EvaUnit02 on 27/11/2008 at 14:49

---

(http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/925/925276p1.html?RSSwhen2008-10-29_153100&RSSid=925276) Sounds like it'll have a decent PC port. The more footage that I see of this game, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62giFBEU8uw) the more that it looks like the GTA sequel that I expected from no. 4.

I'm currently playing through GTA4 for 360 and have to say that most of the magic that this series once had for me is gone. All of the PS2 era GTA's had this "pick-up and immediately start having fun" arcade-ish quality, but the attempted realism has all but killed it for me.

Start a melee brawl with a cop, kill him, take his baton and handgun and away you go on an instant gratification crime spree. Oh no, not in GTA4 - kill a cop and you immediately get a 3-star wanted rating; the "wanted circle" on the map makes it hard to escape the police; you can only use the Pay 'n' Spray if no one sees you enter. The over-the-top car physics are gone.

The tone of the game is pretty schizophrenic. On one hand you've got the gameplay that attempts realism, the serious storyline and other hand you've got GTA's trademark tongue-in-cheek crude humour with the radio stations, billboards, fictional companies, etc.

EvaUnit02 on 27/11/2008 at 15:33

---

It's more that in combination with the game's damage and physics model. The moment that it looks like I'm going to escape the "wanted circle", two or three more squad cars come up on my arse and reset the recentre it. With a 3-star rating or more it's murderous, not fun at all.

Fuck the realism honestly. Bring back the old behaviour of pay 'n' sprays and the bribery pick-ups.

Mind you I haven't tried the multiplayer, so that could be a different story. But I want to muck around on my own too, FFS.

It's a real shame that they haven't made a San Andreas Stories, it's likely impossible due to the space constraints of UMDs. I loved the PS2 ports of GTA:LCS and VCS. VCS has one of the best GTA soundtracks ever, IMO.

denisv on 27/11/2008 at 17:31

---

That game looks incredibly stupid. Who the hell buys these things.

gunsmoke on 29/11/2008 at 15:31

---

GTA series got better and better...until it peaked w/san andreas. That game, IMHO, is probably the best video game ever made at that time. It's just like a TV series that has been on a few too many seasons...it's lost it's original magic and is trying new directions that will polarize peoples' opinions of it.

The Alchemist on 9/12/2008 at 12:58

---

Ok, here's the breakdown.

I got GTA4 first, played it and loved it, it had a heavy storyline and was fairly realistic in a film noir kinda way. But the diversions the game added to supplement the gameplay mechanics themselves were a chore, taking people out to drink or to see a show was fun the first time for the novelty, but after a while it was just a bore. I really enjoyed the comedy shows, but there were only about 4 different ones and what the fuck I'm not playing GTA4 for comedy shows. None the less it was a great game, but I shelved it soon after completing the story.

Enter Saints Row 2. I thought SR2 was going to be completely retarded, what with the PR they've been pushing lately. And after signing up Terra Patrick I figured it was a desperate attempt to get attention for their crappy game. I realized later how wrong I was. Their PR was an attempt to get attention to their game, but not because it was crappy, simply because everyone was going to assume it was crappy in light of GTA4.

And that's not the case, having beaten SR2 now I can say I enjoyed it as much or more than I did GTA4. The player customization is a novelty at best, but the territory based gang warfare a la San Andreas is a lot of fun. My only complaint would be that territories don't go under attack often enough and you can't actually lose a territory to an enemy, it just remains contested until you show up. You can customize your gang, the way they talk and look, the cars they drive etc. You can buy homes a la GTA4, but you can customize them, and these customizations serve you as style points which help you gain notoriety which you require in order to do the story missions. Which brings me to Saints Row 2's saving grace (or perhaps nail in the coffin depending on how you look at it). The city is littered with activities, they are all over the place. There are dozens of them, ranging from drug trafficking, hitman activities, helicopter assault actives, races, insurance fraud (you jump in front of moving cars), escorts, celebrity crowd control, fight clubs, destruction derby, etc etc. Sure, GTA4 also has these diversions but not nearly as many and not structured into varying levels of difficulty as you progress in them. There's also a drive by diversion if you have a car full of your gang members, a base jumping diversion when you jump out of a plane (which the game has several of, ranging from WWII era proppers to airline jets, sadly no combat jets) or helicopter (the funnest vehicle in the game is arguably the attack chopper "Tornado"), and a car surfing diversion for when you jump onto a moving car. More fun than that though, for me, is just finding a big truck to hide in the cabin of, and shooting at cops that follow you as the scared driver flees for his life from the gunfire that never ceases just behind him. :P

There's also a very lengthy set of car customizations which are a lot of fun to tinker with. Even larger vehicles (such as monster trucks and semi's) can be customized, but you need to find garages that can support vehicles of their size.

The story is entertaining if not Oscar winning, and at least you don't have a whiny brother calling you every 30 minutes to go see a show or whatever.

Admitedly, the graphics are not as good as GTA4, the driving physics leave a LOT to be desired, and the explosions aren't nearly as satisfying as GTA4. More over the aiming, despite being a huge improvement over all past GTA games, lacks in comparison to the aiming and gunplay in GTA4, which they did a really good job with.

So overall, there's more content in SR2, there's more to do and more to have fun with, but the game world itself isnt as polished or as nice. It's a trade off, but if you ask me which one I thought you'd be pulling off your shelf later on to play some more on, I'd bet on SR2. I still haven't even discovered a good portion of the activies, let alone having completed the ones I have discovered.

Oh and one last note, the melee fighting in SR2 is pretty compelling. You can change your fighting style, do combos, charge-up moves, and there's a healthy amount of melee weapons to choose from, including swords (which have cool combo and finishing moves too) and a tazer, which is just not fair. :P

The reason I changed my mind and decided to give SR2 a chance was none other than Yahtzee's review:

(http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/312-Saints-Row-2)

And it says everything I said a whole lot funnier.