Game Review: Sleeping Dogs

You are Wei Shen, an undercover cop in modern day Hong Kong. Your mission is to infiltrate the criminal underground, provide information to the Hong Kong Police Department and take down the gangs from the inside. The story starts with a small drugs operation which you play a role in. The operation is busted and you make a run for it. Straight away it is noticeable that there has been a considerable effort put into the game. The cut scenes transition smoothly into game-play and the game-play itself is fluid and easy to grasp. The drugs operation is busted and you end up in jail. There you meet a childhood friend, Jackie, who is now a gang member, and it's no coincidence that he's part of the gang you've been tasked to infiltrate. Your story is explained and you are let go by the police to contact Jackie to begin your introduction to the gang.

After the introduction you're sent out to do some menial tasks. As you'd expect the initial missions involve petty territory squabbles, protection money collection and chauffeur tasks. The combat system is very easy to pick up, you are able to counter enemies who are about to strike you (which you'll know because they glow bright red) and strike them back with a range of combos which become better as you progress up the ranks. There's not too much innovation here, think of the recent Batman games and you'll be along the right lines. Nevertheless it works very well in this style game. The driving holds the best and worst parts of the game. On the one hand it has an arcade-like feel which works well in the game and makes the overall experience fun and enjoyable. This is particularly noticeable when driving the motorbikes, which unlike other games in this genre handle well and don't send you flying at the first sign of a bump. That being said, there are issues with the camera angles, especially when trying to negotiate tight spots and turns, it wasn't enough to ruin the game but it was enough to cause a sigh of frustration every now and again.

The game itself is a third person style game very similar to the Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row type games but takes on a more serious note. Humour is sprinkled here and there but you really get a sense of the stresses faced by Wei Who is not only trying to gain respect amongst the gang and not blow his cover, but also receives pressure from his superior officers.

Throughout the game you attempt to gain respect with the gang you are infiltrating and also with the police. Balancing the role of an undercover cop sees you punished for the unnecessary destruction of property and in the same mission rewarded for the elimination of an enemy gang member. Knowing how to balance this becomes one of the more interesting parts of the game and you are rewarded with separate Police and Triad experience which in turn allows unlocks to separate upgrade systems. You'll also gain 'face' from the people of Hong Kong, who you can help out in various side missions. This way you'll unlock further passive upgrades which help you along the way.

THE VERDICT

Overall the game is easy to become immersed in, with the setting of Hong Kong being brought to life through realistic and believable voice acting, ambient sounds and decent graphics. The side missions and tasks are varied, fun, innovative and are a joy to play. This a game which is definitely worth your money and time. It will keep you busy for hours and you'll enjoy every second of it. Except for maybe the three point turns.

LHSRAting for Sleeping Dogs – 8.8/10 (Xbox 360)

-Simon

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Film Review: Lincoln

This isn’t Spielberg’s best film. But when you’ve directed almost 50 movies, and amongst them are some of the greats such as Schindler’s List, then a film not being your best doesn’t really mean much... And to be fair it’s still up there.

Lincoln starts off by showing a brutally bloody battle one year before the end of the American civil war and the opening scene really sucks you in from the offset. That’s pretty much as far as the film goes with showing us the horrors of the American civil war however. So if you want to watch a film that has loads of battle scenes in it, then this film is not for you.

Instead Lincoln moves forward to the very final months of the civil war and is mainly focused around the political struggles that Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) faces in trying to pass the thirteenth amendment to end slavery, whilst at the same time trying to end the war... at the right time. Lincoln is a film that is fully focused on US history and politics. It shows the struggles that the Union faced internally in trying to eradicate slavery, the different views that particular groups of politicians had on giving slaves their freedom, and even touched on Lincoln’s own views regarding equality between white and black people (although unless you know what Lincolns views really where then you probably won’t realise). 

Daniel Day-Lewis does a superb job at playing the role of Lincoln; a mainly calm, storytelling, convincing man that was loved by most. He shows how Lincoln had a knack for changing the minds of men without them realising what he was doing until it was already done.

