"Saints Row 2" Surprise Hit of '08?

[TedShatner10]

Saints Row 2 is to me seems to be the best of the Grand Theft Auto clones so far and I'm definitely getting round to buying it. Here is the website for the game and it has some fun videos with that washed up Hollywood fruitcake, Gary Busey.

The plotline and setting is quite different to the more grim and grey NYPD Blue setting of GTA IV, and more closely related to Vice City and San Andreas in tone. The humour also seems more crassly fratboy and not that dryly satirical, unlike the GTA franchise.

The plot is more comic book sci-fi/fantasy too, with a street gang fighting against a sinister faction known as Ultor Corporation, a monolithic company that is very similar to Omni Consumer Products and has bought out the fictional city of Stilwater, purchasing the police department, the prominent criminal syndicates, the local businesses and city blocks for commercial profit, and has deployed a private army of orange uniformed mercs for security. The Ultor Corp. was the same evil organization that was featured in Red Faction from way back in 2001.

This game looks like a unpretentious blast, packed with some features and sub-games that seem missing in the slicker GTA IV and another reason why Volition are pretty underrated as games developers (I'm also looking forward to Red Faction 3, another third person sandbox game).

 

[firehawk12]

I do want to give it a shot... but it's coming out at such a bad time. Next week is the biggest game week of the year and it just rolls downhill after that.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

For everybody in the UK, Tesco extra have made a mistake on their website and are selling Saints Row 2 for just under £16...........I just ordered 3, yeah i have no doubt they will cancel all the orders at that price but its worth a try, what you got to lose.

SR2 PS3 Tesco extra £15.97

 

[Dreadnoughty]

For everybody in the UK, Tesco extra have made a mistake on their website and are selling Saints Row 2 for just under £16...........I just ordered 3, yeah i have no doubt they will cancel all the orders at that price but its worth a try, what you got to lose.

SR2 PS3 Tesco extra £15.97

Thanks man,just ordered a couple myself, and of course told a few friends....haha. Their PS3 sales of it will go through the roof.

 

[gh4chiefs]

I do want to give it a shot... but it's coming out at such a bad time. Next week is the biggest game week of the year and it just rolls downhill after that.

What's the big one(s) for next week?

 

[firehawk12]

Fable 2, Far Cry 2, Little Big Planet... well, thats all I can think of at the moment.

Of course, the week after that is Fallout 3 and Guitar Hero 4 among others.

 

[Commander Vaughn]

It's a very expensive month to be a gamer this month.

 

[firehawk12]

Basically. And next month is just as bad. Fucking holidays...

 

[gh4chiefs]

Fable 2, Far Cry 2, Little Big Planet... well, thats all I can think of at the moment.

Of course, the week after that is Fallout 3 and Guitar Hero 4 among others.

It's a very expensive month to be a gamer this month.

Guess I'm lucky I"m not interested in any of those games. The SOCOM beta was a disaster so I guess my only buy this month with be SR2.

Basically. And next month is just as bad. Fucking holidays...

Yeah Nov will be the killer month for me. COD and Resistance 2 are just a couple that I can think of off the top of my head, but I"m pretty sure there are more that I plan on getting.

 

[Jim Steele]

It's a very expensive month to be a gamer this month.

My god, tell me about it. Have Fallout 3 and Fable 2 preordered, want the Star Ocean remake on the PSP and now I'm seriously digging Far Cry 2. My wallet (and my wife) hates me.

Next month I'm looking forward to renting/borrowing Gears 2, and buying Rise of the Argonauts.

Saints Row 2 can just piss off. Looks like it might be a fun antidote to the starkness of GTA 4 (which I loved), but I'll wait for the bargain bin on this one.

 

[unimatrix7]

Yeah, screw Saints Row 2. Who do they think they are releasing this month, anyway? They're gonna get creamed.

Count me as another who wants the Star Ocean 1 remake for PSP - in addition to all the other goodness coming our way this month. The annoying thing is that I kind of have to grab it on day 1 if I ever want to play it, otherwise I'll be forking over $300 for a used copy of the thing next year on eBay. Hmph.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Yeah Nov will be the killer month for me. COD and Resistance 2 are just a couple that I can think of off the top of my head, but I"m pretty sure there are more that I plan on getting.

