Saints Row: The Third – PC Game Quickie Review

Let me start by saying that I was a huge fan of the Saints row games from the beginning! I first played the original game(Saints Row) on the xbox 360, and the second(Saints row 2) on the PS3. So when I saw that the third game(Saints Row the Third) was on sale at the Steam store, I had to have it!

The graphics in this one was so much better than the in the second game that it blew me away! The customization was vastly improved as well, at least in terms of character creation. True, the game lacked any good hairstyles, but other than that? Aces! In fact, I spent a good 40 mins just creating my character!

Once you get in the game though, you see right away how different the it is. It just doesn’t FEEL like the past 2 chapters. It’s moved away from urban street gangs, and seems more like organised crime. As such, most of the clothes are flashy and suit like. In fact, your homies wear silk suits, and shaundi looks more like a model instead of the stoner she was in the second.

SR3 basically leaves the street gang behind, but keeps the slightly over the top feeling of the second and takes it to a whole new level! The game has absolutely NO shred of realism to it, in fact at one point you battle zombies! True, Zombies were present in the first and second game, but they weren’t major plot points, and unless you did certain things to bring dead people to life, you never even knew about it!

So, I am not exactly sure how to review this game. If I view the game as a sequel, it’s bad, REALLY bad! It veers too far away from past games and it loses what little realism existed in the game, and turns the whole franchise into a joke.

However, if I review it on its own merits, and force myself to forget that it’s part of the Saints Row franchise, then it’s actually quite good! The over the top tone is fun, and makes it difficult to know what’s going to happen next!

Basically, if you are expecting something similar to the previous games, then don’t bother with Saints Row: The Third. If you just want to have fun, doing some insane crazy stuff, then this is the game for you!

Interestingly enough, this is the first game that I would give an overall rating of both 1 Star(Poor) and 5 stars(Best) to.

Red Dead Redemption Review

Rockstar San Diego recently brought to us another free-roam sandbox style game titled “Red Dead Redemption”. It’s a wild romp through the final days of the western frontier.

The game follows John Marston, a retired outlaw, Reluctant bounty hunter and wannabe rancher as he travels through New Austin and Mexico hunting down his former gang members. His travels take him to some diverse locations and in contact with some colorful characters.

While in the game you will NEED money, for ammo as well as items that could prove useful, such as a bandanna to hide your identity or a bandolier to increase your ammo carry size. Luckily for you there are numberous ways to earn money in this game. You can hunt bounties, do ranch work, skin animals and sell the skins at the general store or of course rob people.

The controls take a few minutes to get used to, especially on horseback, but once you are used to it, and comfortable with it you will love it!

Some reviewers will say “This game is basically grand theft auto IV, but set in the wild west.”  Those people would also be wrong. Yes, there are similarities, This is true. That’s to be expected considering it uses the same game engine. However the differences are multiple! For one thing, it uses a health system similar to the newer call of duty games. It also has a moral system to determine if you are a bad guy or a good guy. There’s obviously no radio stations. It has the Dead Eye feature which basically is slow-mo while you take aim and  target multiple enemies. Lastly they employ an improved duck and cover combat feature, so you can shield yourself behind objects in the environment and poke out to fire off a few shots before returning to cover.

Those are just a few MINOR differences. If anything, I would say the game is a cross between Fallout 3, GTAIV and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The game takes all the best features and aspects of those 3 titles and blends them together really well to come out with this masterpiece.

Another thing you might be interested in knowing is that the game is a sequel to another game titled “Red Dead Revolver”. However, if you haven’t played it, don’t fret! Redemption is not a DIRECT sequel, more like a spiritual one. The stories don’t really connect, so you don’t have to worry about being lost in a plotline, or scratching your head in confusion, because an event being referred to is from a different game.

Apart from being an incredible single player experience, it also has an Online multi-player feature. Most games either shine in their single player campaign or the multi-player aspect. Very few game titles manage to provide an enjoyable experience in both fields. However, Red Dead Redemption has managed just that.

Bottom line: The game is visually stunning, with a fun story that will leave you begging for more! If you love sandbox games, shooters or Role-playing games you will no doubt love this game.

Here’s a tip for you though. If you think you have beaten this game, there’s a chance you might not have REALLY beaten it. There’s a point in the game, that really seems like the end but isn’t really. To avoid any spoilers, just remember this: Most games have credits when they end. Red Dead Redemption is no different! If you haven’t gotten the credits, then you haven’t finished the game.

So, if you are one of those people who didn’t actually finish the game like you might have thought, and now just discovered that there’s more of an ending than you actually experienced, and are now wondering how you access that bad-boy? The answer is quite simple really. Just do the stranger missions! Need help finding em all? Check this page out. Now, go finish the game for reals this time!

Somethings should be remade!

Recently I have started digging around through my old Xbox video game titles, playing games like Jade Empire, and Knights of the Old Republic along with a handful of other titles that I have enjoyed over the years.

While rummaging through all my old game titles I came across Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which is part 2 of the Grand Theft Auto 3 Trilogy. Obviously, I decided to play it, then decided to play Grand Theft auto 3 and San Andreas as well. These games still are quite fun, despite being several years old. My only problem with the games is that the controls are pretty much crap. I even remember thinking that at the time. They just didn’t work the way they should! Targeting was a pain in the ass, Driving a pain in the ass, The fact that you couldn’t pan your camera around was annoying as all fuck. I hated that you had to spin your actual character around to look about the place, or end up going into first person view mode.

That was all crap. The stories however? Well, they were more mission based and the structure was a bit off. It still was a great story! This got me to thinking which doesnt happen very often. I know usually I am against remakes. However in this case, I believe Rockstar should Remake the Grand Theft Auto 3 Trilogy using the euphoria engine as well as some kick ass graphics.

At the VERY least re-release it with the same graphics, enhanced controls to make it more user friendly, and sell it through the Playstation Network and Xbox Marketplace. This would probably be less problematic I would assume, and it would give people a chance to experience the game trilogy that seemed to cause so much controversy but now would probably be considered laughly tame. Plus, people like me, who own the game and love the game, would but it simply for the enhanced controls.

Although I would REALLY love to see a complete remake.

Rockstar Christmas

Do you game? If so, then you probably have heard of the company Rockstar. They are responsible for one of my favorite game series. Yea, you guessed it, Grand Theft Auto. I have actually been playing Grand Theft Auto 4 quite a bit, mainly because Rockstar has released 2 DLC add-on games, which are quite fun.

At anyrate, I decided to release another holiday strip, this one centering slightly on christmas in Liberty City(One of the main cities in the Grand Theft Auto universe, just in case you weren’t aware)