Saints Row the Fourth

[deuxhero]

My problem with Saints Row 2 on PC is that it controls like ass.

Try getting yourself a fast car and drive from one point to another without crashing into everything along the way.

It's pretty possible with a controller, it only seems to be a problem with the keyboard controls.

To be fair, there's an argument to be made that Saints Row is now too dumb, like being set on eleven all the time. I know a lot of people preferred Saints Row 2 because when it did crazy nonsensical crap, it contrasted much better with the otherwise slightly more low-key setting and action.

That depends of who you ask, personaly, I just found jarring that you invade a nuclear power plant to steal a radioactive sample to just burn the face of one of your enemies that don't die by radioactive exposure and only get his face a little burned, that is ridiculous but become jarring as in the next cutscene you have to save one of your gang members but fail and there is awkward emotional engaging moment where you are supposed to feel something for his death. Saint 2 is half GTA grimdark and gang cruelty, half cartoon with ridiculous stuff. I just prefer one way or the other.

Yeah, I can see why people like SR2 most and it certainly has the best world of the series, but the mood whiplash really bothered me. It's like, one scene has my character being a puckish rouge and pimp walking and cracking clever jokes, in the next we have a prolonged scene of him and Gat brutally torturing a screaming, begging, unarmed man half to death then burying him alive while he sobs for mercy. I wouldn't mind shooting the guy but Jesus this just lost all license to be a lighthearted funny-game.

The protagonist does nothing but help bury him in that cutscene (she doesn't have a single line or action). It's all Gat, and it gives his character more depth than just another comedicly violent sociopath. Being "unarmed" hardly matters there either: he's unrestrained fighting another unarmed guy and is only in this situation because he didn't respect a repeated warning.

 

[Blaine]

For years I dismissed this entire genre as chav/wigger wish fulfillment simulators, and that's still pretty much the case, but Saints Row The Third and IV are fun as fuck. Just make sure you play on Hardcore difficulty, which is actually quite challenging. In SR4, earning gold medals in the more difficult diversions is also non-trivial. The mouse camera controls when driving are over-sensitive (there's no separate sensitivity adjustment for it either), but I got used to it eventually. Attempting to control aircraft, especially helicopters, with the keyboard and mouse can be quite fiddly (clearly the controls were designed for two variable-sensitivity analog sticks), but it's a worthwhile tradeoff for vastly superior aim when shooting firearms.

I'd never have expected some AAA made-for-console popamole to put a big stupid grin on my face, or to be so much fun.

...the game is clearly designed by and for douchebags, white nerds trying to sound "gangsta". I'm much too old now for this retarded shit.

It's clearly tongue-in-cheek parody, and not actually designed by douchebags, though no doubt douchebags are part of the target audience. You sound like an old church lady with a stick up her ass condemning Mortal Kombat for promoting violence, bareknuckle boxing, and poor taste. In addition, if your goal is to paint yourself as mature and sophisticated, phrases such as "retarded shit" aren't helping. 90% of the Codex wallow in juvenile fantasies of some kind or another, which leads into my second point: I hate to break it to you, but nearly all games are ultimately designed by white nerds, so you could apply "white nerds trying to sound X" to just about any game with a storyline or dialogue.

 

[DeepOcean]

I only tried SR3 and uninstalled it after three hours in disgust: the game is clearly designed by and for douchebags, white nerds trying to sound "gangsta". I'm much too old now for this retarded shit.

Man, are you saying that you are too old for a game made by nerds without good taste? How about posting on a RPG discussion forum composed by nerds that start ethernal flame wars about what a RPG is?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Yeah, I can see why people like SR2 most and it certainly has the best world of the series, but the mood whiplash really bothered me. It's like, one scene has my character being a puckish rouge and pimp walking and cracking clever jokes, in the next we have a prolonged scene of him and Gat brutally torturing a screaming, begging, unarmed man half to death then burying him alive while he sobs for mercy. I wouldn't mind shooting the guy but Jesus this just lost all license to be a lighthearted funny-game.

