Got sleeping dogs on steam in the last sale, didn't think much of it though tbh.
I just started playing the cracked version (it works flawlessly, maximum irony reached) and my first impressions are that the ambiance is cool, the unarmed combat parts are really well done although enemies suffer from the assassin's creed guard syndrome. One thing though. The driving mechanics are simply
awful. Not nearly as bad as in Just Cause 2, but the same kind of bad. There seems to be a controversy on the web, some people love the driving, some people hate it (I'm part of that group). At least for someone used to simulation-ey handling, driving in sleeping dogs, despite the welcome effort of driving on the left lane, feels like my brain is being put into a microwave and unlearning everything about real car physics. On top of that, it's not actually easy to drive, it's just broken :
1) Handbrakes will stop your car faster than real brakes.
2) Tap a or d and the car will instantly turn 15 degrees, at any speed. So actually when you want to drive straight you are pretty much forced to zigzag.
3) Cars have no weight. You'd think you can start a cornering drift by tapping the handbrake after turning gently. Nothing of the sort.
4) Driving fast around corners is possible, but only the exact way that was intended by the developpers, which involves keeping your thumbs down on the keys a lot. Finesse is not allowed.
5) Acceleration is retardedly high, top speed retardedly low, braking is way too strong too but without that driving would be impossible
6) Using the brake with cars will cause them to
strafe slightly. Using the handbrake with motorcycles does the same.
6) Consolitus. The wasd keys are clearly being mapped to 0-100% analog sticks, which is part of the zigzag driving problem. Also you can control the camera with your mouse but it will try to interpret your mouse movements in terms of 90 degree camera angles, and when you reverse, all hell breaks loose. Mouse controls stop responding and the camera will do three 360 around your car.
