Quick Look: Saints Row IV

Not gonna lie... this made me less excited....

Buying it on 360 because it's probably not unplayable and my PC is shit.

Yup, as a member of the disgusting, unwashed console playing masses this looks playable so far. Obviously not ideal, but I refuse to feel bad about playing it on 360.

The combat stuff looks as boring as ever... I don't know. SR3 was barely worth playing through for the humor.

yessss brad, keep on the mix!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally, someone has crafted a romance system with the subtlety and nuance to rival Bioware's attempts.

Can you also turn all of the crew into Jedi?

The console versions probably just look bad to them since they have primarily played most of their games on PC for the past year or two. SR3 was totally playable, despite having some framerate issues. The slow down here only seems like it's when using the running ability on the ground, and even then I remember that from the one SR3 DLC mission and the slowdown didn't bother me. The whole quicklook seemed totally fine to me and I'll be getting the PS3 version since I have only a laptop for my personal computer.

That said, I'm glad they went super over the top with this one and it's powers. I was worried that playing two big open world crime games within a month would sour me to GTA V as it's coming out later, but this seems different enough that I won't be sick of the game and love the hell out of GTA V when it comes out September!

Man, this game looks like a total bummer.

Wow that frame rate, any idea if the PS3 version is any better?

Honestly I miss Saints Row 2. Yeah it was more serious, more of a GTA clone and less of its own thing, but it was a nice alternative. Saints Row the Third was enjoyable but I felt the story was extremely disjointed, what with like a quarter of the missions, if not more, being tutorials for side activities. This fourth game doesn't seem bad, but just not at all what I'm looking for.

Guess I'll fire up Saints Row 2 for PC with the Gentlemen of the Row mod again.

I'm with Vinny. Cockney or bust!

There's a lot of little things that they praised SRTT for that SR2 done before it =(

Also, Robin Atkin Downes (Cockney voice for SRTT & SRIV) wasn't the guy who did it in SR2.

I like that it has done a 180. 2 was unplayable and laggy on PC, the PC version of 2 is far more laggy and worse than this though, and now in 4 the PC is the version to play and consoles is poop.

I Want It!

The Matrix is the best movie ever created.

Shorter than the third one? Wow. I never really got into the side missions so the third was over in a blink. And for people who aren't seeing the frame rate issues, it's probably way more noticeable seeing it in the flesh before video compression etc. although it looked pretty bad even in the video.

I am not buying this anymore, its not what I wanted from SR4.

Can I have Nolan North and Troy Baker V/Oing at the same time? Just an echo when they talk?

...I think Nolan North sounds just fine. I miss the Hispanic female voice...

Yeah...

I would go so far as to say I'm not even excited at all now. Or rather, not excited enough to buy it on any day other than a massive Steam sale. I mean, it doesn't look bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn't look as good as 3 looked in my humble opinion.

The jump from "15 ish" fps to a solid 60 fps is a pretty big difference, though it doesnt seem "too" bad on 360. But MAN that was a really boring "defend object X for X amount of minutes" mission too be showing off, i'd much rather seen some story missions from the beginning or something, because this doesn't sell the game to me at all...

Yep! Its a Dragon's Crown life for me until the 27th when Killer is Dead and Hatsune Miku show up. Then i suppose I'll ride my backlog/ PS+ games until Lightning Returns shows up next year.

Strange that they didn't really show any story missions.

This looks boring as shit

Meh, the console version isn't nearly as bad as the review made it sound. It's obviously way smoother on pc, but I dunno. I'm not really itching to play this game at all anymore.

Jeff and Brad also talked up the comedic value way too hard for what I consider barely chuckle worthy. It's usually how it goes for comedy, though.

Fuck. I completely forgot those games were coming out because I've just had FFXIV:ARR on the brain for months. With all the great things that humans have invented over the years, I'm disappointed there's still no way to avoid the need for sleep because there's a lot of good games coming out and little time to enjoy em all.

Hmm... the small flickering flame of interest I had in this game has now been completely extinguished.

I love that now everyone is admitting that Saints Row 3 was actually really boring in the middle when you had to do all the side missions in a row. I wish someone had made that argument during the GOTY podcasts, but I guess no one thought about it then.

It being shorter than the 3rd one is a real bummer, this quick look really soured me on wanting to play this.

Agreed. I think it's terrible they lock cool features behind the optional stuff now, because that was the worst part of The Third. The side activities were cool the first time you did them, but after that they were boring if not just plain bad.