The protagonist does nothing but help bury him in that cutscene (she doesn't have a single line or action). It's all Gat, and it gives his character more depth than just another comedicly violent sociopath. Being "unarmed" hardly matters there either: he's unrestrained fighting another unarmed guy and is only in this situation because he didn't respect a repeated warning.

I see it like that mission in GTA San Andreas where you bury a construction worker inside fresh cement (while he's locked inside a portable toilet) because your sister says he called her a hot piece of ass while she was passing through the area earlier. At least the guy in SR2 was a jackass gang leader who actually tried to kill you once.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Yeah, I can see why people like SR2 most and it certainly has the best world of the series, but the mood whiplash really bothered me. It's like, one scene has my character being a puckish rouge and pimp walking and cracking clever jokes, in the next we have a prolonged scene of him and Gat brutally torturing a screaming, begging, unarmed man half to death then burying him alive while he sobs for mercy. I wouldn't mind shooting the guy but Jesus this just lost all license to be a lighthearted funny-game.

The protagonist does nothing but help bury him in that cutscene (she doesn't have a single line or action). It's all Gat, and it gives his character more depth than just another comedicly violent sociopath. Being "unarmed" hardly matters there either: he's unrestrained fighting another unarmed guy and is only in this situation because he didn't respect a repeated warning.

I see it like that mission in GTA San Andreas where you bury a construction worker inside fresh cement (while he's locked inside a portable toilet) because your sister says he called her a hot piece of ass while she was passing through the area earlier. At least the guy in SR2 was a jackass gang leader who actually tried to kill you once.

Honestly that San Andreas mission bothered the fuck out of me and my interest kind of petered out after that (probably wouldn't have if the game hadn't been 300 hours long with 150 of those being filler, in fairness). What was that shit? I don't know why I even cared but I couldn't stop wanting to go back and dig the poor man out. CJ the radical feminist power fantasy

Fair enough though @deuxhero - my PC can't run SR2 so most of my experience with it is watching my flatmate play it over and over and over for a year straight.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I think your numerous trips to the Shivering Isles' endless cavern systems left you with a traumatic fear of being buried alive.

edit: just recalled, in San Andreas that rapper homie of yours asks you to throw a car containing a rival singer and his girlfriend into the sea. You never see them, but their screams and cries for mercy are clystal clear. Maybe someone at Rockstar has a burial fetish?

 

[Roguey]

I hate to break it to you, but nearly all games are ultimately designed by white nerds, so you could apply "white nerds trying to sound X" to just about any game with a storyline or dialogue.

San Andreas was co-written/script doctored by DJ Pooh for authenticity which puts it ahead of the early SR games which are pure Whitey when it comes to writing.

It's fine though because SR3 pretty much removed the urban black gangster feel altogether. The Boss in the promotional pictures/videos for 3 and 4 is a white guy even though he was black in 1 and 2.

 

[Blaine]

San Andreas was co-written/script doctored by DJ Pooh for authenticity which puts it ahead of the early SR games which are pure Whitey when it comes to writing.

The fact that they needed an ebonics consultant is funny to me.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

oh my god the Pierce recruitment/loyalty missions this is the best game ever

 

[Curious_Tongue]

in the next we have a prolonged scene of him and Gat brutally torturing a screaming, begging, unarmed man half to death then burying him alive while he sobs for mercy. I wouldn't mind shooting the guy but Jesus this just lost all license to be a lighthearted funny-game.

In San Andreas, there a was a mission to bury a construction foreman alive simply because the workers were catcalling to CJ's sister.

 

[SuicideBunny]

I played like 10 hours of Saint's Row 2 and it was pretty much just as stupid and filthy as the new ones. It might have had marginally better writing and more serious moments, but it's not so radically different that someone who hates the tone of 3 would enjoy 2.

wat? yes it is.
very much so.
if it weren't for the bugs and controls, it would be the undisputed epitome of gta-likes. sr2's retarded shit like zombies was either purely optional or had to be seen at most once as an introduction to that type of side mission, not so in sr3 with its fucking retarded zombie outbreak that fucks up side missions in a whole district. gangs had a distinctly different feel, unlike sr3's reskin of the same stuff all over and were just normal people, not some weirdass superhumans. there were extensive cutscenes that gave you a feel for even minor characters as well as telling you tidbits of the first one's story, enough so that somebody who never played it could both piece it all together as well as actually develop an opinion about the characters. the story and the gameworld actually didn't clash with each other and it was a pretty neat, unless you absolutely detest stoners or drugs. even the rival bosses and their lieutenants had enough exposition for you to develop and opinion about them and they weren't just some faceless flunkies, unlike sr3's. the story was enough to carry the game despite its few shortcomings like the timer bug on pc that screwed up many of my missions.

