bit-tech Shopping: Midway Stranglehold Collector's Edition (PS3)

• 1080i (HDTV)
• 720p (HDTV)

Rating: 6

Time with product:

Strengths: Comes with the movie "Hard Boiled"

Weaknesses: Movie quality not great. Should have come with more content

Summary: This collector edition includes the movie "Hard Boiled". While the movie itself is pretty nice, the transfer does not look all that great & it appears as if you watching a real old movie. For a collector's edition, this should have more content. As for the game itself here are my comments I had very high expectations with this game, & I was not necessarily disappointed. There are not shooting, jumping & special moves going on in this game. Howevere good they appear, one has to admit that the game does not bring anything new to the genre of shooting/action games. The game is a little unbalanced in terms of difficulty. On normal settings, some areas are too easy to clear, while you will find yourself stuck forever in others. I was really annoyed with one particular mission where one had to protect a set of musicians while the AI pops up from every corner. Still there are some nice visuals & sound with nice weapons & upgrades. There is a story somewhere in the game but you would enjoy this game more for the environment all the cool moves you can perform

Rating: 6

Time with product: 1 Days

Strengths: Lots of shooting in the movie, lots of shooting in the game, price should be pretty good now

Weaknesses: Movie is in DVD quality, gameplay can get repetitive, and maybe too much sliding around

Summary: "Stranglehold" is a videogame based on the movie "Hard Boiled." In this special edition of this game, a copy of the full length movie is packed into the game, so, after buying this, the first thing someone should do is watch the movie so that he/she can understand why the game has so much jumping and sliding around. The movie "Hard Boiled" is a Hong Kong movie, originally shot in Chinese but dubbed into English (no subtitle option), about a play-it-loose cop who accidentally kills one of his own men in a mob bust shootout, becomes bitter or "hard boiled" about it and vows to take down the weapons smuggling crimelords even if he has to do it all alone (which he doesn't). They try to put a little bit of relationship stuff into it, but that doesn't work at all...this is an action movie with a lot of gun violence - don't watch with your girlfriend expecting a romantic story about guy-girl relationships. And when I say "a lot of gun violence," I mean "imagine gun smugglers with infinite caches of weapons and bullets combined with cops and that everybody on both sides have the worst marksmenship anyone can possibly have." What's odd is that the main cops in this movie, like Chow Yun Fat's Inspector Tequila character, actually shows deadshot aim when they actually try, but, the rest of the time, they're just jumping and sliding around, blindly spraying bullets everywhere like everyone else. The quality of the movie was a bit disappointing as it was DVD quality. I was hoping more for a high definition Blu-Ray transfer. The game itself is loosely based on the movie. It follows the general idea of the movie but is not the same. The graphics aren't that great compared to other games out these days. You play as Inspector Tequila (Chow Yun Fat...pretty good likeness), and, like Inspector Tequila, you slide and jump around a lot while shooting a lot. Unlike the movie, you get shot a lot, but there's a gauge that fills up as you mow down enemies and you can convert some of that gauge into refilling your health. The more "stylistic" your kills, the more filler you earn towards your gauge. The gauge also enables Inspector Tequila's other abilities, like the ability to slow down time, dodge bullets and pointblank range (think "bullet time" from the Matrix movies) and shoot a bullet with pinpoint accuracy. Guns and ammo are plentiful and some of the enviroment is destructible and helps you get the "stylish kills". There's a paper crane collecting task, which is more of a pain, as searching for them all of the time kind of slows down the gameplay. It was probably put in as more of something to do to get people to replay the game, as it otherwise doesn't have a lot of replay value. The signficance of the paper crane is explained in the "Hard Boiled" movie. My criticisms of the game include the graphics and models not being top notch, the sliding is uncontrollable (for example, you walk towards a table to pick up a gun or some bullets and automatically wind up sliding across it), and the gameplay of jumping left and right and sliding around while shooting mobs and mobs of enemies (the enemy A.I. is really dumb but makes up for it with large numbers of enemies) does start to get repetitive after a while. The game is also pretty short. There is an online player-versus-player component, but I didn't try it. All in all, it's 50/50 whether I would buy this again, knowing what I know now about it. Because it comes with the movie, if it's $25 or less, I'd say it's a decent buy.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 3 Months

