I dont know why but I got this game today and i've already played it for about 3 to 4 hours. As someone who considers san andreas to be one of their favorite games ever, this game feels like a godsend in a way. While I like the direction Rockstar took with Grand Theft Auto, Saints row the third feels like the spirtual successor to San andreas in so many ways. From the set pieces to the amazing music to the general insanity, this game is easlily my favorite game of the year and in a year of Skyrim, Batman, and The Witcher 2, thats pretty good.

Sorry for going off topic, but with about zero expectations, I was blown away. Anyone else find this game addictive or is everyone too busy with skyrim.

I just finished it today, and loved every minute of it. I'm not sure that I'm willing to call it my Game of the Year (I think I'm still riding that "just finished the game" high), but it's definitely way up there. I'm having a difficult time thinking of any game that was as much straight up, regular-ass fun.

I dunno about GOTY but I was definitely surprised by the amount of awesome that went into SR#3.

I still think it's a little unfair that now people are finally clamouring to give Saints Row the praise it deserves, but better late than never.

@Abyssfull said:

I still think it's a little unfair that now people are finally clamouring to give Saints Row the praise it deserves, but better late than never.

yea this game seems like a extension of the what the crazy in SR2

@Abyssfull said:

I still think it's a little unfair that now people are finally clamouring to give Saints Row the praise it deserves, but better late than never.

Well I thought the controls in the first two Saints Row games were kind of shitty. And they fixed a lot of that in the third game. That's why I'm willing to give this one praise, and not so much the first two.

@Abyssfull said:

I still think it's a little unfair that now people are finally clamouring to give Saints Row the praise it deserves, but better late than never.

I know how you feel, being a rider on the train and then every one getting on board when you where already there 5 years ago. having said that I played Saints Row 2 and hated it, mostley because it made me do those crappy, no pun intended, activity's again and again. not only that but they would get harder and harder, forcing you to replay them when you failed.

@Dagbiker said:

@Abyssfull said:

I still think it's a little unfair that now people are finally clamouring to give Saints Row the praise it deserves, but better late than never.

I know how you feel, being a rider on the train and then every one getting on board when you where already there 5 years ago. having said that I played Saints Row 2 and hated it, mostley because it made me do those crappy, no pun intended, activity's again and again. not only that but they would get harder and harder, forcing you to replay them when you failed.

Yeah, that's true. I hated some of the repetitive activities in Saints Row 2. It turned me off from ever wanting to finish it.

Also, try being a passenger on the Arrested Development train. I watched it when it was still on the air, told everybody I know to watch it. Nobody ever did. Fox cancelled it, and now everybody I know watches it. Frustrating as hell.

Saints Row 3 is my game of the year. I'm about 2 achievements away from S-Ranking it.

@Abyssfull said:

I still think it's a little unfair that now people are finally clamouring to give Saints Row the praise it deserves, but better late than never.

i feel ya, but it kind of makes sense. going back and playing SR2, the control, the feel of the driving, the combat, the graphics and performance-- all of it is pretty bad. i can see why people were turned off by SR2.

@slightconfuse said:

@Abyssfull said:

I still think it's a little unfair that now people are finally clamouring to give Saints Row the praise it deserves, but better late than never.

yea this game seems like a extension of the what the crazy in SR2

Exactly. A lot of the weird zaniness people love about SR3 stems from SR2. The story isn't nearly as ridiculously OTT and a lot of the missions are pretty plain in comparison, but the story is much better than The Third's and there's a great deal more stuff to do in SR2 overall. That said, I do think that SR3 is the better game, but it had a lot of great foundation to work with. Saints Row 2 lasted me across 2 years of playing it on and off it was so goddamn unique at the time. I don't believe SR3 will be able to last me as long because a great deal of why I loved SR2 is all here again, just now with less variety.

@PrivateIronTFU said:

@Abyssfull said:

I still think it's a little unfair that now people are finally clamouring to give Saints Row the praise it deserves, but better late than never.

Well I thought the controls in the first two Saints Row games were kind of shitty. And they fixed a lot of that in the third game. That's why I'm willing to give this one praise, and not so much the first two.

Fair enough, I guess. In comparison to SR3, the controls for SR2 are a little unwieldy, but I personally never have any problems with the controls for either of them.

@Pezen said:

@Abyssfull ; Well this is the game where they truly came into their own. While I enjoyed the previous two, the first one was a GTA clone and the second one didn't seem too sure what it wanted to be. But it was starting to evolve somewhere. So I think it's pretty understandable in many ways.

