Sleeping Dogs is expected for release in the second half of 2012 for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. Players take on the role of Wei Shen, an undercover cop tasked with taking down the world’s fearsome criminal organizations. Promising martial arts, gun-play, and environmental takedowns, you might as well take it as your quintessential Hong Kong action flick.

“Working on Sleeping Dogs has been such a huge passion for the team at United Front Games and we’re really pleased to be working with Square Enix London Studios,” said Stephen Van Der Mescht, executive producer at United Front Games. “The extensive experience that both studios have in creating compelling open world gameplay and rich, rewarding combat makes for a perfect partnership. Working together we’re ensuring Sleeping Dogs is the most intense and immersive game it can be.”

David Jaffe clarified his post Twisted Metal plans. Jaffe will in fact leave the company, but will do so possibly three months after Twisted Metal releases Feb.14.

“I’m still on TM along with ESP [Eat Sleep Play] for the next months as we launch it and balance it in real time and make sure it’s a perfect game and continue to support it,” Jaffe said in his posts on Twitter.

Jaffe plans on opening a new studio in San Diego, California after he leaves Ea Sleep Play. “I will be opening a game studio here in San Diego because I really miss internal game development,” Jaffe said.

There is no particular type of games his new studio will work on, according to Jaffe.

“I have no idea what game we’ll make yet. Could be iPhone, could be next-gen console,” Jaffe said.

[Original story]
David Jaffe, co-founder of Eat, Sleep, Play will leave the company once Twisted Metal releases later this month. The news comes as the studio announces a round of layoffs, affecting eight staffers among the company.

Eat, Sleep, and Play will focus on mobile games and iOS development after Twisted Metal. Co-founder of ESP, Bruce Campbell noted, “It’s a platform that is in our pockets almost 24/7. It’s kind of the size and types of games we’re playing. You can certainly reach a lot more people. That’s pretty exciting for us.”

The studio’s first game, Twisted Metal, is due for release next week on Playstation 3.

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Soul Calibur V Review

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The Soul Calibur series is known as a positively criticized fighting game. Its focus on weapon-based combat and fighting arenas set in a 3D plane lends itself to epic bouts. The newest entry in the series, Soul Calibur V, looks to retain its status as a great fighting game. It’s safe to say Soul Calibur V does not fail to reach that high quality standard.

Soul Calibur V is easy to grasp for new players, while veterans will feel right at home in the first match. There are many combos for each player to learn and master, leaving the veteran Soul Calibur players to commit hours upon hours into the new installment. However, new players, like me, are not left out in the cold. A tutorial mode eases players into the combat while allowing free reign to try out the harder combos. Smaller two-hit and three-hit combos are easy to land with little practice. I can’t recommend a good starting character for players because each character in the roster is designed for pickup and play for all level of players.

The game excels in the battle arena with fast paced combat set against gorgeous environments. I easily bought into the melodramatic announcer between rounds and the cheesy one-liners between characters. The overly-dramatic music is the icing on the cake for the epic bouts in Soul Calibur V. The game sets a great atmosphere and never let me down in that regard.

It’s easy to navigate the arena whether you’re playing with a tank character or a smaller agile character. As I said before, each character is comfortable to play as. Given enough time, players will find a suitable fighting style that he or she could stick with, regardless of that player’s skill.

The new “Critical Gauge” adds a new dynamic to the game.It fills up based on player actions and damage received. Once the gauge is filled up, an easily executed attack called “Critical Edge” can shake up a fight in a split second. The gauge is also useful when only half filled; “Brave Edge” and “Guard Impact” are just as easy to execute and require fewer points in the “Critical Gauge” to use.

Not all of the action is balanced, however. I found it easy to get trapped in an onslaught of attacks without any chance of countering. There’re evasive moves such as rolling after getting knocked on the ground; but even rolls prove useless against sweeping ground attacks. “Ring Out” adds to some of the unfair and cheap moments that plagued a few of my matches. Some of my bouts in SC V ended far too quickly thanks to “Ring Out”. I understand it’s meant to add an extra dynamic to each fight, but it only left me frustrated, especially when the CPU landed a single blow to send me off the ledge.

