Discuss: Saints Row 4

[Gornot]

How come there haven't been (m)any discuss threads over here since I stopped coming a while back? I always love ranting about video games and the evil game publishing empire of EA/Activision/Ubisoft/Rockstar etc.

So come join me in a rant about Saints Row 4!

Though basically all I have to say about it right off the bat is: WUB WUB WUB and "haters gonna hate".

Much better than SR3, though it has some things I found ridiculous and needlessly added into the game.

 

[AstaLaVista]

For me is easy not to... it does not appeal to me one bit.

Now, if you want to trash UBI... I'm game

 

[Gornot]

I was waiting for SR4 because I liked "The Third". It was a great improvement on the PC from SR2 which still to this day gives me nightmares.

But the thing is that Volition needed one last money-maker title before they shut down, and SR4 is their last chance. I distinctively remember reading in how much trouble the company was, so SR4 being released in the first place was enough for me to get it.

Besides, dude, you get a dubstep gun! When I saw this I was just like SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEYZZZ :roflmao:

As for trashing Ubisoft, let's just wait for a few years until they publish a DECENT game then destroy it with their DRM - I'll gladly go on a maniacal rampage for your pleasure xD

 

[x BlueRobot]

I've said this before, but I believe Saints Row has completely differed from it's original GTA-style concept to brand names and super powers, because the series isn't able to compete with GTA at all.

 

[Gornot]

I think you're right even though "competing" against GTA does sound a bit far-feched. GTA has that kind of a thing in the bag and the original Saints Row concentrated on gangs and stuff... I guess the only reference to GTA would be the San Andreas release.

But even with Saints Row 2 things have been moving in another direction which was, IMHO, a very good move, even though it STILL generated a lot of needless and ignorant hate.

But even SR4 is not without its problems. The storyline made me go WTF every five minutes, the whole simulation concept could've been avoided. You've already been attacked by aliens, so why not keep the real world and and just rephrase a couple of theories pushed into the game to make it much more... well, sensible. Even super powers, rifts, all those data clusters could've been justified existing in the real world or at least rebranded into something more realistic because of the new kind of energy that was brought along with the invadors and their advanced technology, for example.

Considering that the story would've made much more sense and probably be a lot more fun as well. But I found that with all those crazy guns and super powers I never actually used the homie feature OR actually driving. It was too troublesome because there was a better, faster, more efficient, and most importantly, NEW alternative.

Other than that I enjoyed every minute of it

 

[x BlueRobot]

I've got Saints Row, never played Saints Row 2 and played some Saints Row 3 but watched my step-brother play through the rest of the game. I've only watched a few videos of Saints Row 4.

I agree, that they should add some realism to their games, or least make the new features fit into a real world context. For example, Saints Row 3, make sense in a way, since the gang basically became the 'top dog' but the merchandising of the gang in Saints Row 3 doesn't make sense?

It just feels and looks like Crackdown.

 

[x BlueRobot]

 

[Gornot]

The game has tons of references, some of which I couldn't really recognize at first. But yeah, Prototype, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed even - it's all in good fun for me

Merchandising the gang's popularity is something I hear from people saying SR3 was bad - but that's just a very small detail (literaly it's just the first cutscene and a random NPC dancing as a mascot in front of the branded clothing store) in an otherwise big game.

If you ask me, I still prefer SR2 because it had its fun moments while still being a pretty serious game (I WANTED SEPTIC AVENGER TO MAKE A COMBACK, VOLITION! DAMMIT!) but SR3 and ESPECIALLY SR4 is just so stupidly fun it's ridiculous. SR4 is even better for voiceacting and dialogue, the jokes and most importantly, GUNS! WUB WUB

 

[AstaLaVista]

Hey, at least the game was not developed by Ubisoft...

 

[x BlueRobot]

SR3 and SR4 are good in a stupid way

 

[Lomai]

Hey, at least the game was not developed by Ubisoft...

:roflmao:

 

[Maguscreed]

I just have to say one thing here. GTA 4, and 5 even look like digital crap. It gets so bad when I'm driving at 100 miles an hour it's sometimes hard to even tell where the road is up ahead, why people are willing to kill and die for that stupid game is completely beyond me.