 

But I don’t think Daniel Day-Lewis was the best actor in this film and I don’t think that Abraham Lincoln was the best Character either, even though it’s a film about him. The guy who stole the show for me and made me really connect with this film was Representative Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones). Stevens would probably be classed as an extreme left winger in today’s US politics, so you can imagine what the thought of him in the 19^th century. He not only advocated that black people should be free from slavery, but that they should be treated as white people’s equal (something that Lincoln never did).  Anyway, I digress into a History lesson, although that is what this film is. Stevens in this film is portrayed brilliantly and he has an extremely dry, insulting wit that he uses in the House constantly in quick response to any attack that is sent his way. In short, Stevens will make you laugh in this film because he’s brilliantly provocative.

     

Unfortunately this film is a little too long for my liking and could probably have told the same story in two hours. The end also seems quite messy. It seems that Lincoln’s death is rushed through as a way of trying to avoid telling that par of history. And then there’s a bit of a flashback to one of Lincoln’s speeches. It’s a shame really because this film could have ended a lot better in a number of different ways.  

  

THE VERDICT

Lincoln is a brilliant film for portraying US history (although too gently at times) and the political system that surrounded the Union towards the end of the civil war. This film will teach you about a very important era in US history whilst giving you a glimpse into who the people at the time really were. The acting in it is brilliant and the characters are played exceptionally well.  Lincoln, although a very serious film, will not fail to make you laugh on occasions. This goes double if you enjoy politics as well. But if you’re not into politics or history and you need lots of battle scenes, then this film isn’t for you and you may find that its 150 minute length may drag. Otherwise, this film is worth a watch.

LHSRAting for Lincoln – 7.8/10

- Ayden

Episode 2: (YouTube Version) Our Top Games of 2012

In this podcast Ayden, Paul, Simon and guest speaker Mikey, review their top 17 games of 2012.




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LHSRA Reviewers - Episode Two: Our Top Games of 2012


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Film Review: Django Unchained

Django Unchained is a classic Tarantino film. He pushes the limits of Hollywood like no other Director can. Tarantino brings his own standards back to where they should be and beyond with this tale. The film is set two years before the American civil war and in true Tarantino style is very dark and hits very close to home, whilst at the same time coating the entire thing in light humour. 

Django Freeman (Jamie Foxx) is a slave in 1858 who encounters a German ex-dentist turned bounty hunter called Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). Schultz seeks the assistance of Django for a bounty and so they pair up. They continue to work together once the bounty is complete and soon realise that they have more in common than they originally realised, leading them to a much more personal mission. A mission of revenge and rescue.

The story itself isn’t too great, but at the same time it is brilliant because it is so original in the way that it unfolds. Although the story is fictional, it’s surrounded by all the horrid things that happened to black people in this shameful time period. So if you’re easily offended by words or actions in films, just remember that things like this actually happened... just with less CGI. However, for every grotesque action that occurs, a humorous counterpart is also included, usually at the expense of the main characters. So don’t worry USA, you won’t be made to feel too bad about your history for too long.   

  

This film is full of great actors as well. Amongst them is Leonardo DiCaprio who plays an overly well mannered and very wealthy Southern “Mandingo” trader called Candie. He is ridiculously charismatic and has more than a taste for blood when it comes to his slaves. We also see the great Samuel L. Jackson return to a Tarantino film. He plays Stephen, Candie’s overly loyal household attendant. It’s without a double safe to say that Jackson steals the show in this one. Somehow he’s more aggressive and racist (but let’s face it, no one drop the N-word like Jackson) than any other character during the entire film, and you can’t help but love him for it even though you know you shouldn’t.

The soundtrack to this film is also brilliant. Loads of it is based around freedom, or the lack of in most cases. But there are also the odd moments when something amusing is happening and the music in the background is so unfitting that it forces that smile on your face to turn into a laugh.

THE VERDICT

Django unchained was a brilliant film that will have had the people of Hollywood worried due to its raw way of portraying history. It had absolutely superb acting, and the music was perfectly fitting. Unlike some of Tarantino’s previous films (such as Inglorious Bastards) that turned out to be like Marmite (you either love it or hate it), Django Unchained has no chance of that happening. This is up there as one of Tarantino’s best and most people will enjoy watching it. It’s a bitterly funny film set in a shameful American era and you really should go and see it.

