So... Saints Row 2? (Spoilers)

[Mr Bean]

There are different levels of bad porting: "bad port","WTF is this shit?", and "GTA4". The question is which one is SR2?

The only two things that screamed PORT at me where the flight controls(Keyboard only! Since you pretty much can only use planes via cheating it's not a big of a strike against it as it would have been in GTA 3 San Andreas) and over-all performance. The game requires far better PC that it should for the amount of graphics it's putting up on the screen. I'm going to try playing the game once I pick up a GTX 275 or Radeon 4890 in a few months and see how much different it handles but my 9600 did not like that game and would stutter while driving(But not while fighting)

[Stark]

Planes are plot-irrelevant but absolutely trivial to get. I've got a few WW2 fighters and a learjet in my hanger; you just drive to the airport and drive around the runway until you see one you like. They are USELESS though.

[Mr Bean]

Planes are plot-irrelevant but absolutely trivial to get. I've got a few WW2 fighters and a learjet in my hanger; you just drive to the airport and drive around the runway until you see one you like. They are USELESS though.

That's what I mean, oh yay an unarmed Learjet, or a piper-cub, or a Hellcat-alike plane. If there had been a Harrier or better yet a Biplane for doing barnstorming drive-bys I would have lamented the lack of decent(Read any) plane controls instead I just shrug and move on.

[Stark]

There is some kind of WWI biplane, but it's just as much a novelty as the others. It's not like anything is far enough away to need a plane and the airport is in the ass-end of nowhere. Quick way to get to the reactor, though.

[Oskuro]

The only two things that screamed PORT at me where the flight controls <snip> and over-all performance.

What usually screams "console port" to me is the interface. In SR2's case, you get the following sympthoms:

a) Can't use the mouse to select menu items
b) Forced key settings to navigate the menus, with constant displays of the keys you have to press, you know, because you're obviously using a pad, rather than a mouse.
c) Camera/Driving controls that assume the existance of the holy analog sticks, instead of taking advantage of the all mighty mouse/keyboard combo.
d) Can't rename savegames, so loading&saving a game is an exercise on guesswork and frustration when you wipe out your progress accidentally.

Performance issues are a problem too, but a bit more excusable since even PC exclusive titles can be poorly optimized.

The interface issues just bug me to no end, particularly the lack of an option to switch from console style camera control, to Max Payne style "the camera looks where I'm aiming at" controls.

I remember a time where GTA:Vice City had decent driving and shooting controls, before the apparent stupid bug epidemic that made them sabotage GTA:SA and turn it into an unwieldy mess. Apparently GTA clones got the bug too. It's sad that the only sandbox shooter port that I've found to handle semi-decentyl lately has been Mercenaries 2 (Or as Yatzhee calls it, "Airstrikes 2, Hooray for Airstrikes")

[Jade Falcon]

Have you played the story missions? Sure it's not over-all but as I said in my OP, there is some seriously fucked up shit in the game

*snip*

This is what I meant originally as both of these came out of left field, Yay happy Wacky Fun and then WTF Grimdark?

Okay, point taken.

However, I still feel the game is a bit more light hearted than GTA4. Regarding character customisation there are meant to be web pages dedicated to aping celebrities/characters. XBoxachievements.org for example the last time I looked had a respectable list like Lara Croft, Leonidas, etc. Is it me though or is the character customisation screen even more detailed than that of Mass Effect?

Some of the side missions can be a little irritating at times, like the one where you pick up a client for a prostitute, but they all seem attainable. The fact that you can do them in co-op does help though.

[Darth Onasi]

Planes are plot-irrelevant but absolutely trivial to get. I've got a few WW2 fighters and a learjet in my hanger; you just drive to the airport and drive around the runway until you see one you like. They are USELESS though.

That's what I mean, oh yay an unarmed Learjet, or a piper-cub, or a Hellcat-alike plane. If there had been a Harrier or better yet a Biplane for doing barnstorming drive-bys I would have lamented the lack of decent(Read any) plane controls instead I just shrug and move on.

There are biplanes, a triplane and a WW2 plane that are armed (the WW2 planes with fuel pods are unarmed though) but their machine guns are rubbish and you're more likely to end up painting the tarmac with your plane than you are to actually hit anything while strafing.

Still it's fun to hijack a plane and escape into the air during a level 5 police chase. Though the cops have a habit of suicidally slamming into your plane as you're trying to take off, killing you both. Now that's dedication.