Yeah, I can see why people like SR2 most and it certainly has the best world of the series, but the mood whiplash really bothered me. It's like, one scene has my character being a puckish rouge and pimp walking and cracking clever jokes, in the next we have a prolonged scene of him and Gat brutally torturing a screaming, begging, unarmed man half to death then burying him alive while he sobs for mercy. I wouldn't mind shooting the guy but Jesus this just lost all license to be a lighthearted funny-game.

he was a whiny annoying little asshat, one of the people responsible for gat's girlfriend's murder and shot you at her funeral. personally i felt that was a very satisfying moment... but that might have been due to me having to retry that fucking missions because of the fucking timer bug.

the changes in tone were actually nice because they fit and made the game more believable to me, for some reason.

 

[Fat Dragon]

Those missions in San Adreas wouldn't have been as jarring if they hadn't tried to portray CJ as a sympathetic character. That's why Vice City was much better, Tommy Vercetti was a raging psychopath and the game reveled in that fact.

 

[deuxhero]

Good thing Boss's ONLY sympathetic traits are loyalty to those who are loyal back and being funny. The game makes no secret Boss is a power hunger sociopath, and that's why it's so fun.

edit: just found out someone translated the Japanese dialog from the Ronin cutscenes on the wiki recently. What's interesting is that Kazuo's first line is to insult Shogo directly, which makes Shogo's character make a bit more sense.

 

[DalekFlay]

I played like 10 hours of Saint's Row 2 and it was pretty much just as stupid and filthy as the new ones. It might have had marginally better writing and more serious moments, but it's not so radically different that someone who hates the tone of 3 would enjoy 2.

wat? yes it is.
very much so.

Like I said, I played 2 for a good while, it had that same silly tone he is talking about. If you disagree fine, but I drove a truck around and sprayed poop on people, so...

 

[Blaine]

The biggest complaint I have with Saints Row IV so far is that when no mission is currently underway, the game quicksaves two seconds after you collect a Data Cluster (it waits until the Data Cluster tally splash fades), and there's almost always a brief pause of 1-2 seconds during this. I have a powerful rig that can easily handle the game on ultra and also an SSD, so my computer surely isn't the culprit.

There are hundreds of Data Clusters scattered across the city and all throughout Towers, so every time I grab one I have to sit in one place for five seconds waiting for the quicksave. This may seem trivial to those who haven't yet played the game, but you whiz around like Superman, and being interrupted constantly is a huge pain in the ass.

Having a mission underway seems like an adequate workaround, though.

 

[Menckenstein]

The biggest complaint I have with Saints Row IV so far is that when no mission is currently underway, the game quicksaves two seconds after you collect a Data Cluster (it waits until the Data Cluster tally splash fades), and there's almost always a brief pause of 1-2 seconds during this. I have a powerful rig that can easily handle the game on ultra and also an SSD, so my computer surely isn't the culprit.

There are hundreds of Data Clusters scattered across the city and all throughout Towers, so every time I grab one I have to sit in one place for five seconds waiting for the quicksave. This may seem trivial to those who haven't yet played the game, but you whiz around like Superman, and being interrupted constantly is a huge pain in the ass.

Having a mission underway seems like an adequate workaround, though.

I don't have any pause when I collect clusters. I air dash through two or so in a row and there's no slow down. Weird.

 

[J_C]

I hate to break it to you, but nearly all games are ultimately designed by white nerds, so you could apply "white nerds trying to sound X" to just about any game with a storyline or dialogue.

San Andreas was co-written/script doctored by DJ Pooh for authenticity which puts it ahead of the early SR games which are pure Whitey when it comes to writing.

