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| Re: Game of the year, greatest sandbox game ever by Last 01/18/2012, 1:04pm PST | ||||
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| I didn't really enjoy Saint's Row 2. It was okay but struck me as too stupid. Not like mindless fun stupid, but the Suess Hat, "totally randoooooom spork lol", flying dildo, poop and pee, actually pretty boring done-to-death committee-approved kind of stupid.
Saint's Row 3 has a bit of that as well, but the actual GAME part is really fantastic! REALLY fantastic. I'm stunned at how well they did on this game. The devs must have hired a magical genius who looked through every GTA-clone of the past decade and correctly identified which parts are fun as hell (explosions, high speed chases, emergent mayhem, moving fast, doing things, fighting) and which parts need to die forever (waiting around, escort missions, obstructions, timesinks, walking, waiting some more). Here's a short list of what SR3 has fixed in video games forever. 1.) Carjacks GTA 4: Approach car. "Come an butty, move eet, I need yor kar!" Then Nico opens the door, drags the driver out, gets in, and begins to accelerate. SR3: Flies through the window feet first like a Duke boy, IMMEDIATELY rocket off. FUCK. YES. 2.) Emergent Mayhem GTA4: Every NPC on the street is a neutral pedestrian. Some are cops. The cops have helicopters and tanks if you get a high enough wanted level. All other enemies are simple henchmen, varying only in character model. SR3: There's enemy gangs on every block that are itching for a fight. Each gang is different and will call in multiple different levels of reinforcements up to and including minibosses. If you are in a fight then your gang automatically sends reinforcements and the battle escalates into a massive exploding mayhem adrenaline fest with bullets and explosions and flamethrowers going berserk everywhere while cars are crashing everywhere. FUCK. YES. 3.) Dying GTA4: When you die you lose money and items and if you restart you are back at whatever safe house you used last, even if it's on the fuck other end of the map. SR3: Dying doesn't cost you any money or items, and you appear at the NEAREST safehouse! The fucking devs figured out that people prefer fun in their video games more than they enjoy traversing a desert between San Fierro and Las Venturas for the hundredth time! 4.) Minigames GTA4: darts. bowling. delivering pizzas (maybe just every GTA up to 4), rampages, street races (NO guns allowed). SR3: Rampages, Insurance Fraud (ragdoll yourself into traffic in God Mode to get smashed around by cars like Meet Joe Black), Tank rampages, Paparazzi Evasion (race around town evading frantic paparazzi while doing sweet stunts that your passenger asks for), Assault Helicopter rampages, Drug Drops, and many many more. The events are all over the place, there's no shortage of shit to do at any moment. 5.) Hidden items GTA4: Go to gamefaqs, print out a makeshift blurry map, try to hunt down pigeons. If you overlook one, fuck you. SR3: If you're within 50 yards of a hidden thing it puts an icon right on your map. Once again, the devs understand what fun is! 6.) Falling in water GTA4: Hey we fixed it so that instead of dying immediately, you only have to swim through a few minutes of boredom until you find a ladder. At that point, you just have to walk across a park or airport landing strip until you find a vehicle. Then, resume trying to enjoy yourself. SR3: Press a button to warp to shore. There's already a fast car and excitement waiting for you. The dev responsible for "warp to shore" deserves an industry award. 7.) Money GTA (Vice City, San Andreas): You have ten buildings that generate cash for you. Drive around to each one if you want to collect. SR3: You have thirty buildings that generate cash. It downloads straight into your phone automatically no matter where you are. FUCK YES. 8.)Food GTA: order some food, pay for it, wait for it, watch an eating animation. SR3: Are you kidding?? We replaced the fake taco bell outlets with giant combat obstacle course demolition derbies. 9.) Physics GTA: Cars handle like sofas on an ice rink. You walk and run slow. People launch through windshields (that part is awesome). SR3: Cars go fast and handles well and on foot you zip around. If your helicopter accidentally brushes up against a tree limb you don't immediately burst into flames. I understand that Rockstar was trying to make something closer to The Wire or Sopranos so they had to try to keep their crime story somewhat realistic, but they still included solid gold helicopters and body counts in the thousands and ridiculous caricatures. They erred in making it too retarded to be a truly gripping crime story and too neutered (in the name of 'realism') to be a super fun action game. I enjoyed GTA4 when it came out, but SR3 has permanently raised the bar. |
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