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[AHA-Lambda]

Oh my god I'm shocked, I think I just got my first |OT| title. Tis a proud day :lol

 

[Casimir]

I take it we've apparently found the OT subtitle.


In other news, a new video demonstrating a side mission that diverges from the killing triads in multiple ways/ slow motion bullet fights.

 

[ekim]

http://www.google.de/url?sa=t&sourc...q4DACg&usg=AFQjCNH5Qj9C22nGv1kUjnp7Hx04obYnyw

7.75....they ding it for being VERY buggy and uninspired gunplay. Says hand to hand combat is much better....let's all hope for a day one patch.

 

[Derrick01]

Wasn't game informer the one raving about how fun and addictive it was?

Oh well I should have expected they'd knock a game like this for stuff they'd let GTA get away with. It's the same situation as Fallout 3 and New Vegas, one gets a pass and the other gets criticized.

 

[Auto_aim1]

Anyone else got the GI digital issue? Gamefaqs source is a bit iffy.

 

[Nome]

Wasn't game informer the one raving about how fun and addictive it was?

Oh well I should have expected they'd knock a game like this for stuff they'd let GTA get away with. It's the same situation as Fallout 3 and New Vegas, one gets a pass and the other gets criticized.

That's not a fallacy. If you release a game knowing about the failures of a similar game, then you should fix those failures. If you don't, then you get points knocked off.

Same reason sequels get lower points for lacking originality, despite being all-around better games.

 

[Drewfonse]

I take it we've apparently found the OT subtitle.


In other news, a new video demonstrating a side mission that diverges from the killing triads in multiple ways/ slow motion bullet fights.

That mission was a really nice departure from the other ones that I've seen. Graphics are nice too, apart from the abundant screen tearing.

Can't wait.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Wasn't game informer the one raving about how fun and addictive it was?

When have you ever seen a bad preview for a game?

 

[SJRB]

The constant parallels getting drawn between this game and Arkham City is basically setting people up for disappointment.

I doubt it were the devs themselves who first started doing this, but it can only end badly for the game's reviews if people seriously go in and expect that level of combat and polish.

 

[chixdiggit]

Am I missing something? Was the new True Crime game that was supposed to be coming out turned into this or something?

 

[SolidSnakex]

Am I missing something? Was the new True Crime game that was supposed to be coming out turned into this or something?

Activision canned True Crime: Hong Kong then Square picked it up and changed the name to Sleeping Dogs.

 

[EatChildren]

Am I missing something? Was the new True Crime game that was supposed to be coming out turned into this or something?

First it was a new IP called Black Lotus, with a female protagonist. Activision thought a new IP wouldn't work, and had the project changed to focus on a male protagonist, and attached the True Crime brand (True Crime: Hong Kong). Activision then decided the game wasn't worth the investment and canned it.

Square-Enix were shopping around for new IPs, were impressed with what United Front had created, and purchased the rights to the game. They didn't feel the True Crime property was necessary, and instead rebranded it as Sleeping Dogs.

 

[Mario007]

The constant parallels getting drawn between this game and Arkham City is basically setting people up for disappointment.

I doubt it were the devs themselves who first started doing this, but it can only end badly for the game's reviews if people seriously go in and expect that level of combat and polish.

I think the comparison just came from people and journalists seeing the trailers. It's kinda funny though since Arkham City was helped with the development by SE Europe and now Sleeping Dogs is also being helped by SE Europe.

 

[Nome]

First it was a new IP called Black Lotus, with a female protagonist. Activision thought a new IP wouldn't work, and had the project changed to focus on a male protagonist, and attached the True Crime brand (True Crime: Hong Kong). Activision then decided the game wasn't worth the investment and canned it.

Square-Enix were shopping around for new IPs, were impressed with what United Front had created, and purchased the rights to the game. They didn't feel the True Crime property was necessary, and instead rebranded it as Sleeping Dogs.

And thank Jeebus for that!
The True Crime branding is awfully cheesy.