[chitoryu12]

Planes are plot-irrelevant but absolutely trivial to get. I've got a few WW2 fighters and a learjet in my hanger; you just drive to the airport and drive around the runway until you see one you like. They are USELESS though.

That's what I mean, oh yay an unarmed Learjet, or a piper-cub, or a Hellcat-alike plane. If there had been a Harrier or better yet a Biplane for doing barnstorming drive-bys I would have lamented the lack of decent(Read any) plane controls instead I just shrug and move on.

There are biplanes, a triplane and a WW2 plane that are armed (the WW2 planes with fuel pods are unarmed though) but their machine guns are rubbish and you're more likely to end up painting the tarmac with your plane than you are to actually hit anything while strafing.

Still it's fun to hijack a plane and escape into the air during a level 5 police chase. Though the cops have a habit of suicidally slamming into your plane as you're trying to take off, killing you both. Now that's dedication.

I didn't have a problem with aiming the guns (I used the fighter on the Brotherhood mission to destroy the prison transports) when using them on boats. If I pointed my fighter at the boat, I would probably hit it. The problem came from actually controlling the damn thing; it's damn easy to oversteer and more than once I ended up nearly slamming into the ocean because it wouldn't pull up, and the camera is pretty much stiff behind the tail of your plane, which made it annoying as fuck to steer and aim, especially since I couldn't find where to go into first person, so I assume it doesn't have it. In the end, I DID crash into the ocean.

Not to mention how the helicopters, as soon as they even lightly clip a building, immediately swoop to the side out-of-control, so it's impossible to regain control if you brush up against an obstacle if there's not much room for your chopper to be zooming all of the place bouncing off shit.

[Phantasee]

I rented it last week, have to return it tomorrow I think. It's been a lot of fun, I wiped out the Sons of Samedi because their lowriders and green colours pissed me off, and decided to go north to get the Downtown and Suburbs before I got the docks, so the Ronin were next. It's fun, not as pretty as Killzone 2 of course, but I like that there's no loading or anything (and how pretty does it really need to be?).

Helicopters are a bitch though, if you do a mission with one, you better hit your landing spot the first time, because it takes so long to turn around that you'll get shot down first (and good luck trying to dodge a fucking seeking missile in a helicopter handles like a semi stuck in low gear loaded up with a 2 storey house on the back). You'd think helicopters, by nature more agile than most other vehicles, would be easy to land, but noooo.... I have to fucking bail out just at the edge of the height that will kill me, and hope the helicopter doesn't land on my head. I only use it to get to the nuke plant (until I bought a boat and the University docks) because there's a big open area to land on at the south end. It's cool to use if you've got two followers on board, for drivebys. Not the diversion, just for shooting the fuck out of people on the ground.

I started a second save file to try out some of the cheats, and man, the minigun/shotgun combo really makes Strongholds easy. Anytime you're outside or in a large space, just wind up the gun, and if it's room to room stuff, boom.

I'm sorry, I don't play many video games so I'm not good at reviewing them. I suppose most of what I said is pretty common knowledge for people who actually play games regularly. But I enjoyed it, it reminds me of GTAIII - San Andreas, although I only played San Andreas after my cousin beat it, so I just ran around blowing shit up in it.

Can you keep playing after finishing up the epilogue in SR2?

[Stark]

Of course. What kind of cripplingly retarded morons would make the player unable to play after finishing the story?

Oh yeah, Beth.

[Phantasee]

That's good to know, I guess I'll pick it up again when it's hit the bargain bin or buy used.

You know, the only reason I picked it up is because I had your (imagined) voice telling me it was a fun game. Otherwise I would have picked up CoD5 for Xbox or GTAIV.

[Pablo Sanchez]

There are different levels of bad porting: "bad port","WTF is this shit?", and "GTA4". The question is which one is SR2?

I recently bought a new computer, so I don't have any performance issues with GTA4, and I found the whole thing pretty enjoyable until I got to a goddamn show-stopping bug midway through the final mission, where you're supposed to climb onto a helicopter by mashing the spacebar and it just. wouldn't. happen. Apparently, if your computer is too good (that is, runs the game too well and at too high FPS) then it is physically impossible for you to hit the button fast enough to get into the helicopter (searching for a solution, I found cases of people who used macros to make the space button cycle at an impossible rate and it still didn't work), and you have to do a third-party workaround by downloading FRAPS and starting it recording at that point in the mission, so that FRAPS will hog resources and limit the FPS, and then you'll be able to get into the 'copter.

