Saints Row On The 360

[Chopsticks]

I'm being dead fucking lazy here so this is just a straight copy and paste of what I've posted elsewhere about this game, but if you've got a 360, you really should have this. (It's GTA3, but on the 360, and better.)

 

Also, since writing the points listed below, I have heard pointed references from someone boasting about his "eight inch cock" and a punter telling a whore that "it" (his semen) would "eventually wash out of your hair."

 

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Saints Row, first two hours of play impressions......

 

1) It looks great, although the framerate does take a dive sometimes and there are some tearing issues - overall however, it looks and moves like you'd imagine GTA3 would have done back on the PS2 all those years ago if the PS2 were ten times more powerful than it actually was. (Loads of hi-res textures, infinitely better models for both cars and people, whole game world looks far more convincing - and as far as I can tell it does the whole lot without any loading transitions whatsoever, even from outdoor to indoor.)

 

2) It sounds fantastic although the radio stations aren't overly impressive in terms of tunes. But if you jump out of a car with the radio playing, unlike the GTA games where the music cuts off immediately, it actually pans the radio station around the full 5.1 sound stage in the direction that the car went off in when you jumped out of it. Obviously you need 5.1 surround sound to appreciate this aspect of things.

 

Massive range of samples for all the characters, and the pedestrians are great fun to fuck around with.

 

3) If you've ever played one of the 3D GTA games, then you've played this, it's like slipping into a comfortable pair of GTA3 slippers.

 

4) But it does stuff better! Like instant mission restart, like being able to save whenever you want, albeit with being moved back to the nearest save location in doing so. You can set waypoints on the map which makes learning the map a far more natural process.

 

5) Absolutely as freeform as GTA3 but makes the "extras" feel like far more of the proper game than GTA3 did. The thing with the GTA games was that you could be a city-toppling badass motherfucker, but still got hung up on all sorts of trivial crap if you tried to go for any sort of "completion" stuff. Saints Row changes that by making you earn "respect" to unlock missions, you get respect from doing the relatively trivial sort of stuff that in GTA3 you had to force yourself to do out of commitment.

 

6) The game is totally morally bankrupt, GTA3 looks like a poem written by Mother Theresa in comparison to Saints Row. It's like they took all the excesses of GTA3 and multiplied them by a hundred, then added in some more stuff on top of that just for the sake of it. There are "escort" missions you can do, which is driving whores around to service clients, amongst other classic snippets I heard, "I don't do golden showers and I don't do scat," "Do you want it on the tits or on the face?", and there was definitely something about "getting the whole fist in."

 

7) Also the music tracks are full of motherfuckers and niggers and bitches, as you'd expect from a hip-hop orientated track listing, that said, there are plenty of other radio stations to choose from which offer some relief from hip-hop.

 

8) On-foot sections are well designed and easy to control, you have to choose from a set list of control schemes so it's not 100% configurable, but I found totally comfortable configurations for in-car and on-foot from the preset choices, so no issues there. There's no obvious auto-aim for on-foot, but the controls are good enough to mean you don't need it.

 

9) And the biggy of course - what's it like as a game? It's definitely caught my attention in a big way, it's very much adult entertainment so not one for clueless parents to pass onto their ten year olds. As a veteran of all the GTA games I got the feeling that Saints Row is aimed at exactly that market, and does so with the explicit attention to have everything dialed up to "a bit insane," it works for me, it's massively good fun and I've not even scratched the surface yet.

 

10) I've typed enough, I want to go back to playing Saints Row.

[spanna]

Played it and completed it.

Its ok but its nowhere near as good as any of the gta games.

[Chopsticks]

Played it and completed it.

Its ok but its nowhere near as good as any of the gta games.

 

I beg to differ, it takes a lot of the stuff that was always broken in GTA and fixes it, instant mission restart is worth a gold star all by itself.

 

It's important not to get too carried away with how good the GTA games are (or aren't), GTA3 was revolutionary of course, Vice City arguably just did the same thing again without really changing much (although remains my favourite game of the series), and I found San Andreas to be overly large and bogged down with pointless RPG crap. (To such an extent that I couldn't be bothered to finish it.)

 

Saints Row changes quite a lot of the less-good elements of the GTA games, and works out well because of it.

[ai_Droid]

Ta for the tip. I also dont think GTA is the best thing ever, actually enjoyed Mafia more than any of the GTA games.

 

Not heard about saints row, but was kind of let down with the repetition of Crackdown so will try to pick it up used, nice one!

[spanna]

Played it and completed it.

Its ok but its nowhere near as good as any of the gta games.

 

I beg to differ, it takes a lot of the stuff that was always broken in GTA and fixes it, instant mission restart is worth a gold star all by itself.

