Baal and BD get Saints Row: the Third

i'm surprised at how thal i have near 40 hours and i'm still having a blast. i almost own the entire city

I rented this over the weekend.

My inital thoughts were how odd the controls felt, though having not played SR2 for a couple of years now that isn't entirely surprising. Besides, within a few minutes I had grown accustomed to them again and it wasn't a problem. Secondly, the graphics. Yes, they're better than SR2s, but not by the leap the intial screenshots suggest. Comparing 360 SR2 to PS3 SR3 shows that while SR3 has much more varied and more detailed textures, and a superior colour palette, it has a weird fuzziness over everything which looks even worse when the game insists on pouring on the "bloom" lighting effects. It may just be a PS3 issue though I've not played the 360 version to compare. Ultimately, the graphics are once again functional rather than outstanding, though I guess that's the price to pay in a gameworld where everything that isn't nailed down can be influenced by you in someway or another.

Despite these minor quibbles, the game is still an absolute blast. The story, which I shan't get too involved with here, serves only to drag the Saints away from their established turf and into a new city where they're once again small fish in a big pond. Of course, it doesn't stay that way for long, and the missions are by turns equally utterly childish and very adult, incredibly varied yet never confusing, and usually involve at least one genuine lough-out-loud moment, be it scripted dialogue, an action set piece or a cutscene.

It's easily the funniest game since... well, Saints Row 2.

The game world is huge, there are distractions everywhere, from random events that occur as you happen to be walking nearby to various side missions and people who just want to get your picture as your celebrity reaches the new city. I spent at least fifteen hours playing, and barely scratched 30% of the story proper.

That said, even with the technical niggles put aside, it's not perfect. Some aspects of Saints 2 that really should be here are conspicuous by their absence; want to upgrade your crib? Nope, only a select few get that privelege and even then all ugrades are predetermined. You can no longer watch previously viewed cutscenes, or repeat your favourite missions from the comfort of home either, which is a strage omission in a game that prizes itself on its own absurdity. Some of Saints 2's better side missions / activites are mssing too; Fuzz (a spoof of the various Road Wars / Cops TV shows) and Septic Avenger (which had you spraying sewage across the city) being two of the more noticable casualties. There's no real reason not to have them, and the replacements, including a tron style bike race inside a virtual world, simply don't compare.

The city itself is also not as well designed as in Saints 2, in which every district had a very unique and distinct flavour. Here, everything all looks much of a muchness. Also, and this may be a bit of a spoiler, the support cast isn't as strong as Saints 2's. A major character is killed off very early doors, and the remaining two lieutenants are almost unrecognisable from the Saints 2 incarnations. Seriously, Shaundi was a pot smoking hippy, now she's just another potty mouthed psycho. She even has a different VA.

SR3 introduces new helping hands as the story develops and while they're all reasonably good attempts at adding variety to an increasingly audacious cast, none of them are as memorable as Gat / Shaundi / or Pierce were circa Saints 2.

All that sounds very negative, I know. Truth is, Saints 3 is still a brilliant, brilliant game and massive fun to play but I can't help but feel it is still missing just a little of its prececessor's charm. Does the extra variety in The Third's story missions make up for the comparitive lack of customisation options and a few of Saints 2's better activities that are now absent? I know there are a lot of Saints fans on the forum, so what do you think guys? Am I being overcritical, or do you still yearn for more of what part 2 had to offer?

Having taken to watching a playthrough of the game, I may just pick up the vanilla version after a big price drop. That early casualty of that major character just doesn't sit well with me. But at the same time, It's still Saints Row. T~T

Rockstar_Silence wrote:

That early casualty of that major character just doesn't sit well with me. But at the same time, It's still Saints Row. T~T

The game is still a hell of a lot of fun, but the loss of that character changes the team dynamic considerably.

Spoiler:

Of course, this does present the opportunity for an easy buck - all violition need do is add a DLC mission pack whereby the deceased is shown to be alive. It wouldn't even be that much of a stretch given that we never see the death, nor any body. We meant to take the word of someone who is trying to provoke us. Anyway, I digress. I'd imagine the takeup for such a pack would be huge. Not that I wish to give them ideas of course, but surely that's a no-brainer?

SimianWonder wrote:

Of course, this does present the opportunity for an easy buck - all violition need do is add a DLC mission pack whereby the deceased is shown to be alive. It wouldn't even be that much of a stretch given that we never see the death, nor any body. We meant to take the word of someone who is trying to provoke us. Anyway, I digress. I'd imagine the takeup for such a pack would be huge. Not that I wish to give them ideas of course, but surely that's a no-brainer?

I recall they claimed there would be "40 weeks worth" of DLC at some point so I wouldn't be surprised if they already have it planned.

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It wouldn't even be that much of a stretch given that we never see the death, nor any body.

There is a body, you get to see it after you finish the game.

Do you actually see the lifeless corpse itself or are you just referring to the bonus "zombie" character? While I personally believe it was meant to be a permanent death, there are ways to retcon it if they so wished, cloning being a very easy and relevant one.

Yeah, there are ways but why would they do that?

Why? Seriously? Because a lot of the fanbase would buy that DLC. Charge a fiver for a mission pack, and even if only say twenty percent of those who own the game pick it up that'd still bring in two or three million quid.

