Sleeping Dogs online spin-off Triad Wars will be shutting down its beta on January 20th 2016 at 12 AM PST, according to developer United Front Games. All unused gold – used for customization and which could be purchased with real money – will be refunded and gold will be made available for free until the game shuts down (since real world money transactions are no longer available).

United Front stated that, “Since the start of the Triad Wars Closed Beta this year, diligent Enforcers have run rampant through the streets of Hong Kong, killing rivals and building Empires. During this time we have gathered immense amounts of feedback, information, and data on the game. We’ve loved seeing how you’ve played Triad Wars but we know it wasn’t right for many of you so we’re letting you know today that we are going to close the beta and service on January 20th 2016 at 12 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

“That’s 4 weeks from today and over this time we’re going to leave the game up and running for you to continue to enjoy but we will not be accepting any more purchases. To help you enjoy these final 4 weeks we’re going to make Gold available free of charge and we’ll shortly be posting news on the forums about how to deal with refunds of unused Gold. Thank you very much for all the testing, feedback and support!”

What are your thoughts on the closure of Triad Wars? Let us know in the comments below.

So keeping in mind that the game is still in Beta, I started everything off on standard settings, and rather than watching the game stutter and die, it ran just fine. I couldn’t believe it, there wasn’t a single hitch in my frame rate, this is practically unheard of. Especially in a Beta for a game that has a sandbox as big as this the one found here.

Content with performance, I set about playing the game as an extremely generic looking bloke, and before I knew it I was hanging out the side of a car, blasting away at pursuers with some sort of rifle. The moment I shot out the tyre of a civilian bus, causing it to careen into a pursuing motorcyclist was the moment I thought, ‘Yep, this is the Sleeping Dogs world alright.’

Not long after, I was given a plot of land and told that this was where I would be forming my gang and setting up my safe house, set on the path to honourable victory as a major power to be feared by my rivals.

"Triad Wars makes it easy to feel empowered, but that feeling of power can be stripped away in an instant. When I cashed in a favour to get my hands on a pistol, I began to blow through my opponents. Literally. But when I found myself going through an enemy base with no ammo, things change pretty quickly."

To do this, I had to build, secure and conquer. So I quickly cashed in a favour to get my hands on a meat cleaver and a car. Armed thus, I drove down the road, most likely violating every road law in existence, and began my climb to dominance. Combat comes thick and heavy in Triad Wars, and is largely relegated to the “X” button, for those of you using a controller.

You dole out the usual light and heavy attacks by pressing and/or holding “X” which lets you fling kicks and punches left right and centre. You may be pleased to know that the absolutely brutal finishers return from Sleeping Dogs in Triad Wars. During a short skirmish over the rights to a lockbox, some unfortunate gang member found himself on the wrong side of a Buzz Saw, whereas his friend was nailed to a table by way of a drill.

Mission completed and loot in tow, you’re going to be introduced to the base building, which is light but effective. Base upgrades can come in the form of “Rackets” which allow you to make money by knocking-off electronics, food vendor stalls and the like. These ensure you have a steady supply of cash flowing in. The way these work is simple. You set up your racket and then go about your business in the game world. As time passes, each racket draws in cash which, upon reaching a certain limit, you can then transfer to your own account. Rinse, repeat and rise.

Triad Wars makes it easy to feel empowered, but that feeling of power can be stripped away in an instant. When I cashed in a favour to get my hands on a pistol, I began to blow through my opponents. Literally. But when I found myself going through an enemy base with no ammo, things change pretty quickly. Those three heavily muscled thugs at the end of the room seem a lot more imposing when you have an empty gun in your hands.

"This is easily the most bug free and enjoyable Beta testing period I have sat through in recent memory. Zero crashes, not a bug in sight, no glitches that propel me into the sky and not a single graphical hiccup."

It’s around this time that I found one of the game’s flaws. When you just start out, you are so damn slow. So slow in fact, that you actually feel it. Character responses feel sluggish, running doesn’t feel like running and I don’t know how many times I thrashed the counter button, but to no avail. This can be improved by upgrading your character by way of upgrade points, but it feels like more of an intentional crippling of your character.

The slow character movement can be remedied by investing points into your speed statistics, but this doesn’t really stop the character feeling so heavy. Triad Wars retains the parkour-esque movements of Sleeping Dogs, so when you slowly plod down a street and the zoom up and over a wall like David Belle himself, the speed problem is particularly jarring.

Then the second problem arose. I really, hate driving in Triad Wars. Everything sounds right, cars look fantastic and seeing the night lights of the city reflecting on your car is still awesome. But every vehicle except one handles like a shopping trolley. I know full well that the best way to take a corner is to slow, turn, accelerate. But this is a high octane game, and I expect, nay I demand to be able to ricochet my car around a corner.

Triad Wars just hits all the right buttons in all the right places, and ignoring the two minor gripes above, I honestly don’t have anything bad to say about the game. Even the small details still make a mark on what you see in the game. Have you been injured? Go buy some roast duck from a street vendor and carry it down the street, munching away before hurling it away. If you throw it away too close to someone, they look at you like a monster for littering.

The world just feels like people actually live in it. People hang out in groups outside shops, lone workers sweep the back step of their store, people realistically scatter or bounce of your bonnet if you decide to plough through an alley way.