 

It's important not to get too carried away with how good the GTA games are (or aren't), GTA3 was revolutionary of course, Vice City arguably just did the same thing again without really changing much (although remains my favourite game of the series), and I found San Andreas to be overly large and bogged down with pointless RPG crap. (To such an extent that I couldn't be bothered to finish it.)

 

Saints Row changes quite a lot of the less-good elements of the GTA games, and works out well because of it.

 

I was also impressed when i first got it. but after doing the same things over and over to complete it . You start realising bits that let it down. Its still ok like. Just not as amazing as you think it is.

I agree with the magazine reviews... 81 is the average on metacritic. Sounds bang on to me.. pretty good just not in the amazing category.

 

ps Mafia on pc is one of the best games ever.

[K.os Theory]

my 2pence, thouroughly enjoyed it, especially loved the massive shoot-outs you could get going on with the cops, especially with a couple of gang-members, very "Heat-esque!"

[modey]

I couldn't get into that game at all, not a patch on gta imo.

 

I even managed to sell it at a car boot sale for £15 on sat, even though soft uk were selling it for £12.99.

[Chopsticks]

I couldn't get into that game at all, not a patch on gta imo.

 

I even managed to sell it at a car boot sale for £15 on sat, even though soft uk were selling it for £12.99.

 

Hmmm, I put another three hours in on Saints Row tonight, and it's not wearing thin at all.

 

I honestly don't see anything that GTA3/Vice City/San Andreas did that Saints Row doesn't do as well, or better.

 

OK maybe one thing, the vehicle handling isn't as good in Saints Row, even the big heavy vehicles and/or RWD performance cars all feel a bit on the light side, but that's something that can be adapted to very quickly.

 

One aspect of Saints Row that's really standing out for me is the way it delivers proper cutscenes and plot development for just about everything you do, including the more "mundane" tasks to earn respect and unlock new "proper" missions, this contrasts starkly with all the GTA games where you got pretty much nothing in the way of dialogue, cutscenes, or story advancement unless you were doggedly following the main mission mode.

 

I suspect that the reason some people kick against Saints Row is that it's a shamelessly blatant copy of GTA3, but on the 360, and more extreme. It's difficult not to think, "Hang on a minute, these guys are TOTALLY ripping off GTA3, and they're totally shameless about it!"

 

And it's true to an extent of course, Rockstar did it first and they're being copied in the most blatant manner imaginable, but that doesn't make Saints Row any less of a good game, considering that we all probably accept that GTA3 represented a true "next-gen" gaming revolution, the likes of which we'd been waiting for over several years and more.

 

Moreover, Saints Row does the on-foot stuff far better than any of the GTA games did, and its character development aspect feels far more natural and a lot less forced than it did in San Andreas.

 

I'm loving it to pieces, my only worry is that GTA4 is going to have to be really good to topple Saints Row as the ultimate GTA style game. (And of course, I desperately want GTA4 to be magnificent.)

[K.os Theory]

chopsticks, you've actually made me think of going into town today and seeing if I can pick it up on the cheap, just feel like a nite beatin me ho's and the like!

[Chopsticks]

I did some more escort missions last night to get a bit of cash and respect, I picked the client up and he went at it with the ho' on the back seat, and came out with, "How's sucking cock working for you?"

 

Mrs Chopsticks looked up from her laptop and said to me, "Did he just ask her about sucking his cock?"

 

"Yes," I replied.

 

The next client I picked up was a woman, which led to some interesting chat about vibrators.

 

It's a very classy game.

[ai_Droid]

's got no planes, bikes or boats, eh, just cars?

[Chopsticks]

's got no planes, bikes or boats, eh, just cars?

 

As far as I can tell just cars, but also ambulances and big trucks and dustbin vans and all that kind of thing, and I'm sure I passed a JCB type vehicle last night.

 

There are no boats that I've seen, but your character can at least swim, unlike the spacko in the GTA games who dies on contact with water.

[ai_Droid]

There are no boats that I've seen, but your character can at least swim, unlike the spacko in the GTA games who dies on contact with water.

 

Are you taking drugs today Choppo, you could swim just fine in GTA. You need to stop smoking Campbells crack pipe

[Chopsticks]

There are no boats that I've seen, but your character can at least swim, unlike the spacko in the GTA games who dies on contact with water.

 

Are you taking drugs today Choppo, you could swim just fine in GTA. You need to stop smoking Campbells crack pipe

 

In GTA3 and Vice City you drowned.

 

I think, it's been a long time.

[ramsea]

Yup it was only in SA that he could swim as well as being able to climb over a 4 foot wall.