Cat cat food plant. Yup??, he was turned into cat food. What a way to go.

Scar is back, now going by the name of Smiley Cat, and has brought up an army of Jiang Shi to get his ?revenge. Wei Shen will have to take on Smiley, and he'll be learning new skills based on Chine??se magic to help him fight the undead monsters.

Nightmare in North Point will be out on October 3?1 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Steam.

The post Sleeping Dogs’ next DLC is all about zombies, cat food appeared first on Destructoid.

Steam's Weekend Deal this week

Grab Sleeping Dogs and its DLC for 50 percent off as Square Enix has this set up as the "Weekend Deal on Steam." It's a game that we really liked when we reviewed?? i??t earlier this year, and it's still a standout in my mind for one of the best releases of 2012.

Half off is only $24.99, folks.? And Friday counts as the weeke?nd in videogame world.

All of the DLC packs are pre??tty inexpensive right now, with the average price coming in at around $2. Impulse buy!

The post ?Sleeping Dogs and related DLC are 50% off on Steam appeared first on Destructoid.

Yay (some) free stuff!

It's hard to believe Sleeping Dogs has already been out for two months now. In an attempt to bring you back into the game's crime-ridden version of Hong Kong (that is, if you ever left it), Square Enix and the team at United Front Games have released three new DLC packs for Sleeping Dogs today in the form of the "Street Racer," "Tactical Soldier," and "Community G?ift" packs.

"Street Racer" will get you the Sting bike that has the highest acceleration and increased handling, a new Dragon outfit featuring reduced damage, and three new races. "Tactical Soldier" unlocks both the most powerful gun and armor for whe??never you feel like destroying everything in the world. The "Community Gift" includes a t-shirt, mini compact car, and luchador mask that are all UFG-themed.

The DLC ?is $2.99 (320 Microsoft Points), $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points), and free?, respectively. All are available on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC today.

The post Sleeping Dogs has new DLC content out today appeared first on Destructoid.

Sleeping Dogs will be getting a few downloadable content packs in the month of October, with the main one being the first story-driven extension pack. Details of what players will see with this particular pack will b??e revealed at a New York Comic-Con panel. I wonder what it will be, considering how the game ended and all.

Other packs you can expect will include the Street Racer Pack that adds more races, the SWAT Pack containing twenty new cop missions, and the Tactical Soldier Pack which gives players the game's most powerful weapon and a??rmor.

All these will cost you, but there will also? be one free piece of DLC called the Community Gift Pack which is made up of rainbows, cats, and wheels of cheese. Okay, I have no idea what it's going to contain since Square Enix won't say yet so I'm just going to make things up because I can.

The post Slee?ping Dogs getting its ?first story DLC in October appeared first on Destructoid.

Thanks to YouTuber DSimphony, we've uncovered the secret that Sega and Square Enix tried to slip past us. But gamers are an intelligent and resourceful bunc?h! N??othing escapes our gaze!

So here you go: undeniable proof that Sleeping Dogs is actually the long-awaited Shenmue 3.

Sleepi??ng Dogs - Shenmue Parody (Parodia de Shenmue) [YouTube] (via NeoGAF)

The post Proof that Sleeping Dogs is actually?? the new Shenmue appeared first on Destructoid.

If you're itching to see what Sleeping Dogs is all about, now is the time, as the demo has just hit the PC, 360, and PS3 platforms. With the demo, yo?u'll get a taste of combat, open world exploration, and gunfi??ghts.

If you're worried that the game is just a gunslinger, take solace in the fact that guns don't ap??pear for quite a while in the main game, and there is plenty of non-shooty things to do in Hong Kong.

Personally, I really enjoyed the game. I'm not the biggest fan of open world games (even though strangely enough, I play all of them), but Sleeping Dogs is a great mix of seriousn?ess and strangeness, which should appeal to everyone.

Must...resist...urge to make??...lethargic canine pun somewhere in here... like?? everyone else on the internet.

The post The Sleeping Dogs demo is now live appeared first on Destructoid.

There is Grand Theft Auto and then there is everything else. Sure, Assassin's Creed and inFAMOUS do traversal better and Saint's Row has more varied missions, but no one excels at world building in the way Rockstar does. From the breakthrough hit of the open world action genre in 2001 to the innovations and insane detail of GTAIV, Rockstar has not only defined the genre but sc??ulpted it for a decade while others just toyed around with it.