 LHSRAting for Django Unchained – 8.8/10

- Ayden

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Game Review: Dead Space Two (the campaign)

Ok, I didn’t play the first Dead Space but I was told that there was a video in this one that would explain everything I needed to know about the previous story and that I could just jump straight in. There was a video, and it explained as much about the first game as a footballer could about politics. But I played it anyway and to be honest I didn’t really grasp what was going on with the story, and for a change I didn’t care because it was frickin’ awesome!

You play as engineer Isaac Clark in the sci-fi horror sequel Dead Space 2. You find yourself waking from a coma in a city crawling with ‘Necromophs’ which appear to be human corpses. They seem more like zombies in principle, but more like aliens in appearance. Anyway, from the word go you have to battle through swarms of them and straight away you get the feeling that you're fighting for your life. And this feeling never goes away throughout the entire game. 

You start in a hospital and quite quickly move on to find a large range of weapons and the iconic engineering suit. From what I grasped in the story there is something called 'the marker' that is causing all these evil things and Isaac is trying to locate it. It’s a little basic and not very interesting, but for a change the core storyline isn’t really the important thing going on here. Instead the developers have made this game extremely more personal and your character is much more focused on fighting an internal battle that is going on inside his mind. 

Hallucinations happen at really unexpected times which will cause you to jump and shoot at stuff that isn’t really there. The great part about this is that you know nothing is there but you won’t be able to help but shoot at nothing anyway. This game will keep you on your toes. You’ll be checking corners and jumping at every little noise, like a bottle falling on the floor.

Game play is great too. Isaac’s movements are really smooth and the animations are great. When you die during the game, and trust me you will die, you won’t even be disappointed because the death animations are that graphic and gruesome that your jaw will drop with shock. You can blow limbs of your enemies and then use those limbs to kill more enemies. There are even crying babies that you have to kill before they kill you. You can interact loads with the environment as well. Isaac has some sort of gravity tool that can pick up and throw items around.  Even though this game is now two years old, the graphics are still fantastic and will easily give new games a run for their money.

Dead Space 2 does seem to take you on an A to B type of rout where you have no choice about the path that Isaac will take. However, this actually works out really well. It works well because you know you have to walk down that long hallway, you know there is no other rout, and you know that at over the next thirty minutes of game play you are going to jump, shout and scream at least ten times... and two thirds of those will be at stuff like brooms falling over and lights going out. The linear rout of Dead Space 2 actually helps to serve the game and make the horror that little bit scarier.

The sound is also top notch in this game. If you have surround sound then you are in for a treat. Dead Space 2 uses this like no other game I have ever played. If you hear something to your right and you turn to look at what it is, then the sound moves perfectly in time with you. That's standard you may think, but that’s not all. The game has a way of using sound so faint that you can hardly hear it. You find yourself thinking that you should look behind you because of it, and sometimes you may end up having a little bit of a scream as something pounces at you.

There is a real huge incentive to replay the game as well. Every time you complete it you’ll unlock a new engineering suit and also be given the option to take all your gear with you from your last game. During the game you get to upgrade all your gear and this allows you to keep using and upgrading other items.  

Now if you like a challenge and feel like you want to do this game on the hardest difficulty then I strongly recommend you play it through once are twice on an easier difficulty and get that gear fully upgraded. Because not only are your enemies at their strongest, and not only is there limited health and ammo supplies, but you also only get three saves throughout the entire game. This is a game that took me nine hours on the easiest difficulty. So yeah, good luck with that if you are that crazy.

THE VERDICT

Dead Space 2 has a really boring core storyline. Luckily for this storyline, the main character has the best internal and external battles going on that it makes you forget all about what you’re meant to be doing and instead makes you almost completely focus on just surviving both mentally and physically.  The graphics are brilliantly shocking, the sound is even better and the game play allows you to choose and modify your equipment. In short this game is a terrifying thriller. It’s what Resident Evil was back in the day.

LHSRAting for Dead Space 2 – 9/10 (Xbox 360)

-Ayden

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