Samurai_tbag

Huh? The game isn't out yet bro. I recon this will be current-gen. I mean, remember the last releases on the PS2 like BLACK? They certainly looked PS3 worthy.

Surely not, I mean this generation easily handled Skyrim, which I'd imagine would be what the next Fallout would be on - if it is ever released. I'm not enitrely sure, but I seem to remember reading something a while back about Bethseda having difficulties with the copyright? I may be wrong.

TBoGT was always planned as a DLC. I think that's what he means.

Yea that's another thing I forgot to mention. The game is surprisingly tricky at points, and as you said, the lack of a difficulty changer can make it frustrating. I have found that the best way around it is to pump on those soda's, massages, etc, before starting the tougher missions (as they give you stat bonuses). Following up on the music, there have been a couple of songs that I have recognised now, Kasabian, Queen, and a couple others. But as you said, the Western choice is limited. Yea don't get me wrong, the game is a lot of fun, and it's definitely worth buying at a slightly lower price - if not rented. I guess my review seems pretty heavily critical because I didn't mention much of what was good about the game, but I felt that the major reviewers had already done that, but they hadn't highlighted some of the quarms that I have had with it. Yea, it's hard to explain. I guess the emptiness is the result of knowing that you can't go in 99% of the buildings, interact with people many ways, or explore the above-street Hong Kong. I guess it just feels kind of lonely, like the stuff going on around is there, but you're not able to fully engage in it - like you're disconnected in some way. With regards to stuff to do, I'd imagine more side-missions and stuff pop-up as you progress, but of the few that I've done - the majority have been pretty basic; chase someone, beat them and a couple of their buddies up, and then get some rewards. Regarding the weapons, I wasn't complaining about the lack of firearms. In fact, quite the opposite. The inability to hide weapons you have, in particular the melee items. I mean, in a city like Hong Kong, one would be more careful hide knifes, etc. due to their strict weapon laws. I think the reduced role of firearms is actually somewhat refreshing for the genre; I've always thought that was GTAIV's only problem - not enough melee weapons, especially as most violent crime is indeed commited with knifes, etc... I'm glad you all enjoyed the review though, it's always good to hear reviews from those who have similar gaming interests (i.e. GTA), aren't affraid to throw in some of the more pedantic complaints, and as you said, aren't being paid to review. For the record, anyone interested in starting a critical gaming reviews blog, I'd be down to assist/contribute.

I'm glad to have saved you some $!

So I've been playing it a couple of hours now and I have done enough to just about give a basic review of what I think. Essentially, the game plays a lot like SR3 in terms of controls/gameplay/physics/driving - it actually almost feels like a re-skinned SR3 to be honest. As the other reviews have mentioned, the story is pretty engaging, the voice acting is convincing, the melee combat is great and the atmosphere of the Hong Kong they have created feels pretty believable. There are some pretty cool features that you have probably heard about in the other reviews, so I won't into them. However, I have a few major issues with the game as it stands: - Mainly, the game feels very unpolished. It's quite hard to describe, but hose who have played SR3 will know what I mean; basically it feels as if, despite being a sandbox game, you can't access 90% of what you see. For example, many alleyways (very famous to HK) are blocked off by walls or trash and stuff; 99% of buildings are just images with no interiors, and those with interiors are clones of each other. But perhaps most annoyingly, the game forces you to stay on the street level, which is incredibly sad considering HK has one of the most impressive skylines in the world. Wherever you are in the game, you can look up and you're surrounded by thousands of balconies, perches, and alcoves that would be perfect for exploring and sniping from. - Secondly, the radio/soundtrack is quite frankly dire. I personally thought SR's radio stations were bad, though this games selection makes the SR radio look like a GTA game's radio. I understand there's a lot of HK/Chinese music in the game, which is fine! The problem lies with the dull Western songs that have been picked. Hell, I didn't even notice one song that played that I have heard before. More importantly though, the actual radio system seems to be pretty bugged. When you toggle stations it takes up to a few seconds for the game to process the button you have pressed, and sometimes it will change to the exact station you were already on - this means that you often end up hammering the change station button and then suddenly the game bursts through the stations two seconds later. - Thirdly, as of yet, I haven't got my hands on any guns - which is a shame. I have however engaged in plenty of melee combat with and without weapons. The melee combat itself is the only thing that sets this game above other sandbox games. The best way to explain it would be a slightly less responsive version of the system Rocksteady used in the Batman: Arkham games. Sure it can get fiddly with some odd response times regarding some counters, but in general it feels real nice to kick the shit out of a group of people in Sleeping Dogs. The melee weapons are even better, I've found a couple of knifes, a crowbar and a tire iron so far - and all have been very fun, and pretty gory. The main issue I have with the melee items, and perhaps the guns (I'm not sure as of yet), is that you can't hide them. If you pick up a knife, you have to drop it, or carry it around on full display - it would have made sense to be able to stash it in your pocket - and to be honest, to me this really ruins the 'undercover' focus of the game. - Finally, despite the city being richly detailed with bustling markets and civilians going about their daily lives whether fishing down by the docks, haggling with DVD vendors, or just generally gassing away; I can't help but feel the city still feels a bit vacant. For example, you can go to the major market in North Point, but there's only a couple of stalls you can actually approach to buy things, and when you're surrounded by hundreds of vendors offering you all sorts of black market goods it's hard to not feel a bit disappointed. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, outside of the markets there are only a small handful of different stores available to you, a few clothing stores, some herbal medicine places and about a hundred massage parlours scattered across the map. I just feel that they could have included more stuff to do; perhaps random shops where you could extort or rob the owners, or even just a wider variety of clothing and accessories stores. I managed to to pick the game up for £32.99 shipped, which is good for a new title, but perhaps still a little steep for this game. My advice would be to either wait till it drops to about £20/£25 (which won't be long due to the lack of MP), or rent the game for a few nights (as it only takes about 20 hours to complete to 100%). All in all a good game, but still, despite being released four years before, GTA IV remains the best sandbox crime game to date.