 

[UrbanRats]

First it was a new IP called Black Lotus, with a female protagonist. Activision thought a new IP wouldn't work, and had the project changed to focus on a male protagonist, and attached the True Crime brand (True Crime: Hong Kong). Activision then decided the game wasn't worth the investment and canned it.

Square-Enix were shopping around for new IPs, were impressed with what United Front had created, and purchased the rights to the game. They didn't feel the True Crime property was necessary, and instead rebranded it as Sleeping Dogs.

Gotta wonder, missed opportunity or dodged bullet, there?
There aren't many open worlds (or games for that matter) with a female protagonist, but something seriously dumb (for example in terms of clothing and design) could've ruined the game.

 

[ekim]

Just placed my preorder.

 

[Data West]

Gotta wonder, missed opportunity or dodged bullet, there?
There aren't many open worlds (or games for that matter) with a female protagonist, but something seriously dumb (for example in terms of clothing and design) could've ruined the game.

Not many games with actual asian male protagonists either. There's Yakuza, Shenmue, uhhhh

 

[MRORANGE]

Not a review, but last year Activision stated they thought (Sleeping Dogs/ True Crime) would have gotten 80+ scores in reviews:

Cancelled open-world action title True Crime: Hong Kong could have gone on to achieve strong reviews and decent sales, Activision head of developer relations Dan Winters has told GamesIndustry.biz.

Back in January, Activision announced the cancellation of the game, stating: "In an industry where only the best games in each category are flourishing, to be blunt, it just wasn't going to be good enough."

However, Winters has stepped back from that statement and now claims the game would have ended up with a review average in the 80s.

"We think that the game was tracking to be a very good game," he said.

"The question was really the size of the prize based on how good it could be. We are confident that thing would of been 80 plus. 85 maybe. They're a really talented group at United Front.

"We were really confident that they were tracking towards a very good game. The challenges in the market place right now, when you're talking about open-world games that are going to compete with titles like Red Dead Redemption, expectations for the consumer are really high."

In the end, Activision's change in business model resulted in True Crime being an unfortunate casualty.

"That would have been, and still might end up being, a very successful mid-tier opportunity for someone," Winters added. "But, as I said, we changed our business model to where we were going to change our business model to focus disproportionately on three big, huge monsters. Those three monsters are the Bungie, Call of Duty and Spyro titles.

"So that left the True Crime title being a mid-tier opportunity which we felt was an opportunity cost against other things."

Seriously Activision wtf.

 

[chickdigger802]

Gotta wonder, missed opportunity or dodged bullet, there?
There aren't many open worlds (or games for that matter) with a female protagonist, but something seriously dumb (for example in terms of clothing and design) could've ruined the game.

Yeah, saint's row series is the only one that came up in my mind.

 

[SJRB]

Not a review, but last year Activision stated they thought (Sleeping Dogs/ True Crime) would have gotten 80+ scores in reviews:



Seriously Activision wtf.

So Spyro is a big huge monster for Activision, but a 80-plus scoring game isn't..?

 

[Gully State]

So Spyro is a big huge monster for Activision, but a 80-plus scoring game isn't..?

Skylanders, IIRC is a huge cash cow..

 

[Die Squirrel Die]

Not a review, but last year Activision stated they thought (Sleeping Dogs/ True Crime) would have gotten 80+ scores in reviews:

Seriously Activision wtf.

I guess having CoD as their benchmark for success kinda skews their judgement somewhat. From a business perspective I believe it's called 'oppurtunity costs'. While the game in and of itself may be profitable it's wouldn't be as profitable as funnelling those resources into CoD map packs.

 

[spiderman123]

I'm gonna buy the game but how big is the open world?!

 

[Revven]

Well, I pre-ordered it from greenmangaming for $33, hopefully it'll be good. I'm looking forward to romping around in an area inspired by Hong Kong.

 

[Auto_aim1]

I'm gonna buy the game but how big is the open world?!

Size is "fairly competitive" with other open-world games. They said they were aiming for density rather than sheer size.

