Sleeping Dogs

THE BUZZ: Square-Enix has released a new trailer for Sleeping Dogs, formerly True Crime: Hong Kong, which highlights some of the game’s driving sections.

The publisher says: ”Take high performance driving to the limit as over 65 vehicles become your tools to take-on the streets and waterways of Hong Kong.”

“Participate in illegal street races where money, girls and status are the high-stakes rewards, taking on your challengers with expert driving and precision-placed ramming, sending any and all rivals into a well-timed spin.”

“Let no criminal escape your relentless pursuit with high-speed action hijacks, leaping from vehicle to vehicle, or intense high-speed gun battles direct from the driver’s seat. In Sleeping Dogs, the streets are yours to take… how you get there is up to you.”

EGM’s TAKE: We still struggle to understand why Activision let this one slip away. The game looks good in terms of graphics and the gameplay looks smooth. Quite what the story will be like is yet to be seen. But in a sandbox story isn’t the most important factor, it’s what developers can do with the space given. We like the idea of being able to jump from one vehicle to the next, that could come in handy if a faster car turns up during a chase. Car handling is always important in a sandbox as you spend a lot of time driving, get it wrong and people’s whole perception of the game will be skewed.