Square Enix has announced the release of Sleeping Dogs, a Hong Kong-styled take on the Grand Theft Auto open-world formula, with an impressive live action trailer.

It features plenty of well-choreographed gunplay, martial arts, cleaver throws and general ass-kicking. It also uses, to full effect, the dubstep track “Sleepwalking” by Los Angeles producer Photek, with the vocals by down-tempo songbird LINCHE.

Photek, a.k.a. Rupert Parkes, was recently nominated for a Grammy (Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical) for his remix of Daft Punk’s “End of the Line,” which is featured on the TRON: Legacy R3CONFIGUR3D soundtrack.

Developed United Front Games, based in Vancouver, commissioned Goldtooth Creative to create the trailer, which serves as a” full-blown homage to the Hong Kong action flicks” that have inspired the storyline and universe of Sleeping Dogs.

Players will be placed in the role of undercover cop Wei Shen, as he attempts to bring down the Hong Kong triad from within, with what seems to be a whole lot of collateral damage.

The publisher has confirmed that Sleeping Dogs is the reincarnation of True Crime: Hong Kong, which was canceled by Activision early last year.

The “ME3 EP” is full of impressive nerdcore lyrics and delivery, combined with great samples from Jay-Z, Cypress Hill, Handsome Boy Modeling School and more. You can download the EP over at Destructoid, where WarRock is also a community member.

The Memphis-based rapper, who previous rose to internet stardom with his hilarious hip-hop tribute to Parks & Recreation, is also an avid gamer, and apparently very excited for the upcoming release of the Mass Effect 3 demo, which goes live on February 14^th.

Hopefully WarRock’s girlfriend is down to play some ME3 co-op, otherwise it’s going to be a lonely night.

Hit the jump to check out our track-by-track run through.

S.P.E.C.T.R.E

Beats: “99 Problems” (Karaoke Version) by Jay-Z

“You used to have problems til the S.P.E.C.T.R.E. came / SPEcial Tactics and Reconnaissance, respect the name”

WarRock starts of the show in bombastic fashion with “S.P.E.C.T.R.E,” which features the metallic booms of “99 Problems.”

The track is quick, brutal and efficient, not unlike how a SPECTRE operates, with the chorus above bringing the braggadocios tone home. WarRock manages to capture what goes through the player’s mind as he or she becomes the first human S.P.E.C.T.R.E, essentially a black-ops agent for the multi-species galaxy.

You’re well-armed and ready to do some shady things, with some shadier characters. Shepard, respect the name.

Active Squad 

Beats: “The Hours” by Handsome Boy Modeling School

“Enter the Genophage / Wipe out these Renegades, they all just wanna fight / I’m only one who conversates”

Oh man. This track is utterly relentless, smacking you in the face like a charging Krogan blinded by blood rage.

“Active Squad” features the talent of Beefy, Mikal kHill, and Kabuto the Python, the latter of which is best known for his song “Those Minerals” off of The N7 EP.

I get chills down my spine when I hear the in-game dialogue samples strewn throughout the track. Accompanied by old-school, kung-fu horns, they remind me of something off of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).

Bizarre Love Triangles

Beats: “La Petit Mort” by Kno

“You got a stern attitude, or a mask that keeps you just so far from where our bodies touch / That’s if I play it right, and hoping to take you to captain’s quarters tonight”

Fornicating with exotic alien species has always been an integral part of the Mass Effect series.

WarRock gets all sentimental with this track, reminiscing about his digital courtships with the series’ various romance options.

He, rather classily I might aid, interludes bits and pieces of the skin-bearing  moments the male or female Shepard may find themselves in, depending on which crew member the player chooses the pursue.

Oh Shepard, you sly dawg.

Mordin’s In the House

Beats: “16 Men ‘Til There’s No Men Left” by Cypress Hill

“Mordin Solus is a ruthless thug / Or maybe he does it all for love.”

Time to get a little weird. Using an appropriately funky beat, courtesy of Cypress Hill, WarRock weaves the bizarre and chaotic tale of Mordin Solus, one of my favorite characters from the entire series.

Mordin is a paradox. One moment, he’s just another odd-looking alien scientist with a nerdy penchant for talking fast. The next, he’s a cold, calculated killer haunted by a checkered past.

Mordin will end you using wit and intelligence, rather than brute force. He’s effectively the Walter White of the ME series.

Also, he loves him some Gilbert and Sullivan.

“Paragon | Renegade”

Beats: “S.C.O.M.” by Celph Titled

“And when then button is clicked, better face the mirror kid / That’s the person that you live with.”

WarRock ends the EP on a philosophical note, bearing the player’s struggle of maintaining a black-and-white understanding morality, in a universe filled with grey decisions.

He touches upon a theme that extends far beyond a simple musical tribute to a great game series.

For those that making in-game decisions based on what that individual who choose in real life,  moral decisions in games can truly touch on something primal.

