Saints Row: The Third

[CVSiN]

Fun game. The combat is good, although I wish the guns had more "umph" to them. They're too quiet and they sound like pea-shooters. In general, the audio could be improved upon. I wish developers would understand that something simple like making guns LOUDER instantly makes them more satisfying. But other than that, it feels pretty good.

Driving cars is very pleasurable and fun. Very arcadey, very fast, and tight controls.

The melee is fun. Running up to enemies, swooping over their heads, and pounding their faces into the asphalt is pretty great. :thumbsup:

I'm still extremely early into the game, so I haven't unlocked the more outrageous vehicles and weapons quite yet. I expect them to be awesome.

Regarding performance: My 6950 1GB runs the game quite well at 1080p, maxed out settings. It frequently drops below 60fps in outdoor areas though (which is where you spend most of your time obviously). Good enough for me, but I'm sure the framerate would be boosted if I bumped the AA from 8x down to 4x or 2x.

For comparison, while maxed out, the game still looks and performs better than GTA4 on the same card (there are some good lighting and post-processing effects used here). As a whole though, the graphics are nothing special. It looks very console-ish, especially in the blocky character models. The environments are very good though... of course, until you look at certain objects up-close and you can see where the textures and polygon-count are lacking. The foliage, i.e. trees and grass, leave something to be desired as well. The PC version does offer plenty of different graphics options, which is good.

I'll definitely keep playing and post more thoughts as I go on.

Dan I bought it as well. I'm using 2x 6950 2gigs for Eyefinity 3x 22 I too notice the lower FPS. Alot of ATI/AMD people are apaprently.. hope there is a driver fix soon.

I just got the VTOL last night at 12 hours played.. thing is pretty nutty and fun.
also got the Airstrike which is also awesome.

 

[sandorski]

Supposed to be a fix this week. Improves SR3 performance as well as some other games.

 

[Dankk]

Welp... it took me a little while, but I've finally purchased every piece of property available for sale in Steelport. It costs a lot of money and time to do this but the return on investment is worth it. Not only do I have more control (and get discounts at my stores), but right now I am making an absurd $33,000 an hour by doing absolutely nothing. It'll be a big help now that that's out of the way. I'll finally start spending my money on weapon upgrades and new abilities.

The sense of progression in SR3 is fantastic. I feel like I am really taking over an entire city. Funny thing is, Steam says I have ~10 hours logged in the game now, and yet I still haven't unlocked the VTOL jet, or the airstrike, or any of the more ridiculous stuff.

The trailers made it seem like you're ridiculously powerful right from the beginning. This isn't necessarily the case, as I still find myself getting my ass kicked in Survival missions, as well as other unscripted street fights that occur quite often. I know this won't last for long though... I'm slowly unlocking everything. Thing is, I've been spending a ton of time doing the side-missions and challenges. The amount of content available here is ridiculous.

The Tank Mayhem missions are pure, unadulterated joy. Basically you hop in a tank and shoot everything that moves, trying to make as much destruction as possible within the time limit. The explosions are massive and the carnage is devastating.

The Insurance Fraud missions are absolutely hilarious. 1) Throw yourself out into traffic 2) Turn into a ragdoll 3) Get cars to hit you 4) Profit!

About these "unscripted street fights" I mentioned earlier: The brawls that break out in the city are crazy in how they escalate into epic battles. If a rival gang walks up to you and you break their necks, then a couple more groups of enemies are guaranteed to drive up and pile on top of you in their cars.

One of the great things is, if you're up against like 15 enemies, whether they be cops or rival gang members, you know you still have a chance to beat them if you have the right gear. You can also call in companions from your gang to help you fight, and suddenly you have entire armies warring against each other. It's real fun.

I maintain my opinion that the combat is really good. Throwing grenades, jumping, rolling, and diving into a car to escape at the last second is all really quite amazing and fluid. The default pistol is actually quite powerful. Oh and also, the shotgun is friggin' awesome when used correctly. I think the Stats page says the shotgun is my best weapon right now, hahah.

I'm fucking loving this game right now.

Dan I bought it as well. I'm using 2x 6950 2gigs for Eyefinity 3x 22 I too notice the lower FPS. Alot of ATI/AMD people are apaprently.. hope there is a driver fix soon.

Yeah... I'm beginning to realize how bad the performance actually is on my AMD card. I mean, it's not terrible, but it runs considerably slower than it should. Glad I'm not the only one. I'm looking forward to a patch or two that optimizes things a bit.

The game has quite a few bugs as well. I failed a Bodyguard mission (?) once because the dealer just froze in place, so I couldn't progress the mission and had no choice other than to restart. Funny too, because the team AI in this game is actually quite competent. I love it when friendly reinforcements come rolling into a gang fight, they seriously help a lot.

