Now that I'm writing daily news stories for The Escapist, I've decided to collate all of the articles I post during the week right here on Steve's Game Blog! Sorry I'm a day late this week, I er, just forgot to do it yesterday... Here's this week's stories:
Okay guys, that's it from me for this week! Be sure to subscribe to my twitter for up-to-date news and blog updates, my youtube channel for gaming videos, and check back here every Saturday for a roundup of my Escapist news pieces!
Welcome to the Saturday Roundup, a weekly roundup of all the important news going on in the gaming world. If you’re sick of gaming websites' content turning more and more casual, or trying to pass off a single sentence and a link to a cool picture they saw on deviant art as ‘news,’ you've come to the right place. I aim to consolidate and summarize only the stuff that’s most important to gaming enthusiasts. It’s a mix of hard news, interesting features, and other tidbits that I feel like you guys would enjoy. Let’s see what’s been going on this week:
WarZ released on Steam this week. Don't buy it (well, you can't even if you wanted to*). WarZ, the open-world zombie MMO, is a reskin and redesign of Hammerpoint's failed War Inc. designed to ride on the coattails of hugely popular ARMA 2 mod DayZ. The game is still officially in Beta (alpha?), yet the Steam release was incredibly misleading, with the developers blatantly lying about included features. They have since updated the description after popular internet personality Total Halibut called them out on their bullshit, yet at the same time released a patch that that increased the respawn-timer from 1 hour to 4 hours and added a revive button, where you can spend 50GC (real money) to revive instantly. Stay away from this one guys, and instead keep a close eye on the impending stand-alone version of DayZ. *UPDATE: Valve has been listening! The game has been removed from the Steam store and Valve are offering full-refunds for anyone who submits a ticket.
Enter the dog.
The second DLC pack for Sleeping Dogs, The Zodiac Tournament, will be the closest you will get to a game based on Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon. Playing homage to the Hong Kong kung fu flicks of the 60's and 70's, The Zodiac Tournamentsees Wei Sheninvited to an exclusive tournament on a hidden island, where he must overcome the best of the best fighters from across Asia and emerge victorious. I really enjoyed Sleeping Dogs, and as I am an unashamed fanatic of Hong Kong cinema, I look forward to picking this one up on December 19th.
Indie games? Indie games. The Humble Indie Bundle is back! After a brief hiatus helping THQ try and get back on it's feet, the Humble Bundle has gone back to its roots with Humble Bundle 7. The games included are: Snapshot, The Binding of Issac (with the recently released DLC), Closure, Shank 2, and Indie Game: The Movie. You'll also get Dungeon Defenders and Legend of Grimlock if you play more than the average price (at time of writing, $6.16). It's interesting to note that the average price is actually higher than it was for the THQ bundle, which seems to suggest that gamers value indie games higher than triple AAA titles, at least when sold as a part of a humble bundle.
Remember RAGE? There's some DLC for it. The Scorchersis the first DLC pack for RAGE, and it's available now across all platforms. The package adds a new clan, new weapons, new areas to be angry in, a new "Ultra-Nightmare" difficulty level and the added ability to keep playing the game, even after the story has ended. Am I the only one utterly perplexed by this? RAGE was released over a year ago, and they are only just now pumping out the DLC? Seems like a case of too-little too-late for me.
Uhhh, Thanks id? RAGE DLC was just what I wanted for Christmas...
Good Old Games sells games that are both good and old. They are having a sale to 'celebrate' the Mayan Apocalypse that was supposed to happen earlier this week. You can snag up to 75% off 125+ games, including some of my personal favorites, such as Theme Hospital, Duke Nukem 3D and Sam and Max.
Just when I start thinking 'Hey, I haven't played Team Fortress 2 for a while,' Valve appeases my hat-simulator cravings by announcing a major update to the game. The Mecha update will add a new map to the popular Mann vs Machine horde-mode introduced a few patches ago. Players will get the fight the latest addition to the Gray Mann robot army: The Mecha-Engineer, as well as play with a bunch of new weapons and of course new hats. UPDATE: The update is now live! Enjoy fighting robots!
Valve also announced a partnership with Adult Swim this week, to bring a whole bunch of new hats and misc items to Team Fortress 2. You are now able to dress up your Heavy asCarl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, or your Scout as a Monarch Minion from The Venture Bros. Previously, TF2 players that signed up for the Adult Swim mailing list received a robot chicken hat.
The Steam winter holiday sale has begun! As expected, hundreds of games will be up to 75% off, with new daily deals every day, as well as 'flash sales' changing every few hours. There is also a selection of package deals that will be on sale the entire duration of the event. The sale will run until January 4th. Natural Selection 2will be 40% off for the duration of the sale, which i highly, HIGHLY recommend you pick up!
iPad user? Interested in Tell Tale Games 'The Walking Dead'? For a limited time only, you can download it 100% free!The Walking Dead is the latest in Tell Tale's series of point-and-click adventure revivals, and is their third foray into an established popular universe, following Back to the Future and Jurrasic Park. I really enjoyed their Monkey Island and Sam and Max games, but I was less than impressed by Back to the Future. I have heard a lot of good things about The Walking Dead though, and I mean... free is free!
So that’s the news for this week. Be sure to subscribe to my twitter for up-to-date news and blog updates, my youtube channel for gaming videos, check out my new digs over at non-fiction gaming for my regular Wednesday article (this week, it's a rather scathing review of Castle Crashers for Steam), and check back here every Saturday for more news!
