Sleeping Dogs
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First Sleeping Dogs story DLC hits Oct. 30, is 'horror-themed'
"Nightmare in Northpoint," the first story-driven bit of DLC for Sleeping Dogs, is set to fight for dominance on October 30.It will be "horror-themed," similar to Red Dead Redemption's "Undead Nightmare" DLC (it even shares a common word), United Front tells Kotaku. United Front unveiled the DLC during a panel at New York Comic Con, saying the pack will "explore other aspects of Hong Kong cinema."Sleeping Dogs is getting heaps of DLC in the six months following its launch in August, with the "Street Racer" pack next in line on October 16.
Sleeping Dogs DLC goes street racing on October 16
Square Enix has gone on the record about several Sleeping Dogs DLC packs coming in October, and the first supplementary content pack has been dated for October 16. The 'Street Racer' DLC pack will be available for 320 MS Points on Xbox 360, $3.99 on both PlayStation 3 and PC via Steam. The DLC pack adds three new races across land and sea.'Street Racer' also adds a new motorcycle to Wei Shen's garage and a new outfit to his closet, boosting defense against gunfire and accidents. Retailers recently slashed the price of Sleeping Dogs – it's $40 on both Xbox 360 and PS3 on Amazon and GameStop, or as a $30 PC download through GameStop.
Retailers take a bite out of Sleeping Dogs' price
If you somehow have time to take on a new open-world game in this insane fall release season, Sleeping Dogs is nice and cheap on Amazon and GameStop right now. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of United Front Games' Hong Kong crime game are $40 on both retailers' sites, with the PC download version available for $30.If you picked the game up now, you'd be just in time to start in on the new DLC due this month.
Sleeping Dogs DLC rouses first story missions, many content packs in October
The plan to provide six months of Sleeping Dogs DLC continues across October. Square Enix will dish out a variety of mission packs and in-game items, presumably as premium (see: you gotta buy it) DLC – like the Street Racer pack, which adds three new races, one in a car, one on a motorcycle and one steering a boat. Packed in is a new Sting motorbike, a custom helmet and a leather jacket that adds extra defense against gunfire.The SWAT pack puts you in an armored van as you patrol the streets of Hong Kong, responding to various emergencies in your new SWAT tactical uniform that can "withstand twice as much damage." The Tactical Soldier pack puts an assault rifle with an attached grenade launcher in your hands and a tactical uniform, accessible at any time from your apartment. As far as price goes for all this stuff, Square Enix isn't talking how much – in the past these packs have typically cost a few bucks a pop. A free community gift pack will be available sometime in October, the contents of which haven't been revealed yet. And, finally, the first DLC to extend the Sleeping Dogs story will also be available in October and is set to be revealed at New York Comic Con on October 14.
Sleeping Dogs rests atop UK charts
Sleeping Dogs is, once again, at the top of Chart-Track's UK all formats sales chart. This is the fourth week Square Enix's crime sandbox has rested comfortably on the throne, with its reign briefly broken a couple weeks ago by Guild Wars 2, which battles on in seventh.Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was the only major new addition to the chart last week, debuting in second. Chart-Track notes it's been 12 years since the previous entry on PlayStation 2, back in October of 2000. The rest of the top ten shuffles to make room. Punch past the break for the UK top ten.
NPD: Sleeping Dogs sold 172K across PS3 and Xbox 360 in August
Darksiders 2 managed to come out on top in August NPD-tracked sales, selling 247,000 copies across PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, whereas Sleeping Dogs sold 172,000 across PS3 and Xbox 360, an NPD rep confirmed with Joystiq.PC sales for Sleeping Dogs were omitted from the report because it was only available as a download – no boxed retail version for the PC is available in the US.
Sleeping Dogs bites back on UK charts
Sleeping Dogs returns to the top of the UK sales chart this week. This would be the third time the Square Enix sandbox crime game has held first in the month since its debut. It took last week off for Guild Wars 2, which now sits in sixth following an 84 percent sales drop.The only new entry to the top 40 this week is the latest Sims expansion. The Sims 3: Supernatural, featuring sparkly vampires and brooding werewolves, premiered in second. It is the seventh expansion to the popular dollhouse franchise.The rest of the top ten are a mix of newer entries like Darksiders 2 and entrenched games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Guild Wars 2 tiptoes past Sleeping Dogs for UK top spot
Guild Wars 2, the MMO so popular that its developer felt obligated to stop online sales in order to maintain quality control for players, was the top selling game in the UK last week. According to Chart-Track, the game enjoyed the "second largest launch ever for a non-Warcraft MMO PC title, behind Star Wars: The Old Republic." Let us hope that Guild Wars 2 doesn't suffer the same fate as the MMO in a galaxy far, far away.Guild Wars 2 is also the first PC-exclusive game in the UK to reach the top spot since Football Manager 2011 in November of 2010. It should be noted that Guild Wars 2 was also sold as a digitally distributed product, which would not be counted by Chart-Track.Sleeping Dogs slides one spot into second, showing it has a longer sales tail than Darksiders 2, which had sales drop 71 percent last week to go from second to sixth. Ride past the break for the UK top ten.
