Stranglehold demo slo-mo dives onto Live (also, there are doves)

by Justin McElroy { Aug 8th 2007 at 8:35AM }

There's a demo for Stranglehold, the video game sequel to John Woo's Hard Boiled, now on Xbox Live, and we couldn't be more excited. And it's not just that its cinematic gun battles are a little bit of fresh air after being locked in the hot station wagon that is the summer game release schedule. We're also really excited, if only for a few moments, to get to be Chow Yun-Fat, uncanny valley be damned.

And honestly, if you're going to be Chow Yun-Fat, Hard Boiled Chow Yun-Fat is the one to be, though Better Tomorrow Chow Yun-Fat would have also been acceptable. Can you imaging having to play as Anna and the King Chow Yun-Fat? Or even The Postmodern Life of My Aunt Chow Yun-Fat? We probably wouldn't even download the demo for that. ... Oh, who are we kidding? It's summer, we'll play anything.

Tags: demos, johnwoo, stranglehold, xboxlive

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Brucie B @ Aug 8th 2007 8:41AM

**Downloading Now**
Heard over @ the Xbox forums that this game demo was Great!!

Brucie B @ Aug 8th 2007 10:36AM

So Finally Downloaded..

WOW What a Great Demo!!! Couldn't believe it!!!

baby sea tuna @ Aug 8th 2007 8:51AM

!!! This definitely takes the sting away from Track & Field being today's XBLA game.

And what's up Joystiq, no love for Crouching Tiger Chow Yun-Fat? I mean, sure, he's all dead and shit but...

Kryptinite @ Aug 8th 2007 9:06AM

THIS SUCKS!! I've been waiting for this demo for awhile and of course, last week my system went the way of the red light district. Hopefully I'll get it on the PS3 tomorrow :(

GamerG @ Aug 8th 2007 10:12AM

I think its gone at the right time! You'll get the new heat sink and have in back to play all the great fall games!!

Count yourself lucky it did not go on Halo 3 release day!!

Kryptinite @ Aug 8th 2007 10:34AM

I didn't even think about it like that. You are so right!! As long as I get it by the 25th I'll be happy.

Einhanderkiller @ Aug 8th 2007 12:07PM

vidGuy @ Aug 8th 2007 9:10AM

Where's his toothpick? Looking forward to trying this out.

Evan @ Aug 8th 2007 9:26AM

Why not "Anna and the King" Chow Yun-Fat?

Seriously, though. Video games cover a narrow range of movie genres. No wonder Roger Ebert doesn't take video games seriously, because video games can't handle serious movie genres. No wonder gamers are stereotyped as immature guys who love explosions, because most video games are the equivalent of popcorn action-flicks. I'd like to see more games become a little more like "Anna and the King" - more focused on deeper characters, deeper stories, and deeper emotions.

upz @ Aug 8th 2007 1:20PM

If you're talking about story-driven games without an emphasis on combat, there are plenty. Remember the Longest Journey? Grim Fandango? Indigo Prophecy? Hell, Shenmue was a great story-driven game DESPITE the poor man's Virtua Fighter combat system. There are games for almost every movie genre you can think of. Well, I suppose we are missing the ever important romantic comedy games...

ridestowe @ Aug 8th 2007 9:31AM

wow this is one of the best demo's i've ever played. i'm definitely renting this game!

chenry @ Aug 8th 2007 9:45AM

ooooh man I can't wait to get off work and download this demo! Only uuuuh...like 7 hours to go! D:

thrillho @ Aug 8th 2007 9:49AM

crazy

Po0py @ Aug 8th 2007 10:36AM

Any word on the PC demo? My 360 is currently at a Microsoft repair center getting the Red Ring of B0rkage seen to.

rmg @ Aug 8th 2007 10:44AM

Have you seen the PC requirements???

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/08/08/stranglehold_hardware_requirements_released/1

OS: Windows XP SP2 / Vista
CPU: Dual Core Processor
RAM: 2 GB RAM
GPU: Nvidia 7800 or higher / ATI x1300 or higher
Disk space: 15 GB

OMFG!!!111

Po0py @ Aug 8th 2007 12:00PM

Thats pretty steep requirements. But I just put together a new rig in anticipation of Unreal Tournament 3 and Crysis:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.00GHz
BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB
2gb of Ram

I think I can handle it. ;-)

Brucie B @ Aug 8th 2007 10:43AM

Finally Downloaded!!

