Not playing SD so GTAV is 100% fresh - Am I a douchebag?

I've made the conscious decision to completely avoid Sleeping Dogs, despite it's GB GOTY praise, in order to maximize the impact of Grand Theft Auto V.

Why? Well, I have this theory that:

• A. Open World games are the best type of video game. But..

• B. They are super easy to get burned out and unappreciative of

Now granted, I just played the shit out of Far Cry 3. Buuut I'd argue it's no rationalization to say it's far enough removed from the SD/GTA/Saints Row '3rd Person Crime City-Setting' type thang.

Please tell; am I out of my fucking mind?

yes. go buy sleeping dogs right now.

no, you're not a douchebag, but i don't think something like that should worry you too much. they're both open world games, but there's something about Sleeping Dogs' focus on melee combat that kind of differentiates itself a bit more from GTA's gunplay heavy style. plus, if GTA V is as good as it looks, then it'll probably be compelling enough to keep you entertained.

They seem like different enough cities that exploring the two should be a different experience. At this point though I am waiting for the Sleeping Dogs: Complete Edition to be released.

I kind of get your reasoning. I kinda thought I felt all sandbox-ed out when I started Saints Row the Third since I couldn't get far before moving on to other games but once I started with Sleeping Dogs I turned out all reinvigorated with regards to the genre. Even after Sleeping Dogs I'm still super stoked about GTA V. Maybe even more so, now, considering the two games are going to be completely different in many respects.

I guess I just started Saints Row the Third at a bad time or something; maybe I'll get back into it later. It's kind of odd, though, since I was a really big fan of the original Saints Row (never played 2 though and I'm kinda glad I didn't).

But yeah I don't think I'll ever get tired of GTA -- I've probably spent more hours in III, Vice City, San Andreas and IV than any other series of games ever. (Unless you count every Bethesda game I've played, they'd probably be tied or something)

I can see where you're coming from but a lot of good open world games do a good job at differentiating themselves from each other.

I hear you, bronaise. Don't worry about it. Sleepy Dawgz will be still there down the road, so if you're excited to play GTAV ASAP, just hold off.

Edit: I should add that I'm a bit biased, as Sleepy Pups didn't really grab me. It's an awesome game, but I just couldn't get into it.

@JasonLeeson said:

I've made the conscious decision to completely avoid Sleeping Dogs, despite it's GB GOTY praise, in order to maximize the impact of Grand Theft Auto V.

Why? Well, I have this theory that:

• A. Open World games are the best type of video game. But..

• B. They are super easy to get burned out and unappreciative of

Now granted, I just played the shit out of Far Cry 3. Buuut I'd argue it's no rationalization to say it's far enough removed from the SD/GTA/Saints Row '3rd Person Crime City-Setting' type thang.

Please tell; am I out of my fucking mind?

Sure open world games can wear thin, but sleeping dogs is a totally different type of game next to GTA, if you get burned out on sleeping dogs, GTAV will still offer a whole new game to play.

No. The person that calls you a douchebag for something trivial like this is the real douchebag.

I don't think they are really going to feel very similar. I really liked Sleeping Dogs but it's really so much based around it's melee combat and the setting, to me at least. The driving and shooting were just okay.

But if you view all open world crime games as the same then I get why you could think that way. I think they are quite different though.

@Colourful_Hippie said:

I can see where you're coming from but a lot of good open world games do a good job at differentiating themselves from each other.

this is why i think you shouldn't be worried. if GTA V is as good as it looks, then you shouldn't have to worry about any sort of open-world fatigue. it might be compelling and well made enough to keep you going.

.. or maybe not, since apparently you got worn out while playing Saints Row The Third. it could be that you just didn't like that game, though. i know some people who loves the first two SR games but didn't dig SR3 at all.

@JasonLeeson said:

I've made the conscious decision to completely avoid Sleeping Dogs, despite it's GB GOTY praise, in order to maximize the impact of Grand Theft Auto V.

Why? Well, I have this theory that:

• A. Open World games are the best type of video game. But..

• B. They are super easy to get burned out and unappreciative of

Now granted, I just played the shit out of Far Cry 3. Buuut I'd argue it's no rationalization to say it's far enough removed from the SD/GTA/Saints Row '3rd Person Crime City-Setting' type thang.

Please tell; am I out of my fucking mind?

i don't think you're crazy. personally- i only need one good open-world-crime game every console generation. surprise surprise, it isn't my favourite genre. for me, that game happened to be saints row 3. but if it's a period-piece (a la red dead), i'm alright with giving it a shot.

I think Rockstar needs to learn some brevity from Sleeping Dogs because I was actually compelled to finish the story and I've never made my way through an entire GTA game. Bully and Red Dead Redemption are the only Rockstar games I've finished and those were just barely.