Actually I may have misspoke. FarCry 2 may be something I'm interested in, and other than Endwar, there may not be as much coming up in the next couple of months as I thought.

I guess I'm getting old and cranky but I'm getting where I'm very reluctant to plunk down $60 on a new game unless I'm absolutely certain I'm gonna really like it. (And even when I'm certain, I still make mistakes, see my comments on Brothers in Arms in the other thread) So that's why most of those games mentioned by Firehawk aren't on my radar.

I keep hearing "Little Big Planet, Little Big Planet!" screamed at me by the media but I still don't see the attraction. Maybe if I rent it, and actually get my hands on it, maybe I'll understand but right now I'm like

 

[PKerr]

I do want to give it a shot... but it's coming out at such a bad time. Next week is the biggest game week of the year and it just rolls downhill after that.

What's the big one(s) for next week?

For me and the 360

October 14, 2008 Dead Space
October 20, 2008 Monopoly
October 21, 2008 Far Cry 2
October 21, 2008 Legendary
October 28, 2008 Fallout 3
October 28, 2008 Scene it? Box Office Smash
November 7, 2008 Gears of War 2
November 11, 2008 Call of Duty: World at War
November 11, 2008 Mirror's Edge
November 11, 2008 ShellShock 2: Blood Trails
November 18, 2008 You're in the Movies
November 20, 2008 Left 4 Dead
December 16, 2008 Damnation

 

[TedShatner10]

Why is Saints Row 2 clashing with big November and December releases when it has been released today? And it is in it's own niche and been released a while after the buzz around GTA IV has died down and is not yet another FPS.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Wow, looks like you're gonna be busy. My co-worker was talking to me a little yesterday about Dead Space, but it doesn't sound like my kind of game. I should get Monopoly, but again, I have too little time, and too little money, to play all the games, so I have to be kind of picky.

 

[Jim Steele]

Why is Saints Row 2 clashing with big November and December releases when it has been released today? And it is in it's own niche and been released a while after the buzz around GTA IV has died down and is not yet another FPS.

Well, to be fair it IS clashing with the big October releases (Far Cry 2, Fable 2, Fallout 3, any other games starting with "fa"), and the majority of gamers simply aren't able to buy everything they might want, so they tend to hedge their bets.

There are a lot of folks out there who wouldn't mind SR2, but they're going to save the £40 for Gears 2 instead.

 

[PKerr]

Why is Saints Row 2 clashing with big November and December releases when it has been released today? And it is in it's own niche and been released a while after the buzz around GTA IV has died down and is not yet another FPS.

$$$
Most folks don't have the cash to get all the games so they have to be selective.

I happen to be in luck as I just paid my truck off last month and it opened up an extra $500.00 a month for me.
I should put the extra cash on my Motorcycle but it's time to spoil myself (and GF) for a few months first.

 

[gh4chiefs]

And it's not just the $$ (although that's the big one) it's also a matter of time for many of us. I don't know about the rest of you, but I can only play one game at a time , and I don't feel the overwhelming need to rush out and buy a new game, when I'm still knee deep in my current game.

 

[Jim Steele]

And it's not just the $$ (although that's the big one) it's also a matter of time for many of us. I don't know about the rest of you, but I can only play one game at a time , and I don't feel the overwhelming need to rush out and buy a new game, when I'm still knee deep in my current game.

I do agree to an extent. Time is factor for me too between a full time job, a wife and a child, but somehowm I always seem to be juggling 5 or 6 games at a time.

Every now and then though I'll just blitz through one in a weekend.

When Oblivion came out I didn't buy another game for almost 6 months - I swear, I was OBSESSED. And for the year or so before that, I'd been playing Morrowind to death. So now I tend to be more into the "hours of gameplay" factor than I used to. If I'm gonna plop 40 quid on the table, I want 80 hours of adventuring damnit! Not some 5 hour headshot fest with a plot thinner than Michael Stipe (I'm looking at you, Gears!).

 

[Mistral]

11/11/08-COD5. No time for anything else if I'm going to unlock the 6th-10th custom classes!