Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Barks & Bytes: Eight Minutes Of Sleeping Dogs

By John Walker on July 25th, 2012 at 4:00 pm.

Man holds gun in videogame.

The reboot of the cancelled True Crime: Hong Kong, Sleeping Dogs, has trailers coming every whichway, one featuring MMA fighters staring at the game, and another slightly more usefully showing eight minutes of its being played, of a level called Mrs Chu’s Revenge. You can see both below.

Here’s that big chunk of game.

It’s strange, seeing how well it’s been directed, to have characters that look like they’re made out of clay. (Also, I especially love after a pretty dull conversation of game cliches over the phone at around 1:25, a bystander loudly yawns.)

“Aggressive Cover” sounds really promising. Rather than constantly cowering, it’s a game that encourages you to just attack attack attack. I also like the idea of weapons being so disposable, with the emphasis on the more interesting hand-to-hand combat, rather than yet another car-chase-shoot-out GTA-athon. (Although, let’s be honest, it does look an awful lot like GTA.)

And then there’s MMA nonsense. Check out the size of this guy’s cup.

What an improbably attractive development team. It’s a shame that George was only “almost wanted to take the controls.”

Oh, and here’s some voice cast:

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52 Comments »

  1. 25/07/2012 at 16:02 Brun says:

    Wait what? I thought that Ubisoft game about hacking (the name escapes me for some reason) was unanimously hailed as the best reveal at this year’s E3?

    Also voice actress in the video is hawt.

    • 25/07/2012 at 16:12 bucky says:

      same for me , i thought watchdog was the best e3 reveal … and this is the first time i heard of this one ….and it doesnt look that good .

    • 25/07/2012 at 16:12 John Walker says:

      Oh gawd, I am such an idiot. And have a cold. And am very hot. Yes – but crikey, the two games have a bunch in common. That was Watch Dog. This is not that.

      • 25/07/2012 at 16:15 Wilson says:

        That confused me a great deal for a moment, I thought I’d missed something. Still, understandable mistake :)

      • 25/07/2012 at 16:17 Brun says:

        No worries. Incidentally, isn’t this actually a descendant of some other crime game sequel that was cancelled? Can’t remember the name of that one either…

        EDIT: You replaced it in the text. True Crime: Hong Kong was the one I was looking for.

        • 25/07/2012 at 17:23 ShineDog says:

          Kind of.

          It was Originally a game called Black Lotus about some kind of kungfu fighting lady agent, Activision decided no one would buy a game about a female agent, so it was rebranded to be a true crime game and the main character turned into a generic dude.

          When it was pretty nearly finished, Activision decided it wouldn’t be a megahit and dropped it, and now it’s under new management.

          It’s a shame they didn’t bring back the original concept, theres still a lack of good female leads, and I can’t think of a single open world game where you played as one.

          I actually think the game looks pretty fun. Nothing world shattering, but a solid mishmash of a hundred different games. I’ll be picking it up since theres nothing much else coming out any time soon, and theres been a lack of good, action heavy open world car and gun games recently.

    • 25/07/2012 at 16:23 Stevostin says:

      My thought exactly. The game’s technically impressive (this one, not that much) and shine on every front (just the fights for that one). That being said, I will not play anything that forces me to 3rd person driving. 1st shooting is already an affront, but 3rd person drivings a crime against speed.

  2. 25/07/2012 at 16:15 SkittleDiddler says:

    That handgun is freaking huge.

    • 25/07/2012 at 16:24 Sardonic says:

      That picture is begging for somebody to photoshop swap the gun and the guy’s head.

    • 25/07/2012 at 16:29 Hoaxfish says:

      or he’s very small

    • 25/07/2012 at 16:30 Shooop says:

      That’s a Desert Eagle for you.

      Loved by movies and games, not so much by people who actually have used guns.

      • 26/07/2012 at 22:07 YourMessageHere says:

        If you look at the submachinegun in the gameplay clip, that’s a sort of mishmash of a few different guns; I assume that their approach is sort of gun portmanteaus rather than copying real weapons, and this is meant more to resemble/evoke a Desert Eagle that actually be one, which explains why it’s such a dreadful likeness. I have to assume there’s something about the DE that’s really hard to model well, as despite their ubiquity, it seems there’s a multitude of really shoddy models of them in games and very few that are actually representative.