Sleeping Dogs is an open-world sandbox action game
set in Hong Kong. I could probably give it a better description, but I'm sure
you guys will understand it better if I tell you that it's essentially GTA:
Hong Kong. As per my review rules, the main story portion of the game was played to completion. There was no difficulty setting.
In Sleeping Dogs, you play as Wei Shen, an
undercover HKPD officer going deep undercover to infiltrate and bring down the
notorious Triad gangs. Anyone familiar with Hong Kong cinema will recognize the
bog-standard plot, and appreciate that the it's essentially Infernal Affairs:
The Game. Stranglehold, the
officially licensed John Woo game released back in 2007 was the last attempt to
bring the world of Hong Kong action flicks to the gaming world. It succeeded
with its flawless combat system, but unfortunately the rest of game was very
short and very shallow. Sleeping Dogs has learned from Stranglehold's mistakes and has succeeded in bringing the islands
of Hong Kong to life.
Vibrant neon signs help bring Hong Kong to life
This is one of the strongest points of the game.
While GTA IV's sprawling metropolis of Liberty City was certainly much bigger
than Sleeping Dog's portrayal of Hong Kong, it felt empty. The people were
stoic and scripted, the locals were bland and samey, and it was very obvious
you were playing a video game. On the other hand, the Hong Kong that Sleeping
Dogs presents is very much alive. It's one of the first open world games I've
played where the NPC's felt like people, not programs. Pedestrians open
umbrellas (or flee if they don't have one) when it rains, street vendors call
to you from their markets, and people actually learn your name as your
notoriety rises. It really shocked me when I was buying a pork bun from the
vendor outside my house, and he said 'Thanks, Wei' instead of his usual 'Thank
you!'
Sleeping Dog's representation of Hong Kong is small, but lively
The smaller size of Sleeping Dog's map means that
each district feels varied and distinct. As you explore them for the first
time, you'll notice a lot of little things that jump out at you. For example,
in one of the poorer districts, I spied an NPC reliving himself against a
wall...
Charming...
As you progress through the game, you'll be able to spend your heard
earned Triad blood money (or honest policeman's salary) on new, faster cars,
clothes that give various social or combat bonuses, and short term 'buffs' to
your combat stats. Buffs are collected by drinking energy drinks, eating food,
and getting a massage. While this was a cool little concept, it quickly grew
old and became tedious, as I felt obligated to refresh my buffs before starting
every mission. A simple option to skip the animations Wei performs when getting
the buffs would have gone a long way in reducing this tedium.
The 'lady killer' set unlocks additional dialogue options while on dates.
Combat in Sleeping dogs is split into two main
areas: martial arts and gunplay. The martial arts fights draw obvious
inspiration from the combo/counter systems of games like Assassins' Creed and
Batman: Arkham Aslyum. It rewards you for performing flowing combos and
punishes you for missing counters. It feels really natural, and when you get a
good flow going and start to make use of the environmental takedowns (like
tossing a goon into a dumpster) it makes you feel like you're Jackie Chan.
A red flashing enemy indicates a counter oppertunity
No Hong Kong action movie is complete without a fair
share of over-the-top gun fights, and Sleeping Dogs is happy to oblige.
Bursting from cover offers the gaming staple of bullet time, allowing you to
dive over tables, disarm opponents, take precise shots, and of course, shoot
many conveniently placed explosive barrels.
Wei does his gunfighting in cemeteries, SO THEY DON'T HAVE TO MOVE THE BODIES
Driving is generally well done - the vehicles handle
well and the segments are never too long, but one of the coolest addition to Sleeping Dogs are the free-running sections. Often, you'll have
to chase a crook through the side-streets and back alleys, clambering over
obstacles and jumping across rooftops. It's really well done, rewarding flow
and timing just like the combat system, making you feel like a badass when you
can pull it off perfectly.
Sleeping Dogs lets you chase crooks by car, by boat, and now, on foot!
As you complete missions for the police and the
triads, you'll gain points that you can learn to unlock various permanent
upgrades for the respective skill trees. You can also get upgrades by completing
side missions or collecting various items strewn throughout the city. The main
story progression was very well done - the game never 'forced' me to do
anything I didn't want to, and I never felt 'brickwalled' into doing a whole
bunch of side missions to build up my character. I sunk around 18 hours into the game,
and actually felt myself hungry for more. This surprised me, as I usually can't
stand these kind of sandbox games. I never even finished GTA IV.
Complete Triad missions for triad score, police missions for cop score, and side missions for face score
Sleeping Dogs wouldn't be a GTA clone without an
array of useless, poorly implemented mini-games. Wei can go sing Karaoke, bet
on cock fights, and hack various security cameras around the city. Just like
in GTA, they don't really add anything except maybe a little extra flavour. Hacking
is forced on you a couple of times for some specific missions, but it's so
hard to fail that it makes me wonder why they even put it in at all.
It's an immersion crutch, like the ever popular quick-time events (which
are thankfully far and few between in Sleeping Dogs).
1, 2, 3 and uhh.... 4
Sleeping Dogs has been a sleeper hit for me (no pun
intended), coming out of no-where and enticing me enough to re-think my views on
the open-world sandbox genre. But more importantly, I feel it has accurately
captured the feel of Hong Kong cinema. As someone who recently acquired a
collection of every Jackie Chan movie ever made (including The Tuxedo) I'm not ashamed to admit I'm a big fan of Hong Kong
cinema, and this game had me feel like I was playing through a video game version
of Hard Boiled, Infernal Affairs, or Police Story. All it was missing was an
explosion of doves every time I entered a room.