On topic, I think you should give it a go, sleeping dogs world is completely different than gta is going to be and the gameplay is really about the fighting no the shooting like a gta game.

I'm playing through Sleeping Dogs now and it's great so I think you should definitely give it a try!

Sleeping Dogs is also far enough removed from GTA, you'll be fine.

Batman style melee combat is a huge part of this game, and the occasional shooting and driving cribs more from Max Payne and Just Cause than GTA.

It hardly does but I think you should play Sleeping Dogs regardless. You can enjoy Sleeping Dogs now and GTA5 whenever that comes out. I don't think they are even all that similar.

here's the thing; you play sleepy dogs now, and if you're still not up for playing GTAV then, you'd wait, and then get a better price on it later.

SAVINGS.

Yeah, you are.

You might not be a douchebag, but you're naive if you think GTAV will be so damn earth-shattering.

I think you should play Sleeping Dogs.

I would say you are crazy, but not a douchebag. Sure Sleepig Dogs won't have another copy sold but whatever.

However I think it might be a pragmatic decision as I doubt that Rockstar will get the gameplay of GTA V anywhere close to as fun as it was in Sleeping Dogs but it will hopefully have a very interesting story. Who knows though maybe GTA V will actually get the gameplay right this time.

There will be enough time between now and GTA V to get ready for another open-world crime game. Besides, Sleeping Dogs does enough things differently to ensure that you won't be having the same experience twice.

Trust me, play it, Sleeping Dogs wasn't my number one game of 2012 for nothing.

Thanks for all your reply's dudes - It's been a real group therapy session.

Yet, despite most are you saying, I just can't bring myself to do it. I should explain: As I've got older, I really started to obsess over the concept of deferred gratification. For example; I'm the kind of guy that will follow all the literature and watch press conferences about the latest smart phones, yet have this insane personal rule to upgrade only every 5 years, so it'll 'blow me away'.

We could go deep down the rabbit hole here of never truly being able to re-capture those same emotions we had playing games as kids, or that sense of 'oh shit I can just doing anything?' feeling the first time you played GTA3 or such like. Call me sentimental, but after watching Indie Game: The Movie, I've found myself more than ever viewing video games that receive a shit ton of time, work and love really are something precious. Like, even beyond my surface-level enjoyment of the thing.

I totally get the 'Sleeping Dogs is meaningfully different' argument. But I guess I just can't risk it. I just can't face the prospect of to any degree degrading that elusive feeling of 'holy fuck, I'm going to be looking back on this nostalgically' a game like GTA can provide.

EDIT: But will play it this year, after GTAV.

Yes, because Sleeping Dogs is the best game of 2012.

@JasonLeeson: I get what you're saying here, since i have this mentality sometimes myself, but man....more often than not you're just setting yourself up for disappointment with games. You end up hyping yourself up way too much and the game just doesn't live up to it. Playing other stuff brings you back down to the ground as to what the game's more likely to be like, and then when it turns out awesome you're still awed by it.

Also, you're a douchebag, just cause you asked if you are one.

Avoid a good game as another good game will be out in a few months :|

"I better make sure not to have fun now if i want to have fun later"

This world view is depressing.

You're not a douchebag, but it certainly isn't necessary to skip out on Sleepy Dogs. We don't even have a release date yet for GTA V, so chances are good that you will have plenty of time to let any open world fatigue wear off. If you pass up SD it is your loss man.

You're certainly not a douche bag, though I think there's enough time between now and GTA V to keep you from getting burnt out on open-world games.

That being said, you aren't really missing much. I thought Sleeping Dogs was mediocre (and hold both Red Dead Redemption and GTA IV in much higher regard) and I'll be shocked if GTA V isn't 10 times better.

There is no fucking way GTAV is as good as Sleeping Dogs. So you should put effort into making SD better instead.

OP is not a douchebag because Sleeping Dogs is not a good game.

@TobbRobb said:

There is no fucking way GTAV is as good as Sleeping Dogs. So you should put effort into making SD better instead.

Sleeping Dogs is fun but it doesn't have the quality of a Rockstar game, I can never tell what part of the city I am in sleeping dogs as 95% of the streets look the same in GTA IV I can tell exactly where I am, it's the reason I always love the Rockstar games they put so much effort into the world. I love Sleeping Dogs and you should defiently play it.

@Bourbon_Warrior: Too bad those unique and recognizable streets are about as fun as a pile of rocks without anything to throw them at.

@TobbRobb said:

@Bourbon_Warrior: Too bad those unique and recognizable streets are about as fun as a pile of rocks without anything to throw them at.