WOW What A Great Demo!!! Alot better then Expected!!!

Mike show! @ Aug 8th 2007 10:54AM

arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I cant download it!?
Im connected to live, but errors just keep popping up.

is it really the best demo ever? :(
Im so bummed.

TonyBlair @ Aug 8th 2007 11:00AM

Download and play the Eternal Sonata demo while you wait.

Huricos @ Aug 8th 2007 11:18AM

I'm getting the errors too.

Seems marketplace is down?

Justin McElroy @ Aug 8th 2007 11:18AM

I have to say, this demo is great. I'm not sure it's going to hold my interest for a full game, but what's here is fantastic. It owes a lot to Max Payne, but it evolves enough so that it doesn't feel like a clone.

flskdajfkl @ Aug 8th 2007 11:22AM

yeah I get some "807b01f7" error message. wtf.

Capgun @ Aug 8th 2007 11:28AM

According to my system, it tells me theres an update, and when I go to update, it tells me that it failed or something like that. So, I cant even get on Live.

Syxx @ Aug 9th 2007 11:23AM

I, too, am having problems updating my xbox...

skunkworks @ Aug 8th 2007 11:38AM

getting errors too. damn.

ShinobiFist @ Aug 8th 2007 12:02PM

I was at 90% until XBOXLIVE pull the plug on me. And why I don't believe the people that "say" they have the DEMO All them keep saying"Best DEMO I played" Good homage to Max Payne" Nobody has got into details. What level is it? How does it control? The music, dialog, etc...Somebody who "actually" has the DEMO let us know how the game is for us who are unfortunate to Download the DEMO at this time.

ForceUnleashed @ Aug 8th 2007 12:04PM

So I take it the demo is awesome?

And when does the full retail game come out for the 360?

I might have to get this game now...could care less about HardBoiled so I don't the ps3 version has any advantages over the 360 version. But what does the 360 version have besides the game.

baby sea tuna @ Aug 8th 2007 2:40PM

Buncha junk, making of docs and stuff. Do yourself a favor and buy the regular version if you're planning on picking up the 360 version.

jynxycat @ Aug 8th 2007 2:29PM

Don't care about Hardboiled ?...

You fail.

ForceUnleashed @ Aug 8th 2007 6:24PM

Thanks baby sea tuna.

And yeah Hardboiled is not that serious. There are plenty of movies that are better than it.

Steve @ Aug 8th 2007 2:18PM

THIS DEMO IS KILLER!!! I am so buying this on release day.

Stephen Lang @ Aug 8th 2007 2:26PM

Can you shoot the doves?

manchucka @ Aug 8th 2007 6:34PM

Great demo. I accidentally jumped out of the geometry. Perhaps they will fix this in time for retail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-oYY5oqu_Q

Whubbsie @ Aug 8th 2007 6:58PM

Leisure Suit Larry... guess you can classify that as romantic comedy..sort of...kinda.

Squeedom @ Aug 9th 2007 1:49AM

im getting error codes, WTF

admangreendog @ Aug 9th 2007 4:12PM

Ok some details for you shinobifist

It looks like you play the 1st level of the game, as there are plenty of tutorial sections (Although these may have just been lifted from a seperate tutorial section)

the best thing I think is the destructible environments although it can be a little hard to see whats going on with all the fruit and shit flying about.

its cool though, u can shoot signs whch drop on peoples heads..

also there is this manual aim feature which does a full on bullet time follow the bullet into someones face scenario that is awesome.

ok thatll do, im not sure if ill buy the game as i think it will be a bit samey, but ill keep my eyes on the reviews..

Matt @ Aug 23rd 2007 9:43PM

I don't know how you did that... I could never discuss Woo/Chow without mentioning The Killer.

It's good that Woo's video games reference his Hong Kong films, considering that his American films haven't been great. I don't know if it's the hollywood system stifling his talent, or the fact that he casts people like Nicholas Cage. (Don't get me wrong, Cage is great in comic/quirky roles like Raising Arizona and Adaptation, but can't do action or drama without coming off as cheesy. Definitely not a cool badass like Chow Yun-Fat.)