New game

My cable company carries the GamePlay HD channel. One of the neat "shows" on it is called Raw Play which is simply 2 hours of recorded gameplay.

They showcased John Woo's Stranglehold and it looked interesting enough for me to pick it up the other day. Since this is a game that's about a year old, it only cost $30. This game kicks some ass!

If you've ever watched a John Woo movie, you can figure out what kind of game it is, a lot of shooting at endless bad guys. BUT what makes it interesting is that you can go into slow motion (what they call Tequila Time after the hero's name) while firing (ala Max Payne). Diving, sliding over tables or even sliding down railings automatically puts you into Tequila Time or you can manually trigger it. You can also interact with the environment such as shooting at signs or air conditioners that will drop down and kill an enemy. The more unusual ways you kill someone the more style points you get and at the end of a level you get a rating (A+ thru F-). I've only played it for an hour or so but it's been a blast.

The single player is short and I'm sure no one is playing the multi-player any more, but the game is so much fun that I think there will be replay value in playing levels again and again to kill guys in more and more stylish ways.

For all of you out there, this is a definite rental. I bought it because I knew my 15 year old son would love it. His reaction? "Dad, this game is SICK!".