Strengths: Solid gameplay, fun, Havok engine

Weaknesses: Length (for most gamers), graphics are not the best

Summary: This game delivers everything you would expect a product bourne of John Woo to deliver: furious shootouts, slo-mo acrobatics, and a huge body count. However, it seems as though this was designed to be a movie more than a game, because it's over in a matter of hours. I don't mind too much, myself, as I prefer my games to be beaten in a matter of hours, as I don't have a whole lot of time to spend on games, but more often than not, a quick finish is a downside for gamers. However, this game does stand alongside games like Soul Reaver 2 and Heavenly Sword that are great fun for the time they last, and these games are well worth it if you can find them in the $10-20 range. This game makes great use of the Havok engine, that is - the environments are reactive to the action. A nice room in a hotel lobby will quickly look like a third world hovel as bullets chip up the marble walls and floors and splinter the desks. Slo-mo stunts are also a fun feature, similar in style to May Payne style gameplay (and I can't bring myself to say this game rips off Max Payne, because in reality the film was a major influence on Max Payne's developers). Also exclusive to the PS3 is this Collector's Edition, which includes the full film Hard Boiled. It is a nice perk, but was ultimately a disappointment. The film is not HD in any way, shape or form. Its quality is similar to those $1 Kung Fu DVDs you can find at a dollar store, that look and sound like they were bootlegged by pointing a digital camcorder at a TV playing an old Kung Fu VHS films. It also has no fastforward or rewind controls, only play, pause, and chapter advance. More frustrating is that the film has relatively few chapters, so you'll sit through ten minutes of what you've just seen if you want to rewind only thirty seconds. It's a free pack in, seeing as how the CE is usually priced the same as the standard edition, so I won't complain too much (especially considering it is a pretty damn good movie, ESPECIALLY for action/Woo fans), but it was underwhelming, especially when considering it's on a BluRay disc. Overall, I must advise renting it, unless you can find it somewhere for $15-20, at which point I suggest buying it; it's worth it at that price (and this price range is becoming more common for the game).

Rating: 8

Time with product: 2

Strengths: fun game, nice graphics

Weaknesses: very short, can get repetitive, hard boiled transfer is crappy

Summary: This game is the sequel to hard boiled, so players can expect over the top action. The game could be beat in about 6 hours, but it?s a fun 6 hours. Nice set of moves that make it a little more than a mindless shooting game. The game does get repetitive as players could merely continuously dive and shoot pass all the shoot outs. In the end, I felt it was a very enjoyable experience and I do recommend it.The Collector?s Edition is a PS3 exclusive and includes the hard boiled movie on the disc, unfortunately the transfer is terrible and not HD quality. I don?t recommend paying extra for this version.

Rating: 6

Time with product:

Strengths: Action, Control, Gameplay

Weaknesses: Short, Graphics

Summary: If your a fan of the movie Hard Boiled you'll love this game. This game captures a lot of the excitement and action from the movie. There is plenty of action here and its almost non-stop. The controls are good, and there is a lot of gunplay.The only real downside is the length of the game. While it last for a few good hours, I was expecting it to be a little longer. Other than that the graphics aren't too impressive for a PS3 title, but I wouldn't say their bad.The collector's edition comes with the movie Hard Boiled. This is the only way your going to get to see the film on Blu-Ray, because the title has not been released on Blu-Ray yet. The movie is built into the game itself, and it only offers chapter skipping and pause, you can not fast forward or rewind.I would recommend this to any John Woo fan. The game is a great action game, but the length of it may turn off some people.