The story campaign is disappointingly short and did not leave any impact on me. I found myself quickly running through the campaign to get back into the offline and online content. For those interested however, the cut scenes are beautifully done, but don’t exactly flesh out the story to its full potential. Soul Calibur V also ditches the individual story lines for each character, instead only focusing on a few characters and their connection with the Soul Swords. In short, I do recommend playing through the story solely to rank up and unlock new characters. I recognize some players will have a stronger connection to some of the characters presented in the story; however there is not enough there in the story campaign to justify the seemingly short and abrupt end.

Offline and online is where players will spend a majority of their time. Arcade mode and quick battle allow a quick way to rank up and earn new rewards. The more dedicated Soul Calibur players can check out “Legendary Souls”. I recommend new players stay clear of “Legendary Souls” until they feel comfortable taking on extremely tough AI.

Online, players will find enough opportunities to rank against gamers around the world. SC V also offers a couple modes to build a strong community online. “Global Colosseo” offers large rooms for players to gather and either communicate or randomly match up for quick bouts. The rooms are divided into several regions, including some of the major cities in the world. SC V’s online mode I feel will grow the increasingly large Soul Calibur community thanks to “Global Colesseo”.

Players will rank up and earn points in all game modes offered in Soul Calibur V, except of course in tutorial mode. Ranking earns new titles for your player card, which is your ID in SC V, and unlocks items for creation mode. Creation mode is more robust compared to the previous installments in the series, offering you more tools for shaping your character. I spent a lot of time in the creation mode, constructing a ridiculous character honorably named, ShoomyZoomy. The amount of customization offers a lot of depth for creating serious fighting machines and less serious fighting machines like ShoomyZoomy.

The Final Word: Soul Calibur V offers a lot of depth for returning players and new players alike. Sprinkle in overly-dramatic music and dialogue filled with one-liners, and you have yourself one hell of a fighting game. Some bouts lead to a one-sided beating and the story mode is disappointing to say the least; but don’t let Soul Calibur V’s missteps turn you away. There is a lot to dive into, and very little to grow tired of. Don’t forget Enzio Auditore from Assassin’s Creed makes a guest appearance, so there’s that too.

- MonsterVine Rating: 4 – Good

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“Fundamentally it’s the same foundation of gameplay that is in all of the DiRT games,” said Iain Smith, associate producer for Codemasters. “But in terms of tone, atmosphere, play style type of experience you can get from it, it’s more related to the action sports element.”

DiRT Showdown will revolve around three main elements: speed, style, and destruction. Each element will intertwine with one another, but will also feature game modes tailored to the specific element. For example, players can expect to find all their races within the speed category. However, don’t expect any rally races in Showdown; the race tracks are circuit based and tighter in design to force players into a hectic race environment where destruction is inevitable.

My hands-on time with Showdown included a three lap race on “8-Ball”, a figure eight track emphasizing the tighter track design Codemasters is focusing on for the speed portion of Showdown. The track is designed to give everyone a fair opportunity at winning the race and ensure that a wreck happens after every turn. “There’s always a chance that maybe player eight in last position can take out player one,” said Smith. “It’s adding that sort of random element that sort of keeps people involved right into that last corner.”

The destruction category in Showdown features demolition derby type events. One such event, “Rampage”, is a straight up demolition derby with one alteration to keep fans interested. “Rampage” is set up like a deathmatch in a first person shooter; players will respawn after their vehicle is destroyed and a winner is determined by the amount of points he or she earns throughout the match. “We wanted to make sure the players are just getting straight back into the action,” said Smith. The action is fast paced and hectic with cars and car parts flying everywhere while competitors scurry to rake in the most points by the end of the timed match.

Showdown will feature three classes of cars to match the three categories. Fans will only find licensed cars in the “Gymkhana” events while other vehicles are designed more as homage to real world cars. Doing away with a roster full of licensed vehicles allowed Codemasters to utilize their physics engine to optimize the racing and destruction experience in Showdown. “It’s really another level of destruction compared to what we’ve been able to do before,” said Adrian Lawton, communications manager for Codemasters.

DiRT Showdown will come packed with game modes for fans to sink their teeth into. Some modes make a return from previous titles in the DiRT series like “Domination” and “Elimination” in the race category and “Gymkhana” events in the “Hoonigan” (style) category. All game modes are included in Showdown’s multiplayer, as well as party modes similar to those in DiRT 3’s multiplayer.