This is easily the most bug free and enjoyable Beta testing period I have sat through in recent memory. Zero crashes, not a bug in sight, no glitches that propel me into the sky and not a single graphical hiccup. United Front Games and Square Enix, I doff my hat to you. You’re making something great here.

Note: List is in random order.

Firewatch

Developer: Campo Santo
Publisher: Campo Santo, Panic Inc.

Firewatch puts players in the role of a man named Henry, a retiree that has taken a new lonesome position. His new gig has him stationed in the Wyoming wilderness where he simply watches out for forest fires. The only means of communication with the outside world comes in the form of a radio to his companion and supervisor Delilah. Since Firewatch was Camp Santo’s first video game, little was known or expected until Pax 2014. Taking place in the 1980s, the story of Firewatch is one of exploration and mystery as it seems not just the wild animals are lurking in the lush forest.

During Pax 2014, the development team expressed that Firewatch is open-world but not as some would expect. Instead of being able to locate new places and take on different quests, the story will drive players into a more linear path. Nonetheless, Firewatch does carry over elements from Telltale Games, thanks to ex-Telltale Games creative director and designer Jake Rodkin. Expect a number of different responses to choose from when talking with Delilah. Unfortunately, it’s unknown if dialog choices will play a big part endgame.

What are some top open world/sandbox games to look forward to in 2015? Let’s find out.

Batman: Arkham Knight

One of the most anticipated titles of 2014…until it was delayed into 2015. Then again, given the flawed nature of many of the big-name titles – especially those taking place in an open sand-box – we’re more than happy to see Rocksteady Studios taking the time to polish this adventure.

All that polish seems to be doing wonders for the gameplay. On top of a much larger Gotham City to explore, Arkham Knight features improved combat mechanics, significantly bumped up visuals and the Batmobile to play around with. You’ll transition in and out of the Batmobile during missions, fighting unmanned drones but also using it to open up new paths. As the Scarecrow missions teased at PlayStation Experience indicate, it seems there will be new hallucinatory missions taking place in the Batmobile as well.

Set to release in June 2015, Batman: Arkham Knight should be an experience to remember.

Sleeping Dogs was great, wasn’t it? It had a whole new, altogether unique flavor to it, and many people loved the game’s take on the open world action game genre, which was unlike anything else on the market. If you wanted more of it, you might have been excited when you heard about Triad Wars.

That is, until they clarified that Triad Wars was in fact a ‘free to play MMO expansion’ of the original game. Then you probably groaned and wondered why they couldn’t just leave the original game alone.

Anyway, well, today Square Enix released lots of screenshots, and the game actually looks a bit decent. I mean, it’s not a substitute for a full fledged Sleeping Dogs sequel, but at the very least, it looks like it isn’t totally taking the piss. Especially given that the game is free to play, it looks like it has reasonably high production values.

Get Hype!! Now settle down, because all is not as it seems. A while back, there were rumours of a great big Sleeping Dogs sequel looming on the horizon, the sequel turned out to be Triad Wars, a game that’s being developed by United Front Games. While it does take place in the Sleeping Dogs world of Hong Kong, it’s more of a spin off than an actual sequel.

So what is Triad Wars? Well as the name would suggest, it’s about the Triad’s warring, fancy that. Set to be published (and partly developed) by Square Enix, Triad Wars is an upcoming Online Multiplayer Action Game.

James Baldwin, Triad Wars Community Manager, says, “Set in the vibrant city of Hong Kong, Triad Wars is an online open-world action-adventure game where your goal is to rise to power as a criminal kingpin of the Triad underworld. As an Enforcer and mastermind of your criminal enterprise, it’s up to you to construct an empire the likes of which your enemies would never dare to mess with.”

So it has kinda got the whole Grand Theft Auto V Online thing going on? Well, we’re not really sure. But who cares? You can sign up for the Beta right now!

United Front Games has been fairly quiet since releasing Sleeping Dogs, its successful open world action title set in Hong Kong, in 2012. We’ve heard talk about Triad Wars and assumed it would be a follow-up to the same. United Front has indicated that Triad Wars will be revealed today at 12 PM PST and interestingly, it’s been described as an online PC game.

Community Manager James Baldwin stated that, “I wanted to let you know that we will be unveiling the game on Monday! We are extremely excited to finally show you what we have been working on so stay tuned to this space!”

While United Front did tie up with Nexon to create a free to play title many months ago, it was assumed to be a new project. How will Triad Wars pan out? We’ll find out later today so stay tuned for more details and let us know what you think in the comments.

In a recent announcement via their website, Sleeping Dogs developer, United Front Games has confirmed that another entry in the Sleeping Dogs universe is in the works, Here’s the official statement released on their website:

“We’ve been a bit tight-lipped about our current projects over here at UFG, but we’re finally able to give you a little something. So, we’re making a new game! We can’t say a lot about it right now, but you might have read about a trademark registration for something called Triad Wars?

Well, we’re super-excited that it’s another game based in the Sleeping Dogs universe, it’s something we’ve wanted to do for ages, and we’re very happy to be working with Square Enix again… but that’s all we can give you for the time being – we’ll have more information about what the game’s going to be in 2014.”

So it seems as though this next title won’t be a direct sequel to what some have called the GTA imitation. But based on this statement it’s safe to say we can expect more of the same, whether it be a chronological sequel or not.

Source: United Front Games