Sleeping Dogs PC demo released; Square Enix 'incredibly supportive' of platform

The PC edition of Sleeping Dogs is, so They say, a fine piece of work--no quick and sloppy port. This, developer United Front has said, is thanks to support and encouragement from publisher Square Enix. The PC demo was released yesterday, so you can see how it turned out for yourself.

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The PC edition of Sleeping Dogs is, so They say, a fine piece of work--no quick and sloppy port. This, developer United Front has said, is thanks to support and encouragement from publisher Square Enix. The PC demo was released yesterday, so you can see how it turned out for yourself.

"When the game changed hands from Activision to Square Enix, Square was incredibly supportive of the PC version and actually wanted us to do more with it," senior producer Jeff O'Connell told The PA Report. "It was at that point that we began to focus more resources on the PC version and it became what it is."

Under Activision, the plan was for the PC edition to be outsourced, but United Front got to develop it internally and "make sure the PC version was everything it could be," O'Connell explained.

He noted, "the PC gaming audience can be very influential" and "respect and appreciate when effort is made," helping get word out about the game in general. Ultimately, though, the amount of love lavished upon PC often comes down to how much of a return publishers expect on it.

"In some areas of the world, the PC version outsells the console version. If I'm not mistaken, Germany is an incredibly PC-centric market. [Publishers] make the decision on whether to do the PC version or not somewhat dependent on what they have in their sales forecasts for those particular areas."

So cheers, Germany, for this fine PC version. To see it yourself, head on over to Steam, where the demo's a 2.84GB download. I don't know if it includes the high resolution texture pack released as free DLC, so the full game may be even prettier.

From The Chatty
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    August 23, 2012 7:35 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Sleeping Dogs PC demo released; Square Enix 'incredibly supportive' of platform.

    The PC edition of Sleeping Dogs is, so They say, a fine piece of work--no quick and sloppy port. This, developer United Front has said, is thanks to support and encouragement from publisher Square Enix. The PC demo was released yesterday, so you can see how it turned out for yourself.

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      August 23, 2012 7:48 AM

      Cool beans, I'll have to check this out, thanks for the heads up. I know it's kinda your job but even so

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      August 23, 2012 8:13 AM

      "This item is currently unavailable in your region"
      I hate them...

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      August 23, 2012 10:50 AM

      Don't miss out on this game it had a wonderful story in a gorgeous looking open world sandbox of Hong Kong. The Game play and side quests will keep you busy for awhile. I hope they make another one...

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      August 23, 2012 11:31 AM

      I really enjoyed this game. At first, I wasn't so sure if I liked it or not - the first few hours were a bit slow. But as it turns out, this is definitely one of the better open world sandbox games I've played.

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      August 23, 2012 11:33 AM

      I really like the cover art for this game.

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      August 23, 2012 11:39 AM

      Wow, I wasn't expecting a demo. That's great :D

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      August 23, 2012 12:06 PM

      PC-centric my arse. You cant even re-bind to arrow keys, and surrounding keys (shift/enter). And, they have hard coded keys, that you cant change at all.

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      August 23, 2012 12:30 PM

      controls felt a bit sloppy for mouse+KB. Might have been better with a gamepad.

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        August 23, 2012 6:03 PM

        The controls are really sloppy with mouse + keyboard, but I played the whole game with a gamepad and have no complaints.

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        August 23, 2012 6:10 PM

        It's significantly better with a gamepad. It plays great.

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          August 23, 2012 7:40 PM

          wtfs the point of pc if i cant use my mouse to aim. i really dislike driving in this game with m/kb

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        August 23, 2012 8:43 PM

        I just tried the demo and had the same issue. The controls with mouse+kb are really floaty. The combat also felt like button mashing for effect. I much preferred the combat in Batman Arkham Asylum/City.

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      August 23, 2012 1:01 PM

      Since most pirates say they are just trying out the game to see how it runs/if they like it then its good news to know this demo should reduce the piracy of this game by... probably Zero percent.

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        August 23, 2012 1:09 PM

        A little over zero since I'll play the demo now instead of pirating it first. But I am probably the minority.

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          August 23, 2012 2:25 PM

          Demo now and, if it goes well, Steam sale later when I have a better video card. Not much excuse for stealing games when they're made dirt cheap on Steam all the time. Leeching ever game that comes out just makes you jaded anyway. I try to take my time and savor games these days. Just bought Just Cause 2 and Mirrors Edge for 9 bucks today, woo! ( I have lots of catching up to do, obviously.)

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            August 23, 2012 9:55 PM

            Mirror's Edge is fucking fantastic, just keep in mind the cut scenes are relatively terrible. Enjoy.

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      August 23, 2012 2:45 PM

      This might help convince more too. Gameplay session from last night.

      Lots of car chases, shit blowing up, kung-fu action, gun fights.

      http://www.twitch.tv/pancakehumper/b/329599136

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      August 23, 2012 5:42 PM

      Completed already. Epic game.

      With good dlc, would buy dlc.

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      August 23, 2012 6:05 PM

      Nice nice .

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        August 23, 2012 8:19 PM

        Impressions: Bad M&KB controls, ok gfx, boring story and drab voice-overs.
        Also crashed on me twice.

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      August 23, 2012 6:34 PM

      I wasn't expecting a demo. I'm very excited to try it out.

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        August 23, 2012 9:49 PM

        Played the demo and I liked it. I wasn't comfortable with the shooting but I suck and usually blame it on the settings. Hmm, rent on XBOX or purchase on PC?

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      August 23, 2012 11:57 PM

      So, uh, how do I get rid of the FXAA?

      I loaded up the game and it ran great but man, it had that unmistakable FXAA blur. Go into the options, and the lowest anti-aliasing setting is normal which forces FXAA on: http://chattypics.com/files/20120824_00001_mukeb9ps1y.jpg

      Looked in the config and AA value = 0 already so apparently there's no way to disable it that I can see.

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      August 24, 2012 12:39 AM

      The game is fine, and the PC version is ok, but I'm not giving it a "fine piece of work" stamp because of the poor vsync implementation. Excessive tearing or constant stuttering isn't a fun choice to make.

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