Dead to Rights: Retribution Message Board

Go nuts.

The G.A.C. Pack is a go.

Click image to dance into our gallery Grant City officers looking to extend their Turner and Hooch-like experience in Dead to Rights: Retribution will soon get a new DLC pack. The "GAC Pack" drops on May 26 in PAL territories for Xbox 360 and PS3 and adds two new gameplay modes: Assault on the 87th Precinct and Riot Control.

In Assault on the 87th Precinct, players take up the role of the enemy -- Grant City Anti-Crime. Playing as a Sniper, Brawler and Tank, players must perform the titular assault on the Grant City Police Department and secure the building, a twist on one of the game's campaign missions. Then there's Riot Control, which is essentially Dead to Rights' version of Horde mode: Jack and Shadow face off against waves of GAC forces, earning points "based on speed and style." Riot Control will support international leaderboards.

As an added incentive for downloading the "GAC Pack," two previously pre-order exclusive DLC items will be included: the "Jack Pack" and the "Shadow Pack." These add a new set of armor for Jack and some camouflage for Shadow, as well as an "action mode" which turns every bullet into a tiny, exploding grenade. Finally, there's a noir graphic filter included if staring at all of those colors upsets your delicate retinas.

The press release for the "GAC Pack" only mentions the PAL territory, so we've contacted Namco Bandai for clarification on a North American release.

Crime-action series hits the streets with a vengeance; more hard-hitting gameplay on the way with "GAC Pack" downloadable content.

I've been dodging the question all week: "Hey, so how is Dead to Rights: Retribution?"

I know what they want to hear, of course. They're expecting me to savage a game that (1) is part of a series that's largely disliked by those who even remember it exists and (2) is made by Volatile Games, which last delivered unto us the truly terrible Reservoir Dogs. (I'd gleefully let Michael Madsen cut off my ear in exchange for never having to play that game again.)

I understood why friends and co-workers would be expecting an evisceration. But I found myself evading the question because if I was being honest, the answer I'd have to give is this: Dead to Rights: Retribution? Not half bad.

Take a bite out of crime with these new pics.

Shadow's return to glory or a shadow of its former self?

Sure, you saw the first part of the Dead to Rights: Retribution behind the scenes video, but have you seen the second half? Yeah, we didn't think so. But it's here, just above, and Volatile Games project director Imre Jele is back again to lay out how the game was put together over the past few years.

Jele describes the development as akin to a kid in a candy shop, unable to pick just one item and instead choosing everything. While that sounds nice from a quantity perspective, we're hoping things play out as well in the quality department when the game finally arrives at retail in a couple weeks. Either way, at least there's a murderous dog, right?

Our protagonist awakens, covered in debris from a train wreck he managed to narrowly escape from. How did he get there? The game rewinds to earlier in the adventure, as our hero makes his way on a sordid journey towards the disastrous ride. Along the way, he'll have to dispatch enemies, taking cover, mixing gun play and melee combat.

No, this isn't Uncharted 2. It's Namco Bandai's Dead to Rights Retribution. And unfortunately, it too easily welcomes comparison to Joystiq's Game of the Year 2009 ... and comes up short.

We were almost certain that the above Dead to Rights: Retribution trailer Namco Bandai recently sent us was a joke. Not because of its constant depictions of brutal dog-on-man violence (which, admittedly, is kind of hilarious), but because the content of the trailer is obviously ripped off from a recent film you're probably familiar with.

Don't believe us? Check out the trailer above, then check out the film trailer after the jump. The stark similarities should be made abundantly clear.

#innovation Scrotality: name of the Achievement awarded to players of this month's upcoming Dead To Rights: Retribution should they make the game's playable dog chomp a bad guy's groin. More »

When we first heard that this video was going to go "Behind the Game" on Dead to Rights: Retribution, we got all excited to see a five-minute documentary on that little piece of plastic in the game case that protects the back of the game from scratches or dust. But apparently we went a little too literal there -- this video is actually about the making of the game that's due out next month, with Volatile Games' Project Director Imre Jele explaining how the team handled combat, interaction with the A.I. dog, voice work and the stunts in the upcoming sequel.

