An evening with Inspector Tequila

I am a cheapskate. I’m so cheap I don’t intend to upgrade my current PC ever again. I’m so cheap I’ve resorted to borrowing PS3 games from my neighbor, who is conveniently a fellow PS3 owner. The first game I borrowed? Stranglehold, that John Woo shooter that’s a tribute to Max Payne, which in turn is inspired by John Woo.

As I write this, I’ve just gotten through the rails section where Inspector Tequila rides a helicopter and proceeds to shoot up a harbor full of thugs with rocket launchers. I feel that getting to this point is already a personal achievement since I’m a keyboard jockey, and am laughably terrible in console shooters.

How am I finding it? Well, it is rather fun getting to run around in a world with a lived-in feel to it. Walking into a table would automatically cause Tequila to slide off its surface, and pressing L1 in certain parts of the environment would cause some interesting displays of over-the-top gunplay.

The visuals are quite good too. I see more emotion in faces, so the immersion is quite different from the last console generation. Storytelling has definitely improved because of this emotion.

However, I feel that Stranglehold is not special. Not yet, at least. I’ll withhold my judgment until I finish the game and played its multiplayer.

If I really am a cheapskate, then why the PS3, you ask? The 360 is cheaper, right?

For starters, I have the cheapest model. My next point? Many of the Xbox 360 owners I know have more than one unit because their earlier ones have broken down. These people have ended up spending more than I have for shipping their units to Microsoft, repairs, and getting their second (or third) 360s.

If you have money to burn, get the 360. It has the best games, but you should expect to get more than one unit eventually.