Tomb Raider - Review (PS3)

Due to scenes of brutal violence, this game in not for Little Gamers.


Tomb Raider is one of gaming's great franchises. In the Nineties, the emergence of Lara Croft was especially important for me. It was the game that I got a Orchid Righteous 3D card for. It allowed me to lord over my common PlayStation owning friends with the superior looking Lara. How times have changed, as I have just played through the newest Tomb Raider game on my PlayStation 3, whilst my friends all played on the PC version and told how much better it looked on the PC.

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 ReMIX - UK Release Date and Special Edition announced

Square Enix announced the long awaited European release date for Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX. Kingdom Hearts is the  RPG version of East meets West. Square and Disney combined their creative talents to create a role playing game that introduced characters from the Final Fantasy universe inhabiting the same world as your favourite Disney characters.

Tomb Raider - First reviews

Tomb Raider is back! Released next Friday, it sees a gritty reboot of the franchise. Gone are the tight shorts and huge boobs of the old Lara. This Lara Croft is meant to be more fragile, more human and the overall feel of the game is one survival. Earlier this week, The embargo lifted and the reviews started flooding out.

Hitman HD Trilogy - Coming in 2013

Good news for Agent 47 fans! Square Enix unveiled the Hitman HD Trilogy for PS3 and Xbox 360. This collection will contain previous games Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman: Contracts and Hitman: Blood Money. The original Hitman is missing from this collection, simply because Contracts is a retelling of the first game with better level design and extra missions. No details have been given yet as to any enhancements we can expect for these game.

Gamers new to the Hitman games , thanks to the brilliant Hitman: Absolution should snap this up. Especially as Hitman 2: Silent Assassin is the best game of the series.

North American gamers get the game on 29th January 2013 and us Europeans get it on 1st February 2013.

Not too long to wait, but in the meantime you can check out the awesome box art.

Sleeping Dogs - HONG KONG WOWIE!

Before the Little Gamer turned up, I used to be a massive film buff. I was particularly fond of Asian action movies. As this brand of high velocity gunplay, kung fu and violence doesn't sit well with my wife and kids, I have not really watched any these films for about 5 years now.

Although the other week I treated myself and I watched The Raid: Redemption. What an amazing film and possibly one the best action films in years. Watching it though made me want to be able a videogame that was more like the octane-fuelled action films that come out of Asia.



Luck would have it, Sleeping Dogs is out this Friday and looks like it will fulfil all of my wishes. What once started out as True Crime: Hong Kong over at Activision, has resurfaced as Sleeping Dogs over at Square Enix. It is an open world crime thriller set in Hong Kong and features all the ingredients of action blockbuster. Awesome fight sequences - check, Hard boiled gunplay - check and high speed car chases - check.

You step into the life of Wei Shen, a deep undercover police officer trying to infiltrate one of the controlling Triad gangs. This leads you into the double life of trying to please your Triad bosses and also performing your role as a law enforcement officer. This kind of story is straight out of a John Woo film, well actually most John Woo films.



The game features a free flow combat system similar to Arkham City's and third person shooting in the Gears of War vein. If anything the game looks like a compilation of the best bits of the best games this generation and that is no way a bad thing. Sleeping Dogs looks like it could be at least as successful as the Just Cause franchise.



So roll on Friday and then head down to your local games emporium and check out this super dose of Hong Kong action.

Sleeping Dogs is available on Fri 17th August on (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC)

True Crime becomes Sleeping Dogs

One of the games I had been looking forward was True Crime: Hong Kong. I loved the True Crime games and  I was gutted when Activision announced that it was one of the titles scrapped in its cull of 2011.

Well, now it's back with a new name and publisher. Square Enix London and United Front Games have joined forces to bring the newly named Sleeping Dogs to a platform near you in second half of 2012. To go with the announcement is this amazing live action trailer to set the mood...



From today's announcement press release:


Sleeping Dogs catapults players into the role of undercover cop Wei Shen, tasked with taking down one of the world’s most fearsome criminal organisations from the inside... the Hong Kong Triads. As players explore the bustling and crowded Hong Kong island, through its neon-lit side streets and sprawling street markets, an incredible story unfolds of loyalty and betrayal, where Wei begins to question his own motives as he is sucked in deeper than he could ever imagine.


“From the moment you pick up the controller and experience the blend of driving, close combat and shooting you know you’re playing something fresh and a bit special,” said Lee Singleton, General Manager of Square Enix London Studios. “Sleeping Dogs has one of the best melee combat systems out there – it’s super brutal with devastating takedown moves, and when added to UFG’s proven heritage in driving games, a first class story and the vibrant backdrop of the Hong Kong underworld we get a fiery recipe with fun written all over it.”

So the end of 2012 is looking good as well. I look forward to getting some more information on this great look title.