He mentions near the end that one stuntman actually broke a rib during motion capture, and how the entire team was trying to put that much dedication into the game, and we imagined for a moment that medical bills around its offices must be sky-high with all of the rib-breaking going on during coding. But then we realized we were probably going too literal again -- maybe we should just sit back and watch the video.

Hard-hitting reboot of gritty crime-action series shipping in North America on April 27.

Namco's marketing department must have really gotten a kick out of that 300 movie, because the latest trailer for its upcoming Turner & Hooch adaptation, Dead to Rights: Retribution, is chock full of the slow-mo. It's not that we're complaining; a lady falling from the top of a skyscraper or beating the crap out of a group of similarly uniformed thugs is made infinitely better through the tactful use of slow-mo.

That part's fine -- what we still have trouble with is protagonist (and police officer) Jack Slate's inability to value human life. Sure, these guys are criminals, but that doesn't mean you have to do some weird wrestling move that breaks their neck and kills them dead, right? Since when did a can of mace and the Miranda rights stop being standard procedure?

We like to keep it light and fun around here, but this latest series of Dead to Rights: Retribution media is serious business -- when there are terrorists involved, the joking stops. That's the gist of the above trailer, which features Temple Tower, the latest target of terrorism in Grant City.

Thankfully, Jack and Shadow are on the scene to deal with these "hostage takers." All it takes is a good cop and his murderous, almost impossibly skillful canine companion, after all!

A look at how the characters are brought to life.

Were you sitting there reading Joystiq, thinking about how much you want to pre-order upcoming reboot Dead to Rights: Retribution, but just don't have enough of a reason? Good thing then that Namco has announced the pre-order campaign for the third game in two years to offer up a fighting dog, but here's the catch: There are separate pre-roder bonuses should you choose to go with GameStop versus Amazon. We know, we know, but life is tough. GameStop customers will get their hands on the "Jack Pack," which includes "Grant City Anti-Crime armor" for the game's main character and a "guns-blazing action mode" which apparently turns your regular ol' bullets into exploding bullets. Madness! The folks who drop their bucks early at Amazon are granted the "Shadow Pack," which turns the aforementioned dog into a stealth ninja dog with camouflage and also adds a "noir mode" to the game, said to flip the black and white switch (in addition to making the blood more dramatically red). Now do you have enough reasons to go out and pre-order it? Do ya?

Downloadable content packs available exclusively for pre-orders from major retailers.

So what if the latest Dead to Rights: Retribution dev diary is unbelievably light on actual gameplay? It makes up for that in droves with a smattering of pretty images of the Abbey Road recording studio where the game's soundtrack is being recorded. For all the effort being put into the music, we would hope a bit more attention would be focused on the bits of game footage strewn throughout the clip. Unfortunately, we are instead given the less than thrilling exchange between the game's main character and a police officer around the three minute mark. Last we heard, Dead to Rights: Retribution was scheduled for a "Q4 2009" release by Namco, so considering that time has come and gone, your guess is as good as any as to when the game will see the light of day. For now, well, we've got this dev diary.

A behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the original musical score for the game, which was recorded at world-famous Abbey Road Studios in the UK. Audio Manager Matt Black guides this latest dev diary, discussing his inspiration and direction for producing a score that complements the noir-inspired setting and gritty characters in the game.

Volatile Games discusses the aural experience of Dead to Rights.

The latest installment of the Dead to Rights series will have you shooting, punching and mauling more than ever.

Delve into the world and mind of a vigilante.

Building an antihero from the ground up.

In this video the developers explain how the character design played a key role in making the game.

Man's best friend is also man's deadliest weapon.

Don't let the headline throw you -- we don't mean the bad kind of dog fighting. We're talking about the kind of dog fighting where well-treated, justice-loving canines attack gun-toting criminals who pose a threat to their master, whom they love and remain eternally loyal to. When cast in that light, attack dogs aren't menacing or controversial -- they're just heartwarming companions (with enormous, razor-sharp teeth). Check out the dev diary above to see Dead to Rights: Retribution's man-eating puppy in action. Oh, also, there's a human hero who uses guns and other traditional methods of justice-serving, but that's not really as noteworthy, now is it?

Cool guys don't look at explosions.

The developers tell us how to defeat the enemy.