Sleeping Dogs comes at a time when every new open world franchise has been exhausted, and Rockstar is finally gearing up to renew its flagship series. The brilliance of Sleeping Dogs may come?? down to cherry-picking ideas from the best of the genre, but it's the first time an open world game has?? directly reached for Rockstar's crown.

Sleeping Dogs is badder, faster, and more enthralling than GTA has ever been, and for the first time, Rockstar is going to have t??o teach its old dog some new tricks if it wants to reclaim the throne next year.

Sleeping Dogs (PC [reviewed], PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Developer: United Front Games, Square Enix London Studios
Publisher: Square Enix
Release: August 14, 2012
MSRP: $59.99

Rig: Intel i5-2500k @3.30 GHz, 8GB of RAM, GeForce GTX 580 GPU (SLI)

There was once a time when we were content ??to have any city at all to explore in a game. So we made do with Liberty City in 2001. As the years ticked by a?nd hardware advanced, we demanded more. So Rockstar gave us Miami, Ubisoft gave us Rome, and THQ gave us whatever the hell Stillwater has become.

Now here we are in virtual Hong Kong, a city that combines the beach side of Vice City, the neon glow of Yakuza's streets, the metropolitan sprawl of GTAIV, and the rich histories of Assassin's Creed's locales. It's fitting then that Sleeping Dogs takes a bit of each of those titles in its play mechanics. Like the city in which it takes place, Sleeping Dogs isn't afraid to blend traditions from the past together with the latest inven??tions from the West.

Sleeping Dogs' Hong Kong is a melting pot of Asian cultures and social classes that define each of the city's four areas: the crowded, seedy streets of North Point; the quiet, industrial Kennedy Town; the luxurious beaches of Aberdeen; and the busy, beating heart that is Central. Each area is connected by highways, filled with cars and pedestrians with convincing AI, and peppered with side missions and collectibles. It may not compare to the seemingly infinite San Andreas, but there is still a lot to see and do in Sleeping Dogs.

Wei Shen is the appropriate character to explore the game's open world in every sense. He can quickly run and climb across rooftops, hide behin?d cover in a gun fight, and take on large groups of thugs using his fists and whatever environmental hazards the city block bestows upon him. The excellent controls and physics make Shen and the cars he drives eas??y and fun to control in a way no other open world game has accomplished. Above all, though, Shen fits the narrative arc of an open world game perfectly.

Shen is a Hong Kong native who relocated to San Francisco as a child, and now he's returned to the ganglands of Hong Kong's North Point as an undercover cop. While this setup isn't any better than a Fast and Furious film, it grants a perfect excuse for Shen to do terrible things while remaining a sympathetic,?? level-headed lead. As the game demands the player to inflict more damage on rival gangs, Shen becomes more rageful and restless. The cops he thought were his friends become distant strange??rs, and the gang he thought he was fooling becomes the family he never had as a teenager.

In order to deeply penetrate the triad and reach the current boss, Shen needs to play the part of a common thug and rise w??ithin the ranks. Being a cop and a decent person, Shen tries his best to remain ethical, and the game forces his mindset upon you through its ranking systems. Each of the forty missions ranks you both as a cop and as a triad member. As a cop, you must avoid harming citizens and damaging property. As a triad member, you want to deal damage to opposing gangs in the most creative way possible. At least one of these things comes naturally.

Combat in Sleeping Dogs takes influence from Rocksteady's counter-focused Batman games, but it isn't shy about tossing in combos, complex grapples, and weapons. Even from the start, the game throws some tough fights at you that require great timing and positioning. Like in Batman, enemies become hig??hlighted when ??you are allowed to counter and follow up with a series of punches and throws.

Unlike Batman, Shen can't magically latch onto a foe across the room. Instead, the player needs to be resourceful by using the environment to quickly take out enemies. You can pick up enemies and throw them on meat hooks, impale them on a swordfish, push their head through an? air conditioning fan, or even toss them off buildings. It seems gimmicky at first, but they become a more natural part of combat as you upgrade your move s??et to include stuns, roundhouse kicks, tackles, and many others.

One of the greatest innovations Sleeping Dogs brings to the genre is its leveling system, which gives the player a sense of progress in the world as well as within their skill set. You have four ways of improving your? abilities that reflect your job as a cop, role as a triad member, popularity in HK, and kung fu prowess. The first two are upgraded by completing missions, popu??larity comes from doing optional side missions ("favors"), and new moves are awarded upon returning collectible statues to your childhood dojo. The poignant, heartbreaking exchanges between you and your old sensei are the cherry on top.