    • 25/07/2012 at 16:30 jonfitt says:

      The Desert Eagle is somewhat large. I feel that it’s the gun equivalent of the big red sports cars for the over 50 set. Overcompensating for something.
      Wikipedia tells me that it’s been in over 500 films which I can believe. Here’s Demi Moore with two showing the scale:
      http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gOc0-mXPXnI/TrWjmx6EltI/AAAAAAAAUW4/hOqOrn9Su1c/s640/CharliesAnglsThrottl_235Pyxurz.jpg

      • 25/07/2012 at 18:07 SkittleDiddler says:

        I actually saw a gold-plated Desert Eagle for sale at a Wal Mart in Wyoming, shortly after the Gulf War had finished up. Don’t remember the manufacturer or the price, but it was big and ugly and “special edition” so I had to assume it was the Greatest Gun Ever Made.

        The kick on that thing must be massive. Better off with a shotgun.

        • 26/07/2012 at 22:03 YourMessageHere says:

          I understand the DE is actually easier on the recoil front compared with revolvers chambered for the same round – the weight and action of the slide absorbs some of the kick. As for ‘better off with a shotgun’, well, it does a totally different job. The DE is, or rather began life as, a long-range target pistol (but now Hollywood’s made it into the deadliest gun EVAR in the heads of the ignorant, is it still that?), whereas a shotgun is pretty much the opposite of that. Still, the last thing I’d want in a gunfight is a DE; I’d rather have any decent european 9mm, or the shotgun, or better still, both.

    • 25/07/2012 at 21:00 Arglebargle says:

      Desert Eagle: The handgun version of the BFG.

      To quote James McMurtry’s song ‘Choctaw Bingo’ (Which you should definitely listen to, he’s an amazing Americana songwriter):

      And a desert eagle
      That’s one
      Great big old pistol
      I mean fifty caliber
      Made by
      Bad-ass Hebrews

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_SakvKz3bM

  3. 25/07/2012 at 16:21 mcdanger says:

    Hilarious seeing the car drive through the alley without hitting someone… wait… there were no people in that alley. Wha?? Isn’t this Hong Kong??

    • 25/07/2012 at 17:39 ZyloMarkIII says:

      It is bizarre seeing a lack of people in the streets of Hong Kong.

    • 25/07/2012 at 21:59 Tams80 says:

      Not only is it a little bizarre, but it looks a little too devoid of life overall for an open world game.

      It still looks good fun, but I get the feeling the missions will overshadow any exploring a bit too much.

    • 25/07/2012 at 23:02 rapchee says:

      yeah and the roads are way too wide. well, way too wide to be realistic, i recon it would be quite challenging to perform a car chase in real life hong kong

  4. 25/07/2012 at 16:25 Nick says:

    Actually really looking forward to this, I think its a shame it seems to have gone under the radar.

  5. 25/07/2012 at 16:28 Hoaxfish says:

    I thought this was going to be about sleeping dogs, guess I’ll just have to go watch some more keyboard cat instead.

  6. 25/07/2012 at 16:34 S Jay says:

    I will give it a triad.

  7. 25/07/2012 at 16:41 Malk_Content says:

    It has Just Cause hijacking. I am sold.

  8. 25/07/2012 at 16:51 Simon Hawthorne says:

    I suppose GSP has had a lot of time on his hands of late…

    He’s been doing a lot of non-MMA stuff since his injury, but Sleeping Dogs isn’t the best of it.

    Can’t get links to work, but this is the best of it: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/7/11/3152123/video-ufcs-georges-st-pierre-stars-in-google-nexus-7-ad-as-dr-paul

  9. 25/07/2012 at 16:52 Sheng-ji says:

    “We worked with an MMA champion to make sure the combat was as authentic as possible”

    Presumably he told them that the bad guys will line up and wait their turn to be beaten up a la assassins creed.

    Don’t care though, I want this game! And that could so easily be Kai Wong at 07:42

  10. 25/07/2012 at 16:58 Erithtotl says:

    I’m seriously psyched about this game. A little apprehensive becuase its easy to make open world==boring, but this basically looks like a combination of classic John Woo and and GTA4.

  11. 25/07/2012 at 17:50 wodin says:

    Anyone love Asian films??

    Is so i watched a superb film the other night.