Death arrives on UK charts in second, Sleeping Dogs lie in first
Sleeping Dogs rests comfortably in first place for a second week on the UK charts. Darksiders 2's debut didn't knock off the crime simulator, but the apocalyptic sequel did see 80 percent more units sold in its first week than its predecessor, according to Chart-Track.The only other new entry to the top of the charts last week was Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, which rolled out into fifth. The holiday season is just starting and the battle for the charts is slowiy heating up. Transform this page past the break for the UK top ten.
Metareview: Sleeping Dogs
Sleeping Dogs is going through the normal pains of a new sandbox franchise's first outing. The reviews are good, but not great. The tech works, but it's not as polished as others in the genre. It's hard to be top dog in the sandbox crime genre when your competition includes Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row. IGN (85/100): "Sleeping Dogs did things that wowed me from the moment I started playing, and it never really stopped. A few finicky issues aside, Sleeping Dogs has proven itself worthy of joining the top class of open-world sandbox games revolutionized by the likes of Grand Theft Auto IV and currently topped by more recent additions like Saints Row: The Third. But don't be confused; Sleeping Dogs does some things better than even the cream of the crop, and its story will be what keeps you focused on playing." Giant Bomb (4/5): "So perhaps Sleeping Dogs isn't one of those games you'll want to keep on playing long after you've seen its story's conclusion. But while you're engaged with that story, this is an effective open-world experience, filled with interesting characters, some exciting action, and enough unpredictability to keep you hooked. It might feel familiar, but that doesn't make it any less fun." Game Informer (78/100): "Sleeping Dogs has enough entertainment value to justify Square Enix's decision to save it from cancellation, but it also displays a lack of polish that makes its troubled development evident. For fans of open world games, it comes at a good time. Gamers who purchased Saints Row: The Third most likely finished it months ago, and we still don't have a confirmed release window for Grand Theft Auto V. If you're looking to explore the criminal underbelly of a city and get in some trouble, you could do worse than Sleeping Dogs while you wait for Rockstar's top dog." Eurogamer (70/100): "It's a sad irony that the gameplay format that offers the most freedom for the player is the one most likely to trap developers in a loop of repetitive, copycat design. They have the ability to conjure up large, populated, realistic worlds and traverse them in any number of ways, and yet still we end up getting the same old cops-and-robbers story."%Gallery-156085%
Fetch a Sleeping Dogs demo on Xbox and PS3
Before you go deep undercover in Sleeping Dogs, you can go a little undercover in a segment of the giant open city of Hong Kong, by downloading the demo that was just released this week.It's out on Xbox Live everywhere and PSN in Europe today, and arrived on PSN in North America yesterday. The demo includes a look at the "brutal martial arts combat, exhilarating free-running, and intense gunfights offered by Sleeping Dogs," a statement that would be incredibly shocking if you didn't know that was the title of a video game.
Three new Sleeping Dogs DLC packs rough up Steam
Three new DLC packs for Sleeping Dogs have landed on Steam, running $3 a pop. There's the Red Envelope Pack, which sends players on a hunt throughout Hong Kong for 20 red envelopes stuffed with $50,000 each, netting an eventual $1 million (HK dollars, that is).Next up is the Top Dog Gold Pack, which nets players 8,250 Triad, 4,500 Cop and 4,500 extra Face Experience Points. The High Roller Pack provides $200,000 and early access to the luxury Tuono vehicle and High Roller suit, both of which can be earned otherwise by playing the game.
Sleeping Dogs and the amazing disappearing woman trick
Sleeping Dogs protagonist Wei Shen is the Vegas magician of Hong Kong. He can make women disappear by placing them in bathrooms ... the only problem is making them reappear once the trick is over. Shen likely picked up the trick visiting Saints Row 2's town of Stilwater.