A large portion of our game takes place on foot and our driving is very action based. We really wanted to focus on a very streamlined and gameplay centric world layout.

We really tried to pack the island with many different kinds of stuff as possible. I think our size is fairly competitive with other open world titles.

http://www.officialplaystationmagaz...true-crime-games-focused-on-gameplay-density/

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Not a review, but last year Activision stated they thought (Sleeping Dogs/ True Crime) would have gotten 80+ scores in reviews:



Seriously Activision wtf.

Is this the first time ATVI have admitted they focus as they said "disproportionately" on CoD, Spyro etc?

Why then did they bother with Prototype 2 this year?

 

[DarkestLight]

So Spyro is a big huge monster for Activision, but a 80-plus scoring game isn't..?

didnt spyro generate more revenue last quarter than either call of duty or diablo?


this game looks right up my alley, so glad it got picked up after getting canned

 

[Mario007]

didnt spyro generate more revenue last quarter than either call of duty or diablo?


this game looks right up my alley, so glad it got picked up after getting canned

Is Skylandars huge in america? Because here in Ireland and in the rest of Europe it's virtually non-existent and the same can be said for Japan.

 

[DaBuddaDa]

Is Skylanders huge in America?

Yeah it was an absurd success. Stuff was sold out absolutely everywhere.

 

[Mario007]

Yeah it was an absurd success. Stuff was sold out absolutely everywhere.

Wow, funny how a game popular only in one region can end up being bigger for Acti than COD and Diablo.

 

[DarkestLight]

Wow, funny how a game popular only in one region can end up being bigger for Acti than COD and Diablo.

it did quite well for a while in the uk charts, hanging around for quite a while after release if i remember correctly. And i've seen a lot of shops sold out



Anyone know the cheapest place to pre-order sleeping dogs online in the uk?

 

[ekim]

Some quotes from the GI review

Dan Rykert says

1. "The experience is worth playing, but the buggy gameplay makes Activision's lack of faith in the title is understandable".

2. "While the story itself doesn't offer much in the way of creative mission objectives, a healthy assortment of distractions are available".

3. "Fans of Rocksteady's Batman games should enjoy Sleeping Dogs' fighting system, as it features Wei countering and attacking like he's the caped crusader".

4. "Taking on Hong Kong's underworld with your fists and feet is great, but gunplay is cookie-cutter by comparison".

5. "Shootouts only become frequent later in the game, and their generic nature made me want to charge out from behind cover and deliver a few jump kicks instead of shooting bullets".

6. "Unfortunately, I encountered several bugs and other issues. On top of bugs that forced checkpoint restarts, I also experienced minor annoyances like a lack of transitional animations during combat and lines of dialogue that abruptly cut off".

7. "When everything works correctly, Sleeping Dogs is fun. Combat is rewarding, the leveling system stands out from the open world pack, and driving feels natural. Even if the game was bug free, the ho-hum mission structure and unexciting gunplay are still causes for concern"

8 . "If you're looking to explore the criminal underbelly of a city and get in some trouble, you could do worse than Sleeping Dogs while you wait for Rockstar's top dog".

 

[Sn4ke_911]

inb4preordercanceled.

 

[90TilInfinity]

"Shootouts only become frequent later in the game, and their generic nature made me want to charge out from behind cover and deliver a few jump kicks instead of shooting bullets".

I'm pretty sure the point was to not be in cover what with all the slow-mo options they give you.

Anyway, shame about the bugs. Hopefully UFG gets on that asap if they're as big an issue as GI claims.

 

[ekim]

All those flaws like the shooting mechanics don't bug me. We will see if the game is really that buggy in the end. They got their review copy before the game went gold I think.

 

[Xanathus]

I bet that bug in the Giant Bomb quick look ends up in release.

 

[ekim]

I bet that bug in the Giant Bomb quick look ends up in release.

They got the preview version, didn't they? Let's hope for the best.

 

[SJRB]

Bugs are my biggest fear for this game. Every gameplay video looks pretty rough, but perhaps this review is based off a preview build.

