So everyone loves Saints Row The Third, right? Well you should, because it's hilarious and fun as all hell. But I've run into more bugs and glitches in my 40+ hours with Saints Row than in my 140+ hours with Skyrim. Now everyone knows about the issues with Skyrim and I've experienced my fair share of backwards-flying dragons and such, but nothing that flat-out broke the game. Unfortunately I can't say the same about Saints Row. I've experienced far more bugs in this game and at this point I cannot progress at all unless I play co-op or start a whole new game. Allow me to explain.

I competed the game as a co-op partner a good week or so ago. Afterward I figured I'd go about getting all of the collectibles by myself and clean up a few other achievements while I was at it. When I loaded my save in single player I was thrust into the "I'm Free...Free Fallin'" mission which occurs very early in the game. No big deal. I figured I'd finish what was required and then be thrown back into the world to do whatever depraved activity I so desired. Or so I thought. If you haven't played the game at all this could be considered a (very minor) spoiler so be warned. At one point during the mission you have to shoot out the windshield of a plane so you can pass through it. I did this with no problem during my co-op run but I've tried this at least a dozen times in single player, in all sorts of ways, but to no avail. I die. Mission restarts. No quitting the mission. It seems that since I've fully upgraded the SMG's you're required to use, which makes them use incendiary ammo, they won't work for this task. Shitty.

I've looked on the official forums and other users have been affected by this, but so far there has been no word from Volition about any sort of fix. There is a mod for the PC version to get around this problem but obviously this won't help folks playing on consoles. So needless to say I'm pretty damn disappointed. Just thought I'd share my first-world pain with you good people.

So everyone loves Saints Row The Third, right? Well you should, because it's hilarious and fun as all hell. But I've run into more bugs and glitches in my 40+ hours with Saints Row than in my 140+ hours with Skyrim. Now everyone knows about the issues with Skyrim and I've experienced my fair share of backwards-flying dragons and such, but nothing that flat-out broke the game. Unfortunately I can't say the same about Saints Row. I've experienced far more bugs in this game and at this point I cannot progress at all unless I play co-op or start a whole new game. Allow me to explain.

I competed the game as a co-op partner a good week or so ago. Afterward I figured I'd go about getting all of the collectibles by myself and clean up a few other achievements while I was at it. When I loaded my save in single player I was thrust into the "I'm Free...Free Fallin'" mission which occurs very early in the game. No big deal. I figured I'd finish what was required and then be thrown back into the world to do whatever depraved activity I so desired. Or so I thought. If you haven't played the game at all this could be considered a (very minor) spoiler so be warned. At one point during the mission you have to shoot out the windshield of a plane so you can pass through it. I did this with no problem during my co-op run but I've tried this at least a dozen times in single player, in all sorts of ways, but to no avail. I die. Mission restarts. No quitting the mission. It seems that since I've fully upgraded the SMG's you're required to use, which makes them use incendiary ammo, they won't work for this task. Shitty.

I've looked on the official forums and other users have been affected by this, but so far there has been no word from Volition about any sort of fix. There is a mod for the PC version to get around this problem but obviously this won't help folks playing on consoles. So needless to say I'm pretty damn disappointed. Just thought I'd share my first-world pain with you good people.

EDIT: First sentence removed due to lack of reading comprehension :P

In terms of a solution, can you give yourself a different gun using cheats or does that disable achievements completely?

Also, are you on a console or are you using the Steam version? If the latter, you could try replacing your single-player save file with someone elses who's roughly at the same spot in the game you are. No guarantees if that would work, though.

Good luck, duder!

troll... comparing SR to a game like skyrim as far as bugs go is insane.

@lusence said:

troll... comparing SR to a game like skyrim as far as bugs go is insane.

So do you have any solutions for this gentleman or are you just here to increase your postcount?

Saints Row isn't nearly as busted as Skyrim in any way, shape, or form. For one thing, the game is actually capable of running on the PS3 for 60+ hours without turning into a slideshow on the PS3.

I finished Saints Row The Third and apart from a few physic fuck ups I haven't encountered a single bug.

