Tuesday, May 09, 2006

John Woo makes game for me....

You've all been there; when you're on a first date, a conversation will often go into what type of movies you watch. I always like to describe myself as "a connoisseur of foreign cinema". With any luck she'll assume I'm cultured and not want me to go into it in too much depth. Hopefully it'll be much later by the time she realises that by "foreign cinema" I mean specifically the work of John Woo and I'll have already banged her by then so it won't matter much at that point.

A Better Tomorrow, The Killer and Woo's crowning achievement; Hard Boiled are easily some of the greatest movies ever made. His hyper-kinetic action scenes involving slow-motion close quarter gunplay, automatic pistols akimbo (usually brandished by the star of all those films: Chow Yun Fat) and the inexplicable appearances of white doves during these sequences are all trademarks of the legendary Chinaman.

Now, after years of conquering Asian cinema (and Hollywood to a lesser extent) Woo has turned his attention to the interactive media and created STRANGLEHOLD, the sequel to Hard Boiled. Now normally for a film, you get a game (usually naff) made from a film of the same name which was rushed though development so it's release could be simultaneous with the film (except in the case of Catwoman where I heard the game was actually better than the film). Not so with Stranglehold: apparently John Woo has written the story as a sequel to his 1992 magnum opus.

Stranglehold is a mix of balletic gunplay at it's finest where you control Insp. Tequila- or more literally the full-digital-body-scanned avatar of Chow Yun Fat and bring justice or revenge (whatever Woo writes is one of these scenarios) to both Hong Kong and Chicago. What appears most impressive is the sheer amount of destruction you (and the bad-guys) can deliver, nothing will be spared, furniture, crockery, pots & pans, fish tanks and of course; lovely individually tiled concrete pillars.

When I first saw the preliminary trailer last month, I didn't know that it was going to be released on PC, and God forgive me I actually looked to see if I should get an Xbox or Playstation for this game. Thankfully I'll only need a graphics upgrade for my uber-gaming PC: Bellerophron to play it, at a guess. The new E3 trailer for Stranglehold is here (click the one that requires you to verify your age) and it's the most impressive game trailer I've ever seen, as you may see by some screen grabs I've put on this page. It even includes a voiceover from "bloke who does all the voiceovers for trailers". The camerawork is unmistakably the work of Woo right down to the 360 degree swirl on the hero. It looks very Max Payne (a game highly influenced by Woo and The Matrix) and features "Tequila Time" as the term bullet-time has now been trademarked elsewhere.

Here's the press blurb:
Chow Yun–Fat reprises the role of Inspector Tequila from John Woo's influential action film, "Hard Boiled" in this hyperkinetic shooting game. Run into danger with both fists full of lead and take down the organized crime bosses who stepped over the line when they took your family. Stop at nothing as you destroy the entire world around you to get them back. You are a desperate man following your own rules; honor thy family; do what's right; fear no man. Stranglehold features much of the hyperkinetic, choreographed action and freeze framed sequences that Woo is known for.

Here's an actual hi-res screenie for you lot. If the game is half as good as the trailer, I'll be in chrome-plated Beretta heaven. Thank you John Woo, for making this game... ...for me!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

`Will there be similar dialogue?: "Your piss aved me kid"?

Anonymous said...

Or how about a musical code sequence "No no surely it goes la ti ta ta do! but seriously how long before the Colonel modifies the game so he can put his own head on on Chow Yun Fats Body?

Anonymous said...

"Be proud, Mr. Woo"
*The Colonel dives through an orphanage window, pistols akimbo blazing*

Major General Creedon said...

Jesus, I publically apologised for the "Orphanage Mishap", it was due to bad intel. The evil arms manufacturer was the building adjacent to the orphanage, and the drug-lord's hidout was accross the road. It could have happened to anyone...

Anonymous said...

At least those orphans will never grow up to join the forces of evil, eh?
No more drug-lord or evil arms manufacturers from that district of town :)

Major General Creedon said...

Be silent. I felt remorse for hours after that incident...

Anonymous said...

I'm sure you did, if by 'hours' you mean 'seconds' ...before you lit up a giant mutha of a cigar?

Major General Creedon said...

...One you gave me no doubt.

Hey man, answer your E-mails.

Anonymous said...

Theres a saying about Chuck Norris - it takes 14 puppeteers to make him smile, but only 2 to make him destroy an orphanage.
In the Colonels case, it takes bad intel to make him destroy an orphanage, and destroying orphanages makes him smile?

Major General Creedon said...

Smile??? No no no. I deny this. I wasn't smiling at all. I said I felt remorse after...

Anonymous said...

after ... being identified as being the one responsible for the "Orphanage 14"? 14 victims, double-tapped to both head and crotch. Why, Colonel, why?

Major General Creedon said...

Just as a point of reference. I don't double-tap to the crotch. I shoot the crotch as a method of interrogation, but not double-tap.