I didn't really find it to make much difference. I mean its exactly the same but you don't hold the trigger, you just tap the bumper. It's a stupid feature, and the turning signals is even stupider. There's not enough buttons on the controller to have all these stupid functions.

My copy is arriving today, so as soon as I've given it a couple hours I'll let you know what I think.

To be honest, I haven't played a Hitman title since Hitman 2 (which was very good), though I played a demo of contracts and was not impressed and thus never played one since. I will be getting this one though, it looks pretty decent! This winter is definitely sorted; Hitman, FC3 and possibly AC3. Yea, it's essentially a leaderboard system I believe?

Yea it looks about the size of Liberty City without Alderny? The previous two TC games were WAY to big to enjoy.

So, has anyone played it yet? I've ordered mine today, should come Friday or Saturday. It's had pretty good reviews across the board so far.

Yea i agree with you on how map packs are utter shite, But Rockstar could do what they did with Midnight Club LA, Add to the map. And i am not a big fan of zombie games but it would be amazing in the GTA world. Just imagine helping some redneck in the contryside fight off hordes of zombies to protect his little shack, or driving around the city seeing little groups camped into a convienent store (24/7) fighting off hordes of zombies and you can help them of just go on your way. They could really do something special with GTA zombies... I'm almost certain the MC:LA was the only game I can think of (on consoles) where DLC extended the map without going through some kind of portal or door, a la Skyrim. Given that, if we don't see SF or LV in the launch title I wouldn't be surprised if R* added them to the game through two expansion packs.

Yea that's correct. Ok cheers mate, I'll check them out! Yea I hope not, there's a lot of sharks in London hah.

Do you want him to keep the deposit? Sorry I mistyped that. Originally, he said it would be refundable. My bad.

Oh I've got a receipt, and the name of the estate agents. Thats the thing, I could ring the police, but they'd probably just tell me it's a civil case (which I believe it is). It's only non-refundable if YOU decide not to go ahead with taking possession of the property. If the landlord decides not to rent the property to you then you are entitled to a refund in full. That would be the case if the estate agent had specifically said so, however he did in fact say the opposite - that it was refundable.

Oh I've got a receipt, and the name of the estate agents. Thats the thing, I could ring the police, but they'd probably just tell me it's a civil case (which I believe it is).

Who owns the property? ]It's owned by a private landlord, so not the estate agency themselves. So why are you paying rent to the estate agent? Is this estate agent Nigerian? It's part of the deposit. When you rent a property you pay 6 weeks rent as a deposit, normally you pay one weeks rent to take it off the market while you get the paperwork done, etc..

Who owns the property? ]It's owned by a private landlord, so not the estate agency themselves.

Basically we paid an estate agent one weeks rent (£620) to take the property off the market. Nothing was signed, and the agent didn't mention that the agreed payment would be non-refundable. He has now changed his mind about that. I'm wondering how to go about challenging him legally, because I'm 99% sure he can't do that without us signing something.

This is probably a long shot, but is anyone on here a solicitor or done a law degree? I need some advice regarding estate agents.

That could be anything, likely something to do with that Epilson Project too.

What the fuck are you guys on about no prison on the game map? GTA IV had a great one, and the breakout mission in TLAD was insane. Ofcourse there should be a prison - if anything have it at the expense of some dumb military base with nothing in.

I found it hilarious how you could steal peoples clothes that they were wearing in Skyrim without them noticing. But that would be a cool idea, maybe if you could mug people you could demand money, shoes or a jacket or something. I'd love a bit of mugging. Then I wouldn't have to kill someone at an ATM to get their $$$. I would like to see a bit more interaction with peds in general, perhaps random conversations that you could engage in, or people asking you questions, or even just swearing at people.

I loved the aircraft in SR3, but to me, I think maybe VTOLS and stuff belong to SR and should remain there...Maybe it would be good, but I think GTA suits normal jets and helicopters...just better choice than the previous GTA's Agreed, GTA V should stick to the path GTA IV set (gritty realism). There's a million stupid sandbox games with ridiculous toys already (SR, Just Cause, etc...). I'm more than satisfied with a few single engine planes and a couple jets. To be honest, flying around gets pretty boring after a while anyway; I mean, I much prefer loitering around ATM's with a knife in my pocket after dark.

I'm still faithful that we'll see either SF or LV.