This is basically the definition of epic fail when it comes to porting a game to PC: a bug that does not manifest until 10 minutes into the final mission of the story, and which the design company makes absolutely no effort to patch even after the bug is common knowledge. Nice fucking work, dipshits.

[Losonti Tokash]

I just got it the other day. Went after the Samedi straight off because fuck that voodoo bullshit. I liked how your gang disables the General's limo. Did not see that coming at all.

[chitoryu12]

I just got it the other day. Went after the Samedi straight off because fuck that voodoo bullshit. I liked how your gang disables the General's limo. Did not see that coming at all.

When all else fails, throw something heavy at the bastard.

[Oskuro]

Haven't gotten to that part yet, but hey, if you change the heavy object for an anvil, and the human characters for toons, that's be a ToonTown game I'd like to play.... Darn, now I got to make my SR2 character look like Jessica Rabbit.

[Starglider]

I am planning to get this game just as soon as I have time to play it (HAWX and Dead Space were ahead of it in the queue). Is it worth getting hold of the first one and playing through that before doing the second? Or is the first one pointless if you have the second one? I recall the developers were talking about a strong ongoing plot throughout a trilogy of games but I would not be surprised if that was bullshit.

[Stark]

The above post MUST be a spoof.

Flash has played both and he tells me the first game is basically exactly the same, but not as good. There IS a plot, but it's irrelevant to the enjoyment. All you'll miss apparently is 'Stillwater used to be Inglewood and now it's Manhattan due to ULTOR CORP.'

[weemadando]

The above post MUST be a spoof.

Flash has played both and he tells me the first game is basically exactly the same, but not as good. There IS a plot, but it's irrelevant to the enjoyment. All you'll miss apparently is 'Stillwater used to be Inglewood and now it's Manhattan due to ULTOR CORP.'

I played about an hour of the first game. All you really need to know about it is this:

[Flash]

I am planning to get this game just as soon as I have time to play it (HAWX and Dead Space were ahead of it in the queue). Is it worth getting hold of the first one and playing through that before doing the second? Or is the first one pointless if you have the second one? I recall the developers were talking about a strong ongoing plot throughout a trilogy of games but I would not be surprised if that was bullshit.

No, you don't have to have played the first one. Yes, there is an ongoing plot, but it's really simple and most people pretty much ignore it anyway. You can do everything you could do in SR1 and more besides. SR2 is basically the same game, but more polished.

[weemadando]

I am planning to get this game just as soon as I have time to play it (HAWX and Dead Space were ahead of it in the queue). Is it worth getting hold of the first one and playing through that before doing the second? Or is the first one pointless if you have the second one? I recall the developers were talking about a strong ongoing plot throughout a trilogy of games but I would not be surprised if that was bullshit.

No, you don't have to have played the first one. Yes, there is an ongoing plot, but it's really simple and most people pretty much ignore it anyway. You can do everything you could do in SR1 and more besides. SR2 is basically the same game, but more polished.

Yeah, pretty much everything you need to know about Saints Row 1 is encapsulated in the opening to Saints Row 2.

[chitoryu12]

I am planning to get this game just as soon as I have time to play it (HAWX and Dead Space were ahead of it in the queue). Is it worth getting hold of the first one and playing through that before doing the second? Or is the first one pointless if you have the second one? I recall the developers were talking about a strong ongoing plot throughout a trilogy of games but I would not be surprised if that was bullshit.

The plot of SR isn't that important. The storyline is at times so thin I forget it exists sometimes, especially in the first game. They talk about what happened to the player character in the very first mission and all the shit that happened between games, and between that and the occasional reference to something from the first game, everything is revealed to you plain as day.

[Losonti Tokash]

You do miss out on Keith David constantly calling you "player," though.

[Setzer]

I thought SR2 was a huge improvement over the original. They put a checkpoint system into the missions, which was a huge help. A number of missions in SR1 had places where I screwed up or got killed, and I had to start all over. The aircraft were a fun addition, as was the ability to play as a female. If I have to stare at my character's ass for most of the game, at least it's a nice looking one. The gang customization options are another plus. You could have a force of elite mercenaries, or an army of loyal prostitutes for that Grindhouse feel. Plus, Ninjas. A shame you couldn't make them Pirates also.

[Losonti Tokash]

Plus, Ninjas. A shame you couldn't make them Pirates also.

They already made that joke in the FUZZ missions.