Sleeping Dogs conquers UK sales chart
Crime drama Sleeping Dogs awoke to meaty sales in the UK last week, sinking its teeth into first place. Chart-Track notes the game, developed by United Front Games and published by Square Enix, has become "the sixth best selling game on first week sales in 2012."The other major debut last week was the 3DS's New Super Mario Bros 2, which flew in at second place. Although it may seem awkward for a major Mario to launch in second, New Super Mario Bros also started its life in second place back in 2006. The game is sure to have a long (raccoon) tail.Meanwhile, London 2012: The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games took bronze after a couple golden weeks.
Stiq Flicks: Sleeping Dogs and Hard Boiled
Stiq Flicks – from film and video game industry freelance writer Kevin Kelly – examines video games and attempts to pair them with matching films. It's like wine and cheese, but with more aliens. Sleeping Dogs is enjoying life this week after a near-death experience as True Crime: Hong Kong at Activision before being resurrected in its current form at Square Enix. But you can't even begin to think about Sleeping Dogs, let alone play it, without mentioning Hong Kong action cinema. Once you've stepped into that arena, you can't go any further without discussing the films of directors Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, and John Woo (to name a few). Then of course, you have to bring in Chow Yun-fat. While there are many other fantastic Hong Kong action actors, Chow rose quickly to the pinnacle, and became the actor most associated with the genre on North American shores. It's hard to imagine Sleeping Dogs existing in a world where these filmmakers and their movies didn't exist. Where these directors pulled back the curtain on the seedy criminal element deep inside of Hong Kong, the game picks up and continues. While there are many terrific films that would go along nicely with this title, we're pegging Hard Boiled as the one to go with. In fact, without Hard Boiled, there would never have been Sleeping Dogs.
Sleeping Dogs review: Triad true
Sleeping Dogs has been through a heap of concept and name changes throughout its development, but the Vancouver-based firm United Front Games has finally unleashed its latest creation.It's worlds apart from the developer's first game Modnation Racers, but Sleeping Dogs isn't completely unfamiliar. From its narrative to gameplay features, Sleeping Dogs is an amalgamation of other people's good ideas. It's not inspiring, it's inspired.%Gallery-156085%
Sleeping Dogs staying awake with six months of planned DLC
Square Enix says that Sleeping Dogs won't lie down for long, revealing six months of downloadable content are planned for the game following its launch tomorrow.First on the docket will be a range of downloads available for the game's awakening at retail tomorrow, including the 80s-inspired Retro Triad Pack, featuring "a killer old school outfit with its own player buffs and funky kung-fu van."New packs will appear in September, beginning with "a high-speed Racing Pack and an explosive SWAT Pack." Details on those two bundles are sparse, but their names give us some idea what shenanigans are to come.For more on Sleeping Dogs, check out our recent live stream and stay tuned for the review tomorrow.%Gallery-156085%
JoyStream: Watch and win Sleeping Dogs [Update: Watch the replay!]
Our first live stream of Sleeping Dogs was so successful, we've decided to venture through the mean streets of Hong Kong once more. This time, Joystiq is giving away multiple Steam versions of the game to viewers. Tune in for the hand-to-hand combat, action hijacking, and slow-motion bullet firing but stay for your chance to win.For more on the development of Sleeping Dogs, make sure to watch the replay of our original live stream, which featured the game's senior producer Jeff O'Connell.Watch the stream after the break and on Joystiq's official Twitch page.Sleeping Dogs launches for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on August 14.Update: The live stream is over. Watch the replay above.%Gallery-156085%
Sleeping Dogs launch trailer is full of punches, explosions, cars
If we didn't know better, we'd think the somewhat revealingly dressed young lady in this Sleeping Dogs trailer was purposefully tantalizing the audience through innuendo-filled comments about "enjoying exciting rides," but surely that isn't the case. Hong Kong looks so nice and reserved, after all.
'Kong King' map added to Team Fortress 2, inspired by Sleeping Dogs
Have dreams of a promotional Team Fortress 2 'King of the Hill' map set in a Chinese cityscape been keeping you up nights since the free-to-play shooter's launch in 2007? "Well, your oddly specific and scarily prescient dreams have come true," the official TF2 blog has revealed.Dubbed 'Kong King,' the new map brings Team Fortress 2 into the urban environment created in collaboration with "Sleeping Dogs and community member Valentin Levillain," the blog added.This is the second cross-promotional effort between Valve's Team Fortress 2 and the upcoming United Front Games open-world undercover drama Sleeping Dogs, with pre-order customers of the game getting special Triad-inspired items in TF2.For more on Sleeping Dogs, check out the replay of our recent live stream of the game with senior producer Jeff O'Connell, and don't forget to giggle at my terrible mouse/keyboard driving skills.
