foldy on 3/5/2008 at 11:52

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No. It's too late, pal. You and your friend are DEAD to me. :thumb:

You know, I've had an Xbox360 for about a year now, and I've still not tried Saints Row. I think that'll change before the summer's through.

henke on 3/5/2008 at 20:19

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Dear lord that looked forced. "How do you market SR2 in the same week as GTA4 is released?" You don't. You wait half a year until everyone is craving for a new GTA and are ready to settle for a decent knock-off.

Aja on 3/5/2008 at 20:58

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I don't think so -- and what's even worse is any arcade titles you've downloaded remain in the list, even if you didn't buy them (and obviously didn't win any achievements). I downloaded practically everything to try, and my games list is pages long.

Manwe on 4/5/2008 at 02:25

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I'd say it's a step backwards compared to SA which was clearly a bigger achievement in video games history. In GTA 4 a few new features were added (tv, internet, cell phone, darts and bowling...) and tons were removed, so overall the game isn't as deep as SA. Although I have to admit it's far more polished, the mini games are really well done, the shooting feels as good as in any shooter, and the driving is almost too realistic for a GTA. So basically they chose quality over quantity, and another reason for removing some features is because the game has taken a more realistic approach, so parachuting, flying planes or using a jetpack dont fit in the background of the game anymore. But I have no idea why they would remove the tatoo parlors and barbers, maybe because changing the appearance of niko would change his personality and would make him different to the vision they have of him, or maybe they were just lazy. Also you cant blow up cars by shooting at the gaz tank anymore, you can't swim underwater anymore, the car tuning has disappeared for some reason, and so on. Some of those features were unnecessary anyway.

There are a few things I don't like about the game though.

First the graphics are a little disappointing, the shadows are really ugly, so ugly the game would actually be better off without them, and there's also a lot of aliasing. It's too bad because artistically the game is beautiful, the city is amazing, the vehicles are perfectly modelled, the weather effects are gorgeous and the physics thanks to euphoria are just amazing.

And also the controls could be better. There's something really annoying, the character walks by default, so you have to hold the run button all the time, and that's just completely retarded, it should be the other way round. Aiming can be a real pain in the ass too. You can either lock on your target by fully pressing the left trigger which works ok or you can free aim by half pressing the trigger which is a bit difficult. The cover system isnt perfect but it usually works ok during missions. Also climbing over walls can be annoying sometimes if you're not facing the wall niko will just do his normal jump instead of trying to grab the ledge.

Now compared to saint's row, I'd say it's better cause it has a good story and dialogues, the car physics are better, the shooting is better, but I thought the controls were easier in saint's row. The animations are better thanks to euphoria. You can really tell the difference when you run over people, in saint's row the bodies were just animated with ragdoll which was already much better than the crappy animations you had in the previous GTA games but now you can actually see them react realistically. The graphics, strangely enough, were superior in saint's row though, the shadows were much more beautiful and there was no aliasing, although the framerate seems better in gta, and there doesnt seem to be any screen tearing going on which was very frequent in saint's row. Saint's row felt a bit more polished.

Overall I'm a bit disappointed by GTA 4, it feels like SA light, it feels like they deliberately refused to include some features so they could add them in a potential sequel. Still a great game, but I know rockstar can do ten times better.

Sinister Handed on 4/5/2008 at 08:16

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I don't think it's ever forced on you. The cab might actually take longer than just driving yourself anyway. You sit in the back and the cabbie drives instead of you. I took one when I was drunk and the guy crashed more than I would have.


Am I the only one here playing this on PS3? :(