Having to do that stuff to unlock shit sounds less than appealing.

I also agree the performance doesn't seem as terrible as they make it sounds, but then they always make a big deal out of that. So I know how I should interpret it I guess. They said Far Cry 3 was shit and not to be played on console. I played it on 360 and enjoyed every minute of it. Patrick said on the podcast he had a story mission where it was unplayable due to low frame rate. I'm not at all saying he was lying, but for the life of me, I cannot remember any section that was unplayable for me. I sure noticed some frame rate drops, but it was totally fine.

I think they have a lot higher standards or perhaps demands than I do. Good on them for pointing them out though, there are people who really hate that stuff.

And who knows, maybe this time they aren't overstating it and it actually makes the game less fun to play. I guess I'll find out because I'll get the 360 version.

Boring just like 3 was

The only thing that bugs me about GiantBomb sometimes is their assumption that everyone can just go out and afford a decent gaming PC. I played Far Cry 3 on 360 and it was perfectly fine. Brad's hyperbolic "it's unplayable!" is just grating and annoying and flat out wrong. Not all of us have jobs that help us afford the latest and greatest in PC's.

@zevvion: My thoughts exactly.

This is actually made me way less excited about the game. I had hopes it would have been more than glorified DLC, but everything they say about it makes it sound like just that.

I would place a lot of money on the bet that they pad out around 40-50% of the campaign with side missions disguised as real missions.

Hi I'm Jackie Chan Nolan North and this is my game

Except even a cheap gaming PC will run every game 10x better than a console. My laptop runs Crysis 2 better than a console and it's not even a gaming laptop. The belief by some that you need the latest and greatest is frankly hilarious.

I'm annoyed GTA V isn't doing the right thing and releasing on PC, since I'll have to play it on my PS3 and if it's like GTA IV it's going to run like crap.

This is what Crackdown should have been. I may have to wait till I can upgrade my PC though before I can play this.

Kind of a boring QL. Should have shown off some good story missions instead of the worst part of Saints Row 3 (Side missions)

Even beyond that, your main character can be upgraded to be invincible and have limitless pockets of ammo in SR3. It's really just a cosmetic thing, but something about it puts me off slightly.

Critics haven't pounded a game for framerate issues since, well, ever. Have you played the first Mass Effect? That game is terrible on consoles.

Also, there's nothing wrong with being dumb. Dumb can be really fun if done well. SR3 wasn't a great game, but there are parts of it that I like (and some that I really don't). As for the dubstep gun, I find the idea kind of humorous. It's no stupider than the RYNO V in Ratchet and Clank A Crack In Time, which played the 1812 Overture as you fired it and that was endlessly amusing.

I don't know man... gameplay looks boring and everything else is weird. I'm just not feeling it.

To be fair, GTA4 ran like crap on PC's at the time it was released until modders fixed it.

A 360 Review might be coming so im sure jeff will explain what is wrong with the console versions.

Yes. Thank you for giving me more reasons to replay A Crack In Time beyond missing Trophies, because that was the best kind of dumb.

Guess I'm the only one in the comments section that thinks that this game looks great! Cant' wait to play it!

I think Jeff changing from that stupid Transformers song back to the Mad Decent station was the first time I've ever actually applauded during a QL.

I can see how the PC would be significantly smoother, but after seeing the review and some of the usual bandwagon crap you get on game sites...I'm relieved that this actually looks fine. Not ideal, but more than playable. If you want real framerate issues, go pop in Crackdown or SR1 and start a mayhem mission.

I know that he guested on a few of the other songs and he's in Three Loco, but I'm kind of disappointed there's only one Riff Raff track in the game. Needs more Bath Salts and Larry Bird.

Well i love saints row the third, enjoyed prototype, and think crackdown is alright so i'll be getting this on pc whenever I can.

Despite all the surreal things that are in this game, this looks incredibly boring. As they mentioned, this seems like it's incredibly easy - easy to the point of just being dull.

I find Male 3 to be boring and Nolan North is just doing his Deadpool voice while being boring. Troy Baker just delivers his lines better and with better self awareness

This PC elitism is getting ridiculous. The 360 version totally looked fine. It was 60 FPS, but to call it "garbage" is a gross exaggeration. Man, I can't wait for next gen, just so I don't have to hear constant complaining about performance.

I was excited about this game but now I think I'm going to hold off until there is a major discount on Steam. It is mainly the mention that this is shorter than 3 that put me off. SR3 was already a really short game, or at least for me it was.

Is he cosplaying Adam Duritz?