Making a large, convincing game world is only half the battle. The other half comes from filling it full of interesting things to do, thus giving a purpose for the space to exist. Just take a look at Mafia II to see what a trivial bore an open world can become when you leave out distractions and side missions. Though some activities become tiresome over time and the story isn't as long as those in some open world games, there is a wealth of things to do in Hong Kong. I'm this close to breaking out an ugly bullet point list in this review because there are too much stuff to list when it comes to Sleeping Dogs.

When you aren't ??completing story missions, you'll be beating up thugs, hacking cameras, cracking safes, racing, performing odd jobs, singing at karaoke, pimping your houses, buying new clothes, and hijacking trucks. These tasks range from tiresome minigames to missions you'll gladly replay via the game's menu. Whenever you complete a mission, your end score is always compared to other players' (friends and globally), giving you an extra incentive to stay in Hong Kong a couple extra weeks. Even miniscule things like your widest jump and longest wheelie are being tracked and compared. You can even ping your friends and challe??nge them to beat your record.

Open world games have a tendency to be a grab bag of ideas with a main focus on paying tribute to pop culture, but you won't find any goofy talk radio stations or caricatures in Sleeping Dogs. This is the open world game at its most focused, where everything from the soundtrack to its leveling systems tie together to explore specific themes and evoke a somber tone. While the story can be operatic and brutal at times, it's always fun to explore the city and meet the latest triad boss/scumbag you'll be taki?ng orders from.

There is a point when playing GTA and similar games where the world stops impressing me and just becomes my new home. The mix of city variety and graphics made Sleeping Dogs feel fresh during its entire 13-hour storyline and even a while after that as I collected hidden br?iefcases, completed side missions, and maxed out my abilities. Just as riding a motorcycle through Liberty City while blasting Smashing Pumpkins struck me in 2008, riding past the numerous neon signs of North Point while blasting Hudson Mohawke will stick with me for some time.

Even with the graphics set on the second highest setting and anti-aliasing turned down, Sleeping Dogs is gorgeous. You know that Watch Dogs demo everyone freaked out about and called "next gen" at E3? This looks as good or better in many ways. I just can't get over how amazing the world looks when it's raining and neon signs reflect light off the ground. The game ran smoothly, and I only ever ran into pop-in when exploring via boat, which is a rare occurrence in itself. The character models are the only areas where the game pales in comparison to Watch Dogs, but they still look impressive.

Though I only played the E3 demo on a 360, it looked butt ugly compared to PC. If you can play this on PC, you absolutely should. Make no mistake, this is some straight-up next gen shit right here! Just be sure to bring a controll??er because the keyboard/mouse controls are as terrible as you may expect. The only thing worse than pulling off combos with a keyboard is driving with one, so I don't blame the developer.

Sleeping Dogs' script isn't as funny or referential as GTAIV's, but at least I can take it seriously. Every character is well-rounded and compelling, there are smart, powerful female characters, and orientalism is kept to a minimum, rearing its ugly head only through the caricatures of food vendors and when you light a shrine candle (rewarding the player with increased health). The story may owe a great deal to Infernal Affairs, but you've never seen this world in a game before, so it feels authentic. Characters even switch from Cantonese to English in a way that sounds natural. By the end of the game, I felt like I knew things about Hong Kong, its history, and its culture that ??I never knew before.

I feel like if I talk about Sleeping Dogs' presentation and music, I'm going to explode. Best licensed soundtrack ever! There, I said it. It may not have the most popular songs, but every track here is so damn good and compliments the tone of the game perfectly, instead of oddly juxtaposing it as in other open world games. When Rustie comes on, you feel like an absolute badass. When you put on the Chinese easy listening station, you feel relaxed and take in the scenery. Not once did I miss being able to play my own soundtrack. If anything, I would just have added even more Rustie (because he's amazing)! Props to United Front f??or being smart in contacting a couple notable record labels to showcase their A-list artists instead of getting crappy pop-punk bands off Myspace.

The first couple hours of Sleeping Dogs are some of the best gaming you'll have all year, but things fall apart at the end. It's as if the player has exhausted the game and it just wants to crawl to the finish line. Compared to the memorable final mission and climax of GTAIV, this feels lazy and disappointing. And of course, it leaves room for a sequel. Because videogames. Outside of a weak final act and a couple lame missions in the middle, it's hard to find fault in Sleeping Dogs.

