It's
taken awhile, but finally someone has made the phrase
"Tequila time!" into a game mechanic.
That's our Friday at 5:00 pm battlecry.
by Vaughn Smith
March
2, 2006 - John
Woo has been an innovator in the action movie genre
for years now and it's about time he crossed over
into the digital zone of gaming. True fact: so many
games pay homage to his movie making genius that
his upcoming Stranglehold game, a video game based
sequel to Hard Boiled might be seen by some as a
knock off of the imitators. Go figure. Games like
Max Payne and Dead To Rights borrowed liberally
from Woo with their slow motion leaping, dual gun
wielding antics that it's unfortunate that Stranglehold
will inevitably be compared to what has come before.
We're hoping the hard boiled action will take center
stage and allow Woo to realize his vision for this
upcoming 2006 next gen/PC release.
As
you might guess, Chow Yun-Fat will reprise his role
(digitally) as Inspector Tequila who is the Hong
Kong version of Dirty Harry on steroids.The plot
of Stranglehold will center on Tequila's ex-wife's
capture and kidnapping at the hands of nefarious
Russian mob in Chicago. I guess the Hong Kong crime
lords are too busy with all of those illegal movies
and games to copy to get involved in Tequila's business
this time around.....or will they pop up and surprise
you? Maybe you'll see some of them on the streets
of Hong Kong during the game, hawking Napoleon Dynamite
on DVD for "only 2 dollah! Just for you!"
If
you're skeptical that Midway - a veritable newbie
when it comes to this genre - can pull this off,
let me put some of your fears to rest. I have discovered
that the team behind Psi Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
is at the helm. Trust me when I tell you this is
good news. Psi Ops, if you haven't played it, is
one of the best action titles to come along in recent
years. Get your hands on it. You will have a blast.
It won our Best Game of 2004 over all. Yeah, even
over Halo 2.
Midway
and Woo are promising white knuckle action, martial
arts acrobats such as running up walls, swinging
on chandeliers, dual gun play, destructible environments
and an infinitely more fine-tuned "bullet time"
mechanic, called "Tequila Time". Tequila
Time will allow players to slow down time while
they hurtle through the air, while aiming and shooting
in real time. As mentioned Woo is the originator
of this and is determined to take it to the next
level in Stranglehold. From what we can attest,
things really do slow down when we go for our Friday
night Tequila Times...
If
you want to step into the virtual shoes of Chow
Yun-Fat, you'll have to pony up to the bar for either
a kick ass PC, Xbox 360 or the ever secretive PS3;
Strangelhold will not be available on the current
gen consoles.
Features:
