It'd better be!

Installing now, might just potter around on minecraft with bit of TV & the footy scores on the internet for background for now and then give this a proper go tonight.

So I'm having a drive about looking for lock boxes between missions and I get into a brawl with around 6 guys. The first couple I simply throw into dumsters and after a scuffle with the others there's one guy left. By this time the fight has moved over to near my car so I grab the remaining guy, slam his face into my boot and then open it and lock him inside.

For the next half an hour or so I drive about, find a few more boxes and health shrines and buy some health and melee buffs. I then realise there's a muffled cry and banging from the back of my car. Turns out the guy is still in there, I'd forgotten about him. So I drove to a high bridge, dragged him out, kicked him in the balls, and threw him over some railings into the harbour.

Anyone else realised that some cars have tire irons in the back that you can use as a weapon? And if it's raining you can disarm a civilian that is using an umbrella and use that as a weapon.

Love this, it just gets better. I might even be enjoying it more that GTA IV.

It doesn't have that initial wow factor that GTAIV had, but it's much more concerned with providing regular blasts of fun. It seems like there's always something to do and it all helps towards moving the game onwards. The knock off Hong Kong action pic story is there, and it's quite well done, but it's not the priority.

The undercover cop thing works pretty well, which is odd, because it's one of the things I remember hating about the earlier versions. The murderous rampages in them made no sense at all, sticking mainly to brawling helps it a lot and the RPG elements are a nice reminder that you're supposed to be a cop as you run about doing gangster stuff to rank up.

I_R wrote:

The undercover cop thing works pretty well, which is odd, because it's one of the things I remember hating about the earlier versions. The murderous rampages in them made no sense at all, sticking mainly to brawling helps it a lot and the RPG elements are a nice reminder that you're supposed to be a cop as you run about doing gangster stuff to rank up.

I do find myself trying to minimise the property damage and civilian injuries, especially if I'm close to ranking the up as a cop. It's a neat touch and makes a change from tearing about the city running countless pedestrians over and not giving a fuck.

Genuine surprise when I realised he was still in there, and that I could remove him. I thought it was just a finishing move and he would have vanished! Turns out you can grab anyone and ram them into the boot.....

FranticPea wrote:

So I'm having a drive about looking for lock boxes between missions and I get into a brawl with around 6 guys. The first couple I simply throw into dumsters and after a scuffle with the others there's one guy left. By this time the fight has moved over to near my car so I grab the remaining guy, slam his face into my boot and then open it and lock him inside. For the next half an hour or so I drive about, find a few more boxes and health shrines and buy some health and melee buffs. I then realise there's a muffled cry and banging from the back of my car. Turns out the guy is still in there, I'd forgotten about him. So I drove to a high bridge, dragged him out, kicked him in the balls, and threw him over some railings into the harbour. Anyone else realised that some cars have tire irons in the back that you can use as a weapon? And if it's raining you can disarm a civilian that is using an umbrella and use that as a weapon. Love this, it just gets better. I might even be enjoying it more that GTA IV.

That's a beautiful story, Frantic.  Very touching.  I have a week off next week and I can see me getting this sooner rather later.  The perfect excuse to avoid all that gardening.

Digital Foundry Says 360

I hope this is a hit so that Rockstar take note. It makes an incredible difference to the bigger missions when you're able to make your character do what you want in hand to hand fights and shoot-outs.

I_R wrote:

Digital Foundry Says 360

I hope this is a hit so that Rockstar take note. It makes an incredible difference to the bigger missions when you're able to make your character do what you want in hand to hand fights and shoot-outs.

This. The big missions are exactly that. Memorable, varied and explosive. Some of the side missions are pretty neat as well.

The combat gets better and better as you progress, I'm dishing out some brutal moves now.

Edit: Oh, and how good is it to be driving on the right side of the road?!

regmcfly wrote:

Anyone have the PC version? Would love to see a screenshot of that prettiness.

I do.  Will post a pic when I get a chance.

I_R wrote:

Digital Foundry Says 360

I hope this is a hit so that Rockstar take note. It makes an incredible difference to the bigger missions when you're able to make your character do what you want in hand to hand fights and shoot-outs.

Not that one store would be the yardstick but Bradford Gamestation was cleaned out of 360 copies and down to their last few PS3. Whether they had much stock in to begin I don't know, but it was quite well advertised in store, couldn't be missed at the till. The timing is pretty much perfect, a summer drought and indifferent weather could work well in its favour.

I'm playing it, it is delightfully mindless and looks quite pretty at times. Love this as a city over a grey NYC.

The melee is much better than GTA, not as good as Yakuza maybe, but the game is supposed to be easy and is: it satisfies. I want to unlock every move in his hand to hand asap, to make sure I have enough ways to duff people up that it stays interesting.

Nick wrote:

I'm playing it, it is delightfully mindless and looks quite pretty at times. Love this as a city over a grey NYC. The melee is much better than GTA, not as good as Yakuza maybe, but the game is supposed to be easy and is: it satisfies. I want to unlock every move in his hand to hand asap, to make sure I have enough ways to duff people up that it stays interesting.

The majority of the jade statues can only be acquired as you progress through the story. It works well though, drip feeding you new stuff to master as it throws more enemies at you to deal with.

There's one statue that I've found that I can't get to, it's inside a glass window. There are a few that I've found inside accessible buildings that I've visited later as part of a story mission.

I did wonder if people more used to fighting games might find it too easy, it's just about right for me, but I'm pretty terrible at anything involving combo's and quick reactions.

Cool, sounds like the beat-em-upgrades will start flowing.

FranticPea wrote:

[6] my arse, it's fantastic.

I wonder why so many more EDGE scores are wide of the mark for me than they used to be?

I believe that scores can be slanted if you have a lot of games to play and of these you haven't actually paid for any of them.