Ok, due to only recently discovering Yatzee's reviews on the Escapist and his epic love-letter on Saint's Row, I went out and harvested a dirt-cheap copy of Saint's Row 2.

I've not played Grand Theft Auto since 1 and GTA London and thought, "Ok, this isn't likely to be my sort of game, but I'm going to try it"...And laughed myself sick for 4 days.


Now, my players will scream, "He's a monster, don't trust him!" but I tend to be a very moral, law-abiding sort.
My thought process went something along the lines of this:

5 minutes in: Oh, dammit, shooting Cops? This shit never ends well. Maybe there was some non-lethal takedown I'm not sure about?
30 minutes in: God dammit, next ganger so much as looks at me and I'm going to powerslide their asses into a building. And yes, that goes for you too, Mr Po-Po.
45 minutes in: [Painting the inside of a police cruiser red with my SMG because they were following me]
60 minutes in: [Painting the insides of a cruiser red with twin SMG's because I needed a ride and that parked car was almost 1/4 a block away.]
70 minutes in: [Painting the insides of a new car red beacuse I hadn't driven it before and wondering what the handling characteristics were like]
80 minutes in: Shooting the drivers of other vehicles because they cut me off in traffic.
90 minutes in: Shooting the drivers of other vehicles because they indicated they were going to cut me off in traffic.
95 minutes in: Shooting the drivers of any high-performance sport cars (that weren't my crew) because I've been run over by those mofo's EVERY SINGLE TIME I attempt a car-jack.
100 minutes in: I discover the Attack Chopper.


Because I found the male forms of the protagonist a bit, well, generic, I went with a sporty female, nice bob cut and the male cockney voice...and Doctor Girlfriend's reign of terror was born.

Before my 2nd playthrough , I had no idea what I was doing half the time, but it was fun and colourful and energetic - case in point, I was completeting the airport level 6 drug-dealing sidemission (when completed, unlimited Shotgun ammo) the Brotherhood was coming from every corner (40 minutes at 5 stars and climbing:)) and blowing the crap out of everything that came close.
After this enormous mass-car pileup and multivehicle explosion, I successfully carjacked a pickup and was driving away with my druggie contact who's exclaiming, "Now, I know I've done a lot of drugs, but I could swear you've shot that guy before..." In the middle of this carnage, and as the pile up began to detonate, an NPC riding a motercycle brushed too close to a flaming car wreck, caught fire and while screaming, drove wildly up a massive earth pile and into the blissful embrace of the water-feature beyond.

My better half, watching as the swearing increased with each truck filled with Brotherhood arrived, came over and asked, "What the hell was that?" and I had to reply, "I DON'T KNOW! But It was pretty awesome, right?". (Mutual nods)


All I hope is that the same insianity can happen in SR3:) And Saint's row 3.

-Tir

Hah, the same? You must be joking. Oh no, the insanity will be FAR in excess.

The very first mission? You'll rob a bank while signing autographs. Then in part two, a series of events leads to you doing this.

Think the reds of The Syndacate are rather cut and dry? Perhaps, but you do realize their muscle is a bunch of paramilitary luchadores? And their brains and technical support is a group named The Deckers? There's also a military organization called S.T.A.G. whose equipment includes hoverbikes and VTOL jets with lasers.

Of course this only the tip of the iceberg, I won't shill every last detail, but rest assured insanity is pretty much what Saints Row 3 will have in spades.

That game is 'hawk. And that's why I'm going to get it!

GTA has gone darker and grittier. Saints Row has gone more audacious and crazy. Both companies have outright stated that's exactly the direction they want to go.

I'll be counting my pennies for Saints Row 3. That Parachute Scene alone sold me on the "Holysonofadrek that's crazy!", and then there's the whole "Rob the bank in a mask of... Yourself!"

I belong to a group called "Gentlemen of the Row", a veritable splinter cell of Penny Arcade Forums. If you want crazy and you want it sooner than the release of Saint's Row: The Third (SR3), you owe it to yourself to check out IdolNinja's super-mod for Saint's Row 2 (SR2) that can be found here:

http://idolninja.com/

It makes the teribad console port that is SR2 run better and adds more crazy to the game that doesn't interfere with it. Be sure to grab the 1.9 version, its pure awesome sauce.

Does it need to be said I am very much anticipating SR3's release? It may be one of the few games I will pick up for full price instead of waiting for a Steam sale - unless its really close to the Holiday Sale, then I can be a teeny bit more patient to coop with my Steam friends

Sadly, I ran it on a X360, as my PC system looks at game build from 2007, screws up its eyes and begs for mercy, e.g.: it'll be a good computer, please don't ask me to do this, etc, etc....

All it's good for now is minecraft:)

But I did have a look at some of the mods that people had put together...I sorta wish that the geo-mod (is that what it's called?) physics engine of Red Faction 2 could be grafted onto SR2 - breakable buildings would have been awesome. I loved the EDF scout from the downloadables and have been two-wheeling that thing into crouds of Ultor workers shouting "Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed FACTION!" (The better half has asked me to stop doing that now)

I hope SR3 is going to be zany because the player makes it so, not because it's forced pink mohawk.
Still, if I can have my Cockney Dr Girlfriend as a publicity whore/gangboss, it should be good.

-Tir

"You've been driving with Gat again, I can tell"
"I'm going to have nightmares over this ride, Boss!"
"Ohhkaay, it's going to be one of those days, ain't it?