I've played sr3 for 70 hours without a single bug

all the bugs I've encountered in saints row made the game better, in fact.

That's a very specific case, not an overall buggy game. I had one or two CTDs, but nothing else.

40+ of SR3, 5 bugs, none game breaking, and pretty damn funny.

5 hours of Skyrim, several slowdowns, lots of broken AI.

Just saying.

um delete and reinstall...

@lusence: I'm playing on 360 so that's not an option. And I'm not trolling. I'm stating the facts as they pertain to my experience.

@Hailinel: You do have a point there. I feel for PS3 Skyrim players. I should have specified that we're talking 360 here though

@Ravenlight: Cheats do indeed disable achievements. Nevermind the fact that you have to pay for them.

@Rafaelfc: I encountered a few of those too, but also a lot of stuff that just plain broke.

@nintendoeats: It is specific but it's not the only issue I've experienced. This particular issue I'm having is pretty damn bad though, and that's what inspired this blog.

@Equal_Opportunity_Destroyer497 said:

@Ravenlight: Cheats do indeed disable achievements. Nevermind the fact that you have to pay for them.

You can use nearly all of them without paying, and the ones you do pay for you can just earn by progressing through the game.

But anyways. Sucks to hear that the your 360 version is buggy. I'm playing on PS3

Not really, i had one crash and Kinzie kept trying to drive through a wall during one of the activities. And once i "power hijacked" a car, my character got stuck in the door, and he died....and also that one time i crashed through a windshield and got stuck in the interior of a building...okay so it's pretty buggy, but still extremely awesome.

Played a lot of it on the 360 & only real problems I had (aside from the one recent fix of the car topedo not updating that information when doing that) were the things mentioned in the bombcast of the cars on the hijack list getting destroyed before getting to them. Aside from that it's been pretty good though there have been the odd visual/collision bugs of things poking through doors/walls or the car that has the wheels going below the ground (so it just doesn't go anywhere) but those for me have been rather rare. Seen other games this year buggier than this.

@Hailinel said:

Saints Row isn't nearly as busted as Skyrim in any way, shape, or form. For one thing, the game is actually capable of running on the PS3 for 60+ hours without turning into a slideshow on the PS3.

I am here to increase my post count, but Hailinel knows what's up.

The only bug that bothered me was that I couldn't get rid of a neck tattoo. Every time I reloaded a save it would always be there. I'm playing Saint's Row on PS3 and Skyrim on PC and have had no issues with Skyrim but a lot of small bugs in Saint's Row.

That sucks, man. I haven't had any problems with SRIII for the 20 hours or so I put into it.

Then again, I haven't had any problems with Skyrim either. So I must be extremely lucky in terms of glitches. I rarely come across them in games.

I privately think that there are very few people experiencing these glitches, but internet users love to complain, and their natural one-upsmanship makes the problem seem much larger than it is. I've never experienced any of the Bethesda game glitches on any game, except for the one quest in Oblivion which was broken. Nobody I know has experienced these supposedly ubiquitous glitches either. Every other Bethesda game I've played has run perfectly. 1200 hrs in Oblivion, 600 in Fallout 3, maybe another 800 in New Vegas. Only one broken quest in all that time. Have not played Skyrim yet but nobody I know who is playing it has had any of these so-called common glitches.

And I'm only about thirty hours into Saints Row 3 but have had no glitches at all except for the tattoos on my arms disappearing for some reason. Although with the character I'm playing, waking up with different tattoos is pretty common.

Saints Row isn't nearly as busted as Skyrim in any way, shape, or form. For one thing, the game is actually capable of running on the PS3 for 60+ hours without turning into a slideshow on the PS3.

Speaking of, I've never run into a game-breaking bug, and I've put in over fifty hours across four playthroughs. Also, I've only run across a couple hilarious bugs where cars get stuck into the ground... after I slammed my giant fucking truck on them.