As in real life, nothing is 100% good or bad, there is always an in between. So while that decision to forsake the lives of innocent civilians for the sake of the greater good may not necessarily be “real,” you were still the one who made that choice.

Youtube user SkipPrime has created this haunting music video, syncing the bleak visuals of Half-Life 2, using 100% in-game footage, to the apocalyptic tones of Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s “The Dead Flag Blues.”

According to Kotaku, SkipPrime “spent over 100 hours,” putting together this well-crafted montage.

The ominous song is a perfect compliment to the hopeless struggle of humans in City 17. The speaker describes a futuristic dystopia, where a corrupt government barely controls the chaos by drugging its citizens, teetering on the end of the world.

“We’re trapped in the belly of this horrible machine. And the machine is bleeding to death.”

The narration of “The Dead Flag Blues” is actually taken from an unfinished screenplay of Efrim Menuck, the band’s guitarist. Like a distorted reflection, it mirrors the oppressed atmosphere of Half-Life 2, where humanity has been easily conquered by an alien empire known only as the Combine.

Enslaved, sterilized, and left to watch as the world around them burns, they’ve taken up a seemingly hopeless rebellion where each day the body count climbs.

My favorite part of the video comes in at around 2:07. The song’s wounded narration and rising strings fade into pale white light, letting the game’s audio take the reigns.

Familiar sound effects step above a subdued, mournful melody. The beeps of alien technology, the menacing stomp of something impossibly large and mean, the panicked pleas from somewhere far away.

Then, the door is kicked open, and the distinct, metallic screeching of barely audible Overwatch radio chatter comes to a scarring high.

Things begin to look up from there, however, with the sight of your trusty HEV suit and the surprised faces of old friends and new allies. The tempo picks up as bloody triumph after bloody triumph flies past.

You’re even greeted by the warm smile of an old friend, accompanied by a soft guitar.

But make no mistake. The road ahead is dark and long.

“For sure, it’s the valley of death.”

These days, it seems like every other new video game trailer comes packed full of “wubs and dubs,” while short-changing the audience on content.

Dubstep, the highly popular, bass-heavy electronic music genre, has been making frequent appearances in game trailers since the latter half of 2011.

As the “music” of the now-infamous Skrillex began frequenting more and more frat house ragers and crappy sushi bars, so did the gaming industry fall head-over-heels for the latest music trend.

By nature, it’s a high-energy, kinetic style of music that can make even the most mundane actions seem epic.

But this is one fad that needs to come to a swift end.

First off, it should be clear that I don’t have anything against dubstep itself. Even as a pretentious narcissist, I can understand how a filthy, unapologetic bass drop can scratch that dark, dirty corner of your soul like nothing else.

However, what I take issue with is the misguided use of this genre to convey a game’s content and tone.

Take the Assassin’s Creed: Revelations trailer above. Sure the Matta remix of German artist Hecq’s track, “Sura,” is somewhat danceable. And it even looks pretty cool when Ezio stabs nameless guard after nameless guard in beat with the song.

But does any of that tell you anything substantial about the game? In short, no.

AC: Revelations, for the uninitiated, is the third entry in the franchise, concluding the epic yet tragic story of its protagonist. The tone, like Ezio, is tired and desperate. It is not conducive to music that makes you want to attend a first-time rave with a group of college freshmen.

Despite the way they’re usually treated, crafting a quality game trailer is an intricate and difficult affair.

You have a roughly two to four minute window to not only convey what your game is about, touching on context, story, characters and atmosphere, but also provide viewers a taste of what it is like to actually play the game, which can span as long as hundreds of hours.

When you relegate a trailer’s audio to a few minutes of what sounds like speaker feedback and constipated Transformers, you give the audience no solid foundation on which to understand your game. Need more examples? Try and sit through these trailers for Uncharted 3 and Ridge Racer Unbounded.

Caryl Flinn, in her 1992 book Strains of Utopia, gracefully summarizes the importance of a carefully constructed audio component of the visual medium.

“Picture and track, to a certain degree, have a composition of their own but when combined they form a new entity. Thus the track becomes not only a harmonious complement but an integral inseperable part of the picture as well. Picture and track are so closely fused together that each one functions through the other. There is no separation of I see in the image and I hear on the track. Instead, there is the I feel, I experience, through the grand total of picture and track combined.”

In a video game trailer, the right song or construction  of audio can speak volumes towards a game’s tone or feeling. In a few short minutes, you can convey to a potential player the emotional journey they would experience from the game, without them having even touched a controller.

Now, let’s look at an example of a song choice done right in a game trailer. Check out this trailer, also for AC: Revelations, released a few months earlier.

The track featured is “Iron,” by indie artist Woodkid. The slow, menacing drumbeat, combined with the rise and fall of war horns creates a battle-weary and jaded tone. This is only compounded by the morose delivery of the vocals, not to mention the lyrical content.

It is a well-chosen, engrossing musical piece that perfectly complements the experience of playing as a lifelong killer, accomplishing much more than just empty spectacle.