Not true, you can throw Niko and his passengers at them by going 150 MPH into a brick wall. The physics in that game give me way more joy than any of the missions from San Andreas, I never get how people couldn't have fun in that world. I'm dying to see what they have done with the physics in GTAV

@Bourbon_Warrior: And I don't get how people could have fun in that world! There is nothing there! It's literally the definition of "make your own fun", but all the tools they give you are broken or lackluster.

The only times I really had fun in that game was when it didn't work properly, like the swingset bug. That thing was hilarious all of the two times I did it.

I understand where you're coming from, i got burned out on these halfway through San Andreas, and Sleeping Dogs is the first one I've picked up since then. I'm enjoying it, but at the same time I'm pretty sure I'll have had my fill by the end, and currently I have no plans to pick up GTA V.

You're not a douchebag, but you're clearly insane. You should play Sleeping Dogs.

@TobbRobb said:

@Bourbon_Warrior: And I don't get how people could have fun in that world! There is nothing there! It's literally the definition of "make your own fun", but all the tools they give you are broken or lackluster.

The only times I really had fun in that game was when it didn't work properly, like the swingset bug. That thing was hilarious all of the two times I did it.

I always go back to that game every month or two just to cause some havoc. GTAV looks to have more toys for you to play with, so I wouldn't write it off yet.

Plus GTA IV has amazing mods

But back to OP question. YES PLAY SLEEPING DOGS!

I know exactly what you mean. It seems to me that the combat between these two games are drastically different and that makes all the difference though. That, and SD is apparently really amazing in it's own right.

I bought the game a few days ago and am itching to crack it open, but I'm playing another open-world game and it's also really good (Dragon's Dogma). But I won't have the same dilemma between my two open world games, haha

@JasonLeeson:

You're being absolutely ridiculous, if you ask me. I'd understand if you were trying to save money, but I don't understand this newly discovered fetish you seem to have.

Sleeping Dogs is worth experiencing IMO, and if you're worried about burning out, you can always treat it like a linear action game and zip through the story. The side stuff is pretty easy to ignore.

Play GTAV first.
 
Then go to Sleeping Dogs.
 
Then facepalm at RockStar's latest idea of melee combat.

I seriously doubt GTA5's gameplay will be nearly has fun as Sleeping Dogs (it actually has fun combat!! A city-based sandbox game with genuinely good combat!!!! That never happens!). But I'm not going to call you a douche for holding off in case of burn out. I've been super burnt out on city-based sandboxes for years, until I gave Sleeping Dogs a try. It's a pretty stagnant genre, so I completely understand that you might get bored of them.

No, I'm gonna call you a douche because you stole my grilled cheese sandwich. You bastard.

That is pretty dumb. I don't see the correlation between them

I've only got one open world game every two or so years in me. I love them, and because of that, I'm playing the shit out of them. So I save up my appetite for GTA V. Just like you...

Nothing wrong with that.

If you have to ask...

But in all seriousness, play Sleeping Dogs. GTA IV won't be out for 4 months at the very least.

@dr_mantas said:

You might not be a douchebag, but you're naive if you think GTAV will be so damn earth-shattering.

I think you should play Sleeping Dogs.

While 'fun' is in the eye of the beholder, Rockstar objectively does the best 'world simulation' in the bizz, and GTA V will indubitably be another step up in that regard, with its extreme scale, and how densely interactive it appears to be. Production-value wise, nobody's gonna top Rockstar's efforts either.

Non-Rockstar open world games might be more fun to some, but I find the weighty and more credibly rendered world of a GTA or RD:R much more appealing than games like Saints Row or Sleeping Dogs or Red Faction Guerilla. The more believable the world simulation, the bigger impact the gameplay has on me.

As far as I'm concerned, GTA V will be earthshattering simply by being 'the next great entry in the GTA franchise'. It's not unreasonable to expect as much, since every major iteration eversince GTA III did as much for me. Rockstar's simply doing my kind of games.

I didn't play Saints Row before GTA 4 for this very reason.

But I disliked GTA 4 so I don't think it worked.

I have played practically nothing but open world games for the past two years of my gaming life and each new one is still as fun and fresh as it should be. Don't worry about it.

All I'm going to say is if someone came up to me and pulled out copies of Sleeping Dogs and GTA V and told me I could have one but only one I'd choose Sleeping Dogs every time. I think Rockstar gets a bit too much praise. Personally I thought GTA IV was fairly mediocre compared to past games especially Vice City. I'll still go on record as saying that was the single best game in the series.

I try not to play the exact same type of game back to back, but Sleeping Dogs is pretty damn great and you have quite a while before GTA V. You could easily play a few games that are pretty dissimilar to GTA V prior to playing it.

Don't let your fear of getting burned out cause you to miss our on a really great game.