Also there was another time when I stepped into a car and somehow closed the door on myself, causing damage and quickly killing me as my car sped off by itself. lol

 

[KaOTiK]

I love putting knee knockers or whatever they are called on my cars. So awesome, the entire time I play this game I have a big smirk on my face. Nice to break the pace of Skyrim with this

 

[Homer Simpson]

i played the first 30 minutes or so last night before i went to bed and its fun. its also nice that it seems to be a very good port, unlike the mess that was SR2. only real issue ive had, and others seem to have mentioned on steam forums, is the gun and car sounds are a bit weak or soft. and ive noticed that the character i created looks slightly different in game that it does in the character creator. i can tell its the same basic design i setup, but the face gets a little messed up it seems. i dunno. maybe its just me.

 

[CVSiN]

Welp... it took me a little while, but I've finally purchased every piece of property available for sale in Steelport. It costs a lot of money and time to do this but the return on investment is worth it. Not only do I have more control (and get discounts at my stores), but right now I am making an absurd $33,000 an hour by doing absolutely nothing. It'll be a big help now that that's out of the way. I'll finally start spending my money on weapon upgrades and new abilities.

The sense of progression in SR3 is fantastic. I feel like I am really taking over an entire city. Funny thing is, Steam says I have ~10 hours logged in the game now, and yet I still haven't unlocked the VTOL jet, or the airstrike, or any of the more ridiculous stuff.

The trailers made it seem like you're ridiculously powerful right from the beginning. This isn't necessarily the case, as I still find myself getting my ass kicked in Survival missions, as well as other unscripted street fights that occur quite often. I know this won't last for long though... I'm slowly unlocking everything. Thing is, I've been spending a ton of time doing the side-missions and challenges. The amount of content available here is ridiculous.

The Tank Mayhem missions are pure, unadulterated joy. Basically you hop in a tank and shoot everything that moves, trying to make as much destruction as possible within the time limit. The explosions are massive and the carnage is devastating.

The Insurance Fraud missions are absolutely hilarious. 1) Throw yourself out into traffic 2) Turn into a ragdoll 3) Get cars to hit you 4) Profit!

About these "unscripted street fights" I mentioned earlier: The brawls that break out in the city are crazy in how they escalate into epic battles. If a rival gang walks up to you and you break their necks, then a couple more groups of enemies are guaranteed to drive up and pile on top of you in their cars.

One of the great things is, if you're up against like 15 enemies, whether they be cops or rival gang members, you know you still have a chance to beat them if you have the right gear. You can also call in companions from your gang to help you fight, and suddenly you have entire armies warring against each other. It's real fun.

I maintain my opinion that the combat is really good. Throwing grenades, jumping, rolling, and diving into a car to escape at the last second is all really quite amazing and fluid. The default pistol is actually quite powerful. Oh and also, the shotgun is friggin' awesome when used correctly. I think the Stats page says the shotgun is my best weapon right now, hahah.

I'm fucking loving this game right now.



Yeah... I'm beginning to realize how bad the performance actually is on my AMD card. I mean, it's not terrible, but it runs considerably slower than it should. Glad I'm not the only one. I'm looking forward to a patch or two that optimizes things a bit.

The game has quite a few bugs as well. I failed a Bodyguard mission (?) once because the dealer just froze in place, so I couldn't progress the mission and had no choice other than to restart. Funny too, because the team AI in this game is actually quite competent. I love it when friendly reinforcements come rolling into a gang fight, they seriously help a lot.

Also there was another time when I stepped into a car and somehow closed the door on myself, causing damage and quickly killing me as my car sped off by itself. lol

Wow.. I haven't bought half the properties yet.

but i did spend 20k fully upgrading a police car for my garage for my mayhem car..
virtually indestructible now and super fast.

I also fully upgraded the M4 rifle its sick now..
as well as the pistols and 1 of the sub machine guns and grnades and my gang so I can have 3 out now and they have sub machine guns.

will have to work on properties tonight then if there is that much money every hour.

i have also jacked both the regular army tanks and the STAG super tank in my garage..
as well as thier jeeps with the turrets on top.. these are awesome for taking on hard city missions just roll out and kill them all.. you literally cannot be stopped in the STAG super tank.

super fun game.. love to cause mayhem..

 

[Wordplay]

I just wanna know who is the girl from the I'm in Saint Row commercial?

 

[tornadog]

I watched the GT review and was not too impressed, but hearing all you guys, makes me wanna try it out. I might download the "non-steam demo" tonight

 

[Dankk]

I watched the GT review and was not too impressed, but hearing all you guys, makes me wanna try it out. I might download the "non-steam demo" tonight

FYI, Gametrailers probably isn't the best place to go for your game reviews. They usually won't score many titles very highly unless they get enough money under the table from publishers.

 

[QueBert]

I did some Luchador flying smack downs on a couple cops then did the Carton dance taunt. I gotta say a lot of the taunts are great. It's a shame you can't have like 3 different one and assign them to different keys.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

FYI, Gametrailers probably isn't the best place to go for your game reviews. They usually won't score many titles very highly unless they get enough money under the table from publishers.

