Saints Row 2 vs. Grand Theft Auto 4: Compare and Contrast.

I know it's been a month since I last posted here, but February really sucked the life out of me. The cold, the snow and the destruction of our national economy as a lasting remnant of the previous administration was a real bummer. On top of that, February isn't really that great of a month. It's just a lot of snow and cold and nothingness.

Right now Spring is trying so very hard to peek its head out from Winter's gloom. The last couple of days have been sunny and "warm" (high 40's to low 60's). It's pouring rain right now which is sucha vast improvement from that god awful snow that I can live with it!

I spent much of the month of February doing exactly what a self respecting geek would do. Playing video games on the good ol' '360! Right now I'm between several different games.

I still haven't finished Fallout 3 which I took a break from for a while. I also find myself popping back in and out of Grand Theft Auto 4 (GTA4) which also is far from being completed. Then there's Fable II which I haven't quite gotten to far in as of yet. The little gem I find myself going back to again and again and again is Saint's Row 2 (SR2)

Saint's Row 2 can be described as GTA4's bastard, unruly son. Both are open world, crime simulation games with big cities to race around in, chase around in and create as much destruction and bedlam as possible. However, I'm currently finding SR2 far more entertaining than GTA4. SR2's controls are 100% better, the freedom is far more reaching and the amount of customization is just crazy! Add to that the mini-games within the city are far more addictive than any of the actual missions in GTA4.

When I recently went back to GTA4 and drove around the city a bit, I found steering the car a monumental task. Try and take a curb at a fast speed and you'll find yourself in an uncontrollable power-slide that is hard to recover from. In SR2 you can take curbs and do a very controlled power-slide AND get extra points for doing so.

Your character in SR2 (that you create from the get go - we'll get into this in a bit) can pretty much run rampant throughout the imaginary city of Stillwater all they want. Sure the cops will chase you, but that's half the fun. You can pretty much do the same in GTA4, but I find the IA police a bit more relentless in their pursuit. Sure, this is more challenging, but is it more fun? You also have to constantly manage relationships with many of the side characters in GTA4. Imagine you're out exploring what Liberty City has to offer and suddenly your cousin, your girlfriend or your drug supplier calls up on your cell and wants to go do something with you. If you don't they wont help you out later in the game. And they call ALL THE TIME! It's great to get immersed in a virtual world, but this ain't The Sims!

The customization of your character in SR2 is far and vastly superior in every way shape and form when compared to GTA4! In GTA4 you get the male, Russian character of Niko Belik. A lovable rogue if there ever was one. But, outside of his limited amount of clothing, you're stuck with the designer's' character they have created for you. In SR2 it's a whole other monster. A monster you can create from the ground up! At the beginning stage of the game you choose if you want your character to be male or female, athletic or fat, have a big or small nose, have beady or large eyes. I don't even want to go into the hair options 'cause you'd be here reading it for next few hours. Needless to say, my character is a male with jet black, mulletized hair with bright purple dye in it's back who has a King Diamond goatee, Alice Cooper eye makeup and wears tight black jeans with skull and crossbones t-shirt. He speaks in an East Ender English accent and occasionally sports cop sunglasses. For a nominal fee of money you obtain in the game, you can go to many of Stillwater's plastic surgeons and change the look, swager and attitude of you character as well as darn near anything else you want. That way you're not stuck with the same look for the entire game.

Not only is your character uber-customizable, so are the many autos you can obtain the game. There are a few special designed cars you can't change, but they are far and few between when compared to the insane amount of vehicles that can be taken to a Stillwater mechanic to have paint jobs, upgrades and awesome stylization. In GTA4 you can take a car to a mechanic who will fix it up and give it a paint job of the game's choosing. Not your own. You can also customize your own radio station or just listen to the many that Stillwater has.

Now, am I saying that SR2 is far superior than GTA4? Not at all. Let's look at the overall quality of the games. GTA4 wins hands down. The story and game are far more epic. The details are incredibly more in depth. Just look at how Liberty City mirrors many of the aspects of the actual Big Apple. It's darn right spooky at times! Also GTA4 is a far longer game than SR2. SR2 has a heck of a lot of missions to get through before you complete the main storyline, but I finished it in less than a month. I bought GTA4 nearly a year ago and my Niko is still being sent out on missions. And GTA4's graphics are several grades up the color ramp than SR2's. SR2's are a bit cartoony where GTA4's are quite in-depth and gritty.

Here's what it feels like. The guys at Volition played through many of Rock Star's GTA games and said, "Let's make a mirror copy of this kind of game, but let's make it less restrictive and concentrate on giving it a more playground feel to it rather than overly challenging and dark and gritty."

This is why I found myself playing through SR2 one entire time with my English King Diamond Alice cooper character and then starting it all over again with a newly created character (a cute but deadly Goth chick!). I rarely do that. Once I play through an entire game I go onto something else. Like I said, I have a couple I need to get back to, fer crissakes!

Sure, I hope to pop into Liberty City again and complete the game at some point. But, right now I'm having a blast in Stillwater! GTA4 might be the better all around game, but SR2 is fun as hell!!!!

'Nuff said there.


You know, I'm finding myself quite the Anglophile as of late when it comes to renting DVDs. I just completed seasons 1 and 2 of The Tudors and now I'm starting on the 25 year old Britsh series, Robin of Sherwood. There's something about English history and legends that has gotten a hold of me recently (and, NO! It's not Natalie Dormer or a young Judi Trott you pervs! Well...not totally).

I found the fate of Anne Boleyn, of The Tudors, both tragic and slightly self deserved. Sure, it's weaselly to sleep your way into monarchy for your kaniving family. It's a whole other thing to be falsely accused of things you never did and sentenced to public death just because King Henry's ego has been bruised. Karma can be one brutal sledgehammer of payback.

So, I'm watching Robin of Sherwood this morning and I'm looking at the bloke who plays Jack Scarlet. I'm lookin' at him and lookin' at him and going,"God, I know that guy". I get my answer in the end credits. Scarlet is played by Ray Winstone who was Mac in Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! He also voiced Beowulf in the GD animated movie of the same name (useless Zangz's pop culture item #556).

I remember watching the sword and sorcery show in the late 80's on Sunday afternoon where they aired on the local public television station. I forgot how piss poor the sound quality was. The music was this soft Enya-esque keyboard slop that they must have recorded in someone's basement. Then instead of using quality sound effects, they used what was recorded on set live. So instead of Clank, Clank Clank during a sword duel you hear, tink, tink, tink. When someone gets punched you hear, pat, pat, pat, instead of SMACK, SMACK, SMACK! I find the poor quality of sound in this show really disturbing. Perhaps I'm spoiled with what we have now on today's TV show sound. I still enjoy the storytelling the show has to offer.

Anyway, I can see I'm rambling on endlessly and will call it a day here soon. I do need to start to prepare for some covert hi-jinx involving a very good friend turning 40. Welcome to the club, Honey.

That's it. I'm outta here.

Zangz.