You killed off a character, the fanbase moaned like hell about it, so you charge them a little extra to have him or her back. It's easy money. Call me a cynic, but that's what I'd do if I owned Violition.

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Because a lot of the fanbase would buy that DLC.

A lot of the fanbase is going to buy the DLC regardless because it's for a game they love.

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Call me a cynic, but that's what I'd do if I owned Violition.

And you'd be basically starting wars over bringing other characters who died too. Might as well bring back Carlos while we're at it too and completely devalue his death too.

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A lot of the fanbase is going to buy the DLC regardless because it's for a game they love.

What's the average take up on DLC amongst owners? Maybe ten or fifteen percent? I'd wager they'd at least double that if they released a package that showed the person in question still alive and kicking. That's double your money.

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And you'd be basically starting wars over bringing other characters who died too. Might as well bring back Carlos while we're at it too and completely devalue his death too.

Devalue death? What would be new there? Mainstream franchises have been doing that for years. DragonBall did it all the time. Being dead was a minor inconvenience by the end, and western comics are no better. Someone dies, the sales decline, that person mysteriously returns. Besides, your comparison isn't a good one - comparing someone who is a mainstay to the series, likely the most popular character in the whole damn franchise, to someone who had a small to medium role in one part of said franchise. It would give Violition the option to correct what many of the fanbase perceive as a mistake - heck, look at what Bob wrote. He's planning to wait for a huge price drop, one reason being the death of this one character. No one would have done that with Carlos, Julius or Lin. They just don't have the same gravitas.

Besides, Carlos is very clearly dead. We saw the act that lead to his horrific injuries, we saw him die in the MCs arms. There's still a degree of ambiguity surrounding the death of you-know-who. And no, I don't mean Voldemort.

I wouldn't deny it would be seen as a cynical money-making move on Violition's part. I wouldn't deny it would show a lack of integrity on their part, a lack of confidence in their own ability to judge their franchise and the fanbase. I'm just calling it as I see it.

You'd be incredibly wrong mainly through the fact that Saints Row is a B-Title series. The character in question may be the most recognizable character in the game, but they're hardly that much of an impact on sales. No one that plays Saints Row plays it for that character nor would they spend more money on DLC just because they were a focal point of it, consumers who love Saints Row will buy the DLC because it's for a game they love and if it has that character? Bonus, I guess.

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Mainstream franchises have been doing that for years.

So this suddenly makes it okay to advocate it? No, you should not be encouraging this shit. It's one of the most awful things to do to a story even if it's for a game like Saints Row.

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There's still a degree of ambiguity surrounding the death of you-know-who

No there isn't, they were shot, you heard it clearly, they were surrounded by dozens of guys, the plane fucking crashed with their body most likely still inside it and they held a funeral. To top it off, the zombie version of the character is unlockable for when you beat the game, something that happened with Lin and Carlos too, two characters that were quite clearly killed.

Volition may be another company, but they've got their own quirks about them that show they wouldn't bring the character back due to some misplaced sense of popularity on the character that they think would bring them lots of cash, the character isn't nearly popular enough for that to be anything close a profit based solely on their name.

either way., i found that an extremely stupid way to kill off a character

Oh it definitely was because you don't even get to see the damn funeral, but just let him stay dead.

I think my copy of this arrived today, gonna go pick it up later. I can't wait to spend three times the price of the game on DLC.

pc?

Just out if interest, and because I had to return the game midweek, how far was I from the end of story mode? I'd just finished the mission where

Spoiler:

I'd guess around 2/3rds of the way, would that be about right?

That sounds about right.

i<3claire wrote:

pc?

Yeah sorry, I found out that this group of guys who modded the shit out of SR2 and made it more amazing had started work on SR3 as soon as it released and I couldn't turn that down.

Any examples of their work? Either Saints 2 or The Third, I'm just curious.

http://idolninja.com/sr2.php

There's admittedly not a whole lot released for SR3 yet, their "in progress" list is impressive though.

Oh it should be said I still wouldn't honestly suggest anyone buy SR2 on PC, it was a horrible outsourced port and the mod I mentioned was basically a necessity if you wanted it to remotely resemble a functional game. From what I've seen (and from what Volition have claimed) though SR3 seems to have been produced to much higher standards, I'll probably confirm/deny that at some point tomorrow.

Well I put off watching Hanna for a little bit while I played through the opening sequence (up until after you get the predator missile) and I'm thoroughly satisfied with the PC version of this, everything runs flawlessly maxed out at 1920x1080 and I didn't even notice any slowdown while using the video record mode they built in.
I expected to just use my dualshock but truth be told I actually prefer the M&K controls; changing weapons while moving is no longer an issue as the number keys instantly swap to the relative weapon and the mouse wheel can be used to scroll through the entire wheel on the run and naturally I feel a lot more in control of my aim than I would with an analog stick. Usually the driving controls would soil the overall experience in a game like this but as the turning is mostly drift based that's not an issue either and I can easily weave in and out of traffic while on a straight.

Ultimately I'm very happy with how this turned out and it pretty much redeems Volition for the shitheap that was PC SR2.

Video tool works nicely, quality is good and it only took a minute to render, only problem I can tell is that it seems to cut out a little bit towards the end so next time I'll just leave it running a second or two longer.

WTF kinda gun was that?!

It basically summons a landshark to eat whatever you shoot, I forget the name.