I kinda skipped over most of this thread just because I want to ask about Saint's Row 2 and not the first, and didn't want to make a new thread. Any opinions on it? I've been kinda feeling like a sandbox game and was considering GTA4, esp with the addon pack coming soon. The ZP and Gspot reviews for SR2 have me considering it instead though. It just sounds a lot more free and a lot more offensive, both of which are huge pluses for me.
I have been playing SR2 PC today. I'll give you some impressions on it.
SR2 is probably the best GTA-series clone I've played. I did like True Crime: NYC PC, but it wasn't great -- it was decent, though. I must say, the license music in TC: NYC PC was great. TC: NYC PC had some performance issues, yet looks nowhere as good as SR2 PC. SR2 PC runs even better than TC: NYC PC did.
About SR2 PC, the performance is on my PC all over the place. Quite often, it's fine (especially indoors) -- but put too much on screen when outdoors and it's gonna slow-down and stutter a little bit. Not game-breaking, though. I got most of the stuff on Medium settings on 800x600, since it ran consistently horrible on 1024x768 no matter what settings I had the game set at.
I like the customization of your character at the opening of SR2 PC -- you could be there all day, configuring your character you try to look like you; somebody you know; or however you want to. It's something I do wish GTA series did, actually.
SR2's voice-acting is actually good. I didn't know what to expect there -- but so far, it's good. Story hasn't really got too far going, as I'm trying to rebuild the Saints Row gang up from scratch -- since most of them are either dead or in jail (according to the game).
But, the action is pretty good; controls are pretty good and as customizable as can be (for me, I use KB/mouse when shooting, X360 pad when driving -- and it works great); and there looks like there's a hell of a lot to do and actually unlock in this game-world. The missions look like the usual GTA-esque of fanfare for missions -- killing people, recruiting people, etc; though, if a mission has numerous pieces to to, there are actual auto-saves for when you do "part" of a long mission. I've just been driving around here and there, doing side missions and unlocking locations and stuff -- and it's been pretty enjoyable.
So far, SR2 PC is pretty fun. It looks like it'll be worth my $20 + cheap shipping (from Gogamer), so it looks like, once all is said and done.