Saint's Row Worker Misses GTA's 'Fun'

Logan Frederick

New member
Aug 19, 2006
1,963
0
0
Saint's Row Worker Misses GTA's 'Fun'



One of Saint's Row 2 producers says the Grand Theft Auto franchise, its "biggest competitor," has "lost a lot of the fun" it used to have.

Dan Sutton, Assistant Producer for Volition Studios, is moving the gangster sandbox game Saint's Row 2 in a direction of an exaggerated world representation after marketing research on Grand Theft Auto IV's strict realism found that "a lot of users seem to feel that GTA IV went to the realistic gameplay and lost a lot of the fun experiences from games like San Andreas."

"The encouraging thing is that a lot of people seem to be in favour of Saints Row," he said.

Sutton might be a bit biased, but he insists he's a huge Rockstar fan himself.

"San Andreas is one of my favourite games and Vice City was a lot of fun too - just the whacky [sic] activities you got up to, the fast paced action."

The problems for GTA, he says, occurred when Rockstar tried to make the series "realistic."

"They really slowed it down for this one.... It's an awesome environment but I think they lost a lot of fun factor. We've seen that on a lot of forums," he noted.

Sutton hopes Saint's Row's online will boost the game's longevity compared to GTA IV.

"It's been months since it came out and multiplayer's kind of held on to that. There are still some things you can go back and do like the hitman stuff, there's some racing activities you can do, you can shoot pigeons if you want... but beyond that there's not that much replayability," he said. "We wanted to add co-op, all this different missions, diversions... you're just getting rewarded for playing the game. That's what we feel is the defining factor of Saints Row."

Fans of gang-fighting open-world adventures will have to see if the addition of porn star Tera Patrick [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/85264] to the development team will seduce players back to the game after its October 14 release in North America .

Source: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=194547]

Permalink
 

Jumplion

New member
Mar 10, 2008
7,873
0
0
SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS@!!!

Everything this man's said about GTA4 is true, I loved San Andreas but now I can barely play 30 minutes in 4.

I might get Saints Row 2 though.
 

richasr

New member
Dec 13, 2007
353
0
0
Many more people would still choose GTA over Saints Row, which was still behind any of the post GTA 2 games. I really hope Saints Row 2 can change in a way which captures what GTA is and was all about, and also manages to cover what GTA doesn't include.

Either way, I think GTA 4 was still a hell of a lot of fun with more added realism.
 

countrysteaksauce

New member
Jul 10, 2008
660
0
0
Yup that's what I've heard from nearly everyone.
I don't own the game, but can anyone tell me how similar the locations between gta 3 and gta 4 are? They're supposed to be the same city, but i've yet to see anything from gta 3 make it into 4.
 

bluerahjah

New member
Mar 5, 2008
314
0
0
I preferred the cartoonier look and play-style to 4, I mean it's still really good, but really not as fun as SA.
 

PedroSteckecilo

Mexican Fugitive
Feb 7, 2008
6,732
0
0
I LIKE that the two have diverged so sharply.

GTAIV for realism, deep plot and grittiness.
Saints Row for Crazy, Colorful wackiness.

They've both found a niche, are both very enjoyable and can both be successful! Everyone wins!
 

SecretTacoNinja

New member
Jul 8, 2008
2,256
0
0
I honestly couldn't give a rat's ass about Saint's row 2, I played the first one and I didn't enjoy it in the least. Plus the producer would say that about it's main 'competetor' (*cough* doesn't compare *cough*) Just like Sony saying the Wii wasn't part of the competition, Because Nintendo already kicked their arses (although it is more between Sony and Microsoft now). I'm currently playing GTA 4 and although the missions are a lot the same, There's so much to explore. Plus driving into a lamppost and flying through the windscreen is Totally Fucking Awesome.
 

Mr.Pandah

Pandah Extremist
Jul 20, 2008
3,967
0
0
Saints Row 2 is shaping up to be more of the sandbox type of game im looking for. I mean, kudos to GTAIV for all the realism and what not but after the single player campaign ended so terribly, and all i could do was take my "friends" out to eat, i was done with that game. Honestly, i thought that the ending to that game was horrible but thats besides the point. I want to have fun while playing my games, and while GTA did deliver that, it just wasnt to the extent of its previous entries into the sandbox world.
 

Imbrium

New member
Jul 2, 2008
58
0
0
Words cannot begin to describe how wholeheartedly I agree with Mr. Sutton. Grand Theft Auto IV just was not fun - it missed the point of gaming entirely. I am actually looking forward to selling IV to pay for Saints Row 2. They at least have stuck true to the wacky gun fun that made the series a hit a couple of years ago.
 

Gahars

New member
Feb 4, 2008
806
0
0
I couldn't stand any of the past games, due to the crappy targeting system.

GTAIV, on the other hand, is one of my favorite games, thanks to 1) Its great targeting system, 2) The freedom it gave you in Liberty City and 3) the fantastic story.

If you can't enjoy that, than too bad.
 

Melaisis

New member
Dec 9, 2007
1,014
0
0
I don't disagree, but this is coming from a franchise which basically left half of the story of the first game unfinished, forcing the player to literally 'grind' territories for the rest of the game. Although I found SR1 a Hell of a lot harder than GTA4.
 

PedroSteckecilo

Mexican Fugitive
Feb 7, 2008
6,732
0
0
He's not saying GTAIV isn't fun, he's saying the game lacks "fun" in that it takes itself to seriously, which, to a degree, it does.
 

darknight910

New member
Apr 15, 2008
88
0
0
Gahars said:
I couldn't stand any of the past games, due to the crappy targeting system.

GTAIV, on the other hand, is one of my favorite games, thanks to 1) Its great targeting system, 2) The freedom it gave you in Liberty City and 3) the fantastic story.

If you can't enjoy that, than too bad.
Even though Rockstar pretty much copied Saint's Row's targeting system.
 

Booze Zombie

New member
Dec 8, 2007
7,416
0
0
I really think GTA is dead now, I'm waiting for Saint's Row 2 and Mercenaries 2 to come rock my world.
 

xMacx

New member
Nov 24, 2007
230
0
0
This was exactly what I was thinking after playing 3-4 hours, then reading the reviews - my opinion was closer to this than the 10/10 OMG reviews that were coming out.
 

L.B. Jeffries

New member
Nov 29, 2007
2,175
0
0
Any game that lets you use a defibrilator as an attack weapon clearly has an compelling understanding of what true human expression desires in a sandbox world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUyM18YWHEQ

Also, is anybody else digging the Gary Busey ad campaign they launched on Youtube?
 

Sixties Spidey

Elite Member
Jan 24, 2008
3,299
0
41
I don't think GTA lost its fun. It definitely lost the whackiness the last GTA trilogy had (GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas), but i think that is okay for GTA to move on. There are hints of craziness in Grand Theft Auto IV, and its in a lot of places. And i thought Saints Row was a bit lackluster, so yes, I am worried about the sequel.