How's that different from other sites besides that they probably aren't bought out nearly as often as IGN and such?

 

[Dankk]

How's that different from other sites besides that they probably aren't bought out nearly as often as IGN and such?

Gametrailers and IGN are both pretty bad. I'll post some links to some review outlets that are a bit more dependable.

RockPaperShotgun review
Giant Bomb review
Destructoid review

 

[Udgnim]

wasn't expecting the game to have a Tron like world

looks pretty slick

 

[Homer Simpson]

for those looking for a deal, its $39 over at amazon. i bought it there and put the key in steam to download. beats the $60 console gamers are stuck paying. ive now got about 3-4 hours into it and its great fun. not a single crash, hiccup, consolitis moment or anything to complain about really. just teh annoying audio balance. guns and cars sounds way too soft and no tweaking of the volume sliders really helps. there's been a few story wtf moments, like i was totally unaware

Spoiler

that gat died on the plane and that the scene with the exploding bridge was his "funeral". i guess they were driving to the funeral and got held up in the bridge ceremony traffic? didnt make a lot of sense. did i miss something somewhere?

 

[KaOTiK]

Everyone wants to be Johnny Gat!

 

[Childs]

for those looking for a deal, its $39 over at amazon. i bought it there and put the key in steam to download. beats the $60 console gamers are stuck paying. ive now got about 3-4 hours into it and its great fun. not a single crash, hiccup, consolitis moment or anything to complain about really. just teh annoying audio balance. guns and cars sounds way too soft and no tweaking of the volume sliders really helps. there's been a few story wtf moments, like i was totally unaware

Spoiler

that gat died on the plane and that the scene with the exploding bridge was his "funeral". i guess they were driving to the funeral and got held up in the bridge ceremony traffic? didnt make a lot of sense. did i miss something somewhere?

Did you get a Genki code?

 

[Homer Simpson]

Did you get a Genki code?

i dont think so. was that a preorder bonus or something? i didnt preorder it.

 

[KaOTiK]

Yeah, the Professor Genki stuff was for preorders only. The truck with the cannon is awesome. When you drive over people the front of the truck opens up and eats them and you use them as ammo to shoot out of the cannon on the top :thumbsup:

 

[Aikouka]

I still need to pick up my Genki code from GMG. Their blog said they were sending them out yesterday, but I usually have to manually grab them.

I'm kind of odd in this manner, but I usually have to be convinced to play a game that I own rather than be convinced to buy the game. I was watching TotalBiscuit play Saint's Row 3 last night, and it looked like a load of fun. I might have to actually start playing it. It seems like GTA without all of the incredibly mundane stuff.

 

[KaOTiK]

I still need to pick up my Genki code from GMG. Their blog said they were sending them out yesterday, but I usually have to manually grab them.

I'm kind of odd in this manner, but I usually have to be convinced to play a game that I own rather than be convinced to buy the game. I was watching TotalBiscuit play Saint's Row 3 last night, and it looked like a load of fun. I might have to actually start playing it. It seems like GTA without all of the incredibly mundane stuff.

SR3 is just balls to the wall. It knows what it wants to deliver and gives it to you right up front without all the bullshit to get in the way.

 

[QueBert]

I don't even think this game has AI, normally I'd frown at that fact but it just makes things much more chaotic and fun. I just watched a news van spazz out and run over a bunch of people in a group then turn and ran into a wall and backed up over a few more people and went forward again and ran over a few people who were walking by. Then it backed up hitting a car. It finally turned and drove fast as hell right over an embankment. The driving's completely nuts it seems like there's some sort of accident or person getting flattened at least a couple times a minute. I had 2 cops in the middle of the street shooting at me and a 2nd cop car came FLYING full speed and just ran over both without even slowing down.

The randomness of what goes on is hilarious. I also loved that when I flew a chopper into a building doing full speed all that happened was it basically bounced off with the door staying swung open but seemed fine besides that. I found the realistic physics of GTA:IV annoying at times. There's definitely none of that sh^t here.

 

[KaOTiK]

Yeah, I had a insane moment like an hour ago. Was coming up to a big intersection and out of nowhere a truck comes fly across my screen from the side and plows into cars/building/people and it started this giant cascading clusterfuck where everything was crashing and flying all over and gangs were shooting all over the place at the cops and then right in the middle of the street there is a dude in a pink bear outfit just strolling down like nothing is happening and he stops next to a car that got all smashed up and starts dancing to the music from the radio in the car, all the while all hell is breaking loose lol

 

[Zubinen]

Yeah, the thing I've always liked about Volition, Inc. games is how so much of the player experience is influenced by non-scripted events like a gang of rainbow colored pimps cornering and beating down a clown

 

[Nebor]

This thread caused me to buy the game off Steam last night.

 

[IGhzI]

Seems awesome to me. Didn't play the second one tho lol. But the third is a blast right from the start im about 6 percent into it not a boring moment yet