As long as this review is, there are so many brilliant ideas and scenes in Sleeping Dogs that I haven't addressed. The subtle humor in one mission where you need to take a photo of a sunset, the genius gun tutoria??l, tracking a serial killer across the city, throwing a guy through an aquarium and then beating his friends to death with a fish -- ahh, so much great stuff! But some of?? these things you just need to discover for yourself.

I can't think of many genres that have been primarily defined by a series as much as the open world action game. In 2001, Rockstar introduced players to a new way to play action games. They were free to explore and cause havoc in one of the most realistic, detailed game worlds of its time. Even now, developers don't try to capture the insane detail of GTAIV because they know whatever they build won't compare. While Rockstar excels at world building, the mechanics and controls of GTA leave something to be desired.?? To put it bluntly, ?you suffer at times in order to get to the next good part.

Sleeping Dogs is what happens when every part is the good part. Four years after the release of GTAIV, a developer has finally removed Rockstar's crown and placed it upon its own head. While I can't deny Saint's Row has better missions and GTA has a more detailed world and better driving, neither is as consistent and polished as Sleeping Dogs.

Between its fantastic combat, shooting, presentation, storytelling, and RPG elements, Sleeping Dogs has just raised the demands for what it'd take for GTAV to get the throne back. Good luck, Rockstar.

The post Review: Sleeping Dogs appeared first on Destructoid.

Square Enix teamed up with YouTuber pwnisher to create an amazing live action take on Sleeping Dogs. It captures the essence of the game perfectly, from the combat to the brutal ways you can take people out. Th?e leg scene in particular made me squirm pretty hard.

The post Sleeping Dogs goes live action in this br??utal ?movie appeared first on Destructoid.

Team Fortress 2 goodies are certainly appealing, but that's far from everything Sleeping Dogs has in store for PC gamers. United Front Games has broken down the PC-specific features in a blog post, i??ncluding a high-re?solution texture pack, plenty of optional graphical features, and key remapping.

For an overview, check out the embedded video. It doesn't cover all?? of the specifics, but it does run through the highlights. I've never really been one to p?ass on a game's console release because it wasn't pretty enough, except when we're talking open-world titles. There's simply too much to be gained.

Follow the aforementioned link or continue ??reading for the bullet point?s.

Minimum Requirements

• OS: Windows Vista or Windows 7
• Processor: Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz or Althon X2 2.4 GHz
• RAM: 2GB
• Graphic card: DirectX 10 or 11 compatible Nvidia or AMD ATI card, ATI Radeon 3870 or higher, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT or higher
• Graphics card memory: 512 MB
• Sound card: DirectX compatible sound card
• Hard drive: 15 GB

Recommended System Requirements

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit
• Processor: Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU
• RAM: 4GB
• Graphics card: DirectX 11 Nvidia or AMD ATI card, Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 or ATI Radeon 6950
• Graphics card memory: 1 GB
• Sound card: DirectX compatible sound card
• Hard drive: 15 GB

Advanced PC Features

• Nvidia 3D Support
• Nvidia Multi Screen Monitor Support
• AMD EyeFinity Multi-Monitor Gold Status Support
• Window and Full Screen Mode Support
• Benchmark Mode

DirectX11 Specific Features

• Contact hardening shadows
• HD-AO
• Use of Direct Compute

Performance Enhancements

• Enhanced Performance on Dual Core and Quad Core Processors
• Enhanced Performance on Nvidia SLi
• Enhanced Performance on AMD Crossfire

Mouse, Keyboard, and Controller Support

• Xbox360 Controller Support
• Keyboard and Mouse Support including Key Remapping
• Auto Pad, Mouse and Keyboard Switching

Advanced PC Graphic Features

• Increased Small Object Detail
• High Resolution Texture Support
• High Resolution Shadows
• High Quality Shadow Filters
• Soft Particles
• High Quality SSAO (Screen Space Ambient Occlusion)
• High Quality Motion Blur
• Super Sample Anti-Aliasing

Steamworks Features Supported

• DLC Support
• Achievements
• Auto Patching
• Pre-Download
• Store Save Games to the Cloud
• Player to Player Chat

The post PC-specific features for Sleeping Dogs detailed appeared first on Destructoid.

