My Week In Gaming - 2-3-13

SHLEEPY DAWGS (Sleeping Dogs)

Do you like Chinese action movies (Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, etc.)? Do you like Grand Theft Auto-styled open world games? Do you like the Batman: Arkham series' combat? Do you like excellently crafted stories? Do you like things which are awesome? If the answer to one or more of these things is "yes," then you absolutely need to play Sleeping Dogs.

This game is stellar. I like almost everything about it,(though it isn't quite as flowing as B:AA or B:AC), to the GORGEOUS graphics, to the setting of Hong Kong, a place you don't see often in video games. It's everything an open world game should be, the cars handle well, the world feels alive, and fully realized, there's a lot of stuff to do, and it's surprisingly well written. The story is actually exceptionally well done so far, and I'm becoming invested in the characters.

It's hard to believe this almost didn't come out at all, especially since it feels so polished. The game controls nearly-perfectly, and it's just... Excellent. It's just a great open world game. It's got a unique, visually stunning location, it's got a ton of great ideas, and it executes them all wonderfully. It's probably one of the best games of that genre I've ever played, but even if you aren't a fan of the GTA clone, I could still recommend it for the combat, or the story alone. It's a wonderful game, top marks across the board, consider this an honorary position on my top ten games of 2012 list.

There are so many little details, and polish. Like the fact that after beating up enemies in some parts of the city, if you stick around long enough, paramedics will come to try and save them. Or the way Wei's head will bob along to music in a club.

Seriously, if you're a fan of the genre, I cannot recommend this enough. Even if you aren't, there's enough great content in here to merit a second look. Top notch, across the board.

Iron Brigade

THUMBS UP BUTTON

GOTY EVERY YEAR

The Secret World

Yep, this game is still pretty awesome, and is still crazy. I'm most of the way through the second zone, or area or whatever (still in Solomon Island) and... Yeah. It's pretty great. The boss of the first dungeon is Cthulu. Where do you go from there?