Sleeping Dogs

I finished Sleeping Dogs today. I almost gave up on it a few hours in when I got frustrated with it being almost a rhythm game. You see, it's basically Grand Theft Auto in Hong Kong. But there's a much bigger emphasis on melee fighting than GTA. And you usually need to take out a group of about 6 or 8 dudes at a time. They invariably get on either side of you and interrupt you when you're punching their buddy. Rude, I know. But you start out without many special moves that will give you much of an advantage. I failed one mission about 10 times in a row before I changed very little and suddenly passed it. Gaining experience and new moves was a slow process, but I eventually got used to it. Compared to the shooting and driving sections, the "punching dudes" part of the game was actually the most fun in the long run.

Another thing worth pointing out is that since it's in Hong Kong, you drive on the left side of the road. I can't tell you how many times this messed me up. I was constantly pulling out of alleys into oncoming traffic or carjacking somebody on the wrong side of the car. Speaking of that, once you get to a boat, the steering wheel is on the left, opposite of the cars. But boats typically have the steering wheel on the right (for some reason) in the U.S. Anyway, maybe that's accurate and boats in Hong Kong are actually like that.

The story is fairly interesting and it's refreshing to see a game in a sort of new setting with something other than a white male protagonist. Of course they all speak English, only throwing in some Chinese phrase every once in a while.


I'm glad I stuck with it, I was entertained. Not sure what game is up next. Maybe I'll finally get to Tomb Raider. In the meantime I started New Super Mario Bros. 2 on the 3DS. It's sort of okay, like I expected. Not nearly as impressive as Super Mario 3D Land. For some reason that one really got its claws in me and I wanted to collect everything. I don't think I envision that happening in NSMB2.