Saint's row 3 was a masterpiece of insanity and fun, 4 I have to admit is basically saint's row 3, plus some mechanics from prototype 2 and spiderman.
The thing that bothered me most about it was the appalling lack of content that is original to it. It's really an expansion for saint's row 3, and charging full game price for it is a bad move and maybe even a tad dishonest.

If they had put it up for ...say 15 bucks like Blood Dragon, I would probably not be harsh about it. I did have some fun playing it. I couldn't help but notice the entire time that very little had actually been added to the game, and that the virtual world concept the whole thing revolved around was nothing more than a cheat to avoid having to create more new content.

If you are a GTA fan, I'm sorry to bust your bubble but just because something is popular doesn't mean it's good.
Ever heard of bronies?

 

[smarteyeball]

If you are a GTA fan, I'm sorry to bust your bubble but just because something is popular doesn't mean it's good.

And just because you don't enjoy something, doesn't make it bad

Ever heard of bronies?

There's a big difference between engine limitations and shit.

 

[Maguscreed]

If you are a GTA fan, I'm sorry to bust your bubble but just because something is popular doesn't mean it's good.

And just because you don't enjoy something, doesn't make it bad

Ever heard of bronies?

There's a big difference between engine limitations and shit.

Fair points I suppose.
Look at it from this way though GTA 4's port to pc was horrible. The shader engine was broken beyond belief. It had a lot of nearly game breaking problems that seem to have somehow just become the source of a lot of funny gifs on the internet.

...say a horse jumping on a motorcycle and flying away on it.
If you like the game that's fine, as you point out, it is a matter of opinion and not fact.

On the other hand, pretending it was perfect and rallying around it as a model for future games. I think was a bad idea that we will be paying for much longer now given the insane first day sales of 5.

 

[AstaLaVista]

On the other hand, pretending it was perfect and rallying around it as a model for future games. I think was a bad idea that we will be paying for much longer now given the insane first day sales of 5.

But this is, basically, the modus operandus of mots Companies now a days, 100% how UBI operates but, everyone is cutting corners because us as a society don't really care as long as you keep that DLC coming and promise that you will patch the game.

Go to the Ghost Recon Future Soldier forum and just read the atrocities that UBI has done with that game since it first launch back in the Summer of 2012, pretty similar to any other of their game forums but I choose this one as an example... then, from the shadows of mind blowingness, a few will come out begging UBI to please listen to the changes that the community want for GRFS2 :shock: dumfounded, dumbstruck & flavergasted are big words for me and they pale in comparison with what I would like to use to describe these people

 

[Maguscreed]

On the other hand, pretending it was perfect and rallying around it as a model for future games. I think was a bad idea that we will be paying for much longer now given the insane first day sales of 5.

But this is, basically, the modus operandus of mots Companies now a days, 100% how UBI operates but, everyone is cutting corners because us as a society don't really care as long as you keep that DLC coming and promise that you will patch the game.

Go to the Ghost Recon Future Soldier forum and just read the atrocities that UBI has done with that game since it first launch back in the Summer of 2012, pretty similar to any other of their game forums but I choose this one as an example... then, from the shadows of mind blowingness, a few will come out begging UBI to please listen to the changes that the community want for GRFS2 :shock: dumfounded, dumbstruck & flavergasted are big words for me and they pale in comparison with what I would like to use to describe these people

I don't know what is going on lately, even valve has managed to screw up team fortress 2 introducing horrible periodic server wide lag/rubberbanding. They've generally been fairly reliable about not completely breaking stuff in the past.

Then their new announcement is a steam OS based on linux that is really only for a special product they plan to make, and half life 3 still isn't confirmed, and I think I just popped a blood vessel on my forehead.

Anyhow, there are a lot of turn for the worse things going on, and there is some weird air of desperation from the corporate side driving it. To be honest I blame EA for setting it all in motion far more than UBI, UBI was just all too happy to jump on the bandwagon though.

EA has been doing some minor backpedaling but they still have never owned up to the fact they've destroyed dozens of good profitable developers and all but violated many beloved titles in the process. In a morally bankrupt process they consider to be business as usual.

 

[AstaLaVista]

all things being equal, all the CoD MW games, solely speaking about the campaigns are made very well, whether console ports or not, there is no need to patch, there is no need to do nothing but install and play, same goes for all the MoH MW games... none of the UBI games are made well, they all have problems, all of them, whether they can't be play with mouse because of lack of buttons assignments, or uplay does not let you in or install, etc... this is why I am saying that UBI is the worst of them... shooters is all I do so I can't comment on the other genres.