Maybe because SA was a nigger gangsta game, that's why they neded a "consultant". SR is a white game.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

You mean in SR people talk like normal humans.

But SR1 was a nigger gangsta game, still aping San Andreas with all its might.



(actual game starts at 1:45, why spend so much time at chargen if you're gonna make a butt-ugly freak?)

edit: man, I really need to stop reading youtube comments

EntertainedHumanist 21 hours ago

Saints Row 1 and 2 are the best installments in the series. I started off at 3 and thought it was so dope, but honestly, after the first 2, I see how it was just some fruity-colored wannabe hood garbage for kids. First 2 had a legit urban experience. Real feel of gangsterism. Now it's space, aliens and all that whack shit.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

he was a whiny annoying little asshat, one of the people responsible for gat's girlfriend's murder and shot you at her funeral. personally i felt that was a very satisfying moment... but that might have been due to me having to retry that fucking missions because of the fucking timer bug.

the changes in tone were actually nice because they fit and made the game more believable to me, for some reason.

well okay what about the bit where you lock a completely innocent girl in the trunk of a monster truck and trick her (evil at least) boyfriend into crushing her to death

I don't mean to come across like I have some deeply-seated moral objection to stuff like this even though it rubs me up the wrong way, I just generally find the light-hearted tone of the games to work better when a certain line isn't crossed. None of the SR games have quite got the balance right, though the latter two haven't really tried. I think Vice City actually managed it really well - your character is a psycho, no doubt about it, but it never gives loving, lavish attention to acts of protracted mindless cruelty. It's not hard, is it?

 

[Haba]

Vice City was morally repulsive game, whereas Saints Row 2 succeeded in balancing the whole shebang.

...but but, who about the game of the topic itself?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

well okay what about the bit where you lock a completely innocent girl in the trunk of a monster truck and trick her (evil at least) boyfriend into crushing her to death

You mean the queen bitch of the red-clothed gang?

I don't mean to come across like I have some deeply-seated moral objection to stuff like this even though it rubs me up the wrong way, I just generally find the light-hearted tone of the games to work better when a certain line isn't crossed. None of the SR games have quite got the balance right, though the latter two haven't really tried. I think Vice City actually managed it really well - your character is a psycho, no doubt about it, but it never gives loving, lavish attention to acts of protracted mindless cruelty. It's not hard, is it?

Well, even though the games are tongue-in-cheek you're still playing as a mafia leader, and those guys do enjoy murdering their rivals in various grotesque ways. So it's not completely out of place. Like, say, Mario slowly breaking a koopa's bones with well-placed blows of his hammer until it tells him which castle the princess was taken to.

 

[Pika-Cthulhu]

Like, say, Mario slowly breaking a koopa's bones with well-placed blows of his hammer until it tells him which castle the princess was taken to.

Is that a comic? That needs to be a comic, someone needs to draw that

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

well okay what about the bit where you lock a completely innocent girl in the trunk of a monster truck and trick her (evil at least) boyfriend into crushing her to death

...innocent? She's the one who came up with having Carlos kidnapped and then drug around town chained to the back of the truck. Leaving him mangled to the point that a bullet to the head was a mercy. Then decided to do the dumb ass move of taunting the Saints about it. Previous to that she helped organize or cover for many of Maero's crimes.


Cyrus Temple pulls the exact same "let me tell you about a helpless girl who became the victim of gang violence" speech in SR:TT, not mentioning that she herself was part of that chaos.

 

[Caim]

Like, say, Mario slowly breaking a koopa's bones with well-placed blows of his hammer until it tells him which castle the princess was taken to.

Is that a comic? That needs to be a comic, someone needs to draw that

"We could-a do this in two ways. Either you-a tell me exactly to which fucking castle they took-a the princess, or I will work your fucking knees with this here hammer, capiche?"

 

[evdk]

Like, say, Mario slowly breaking a koopa's bones with well-placed blows of his hammer until it tells him which castle the princess was taken to.

Is that a comic? That needs to be a comic, someone needs to draw that

"We could-a do this in two ways. Either you-a tell me exactly to which fucking castle they took-a the princess, or I will work your fucking knees with this here hammer, capiche?"

Just turn Mario into Luca Brasi.