Saints Row (X360)

- I bought this when it first came out and I just now got a chance to check it out.
- So I pop it in over the weekend thinking I might just mess around with it for an hour or so, then get too frustrated, and shelve it like I do with all the GTA games. I usually quit around 10%. I ended up playing for like 6 hours and loved it. They fixed almost all the frustrations I had with GTA. The only thing I wished they would do is maybe add some checkpoints on some of the longer multi part missions.
- I'm now closer to 10 hrs and I just finished "the" Los Carnales story line :-)
- The shooting combat and car handling are near perfect. It is way better and more satisfying than GTA. They really got that part right.
- Almost no load times even when switching from interior and exterior.
- Day/Night and weather effects
- Graphics are pretty impressive especially the explosions. I'm a sucker for good explosions. Frame rate is pretty steady most of the time.
- Most of the side quest activities are actually pretty fun.
- I love the homie system
- You get to customize the entire look of your character much like fight night round 3 or oblivion. Hmmm no gender options (male only) but there are female homies you can recruit.
- Clothes and jewelery actually affect game play. It gives you a respect bonus which goes to unlocking more story line missions.
- The story is interesting and keeps me coming back for more.
- Great 5.1 sound. Independent voice volume slider and subtitles. I hate games where it's hard to hear what people are saying.
- Save at anytime and quick mission restarts if you fail. Very little penalty for dying or getting busted.
- Fun weapons. RPG never gets old. Blowing up cars is fun! Have I mentioned I like the explosions? Crazy over the top physics. Go play the destruction derby activity and you will see what I mean.
- awesome map waypoint navigation system
- Haven't tried multiplayer yet.
- Having never gotten very far in any of the GTA's I've found the missions interesting and enjoyable.
- Try and pick one gang and take them completely out because sometimes a gang will push back and you have to go clear out a contested area.

The most fun and accessible GTA game that isn't called GTA.

Highly recommended.

UPDATE: 11/25/06
Finished in 23.5 hrs getting the "true" ending (second set of credits).
- probably add another 2-4 hrs to that time because of lock ups. Not sure why but only this game has given my xbox 360 issues. If I apply the patch things are much worse and a lock up will happen in 5-60min. If I don't apply the patch and clear the hard drive cache I can go playing 3hrs or more without issue. I finished all of gears of war on hard core without a single lock up.
- After finishing the game I went ahead and applied the patch again and played a single deathmatch game and it didn't lock up (but then again that was like 20min max).
- I really enjoyed the game and the story/missions for the most part. There were a few pretty frustrating missions (especially toward the end). The true ending kind of sucks.
- over at volition's forum they recommend exchanging the game disc even though the disc looks flawless to me. I might do that.
- Great but buggy (either that or it killed my x360) game.