Uncle Salty Crabs

So the Hong Kong crime caper, Sleeping Dogs, is coming to Playstation4? Well you know what? Amidst all the negative nancies complaining about there being too many remakes emerging for current gen consoles, I for one am pretty excited about this one. It plays like movie classic Hard Boiled with you as a karate  kicking cop yer Crissakes! What's not to love? GTA Japan anyone?
Actually (and this is only my opinion of course), but Sleeping Dogs is better than that. "Better than Grand Theft Auto?" You ask. "What could be a better sandbox game than GTA?" Well the setting for one. My personal love for Japan aside, Hong Kong is the perfect backdrop having plenty of 'flavour' from the East to make it exotic while still having a fair dose of Western culture to keep it familiar. Sure you'll hear Japanese music on the radio (beautiful it is too), but flick a few channels and you can hear everything from Mozart to Black Stone Cherry.
There's nothing ground breaking about Sleeping Dogs but what it does, it does well and is a welcome break from creating mayhem in California. Comparisons with GTA are inevitable and while vehicles are lacking, (petrol heads will be disappointed),  it makes up for in other, some would say cooler ways. Side missions and things to do when not killing folk for example. In Grand Theft Auto the player can relax with a round of golf or do yoga (yes YOGA). Reports of a knitting circle are unconfirmed.
Sleeping Dogs has much more suitable past times for a career criminal however. Maj jong poker on a private ship. Kung fu brawls that would make Bruce Lee happy. Oh and cock fighting. Controversial perhaps but no real roosters were harmed during the making of this game. It all fits so well.
I've played some great videogames recently, including the mighty BioShock Infinite (easily in my gaming top 10), but Sleeping Dogs is the one that revved my thrill clock to the limit. I had a f**king blast on it, so much so that I will be visiting Hong Kong again pretty sharpish. And the fact it reminds me of classic Shenmue is bonus.
I'm not saying the game is a stellar 10\10 gold, and it does have some (minor) niggles but nothing that ever comes close to spoiling a wonderful experience. Every gamer should play Sleeping Dogs, and I'm in raptures over the fact it is being rebooted for PS4.
The only thing I can imagine some being upset about is the map. Its fairly small when compared to say Red Dead Redemption but then again, that can be a blessing too. After all who wants a huge map filled with nothing to do?  This is just me of course but after completing the missions in GTAV, I wasn't in a hurry to get back to Los Santos. Like I said, yoga isn't exactly laugh a minute (no offence to yoga loving hipsters reading).  But the whole Hong Kong city vibes hooked me in proper and I loved just wandering the markets listening to food vendors (the pork bun man is legendary) sell their wares, and seeing dodgy DVD sellers tell you they have the latest movies.
A big mention is the hand to hand combat which makes fighting in other open world games feel boring. It does a good job of making you feel like a martial arts master and even getting surrounded by 10 thugs you never feel too worried (in fact the more the merrier).
To cap it all off, Sleeping Dogs is like being in 80s movies American Ninja and Remo Unarmed and Dangerous. And for a guy growing up back in those neon tinged glory days when Commodore and Spectrum ruled the games world, this is indeed good news. (There's also a cool retro DLC pack).
So a reboot for PlayStation 4 is very welcome news for this gamer. I have a feeling these current gen consoles are just what the game needs because machines have the 'oomph' to bring Hong Kong truly alive. Whisper it, but I reckon it could do better than the GTAV reboot. You read it here first.