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Saints Row 2 co-op trailer featuring Obama and McCain

S

SolidSnakex

Member
The game begins with your created character waking up after years in a coma. The options for your wannabe gangster are extensive to say the least. It would take pages to list out all of the combinations so I'll just say that there are three male and three female accents to strap onto your character. That means that every line of spoken dialogue -- and there are a lot -- had to be recorded six times. Also, if you throw one of the crazier costumes on your character (ninja gi anyone?) then that's exactly what you'll see in the cutscenes. No matter how dramatic. Lots of options, both serious and off the wall, allow you to have a slightly different experience throughout the game, as long as you take advantage of what's afforded.

One of the coolest parts of Saints Row 2, and this goes for most well done open world games, is the different ways the game can be played. I spoke with six or seven different press outlets once our day of playing was done. Some had focused on discovering the wider array of activities than what is available in the first Saints while others focused on one of the four initial gangs. Each of those gangs provides a nice, long story arc and they're all tied together by the overarching mega corporation known as Ultor.
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The Ronin missions, as you'd expect, begin simply enough with me taking down minor crime syndicates attached to the gang. One mission in particular sticks out in my mind. "Bleeding Out" features one of the best cutscenes I've seen from the series and the death of one of the featured characters in the game. I won't spoil who, but it sends a shockwave through the gang and it's delivered in a highly stylized way.

While the production values of the cutscenes that drive the action forward aren't quite as high as they were in GTA4 I still found myself enthralled with what was going on. The characters deliver their lines believably and the writing is witty enough that I found myself laughing both at their dialogue and at the newspaper clippings that come after each successful mission. "Gat Found Guilty. Still Goes Free" comes to mind.

Much of this has to do with the voice acting talent that has been tapped to bring life to the characters. Keith David, Michael Rappaport and Daniel Dae Kim are back from the first game and are joined by the likes of Eliza Dushku and Neil Patrick Harris (NPH!) as a drug dealing disc jockey.
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Saints Row 2 does admittedly feel very similar to what Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 4 brought to the table earlier this year, but once you spend some time with the game you can see that it's a bit of a different beast. The action is more over the top and zany and there's a humor that was missing from the Scorsese-esque GTA4 storyline. There are also little touches like being able to fly an assortment of planes (an awesome feeling when you have a four-star wanted level breathing down your neck) and being able to press a face button when you're in the water and warp to the nearest shoreline or set cruise control when you're in your car, thus making drive-bys and chases much easier.

Of course with all the new, cool stuff that you'll see in Saints Row 2, the pre-release version that I played still had many of the technical deficiencies (and a few new ones) that I saw from the first. Cars occasionally got stuck in other objects and sometimes environmental pieces would behave very strangely. There's still draw-in and pop-in when driving around the streets at a quick clip. The framerate gets bogged down the action gets really frenetic and screen tearing was evident during cutscenes. Speaking of cutscenes, the characters' hair had some real aliasing problems. Here's hoping that a couple of these issues can be ironed out before October 14.

After my six-hour run of destroying The Ronin (which earned me their fighting style and ninja costume) was done, it was time to take to the co-op gauntlet. Essentially co-op -- which is only available over Xbox Live or system link -- is exactly what you'd expect. You can play through the entire game with cutscenes where you'll see your own character and all. If you complete a late mission in co-op mode and haven't beaten it in your single-player game, you'll be asked if you want to play it again or skip it when you get to that point. Another cool feature is that AI scales to adapt to the fact that there are two players. That means more foes on-screen and different AI patterns. In other words, it's a little more fun and a little more frenetic.

There are also two modes within the co-op mode for you to enjoy. One, my favorite of the two, is called Cat and Mouse. One player is in an assault copter above the city while another is in a stylish sports car racing through the city, trying to hit check points and stay alive for as long as possible. A score counter keeps track of the action and things can get understandably heated during some of the Die Hard-esque chases. The other mode is a standard Deathmatch offering Death Tag. Kill the other dude or dudette before they kill you.
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http://ps3.ign.com/articles/909/909216p1.html

saints-row-2-20080910022521179.jpg

saints-row-2-20080910022514180.jpg

saints-row-2-20080910022538726.jpg


Trailer:

http://ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/905741/saints-row-2/videos/saintsrow2_coop_trlr_091008.html

NPH! NPH!
 
A

AmMortal

Banned
Watching...
edit:

Ghaaa video is acting weird for me :(

Edit 2:

Ohly crap, that was the greatest game trailer EVAR
 
E

EmSeta

Member
Bah, doesn't look like the candidates at all. I've heard the customization options are really expansive, so they could have done a much better job. Legal reasons?
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
Fantastic trailer.


Too bad the game got kicked from my fall shopping list by Mercs 2. There's only so many sandbox games I can deal with this year.

Will pick this up when I have nothing to play next year and it's cheaper.
 
G

Guybrush Threepwood

Banned
Ready to lead?

Barack Obama appears in a recent trailer for a violent video game. John McCain has consistently opposed violent video games.

Vote for values. Vote John McCain.
 
S

sixteen-bit

Member
Guybrush Threepwood said:
Ready to lead?

Barack Obama appears in a recent trailer for a violent video game. John McCain has consistently opposed violent video games.

Vote for values. Vote John McCain.
Click to expand...
:lol
 
M

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
haha

and the youtube comments don't leave me with much hope for humanity.........but when do they ever?
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
Clever angle, focusing on the co-op so strongly. Damn funny too. Even Pirates and Ninjas working together for the greater good. :lol
 
S

SuperSonic1305

Member
Every time I see trailers of Saint's Row 2 i'm reminded of San Andreas. Some of the areas and vehicles look like they were ripped straight from that game.
 
G

Guybrush Threepwood

Banned
SuperSonic1305 said:
Every time I see trailers of Saint's Row 2 i'm reminded of San Andreas. Some of the areas and vehicles look like they were ripped straight from that game.
Click to expand...

As opposed to GTA IV, which was directly inspired by the prose of JRR Tolkien
 
J

JB1981

Member
Ugliest sandbox game ever.

Ok, the stills are much worse looking than the trailer

LOL @ the cops being republican and the robbers being dems.
 
C

Concept17

Member
The pirates and ninjas were the best part :lol :lol :lol

I may just have to get this. Its co-op online only right? No splitscreen? And just 2p yes?
 
pr0cs

pr0cs

Member
I'll be there day one, but I"m worried that they have serious technical issues so late in dev. I know Saint's One was seriously delayed due to technical issues (and didn't release all that bug-free either).

I was sort of hoping the sequel would have had them iron out a lot of the problems and improve on what they had.. not add more bugs.
 
R

raYne

Member
The incentives that I mentioned come in the form of bonuses that are handed out once you take down some of the later, more difficult levels of the activities. I got things like reduced bullet damage by 5%, reduced cost on certain items and the ability to hire bodyguards.
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<3 Bonuses.

Another cool feature is that AI scales to adapt to the fact that there are two players. That means more foes on-screen and different AI patterns. In other words, it's a little more fun and a little more frenetic.
Click to expand...
Yes! Mercs 2 co-op is far too easy (though fun), so this is a great decision.

"Bleeding Out" features one of the best cutscenes I've seen from the series and the death of one of the featured characters in the game. I won't spoil who, but it sends a shockwave through the gang and it's delivered in a highly stylized way.
Click to expand...
Better not be Gat.

*shakes fist*
 
N

newsguy

Member
I can't wait for this! Now that I'm playing Mercs and having some of the most fun I've had this gen, I know Volition will deliver on that front. Co-op open world games are the new hotness!
 
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