    The Raid Redemption.

    Perfect viewing for this game. Was a damn fine film like many Asian films are. They can beat Hollywood everytime.

    • 25/07/2012 at 20:00 hench says:

      Infernal Affairs trilogy is probably excellent to get hyped for this. Not much hand to hand combat though IIRC

    • 25/07/2012 at 21:56 Tams80 says:

      Oh, please do recommend some more!

      • 25/07/2012 at 23:38 Nick says:

        A Bittersweet Life, Hard Boiled, The Killer, A Better Tomorrow to name but a few (first one is korean, others are John Woo HK flicks, Hard Boiled is probably the greatest of the Woo action films).

        • 25/07/2012 at 23:47 Totally heterosexual says:

          I just recommended that! You ass! :(

          Speaking of ass, if anyone is up for some really fucked up shit in asian films then I also recommend Audition.

          (It’s really fucked up though)

    • 25/07/2012 at 23:37 Totally heterosexual says:

      Just recently watched hardboiled. Best shoot em’ up movie ever.

    • 25/07/2012 at 23:40 Nick says:

      Yeah The Raid is great, saw it in the cinema a few months ago, highly reccomend it to action fans.

    • 26/07/2012 at 21:52 YourMessageHere says:

      Bangkok Dangerous is superb (the original, not the pointless Nicholas Cage remake). Shiri is a good Korean one. For me though, Chow Yun Fat is the man to follow. He’s probably best known here because he worked a lot with John Woo, but he’s a great actor in his own right; aside of the three mentioned above, I also recommend God of Gamblers, Full Contact, Once a Thief and A Better Tomorrow 2. The last two are also John Woo, just less often seen, as is Bullet in the Head, which is a great Vietnam war film.

  12. 25/07/2012 at 17:53 wodin says:

    Would have loved it if they spoke the actual language and we read subtitles. I’m also someone who hates dubbed films..can’t stand it. Give me subtitles.

    BTW, God shooting on a console looks terrible. Nothing can beat a mouse and keyboard…I hope this game is ported over well and not a shoddy mess.

    • 25/07/2012 at 18:21 Felix says:

      Are you implying that people don’t speak English in Hong Kong? They do, you know. And they speak Cantonese (I think) in the video as well.

    • 25/07/2012 at 21:56 Tams80 says:

      Well in that video, Mrs. Chu only speaks Cantonese and there are subtitles for most of it.

      Anyway, in Hong King, a lot of people speak English (not just having the ability to, actually do so an a daily basis). I like how the police ‘governor’ has a British accent as well.

  13. 25/07/2012 at 18:05 LennyLeonardo says:

    Wow, I did not know the voice cast was so awesome.
    By which I mean “I love Emma Stone, eep.”
    Sigh. I really, really do.

  14. 25/07/2012 at 19:47 Jimbo says:

    Pulling away seems a bit tame after THAT scene in Mafia 2.

  15. 25/07/2012 at 20:46 yhancik says:

    If I had a dog, I’d film him during one of his naps and put up the video on Youtube as “Sleeping Dog exclusive footage”.

  16. 25/07/2012 at 23:30 Xardas Kane says:

    Lucy Liu, Emma Stone and TOM FUCKING WILKINSON?! Fuck me! I am going to get this game just for the freaking voice cast. Tom Wilkinson in a video game, I’ll be damned…

  18. 26/07/2012 at 22:31 YourMessageHere says:

    Finally a Hong Kong open world game. It’s been so damn long coming; I was seriously surprised Rockstar didn’t do it already, what with their unending fetish for plundering films to create plots and missions and scenarios and art directions.

    Based on the vid, I like the look of this. But this worries me, though:

    “It’s important for us to create a game where the action is always changing, to keep you, the player, off balance”

    I don’t get why I have to be off balance. I don’t want to be. I want to be balanced and in control of the fights; that’s how you win them. Why would I want to throw weapons away? Where does that get me? It’s meaningless gamification for its own sake, or worse, designed to cover basic inadequacies in the fighting system.

  19. 28/07/2012 at 14:51 otomo says:

    “We want to make the fights as authentic as possible” , Authentic to what? Movie fights? Where the hero fights against 10 opponents and everyone of them just stands around passively and waits for his turn to get the shit beaten out of him. Then I think they hit their goal here.

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