This game shows the possibilities of blurring media. Stranglehold will serve as John Woo’s interactive sequel to one of the best examples of Hong Kong cinema from the early 90s – cult classic Hard Boiled. The game will feature the voice of none other than Chow Yung Fat himself, cult-acclaimed star of Hard Boiled.

The single player demo lets you play the role of Inspector Tequila; the aptly named violent Hong Kong police detective. Xbox Live’s Stranglehold demo is a 1.28 GB download; it’s rather large and there is probably so much traffic trying to get it now, that you may receive some status errors when you try to download, reported by Xboxic. I’d recommend waiting a bit before trying to download. The download isn’t going anywhere. 

The game uses the Unreal Engine 3 to gorgeous effect. This will surely be one of the prettiest action shooters you’ve seen in a long while. It’s set to be released on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC this month. Xbox 360 owners can get a limited edition faceplate for their game console if they buy the game in advance. http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=B200162A

There will be two versions available upon initial release; a regular retail version and a special Collector’s Edition with plenty of extras.

This isn’t the first time the blended genre has been seen in a video game. It was Max Payne that gave us the first cinematic - style “film noir” in a video game. Max Payne also gave us bullet time which was a gaming homage to slow motion movie action sequences, the likes of which you’d see in a John Woo or a Wachowski bros movie. So, the influences have now come around in a sort of jagged circle. The slow - mo action scenes that let us see every macabre whack in movies influenced the way video game shooters moved, which led to more depth in movies and now it’s back to a sort of … video game/movie.