Lack of STAG's N-Forcers respawning into the world after story is finished could make one vehicle theft unbeatable. Drawbridges staying up makes stealing of heavier, slower cars nearly impossible without resorting to phone calls. Taking fast two screenshots in a row results hard crash on Xbox 360. Some of the stronghold upgrades are not applied after purchasing them.

Those are only bugs that I have encountered, however there are lots of things that seem odd.

For example:

You can use a glitch to customize certain otherwise uncustomizable vehicles. Why would Volition take away ability to make a pink tank? Also one of the options that pops up in there is 'hydraulics' - it does not work but at some point they thought of putting that option in the game.

There is 6 lights at back of Genki's man-a-pult and that vehicle has 6 slots where you can store your shots. However these lights do not react to anything but are clearly meant to be ammo indicators.

You can choose 3 gang vehicles from the selection of 5 or 6 vehicles - you wont get any more options during the game. That is not lot of choice.

@Hailinel said:

Saints Row isn't nearly as busted as Skyrim in any way, shape, or form. For one thing, the game is actually capable of running on the PS3 for 60+ hours without turning into a slideshow on the PS3.

Indeed, and I would know! Think I've hit around 70 something hours (across multiple playthroughs) thus far in total. Still haven't platinum'd, though... some of those Saints Book challenges are hella tedious and boring...

@charlie_victor_bravo said:

Speaking of, I've never run into a game-breaking bug, and I've put in over fifty hours across four playthroughs. Also, I've only run across a couple hilarious bugs where cars get stuck into the ground... after I slammed my giant fucking truck on them.

Lack of STAG's N-Forcers respawning into the world after story is finished could make one vehicle theft unbeatable.

ACTUALLY, if you wanna complete that after the story, all you need to do is pull the N-Forcer from your garage and the game will let it count.

@Djratchet said:

@charlie_victor_bravo said:

Speaking of, I've never run into a game-breaking bug, and I've put in over fifty hours across four playthroughs. Also, I've only run across a couple hilarious bugs where cars get stuck into the ground... after I slammed my giant fucking truck on them.

Lack of STAG's N-Forcers respawning into the world after story is finished could make one vehicle theft unbeatable.

ACTUALLY, if you wanna complete that after the story, all you need to do is pull the N-Forcer from your garage and the game will let it count.

Yes, that is how I got past it. However you lose your N-Forcer permanently after that (even though, as far I as remember, it shows as unlocked bonus). That is not how it supposed to work. Same with one of the assassination missions where you have to mess up some hookers - the hookers seemed only to spawn at night time and only for me way to pass game time was to quit and load. Fun!

@charlie_victor_bravo said:

@Djratchet said:

@charlie_victor_bravo said:

Speaking of, I've never run into a game-breaking bug, and I've put in over fifty hours across four playthroughs. Also, I've only run across a couple hilarious bugs where cars get stuck into the ground... after I slammed my giant fucking truck on them.

Lack of STAG's N-Forcers respawning into the world after story is finished could make one vehicle theft unbeatable.

ACTUALLY, if you wanna complete that after the story, all you need to do is pull the N-Forcer from your garage and the game will let it count.

Yes, that is how I got past it. However you lose your N-Forcer permanently after that (even though, as far I as remember, it shows as unlocked bonus). That is not how it supposed to work. Same with one of the assassination missions where you have to mess up some hookers - the hookers seemed only to spawn at night time and only for me way to pass game time was to quit and load. Fun!

You shouldn't lose it, it's a bonus for completing the game. And the assassination missions/vehicle theft missions can be restarted by unselecting and reselecting them in the Saints Book when something goes awry. And I had hookers everywhere regardless of the time of day, I find it odd you only had them at night time.

I will say I have encountered a pretty annoying bug myself now. It's not a huge deal, but after playing with my buddy, he had his vehicle delivery permanently disabled, and I had my call in a heli disabled. Luckily for me, I had a fresh alt save that still had the heli, so I only lost like half an hour of progress, but my friend wasn't so lucky. He is gonna have to tough out the rest of his platinum run without the Vehicle Delivery. At least he still has VTOL and heli delivery.

Still less buggy than Skyrim

I haven't had any problems really.