I've gotten so wrapped up in all of the gang focused media for Sleeping Dogs that I totally forgot you're really an undercover cop! I think it's an easy fact to forget since these open world games usually see you playing as the bad guys. So, like many of the features of Sleeping Dogs, it's a nice change of pace from the norm.

In this latest look, protagonist Wei Shen is on an undercover mission to find a serial killer targeting and harvesting organs from Triad members. Sleeping Dogs will be out in two weeks, and I can't wai????t to get it.

The post Oh yeah, you’re also a cop in Sleeping Dogs appeared first on Destructoid.

Okay, so let's get something out of the way. That very first gun that's shown off this most recent trailer for Sleeping Dogs, does anyone else hear that absolutely annoying high-pitched noise that assaults the ears whenever it fires a bullet? If that shows up in the actual game ??(which it probably will), I will refuse to p??ick it up for my entire playthrough. What a horrible sound.

At any rate, the rest of the trailer more than makes up for it. There's plenty of car chases, shooting from cover, and exploding barrels. The more I see of Sleeping Dogs, the more it reminds me of Max Payne 3 in a lot of ways. Except with less painkillers and alcohol, but with way more crazy ac??tion sequences. I'm such a sucker for the explosions and destructible environments.

The post Latest trailer ??for Sleeping Dogs all about the gunplay appeared first on Destructoid.

When you're an undercover cop in Hong Kong trying to infiltrate the Triads from the inside, you're bound to find yourself in some pretty intense situations; say, helping an old lady kick some ass. That's exactly what a mission in Sleeping Dogs will have you do.

A new walkthrough video narrated by United Gaming Front's Dan Sochan showcases a full Sleeping Dogs mission in which Wei decides to help Mrs. Chu - a restaurant owner - find out who's responsible for t??he murder of on??e of her friends.

The combat, I have to say, almost made me want to briefly look away; you know you've messed with the wrong old?? lady when Wei is snapping your legs, smashing your face against car doors and having your head crushed by ??a car engine. Bloody hell.

The post Help a poor, old lady?? exact revenge in Sleeping Dogs appeared first on Destructoid.

United Front Games' open-world action title Sleeping Dogs is sneaking up on us. Ahead of its release in less than three weeks, Square Enix London Studios has revealed a neat little bonus for players of Just Cause 2.

Available at launch on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, the Rico Rodriguez outfit will be unlocked once a Just Cause 2 save file is found on your system's hard drive. This extra also gives a boost to your hijack ability within Sleeping Dogs, because of course it does.

The image above does a good job of capturing what that means in practice. Looks like I'll have to stick wit?h the PC release should I decide to nab the game.

The post Just Cause 2 players will get an outf?it in Sleeping Dogs appeared first on Destructoid.

Square Enix is bringing in some top Hollywood AND Hong Kong talent to voice characters in Sleeping Dogs. Here are just some of the actors that wi?ll be appearing in the game: Will Yun Lee, Tom Wilkinson, Edison Chen, Parry Shen, Emma Stone, Robin Shou, Terence Yin, James Hong, Lucy Liu, Tzi-Ma, Yunjin Kim, and Kelly Hu.

All these actors have been in plenty of action movies, and I love that United Front Games have included actual Hong Kong stars. While I think the voice acting is looking pretty solid, I do wish the facial animations were better. It's a serious case of Uncanny Valley, but based on all my hands-on time you do eventually get over the facial stuff.

The post Date Emma Stone in Sleeping Dogs appeared first on Destructoid.

I'm really glad that Square Enix picked up United Front Games' Sleeping Dogs after Activision dropped the project (back when it was called True Crime: Hong Kong). Hamza's write-up of the hard-boiled op??en-world crime?? thriller made it sound impressive, and this trailer contains enough familiar genre tropes -- including a bit of the ol' Triad ultraviolence -- to get my blood flowing.

Hopefully not out of ????my body, though, since that looks pretty unpleasant when it's happening to protagonist Wei Shen at the start of the trailer.

Sleeping Dogs is due out for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on August 14, 201?2.

The post E3: Go undercover in this Sleeping Dogs trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

Up until now, Square Enix and developer United Front Games have shown off very enclosed, focused areas of Sleeping Dogs. So it was about high time they finally let the press loose o?n the city of Hong Kong in its full open-world sandbox goodness.

In this case, we were thrown into the game right near the start, about five missions in. Main protagonist Wei Shen is an undercover cop trying to take out the Triads from within. As ??this was the beginning of the game, he's still a pretty a low-level thug working his way to the top, trying to ??make a name for himself and get in deeper.