Let's just hope for the best. Or a day one patch.

 

[Dennis]

Still looking forward to this.

I am interested in this mostly for the world and story so I am not too bothered by so so gunplay.

 

[Derrick01]

Not surprised about the gunplay. It shouldn't be surprising that the gunplay came out rough when they put most of the focus on melee.

 

[KaiserBecks]

Sleeping Dogs |OT| We question business decisions without having played the game but sure as hell bitch about it after launch

 

[Bleepey]

Can some of the failed OT titles be put in the OT. They were quite funny.

 

[Count of Monte Sawed-Off]

Some quotes from the GI review

I can live with this.

 

[ironcreed]

I wish I had a dollar for every single time a game I ended up absolutely loving got lots of 7.0-7.5 review scores. These days it seems like so many forget that is on the upper end of the 10 scale and automatically think it's shit unless it scores at least a 9.0. It would be hilarious, were it not so sad.

This why I wish we could at least just do away with numbers in reviews altogether, as they have caused the downfall of many games that are actually great on the whole. People just ignore this, though, and go straight for the highest numbers. This is the very kind of thing that scares devs away from wanting to roll the dice and take chances with something new.

 

[WanderingWind]

This game flew completely under my radar until about 10 minutes ago. Now it's my most anticipated game of the year, outside of Torchlight 2.

I love when that happens!

 

[Stackboy]

I go between keen to pre-order and waiting for release impressions, but I think I'm going to wait on this one.

 

[EatChildren]

I wish I had a dollar for every single time a game I ended up absolutely loving got lots of 7.0-7.5 review scores.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. In the case of Sleeping Dogs, it simply appears to be doing something more interesting than the usual sandbox crap, and by that I mean the fist fights, slow mo and other junk. Most sandbox games stick to the absolute basics when it comes to combat, focusing less on the way you interact with the player character and more on the scope of the sandbox world. I'll take a smaller, more inventive and interesting sandbox experience over a gigantic map and billion radio stations.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

I wish I had a dollar for every single time a game I ended up absolutely loving got lots of 7.0-7.5 review scores.

Same, more so in the last 2 years. I've almost completely tuned out game critics after some of the crap I've heard lately. And weird stuff like docking points for the gunplay here but letting mediocre shooter after mediocre shooting slide because "DAT PRODUCTION VALUES!" Nahhh, I'm done listening to reviewers.

 

[Karak]

I wish I had a dollar for every single time a game I ended up absolutely loving got lots of 7.0-7.5 review scores. These days it seems like so many forget that is on the upper end of the 10 scale and automatically think it's shit unless it scores at least a 9.0. It would be hilarious, were it not so sad.

.

I really don't see many people ever saying they will only play a game that got a 10. Then again even the same game doesn't get the same ratings amongst all reviewers anyway. And when they do say that, its funny to see them posting in other threads about a game they love that got totally normal review scores. If you, or any of us, didn't like an occasional 7.0 game it would be odd when you think about it.
That would indicate a totally malleable person with no other decision making ability other than to check a review and yet nerds are a heady lot At some point everyone is going to like something someone didn't. Even those who claim otherwise.

It would be sad if it was true but just because it may be true in some cases with some games, it seems not true with the same people when it comes to other games. Perhaps someone just doesn't like open world and won't buy it until its a 10, while they play an RPG that got a 6.5 because they love RPG's. I think most everyone everywhere is in the same boat as you

The GI review is really weird for one reason. His reason 1 makes no sense. Activision would not have seen this in an end state. So "lack of faith" doesn't make a lick of sense unless they looked at an alpha of a game and said "nope not perfect we have a lack of faith now" Seems odd unless I am misreading.. Obviously the gunplay was going to be cookie cutter we would see that from the videos. Sad but its something I personally can ignore. VERY happy about the driving notes.

 

[An-Det]

This wasn't on my radar until now, after watching the Revenge of Mrs Chu I'm definitely intrigued. Still need to read more reviews and impressions, but the videos so far certainly impress me.