ramble ramble

I haven't updated for a while so here goes.
I was in Denver for the 2nd week in September so I haven't had a lot of time to game but I will say that I picked up Saint's Row shortly after Dead Rising. The funny thing was that I expected to let Saint's Row slip while I played more of Dead Rising but once I put the DVD in the drive I was instantly hooked on Saint's Row. I normally like sandbox type games and enjoyed the GTA series but GTA:SA actually started turning me off the game. Mostly because it became less about managing gang agression and how you could work each gang in your favor (which was common in the early GTA1 and GTA2 games) and more about the simulation. I also found GTA:SA too large with entire portions of the city unused and barren or pointless.
Anyway I started playing Row with an open mind and since I enjoyed the demo I hoped the retail game would offer the same but in larger quantities, which it does.

So far I'm really impressed, the game does some really great things technically which really stops the game from getting old and boring. This is something that I think a lot of reviewer seem to be missing. The reviewers seem to peg the game as a rehashed GTA game but technically the game walks circles around the GTA series. The physics system in place is simply awesome and adds so much diversity to the gameplay you can't help to love just messing around which is what makes sandbox games so fun. A funny example of the physics in action was I was in a car with 3 other "homies" and we were driving down one of the bridges in the game. The homies started shooting the car that was chasing us and since the chase car was so much faster it was gaining on us quickly. Well the homies ended up blowing up the other car but because it had so much momentum it's exploding flying corpse flew up in the air and actually landed in our car (it was a convertible) subsequently lighting my "homies" on fire killing all of them and nearly killing me. Stuff like this wasn't even possible with any of the GTA games.

Couple a really robust physics engine wrapped around a very decent 3D engine (considering how much stuff is going on) and an aiming/shooting system that is light-years beyond any other sandbox game to date and you have Saint's Row.

I am still pissing around with the side missions (yes, side missions in Row are actually fun, unlike a lot of them inside GTA:SR), when I've finished the missions and story I'll come back and write a review.

Do yourself a favor and go buy Saint's Row. If you're and adult and like sandbox games there really is no equal to this game.