Sleeping Dogs is a game about an undercover Hong Kong cop, whose conflicted sense of loyalty causes him to grab random civilians and smash their faces repeatedly and psychotically into a pork bun stand. At least, that's how I played it. The combination of misplaced loyalty and random violence clearly resonated with others, too, as Square Enix have announced a "Definitive Edition", due out this October. It will not only package up all 24 bits of DLC, but also upgrade the graphics.
"We listened to the fans," sayeth senior producer Dan Sochan in a press release. "We tuned gameplay, we added to the ambience of Hong Kong, increased audio fidelity and pushed the visuals further than we could on the previous generation of consoles."
Yes, consoles. As seen with the Metros Redux, publishers are smitten with the idea of re-releasing upgraded versions of recent titles for current generation consoles. In an environment with no backwards compatibility, it sort of makes sense. On PC? Less so. Sleeping Dogs was released in 2012. It still looks pretty good on our platform.
While it will become the obvious choice for those who don't yet own the original, it's hard to imagine what price would tempt existing owners. In other words, exactly the same problem that 4A are currently facing with Metro Redux.
It's a strange situation. What bothers me is that, between pre-order bonuses and "Definitive"-style special editions, those who buy games on or around the actual release date are increasingly being punished for that decision. Bundled DLC was one thing, but an entire polish and upgrade of a game. That's quite a big improvement to miss out on. That said, maybe the chance to see increased fidelity pork bun crime will ultimately prove irresistible.
Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition is out 10 October, on PC, PS4 and Xbox.