I wouldn't say so. Saints Row 2 was all about riotous madness just like The Third, only now the priority with where to place the weirdness has been switched; whilst in SR2 the crazy shit was supplemented via the side-stuff, in SR3 it's the story that goes balls-out ridiculous. I definitely agree with the original Saints Row being a shameless San Andreas clone, though. It was also awkward as hell to witness how surprisingly serious SR1's story took itself, with characters throwing the N around at each other with their poker-face at maximum strength.

@Dagbiker said:

@Abyssfull said:

I still think it's a little unfair that now people are finally clamouring to give Saints Row the praise it deserves, but better late than never.

I know how you feel, being a rider on the train and then every one getting on board when you where already there 5 years ago. having said that I played Saints Row 2 and hated it, mostley because it made me do those crappy, no pun intended, activity's again and again. not only that but they would get harder and harder, forcing you to replay them when you failed.

That's not me saying ''the series was cool before it got popular, maaaaaan'' or anything btw. I just find it a little irksome that people are raving about Saints Row The Third when Saints Row 2 had nearly as much inventive stuff in there. It's like most people seem to forget that Saints Row The Third is now the third game in the series.

Also I loved a lot of the activities from Saints Row 2 as well. Snatch has always sucked, though, and Heli Assault is still to this day with The Third such a slog. That's one thing I really disliked about The Third; how it removed so many of my favourite activities and diversions, yet saw fit to keep the two worst of the lot. Especially since The Third undoubtedly plays significantly better, it's a shame I couldn't of relived some of my favourite SR past times using The Third's superior shooting/driving.

@Abyssfull: As much as I enjoyed Saints Row 2, I have to agree with the sentiment that Saints Row: The Third is not only the better game, but the game where the series finally nailed the tone. Saints Row 2 may have had a lot of what makes The Third so great, but some elements of the gameplay just weren't there yet (constantly having to babysit my territory from other gangs was not the most fun) and the story still had threads of seriousness from the original game. I much prefer the balls-out insanity of The Third because it no longer lives by those constraints.

@Brunchies said:

Anyone else find this game addictive or is everyone too busy with skyrim.

Current times:

• Saints Rows: The Third - 30h 16m
• Skyrim - 11h 57m

There you have it; a purple dildo bat in more enthralling than a sword.

I finished The Third last night and tried to immediately go into SR2 which I had never played before. You get it as a free download if you bought The Third on the PS3. My first reaction was that it was just a little rough around the edges, but I really didn't play much. So we'll see.

@Abyssfull said:

I still think it's a little unfair that now people are finally clamouring to give Saints Row the praise it deserves, but better late than never.

Sorry but this game is much much much better than SR2 in every way essentially. The reason people are more willing to get it the 'praise it deserves' is because it only now deserves widespread praise.

If Skyrim wasn't so damn good I'd give it a shot. I'm decidedly anti-Saints Row 1 and 2, but it seems like they at least went for it and maybe did some clever stuff.

The second one had much better villains and a better sense of humor. Why did they take out septic avenger? That was the best part of Saints Row 2.

@slightconfuse said:

@Abyssfull said:

I still think it's a little unfair that now people are finally clamouring to give Saints Row the praise it deserves, but better late than never.

yea this game seems like a extension of the what the crazy in SR2

Exactly. A lot of the weird zaniness people love about SR3 stems from SR2. The story isn't nearly as ridiculously OTT and a lot of the missions are pretty plain in comparison, but the story is much better than The Third's and there's a great deal more stuff to do in SR2 overall. That said, I do think that SR3 is the better game, but it had a lot of great foundation to work with. Saints Row 2 lasted me across 2 years of playing it on and off it was so goddamn unique at the time. I don't believe SR3 will be able to last me as long because a great deal of why I loved SR2 is all here again, just now with less variety.

@Napalm: Jessica's death in SR2 was the best thing ever.

@MikeGosot said:

@Napalm: Jessica's death in SR2 was the best thing ever.

Agreed! Every antagonist death in Saints Row 2 is some of the best ever devised in an open-world actioner. I quite liked Maero's death scene, but Shogo Akuji's death scene is one of the greatest ever. He has his face smashed through a tombstone by Johnny Gat, and he is then buried alive.  Such a fantastic scene.

@Napalm said:

@Abyssfull said:

@slightconfuse said:

@Abyssfull said:

I still think it's a little unfair that now people are finally clamouring to give Saints Row the praise it deserves, but better late than never.

yea this game seems like a extension of the what the crazy in SR2

Exactly. A lot of the weird zaniness people love about SR3 stems from SR2. The story isn't nearly as ridiculously OTT and a lot of the missions are pretty plain in comparison, but the story is much better than The Third's and there's a great deal more stuff to do in SR2 overall. That said, I do think that SR3 is the better game, but it had a lot of great foundation to work with. Saints Row 2 lasted me across 2 years of playing it on and off it was so goddamn unique at the time. I don't believe SR3 will be able to last me as long because a great deal of why I loved SR2 is all here again, just now with less variety.