Codemasters was quick to point out that they’re not abandoning the rally and simulated racing tone seen in previous titles. DiRT 4 is currently under development and will continue the series commitment to simulated rally and off road racing. Showdown is simply a branching out of the series to satisfy those looking for a destructive environment in the DiRT realm.

DiRT Showdown will release in May 2012, on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.

This week saw the announcement of Resident Evil 6, so be sure to check out the announcement trailer for the new installment in the series.

We also have a review of Dungeon Defenders for you this week, so be sure to check that out as well.

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Be sure to check out the list of winners from the Video Game Awards held last Saturday.

Our Editor in Chief, William Saw, attended a QA session with Mr. Hideo Kojima and Mr. Atsushi Inaba, where he learned all about the development of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Check out his feature story on the event.

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Metal Gear Solid: Rising was undertaken by the younger staff at Kojima Productions after the development of Metal Gear Solid 4. Kojima, at the time, pursued the role as producer and mainly a hands-off role in order to focus his attention on the FOX Engine and Peace Walker. The premise for Rising was ambitious. The overall direction was guided by one focus: cut everything and everything. This, of course, led to development troubles when the younger staff could not find a unified vision for the game design, instead focusing on their own personal assignments. Kojima cited the Rising in an identity crisis trying to merge stealth with action and it ultimately brought the game development down. Two years of development hell had passed and it was clear for Kojima that the team would be in that perpetual circle of finding that perfect balance that would not be possible.

Rising’s woes came to a head at E3 where Kojima realized that while the story and character elements were SOLID, the game design was not there, and the overall package was not a cohesive whole. Kojima quietly cancelled Rising at the end of 2010 and it looked like all was finished for the Rising project. However, the team at Kojima Productions felt adamantly about Rising’s continuation and Kojima looked at external developers to outsource the project to. However, for Kojima, the idea of creating a Metal Gear ninja action game had to come from the Japanese development culture itself, although western developers were considered. It was then, at a holiday party, that Kojima approached his long time friend Tatsuya Minami (president of PLATINUMGAMES) and proposed that PLATINUMGAMES work on Metal Gear Rising. At first, Minami took this as a joke, but when Kojima repeated in a serious tone, the collaboration had come to fruition.

The PLATINUMGAMES collaboration took the task of building Metal Gear Rising from the ground up and it was not an easy time as it had to manage its own internal projects while working on the new Rising project with the demanding Kojima Productions. Atsushi Inaba, Platinum Games producer, constantly reiterated in the QA session that Kojima has set tight deadlines and ambitious expectations for the project that has constantly kept the team on its toes. However, for PLATINUMGAMES, the fast and energetic studio culture has ultimately worked in favor for Kojima Productions and the collaboration has fostered in several ways. The work ethic of PLATINUMGAMES seems to be displayed in the trailer of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, the heavy emphasis on action demonstrated through Platinum’s in-game engine (running at 60fps) and the crazy, over-the-top moments such as Raiden countering a huge Metal Gear Ray was in part due to PLATINUMGAMES involvement in the game. This even came as a shock to the Kojima Productions developers who were not used to the level of intensity that the studio brought for the action game.

This is not to leave out Kojima Productions fully as the studio has direct control over the story, characters, and the cut scenes. Of course, some elements were taken liberally under PLATINUMGAMES as Inaba noted that it has worked to spinoff Rising after the timeline of Metal Gear Solid 4 as a separate story, instead of between the events of Metal Gear Solid 2 and 4. Creatively, this has allowed Rising to have a definite beginning but more opportunities to leverage branching directions that would lend to future installments, if the project does succeed. Both Kojima and Inaba felt there is a lot on the line for the Rising project not solely for the studios involved but for the collective future of Japanese game development. Kojima, noted, the Spike Video Game Awards “world exclusive” premieres were 90% Western development and the showcase of Rising was a testament to the amount of pressure the video game world has for Japanese game developers. Kojima wants to bring back the reputation that Japan makes the best games in the world and Minami is fully in agreement.

There is still a lot to do for Rising to realize its completion as the reboot, subsequently its development, started early this year. However, Kojima and Inaba stressed that its relationship since then as held and there is a true collaboration found in Rising’s new direction, or Revengeance. While the story will focus on Raiden getting his revenge, for Kojima and PLATINUMGAMES, it’s also about avenging the failed development of Rising.