Sleeping Dogs (Xbox 360 [previewed], PlayStation 3, PC)
Developer: United Front Games
Publisher: Square Enix
Release: August 14, 2012 (US) / August 16, 2012 (AUS) / August 17, 2012 (EU)

We didn't have all the time in the world, so as much as I wanted to go around trying to break the early build of the game, I instead followed the nav point on my mini-map to the nearest martial arts dojo. Sleeping Dogs has a few different upgrade systems in place; in this case, I was on my way to learn some new fighting moves. You can only learn new moves by finding and giving Jade Statues to the martial arts instructor. With ?every statue you find, you'll be able to access the fighting moves tech tree. Performing these moves requires different button combinations, much like a fighting game would.

Once I learned a new move, I went off to start a mission that saw me meeting up with a friend of Wei. The pair g?ot to talking about moving up in the world, so they concocted a plan to steal a rival gang's shipment that had just arrived at the docks downtown.

The pair drove down and Wei had to fight off the rival gang while the friend loaded the getaway vehicle with the goods. United Front's Dan Sochan, producer of Sleeping Dogs, feels this is "the most advance fighting system of any open-world game," and I have to agree. The fighting is pretty seamless as you bounce from one baddie to another, Batman: Arkham Asylum style. X (on the Xbox 360 controller) is your main attack, B is your grapple move, and Y lets you counter-attack just about anything thrown at?? you.

Enemies will surround you, and incoming attackers are highlighted in red. Press the counter-attack button just in time and you'll reverse their attack. Hit too soon or too late, and you'll take some damage. Grappling lets?? you attack those that are blocking too much, and it also allows you to take advantage of the environment. Wei can channel his inner Jason Bourne from simple things like using a car door to slam a guy's face, to extremes such as impaling a guy onto a broken pole. Funny, considering how Wei is an undercover cop.

Once the car was loaded, the pair took off but a cop soon gave chase. Driving has a very arcade feel, so it's very easy to d?rive well right from the start. You also have this cool feature where pressing the right or left shoulder button w?ill let you perform a quick slam attack. I slowed down for the cop car to get close enough, and performed the slam move to knock the cop out of commission.

Once the mission was over, I was awarded some experience points that I could use to up??grade my police and Triad abilities, my heal??th, or my reputation in a similar skill tree system as the fighting upgrades mentioned before.

After upgrading Wei, I put the controller down and found it hard to walk away from the game. There's so much to ??do, and I only scratched the surface.? There's a whole living, breathing world and you'll be able to partake in all sorts of activities, including gambling, cock fights, fight clubs, karaoke, and even dating.

I really enjoy open-world sandbox games and especially adore Sleeping Dogs. What really sets it apart from other experiences is the Hong Kong setting??. I'm so used to the familiar American environments, and while th??ose are fun they also offer a level of familiarity that doesn't stress you out, I've never stepped foot in China so it's like exploring a whole new world to me. From the culture, the way people interact, drive -- everything just has a freshness to it that makes every single thing feel completely new and alien. I can't wait to get lost and immersed into it all.

The post E3: Experiencing the open world of Sleeping Dogs appeared first on Destructoid.

Did you get a chance to check out Casey Baker's hands-on preview of Sleeping Dogs??? The more I hear about the game the?? more I can't wait to just get lost in the Hong Kong setting.

Well to go along with our latest look, developer United Front Games has released a new video that basically gives you a detailed breakdown of all the features you can expect. Driving, gambling, shooting, dating -- Sleeping Dogs has a ton to offer.

The post Everything you need to know about Sleeping Dogs appeared first on Destructoid.

Sleeping Dogs is my, uh, underdog of 2012. I?'ve played the game a couple of times now and everything I?'ve seen thus far has been great. The thing that's impressed me the most is the combat mechanics, refreshing as open-world games tend to have bland or boring fighting systems.

Oh and what do you know?! Square Enix and United Front Games just released a brand new trailer detailing the fighting system of Sleeping Dogs. It's kind of funny seeing the main protagonist, Wei Shen, killing the f*ck out of everyone. You know, seeing as how he'?s a cop and everything.

There's a lot to Sleeping Dogs detailed in our last preview that you should check out. Sleeping Dogs will be out August?? ??14 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

The post Beat the crap out of everyone in Sleeping Dogs appeared first on Destructoid.