Before I start talking about an aspect of Saints Row IV that I absolutely hate, I want to preface this by saying that I like the game. I've played every Saints Row game in the series, and was absolutely delighted by IV. Not only is it full of fanservice for fans of every previous title all the way back to the first one, it is one of the most fun games I've played in a long time. Every activity was a delight, and the story mode had a great mix of humor and emotional impact. As of now I'm saying that Saints Row IV has a high spot on my Game of the Year list.

Now here's the annoying part of the game. The cosmetic DLC.

This started in Saints Row The Third with the planned 40 Weeks of Downloadable Content marketing line. And very few people who heard of this thought it was a good idea because there's no way they could release 40 weeks of substantial content that enhances the game.

Guess what? They didn't. 90% of those "DLC weeks" were packs of costumes, weapons, weapon skins, and additional Homies you could call. Normally it would be easy to ignore dumb cosmetic DLC like this (Horse Armor) but this is a particularly egregious case for this franchise. Saints Row should have NEVER had paid cosmetic DLC.

The main complaint I had about Saints Row The Third was its lack of customization options compared to Saints Row 2.

The base character creator in Saints Row 2 has many options that are not in The Third or IV. You can use a slider to customize your character's body type, so instead of being 100% Male or 100% Female you can choose an in-between point that suits you. You could also customize your character's hand-to-hand combat style, walk cycle, and default facial expression.

There were also several "wear options" for clothes in stores. You could buy and customize socks and undergarments, choose to layer your clothing, choose what belt you would wear with certain pairs of pants, and even do silly things like decide if you wanted your jeans to be dirty and frayed or in pristine condition.

Understandably, many fans were disappointed or upset when these options were removed from Saints Row The Third and didn't even return in IV. So it made the addition of more clothes as DLC in those games feel like they were getting taken advantage of. You'd have to buy clothes in 3/4 to get as much customization options that you had in 2.

There was also the issue of the DLC packs not being fairly priced and not being included with the Season Pass. In the end, buying all the cosmetic DLC in Saints Row the Third costs more than buying the Season Pass that has missions and substantial game content.

Why couldn't this content be in the Season Pass? Why did they lock so many cool guns as downloadable content when Saints Row 2 had more guns as in-game unlockables? And most importantly why is this process being repeated for Saints Row IV?

It's not the best barometer for gauging audience reactions, but comments and ratings for the cosmetic DLC trailers in Saints Row The Third were almost universally negative, if one were to check the Saints Row Youtube page. And most of these people share the same sentiment as me: having less content than the previous game with the intent of selling us more in the future leaves a terrible taste in our mouths.

It's happening right now, too. The Season Pass for Saints Row IV doesn't include the various cosmetic DLC packs already released. The prices are too high ($3 per pack). And I still can't customize my character's walk cycle or get a more malleable gender slider.

Saints Row IV is a great game, but this poor use of downloadable content is an ugly black mark on a generally great product.

Hey, man, your by all means entitled to your opinion and all I never was bothered by any of that. Its just cosmetic shit and never affected my actual enjoyment of the game. Although, I did buy the Shark Gun on the PC version of Saints 3 cause that was too goddamn funny not to pay two dollars for.

I agree, it is totally stupid and disgusting, and I wish that stuff was already in the game or at least substantially cheaper than it is, but I'm not forced to buy any of it nor do I feel the game is lacking without any of it. Unless they put out more really cool guns. But such is the nature of the current games industry. Volition is hardly the only, or even the worst offender of this practice. If anything, I think the promotion of the GAT V pack was funny enough to forgive them a little...

When is the major dlc coming for saints row 4 ? I will probably get the game with the dlc on steam.

I agree with you and also they should take out Kinect voice controls from all games and bring back the old Dante.

Seriously, who cares? it's just cosmetic BS. SR3 and SR4 are complete, stand-alone products on their own, and a new hairstyle or a cool hat won't affect you in any way. Besides, there's no way they can release DLC to make your character a sliding scale of man-to-lady or change default stances or whatever, since those are part of an entirely different character creator.

Totally disagree with you on both of those.

That is definitely a good reason to go PC. Even though the DLCs still exist you got the advantage of the modding communities basically making DLCs like those mostly superfluous. Though I guess that was already the case.

Well they are horrible DLC packs, but who's going to buy them anyway? I haven't touched that game until 3 days after release, and won't again until a real DLC, at which point I'm not gonna give a fuck how I look anyway.

You suck mcbaine

Yeah, I agree. Less customization in a game like this is generally a bad thing. At the same time I don't think I've ever been bothered enough by it for it to impact my enjoyment of the game at all. Then again, I think I enjoyed IV a little less than most people. And when I replayed The Third, I sort of liked it a lot less than I did the first time. I mean, they're great fun, and the humor is generally pretty well done, but the side stuff has always been hit or miss for me and the actual missions sometimes come off flat (funny/great moments separated by a lot of simple, bland objectives).

October 22.

This stuff just makes me wonder who's buying all this cosmetic DLC every week.

I really can't say I understand this movement to try and pretend that Saints Row 2 was the zenith of the series. But that's not really on-topic I guess. (But really, we're at the point that we're complaining that later games took out some options sliders in the still ridiculously robust character creator? Whatever helps you sleep at night, I guess.)

You'd think people would be used to this now after millions of games this generation sold costume packs as DLC. Good lord, Sleeping Dogs' DLC was exactly the same as this, a million costume packs with a couple mission expansions here and there. I'll give you that it gets egregious at times and there are some games that just shouldn't do it (I'm still pissed about Arkham City selling costumes), but this is an open-world game with like a billion customization options in it already. You don't need any of this to enjoy the game. Why do you care if you're getting it or not?

I mean really, does having extra cowboy outfits really make you like the game more?

It's sad that they don't bother to put any metal radio stations in the game, but they'll put metal on the DubStep gun. :(

Its the Zenith as after SR2. Its a diffrent world, story and characters from SR1/2.

Main thing is its opinion, like Jeff and many of the GB crew they think SR 1 and 2 were terrible while SR 3 and 4 hit the spot for them. Its a clear line in the sand that many of the SR3/4 fans aren't the fewer SR1/2 fans.

On Topic this sort of thing glances off of me. Have you seen most games nowadays? DLC up the whazoo! Sleeping dogs just barley manages to make it self worth while with those self contained movie stories. While irrelevant dlc like this has been going on for ages, most were preorder stuff turned paid DLC.

While it glances off of me, doesn't make it good.

SR4 is DLC with DLC.

Perhaps the biggest tragedy of all.

I miss the layered aspect of 1 and 2's clothing options. I like the option to put on a t-shirt and an overshirt and then a coat, picking each item as I go along.