In my opinion, Saints Row 2 is where that series finally came into its own. The story had enough over-the-top moments to make San Andreas look pretty small in comparison. In one of the final gang missions, you follow a drug lord into a mall, where you try to kill him as he's firing a chaingun at you from a giant army truck. In another example, you fill his crony full of at least fifteen or twenty bullet holes before he dies, and then cut his head off and throw it down at the meat packing line. I don't buy this, "Saints Row 2 wasn't as crazy." Saints Row 2 had plenty of crazy, over-the-top moments in it. That ending with Dane Vogel is still one of my favorite final boss deaths in videogame history. Also, can we stop comparing this game to San Andreas? Only the misinformed, in this day and age at the lifespan of this franchise will they still compare it to a decade-old game. Saints Row has been its own thing since Saints Row 2. Just because you might prefer The Third to 2 doesn't change this widely accepted fact.

Wait... what's going on here. Are you agreeing with me on some level, or contending against something I said, or you jus quoted the wrong person or... oowhaaa?!

@emergency said:

@Abyssfull said:

I still think it's a little unfair that now people are finally clamouring to give Saints Row the praise it deserves, but better late than never.

Sorry but this game is much much much better than SR2 in every way essentially. The reason people are more willing to get it the 'praise it deserves' is because it only now deserves widespread praise.

SR2 has more side-stuff variety (the amount of stuff lost inbetween games is a lot more than you'd guess, I imagine), there's more vehicles, it has a more coherent storyline, the villains are better developed and SR2 has 98% more Johnny Gat than The Third does. Now again, I'm not trying to pull the rug under The Third and say it's not the better game, but there are still plenty of things missing from the grand design that leave lessen it in some regards. Saints Row The Third is the best Saints Row game and a great game in general, but that doesn't mean it's 'better in every way essentially'.

@Hailinel said:

@Abyssfull: As much as I enjoyed Saints Row 2, I have to agree with the sentiment that Saints Row: The Third is not only the better game, but the game where the series finally nailed the tone. Saints Row 2 may have had a lot of what makes The Third so great, but some elements of the gameplay just weren't there yet (constantly having to babysit my territory from other gangs was not the most fun) and the story still had threads of seriousness from the original game. I much prefer the balls-out insanity of The Third because it no longer lives by those constraints.

The gameplay, sure, it all naturally looks pretty archaic at this point, but that was all the way back in 2008. Back when games like GTAIV were considered gameplay marvels. (I have no issue with the GTAIV gameplay btw, but heading back during this day and age reveals how a lot of it really didn't control too well besides the driving).

As for the story, I actually really enjoyed the balance between the madness and all of the quieter moments. Carlos' death and, well, the entire Brotherhood arc in fact was brilliant. Not to mention the secret mission where you bring Julius out of hiding. There was a surprising amount of character drama in there which I really enjoyed because of how unexpected it all was; some of it was surprisingly grim, and I liked how SR2 dallied across numerous emotional tones throughout the story, instead of the never-not-stupid-wtfness of Saints Row The Third.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy Saints Row The Third's story, either. Because like you said, without any constraints there were more possibilities to do just whatever the hell they wanted with the limit of their imagination as the only hurdle--and I'm appreciative of that as lords know what sort of inventive shit that graced us with for The Third's campaign. But at the same time, I'm just hoping they can at least slip in some of the passion from SR2 in there as well for SR4 if they really plan to up the ante as they've foretold. It's not like they didn't attempt it for The Third, either; they did give a lot of personality to their characters, but it appeared like they were too busy concocting more reality-bending set-pieces rather than developing a lot of the cast. I mean besides KillBane, I personally thought all of the villains kinda sucked in The Third, and most of the new supporting characters weren't that great, either. Zimos, Oleg and Pierce were pretty funny while everyone else I found annoying (Kinzie, like jesus christ I would sometimes call her up as a homie just so I could kill her) or were pulled down by flat voice-performances (Viola & Angel).

But anyway, again SR2 has an infinite amount more of Johnny Gat, so SR2's story wins by default ;P

I might give this game a try.

Rent it on GameFly or something.

I've never played SR2, but the first one was complete shit.

I remember I got it one day one thinking it would be sooooo good and I wanted to trade it in after the first week. The first one was really shitty.

The ending, oh the ending