Now, the part of them eating the small fish... I couldn't agree with you more.

 

[smarteyeball]

Fair points I suppose.
Look at it from this way though GTA 4's port to pc was horrible. The shader engine was broken beyond belief. It had a lot of nearly game breaking problems that seem to have somehow just become the source of a lot of funny gifs on the internet.

Definitely no arguments there. As far as ports go it was indeed woeful. I didn't upgrade for GTA, but it still took three CPU and GPU gen upgrades before it was smooth enough to play maxxed out. Even then the FPS fluctuations are wilder than a drunken priest and as ugly as a beaten whore.

On the other hand, pretending it was perfect and rallying around it as a model for future games.

I'm certainly not one who believes it was perfect. Far from it - but I do accept the engine limitations for such a large scale game on outdated hardware that it is. Truth be told I was disappointed to hear it was coming to the 360. I'd hoped it would be on the new console with a much improved engine. However, imperfections aside - I do enjoy the gameplay of GTA far more than any of the Saints Row titles I've played. That's what keeps me coming back.

In fact I caved and bought it today because I didn't feel like waiting for the "however long" it will take to come to PC and the subsequent patches it will need to work properly.

 

[Gornot]

Saint's row 3 was a masterpiece of insanity and fun, 4 I have to admit is basically saint's row 3, plus some mechanics from prototype 2 and spiderman.
The thing that bothered me most about it was the appalling lack of content that is original to it. It's really an expansion for saint's row 3, and charging full game price for it is a bad move and maybe even a tad dishonest.

The problem with SR4 is that Volition was already falling apart while they were making the "Enter the Dominatrix" expansion to SR3. I distinctly remember people being worried that we're never going to see another Saints Row title again, especially when the Dominatrix was pulled and canceled.

So what they did was to try and earn back some money by releasing a new major title, SR4, while spending as little as possible to bring as much new content as they could. It does come off as a bit dishonest, but not if you realize that if Volition had no other choice - it was either that or closing down their business. Now, I'm not sure just how much influence Deep Silver had on Volition, being their publishers, but as I generally despise ALL game publishers I wouldn't be surprised if this decision was enforced.

It's true that while there have been fairly little improvements, it IS a good sequel to SR3 because it brings all the familiar things back while adding new gameplay types that have a lot of replay value.

But I don't think things would be looking up for Volition even if SR4 sells well. Now, starting fresh sounds like a good idea: if people loved the original Saints Row so much, do back to that formula and try to bring in something original, unlike GTA5's "super amazing magical mini games of buy and sell real estate" ZOMG /fail

 

[Maguscreed]

Saint's row 3 was a masterpiece of insanity and fun, 4 I have to admit is basically saint's row 3, plus some mechanics from prototype 2 and spiderman.
The thing that bothered me most about it was the appalling lack of content that is original to it. It's really an expansion for saint's row 3, and charging full game price for it is a bad move and maybe even a tad dishonest.

The problem with SR4 is that Volition was already falling apart while they were making the "Enter the Dominatrix" expansion to SR3. I distinctly remember people being worried that we're never going to see another Saints Row title again, especially when the Dominatrix was pulled and canceled.

So what they did was to try and earn back some money by releasing a new major title, SR4, while spending as little as possible to bring as much new content as they could. It does come off as a bit dishonest, but not if you realize that if Volition had no other choice - it was either that or closing down their business. Now, I'm not sure just how much influence Deep Silver had on Volition, being their publishers, but as I generally despise ALL game publishers I wouldn't be surprised if this decision was enforced.

It's true that while there have been fairly little improvements, it IS a good sequel to SR3 because it brings all the familiar things back while adding new gameplay types that have a lot of replay value.

But I don't think things would be looking up for Volition even if SR4 sells well. Now, starting fresh sounds like a good idea: if people loved the original Saints Row so much, do back to that formula and try to bring in something original, unlike GTA5's "super amazing magical mini games of buy and sell real estate" ZOMG /fail

I've only dealt with a handful of games deep silver was behind. The most recent aside from this was TERA. God they destroyed everything about that game. Deep Silver seems to have very deep pockets, and I do think they price gouge at every chance they get. It wouldn't surprise me if they are the ones that actually set the release price.