Response to hate on Saints Row

There's a lot of what seem to me to be silly comments , "rehashing" ,"copy+pasting","reskinning old textures" e.t.c.(no offence meant)
I'm sure if you saw the amount of work that is put into producing two great pc games like SR2 and SR4 you'd
wouldn't use such naive comments.
If game devs were "let off the leash" with no cost constraints ,then maybe we'd have something different ,who knows,but there's a reason they've been so successful.
It's why we're all here too.
Maybe I'm wrong and making a mutli million selling game like one of the Sr series is "simples" :)
 
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I won't even be surprised if SRV takes place in a reskinned Steelport. With reskinned weapons, reskinned vehicles, reskinned everything. And I will laugh if that is the case, because I'd love to see what the guys saying Volition is a creative studio will have to say about that one.
Although I hope SRV is something new, I'd also like to defend the Volition creative team and stand by my words about how creative I think they are.

I am a software developer by occupation, so I know how these types of projects work. As Minimaul and bgan69 have already pointed out, the Volition creative team has come up with some awesome and very fun games within the constraints they were given. In most software projects, upper management generally hands the software developers a proclamation stating that the project WILL be completed by a certain date. The developers know that upper management is living in a fantasy world and has no concept of how much time and effort it would actually take to complete the project properly. But, since a paycheck DOES come in handy sometimes, the software developers are forced to agree to the date provided. So now it's up to the software developers to scramble and try to find clever ways to squeeze as much functionality into the time they're given. So, yes, assets had to be reused to finish a game within the constraints the Volition creative team was given. BUT, this fact doesn't make the game any less creative. I am actually MORE impressed by the Volition team for coming up with some really creative and fun games within some relatively short time frames.

I WOULD like to make a plea to Volition management team to give the developers some more time to create something really new and exciting for SRV. I give Rockstar Games a lot of credit for being brave enough to delay the release of GTA5 several times until the game was really ready to release. I think this really helps give GTA a reputation for quality, and it's a lesson that other management teams should pay attention to. Don't sacrifice quality just to make a quick buck, because it will hurt in the long run.

Just please try not to bash the Volition developers because I'm sure they've put a lot of effort into making the best games they possibly could. Okay -- I'm done with my rant now. :D
 
While I really enjoy SR IV and I find it awesome as a game, I still don't think it should be called 'Saints Row' in the first place (or it should be a big spin-off title). In my opinion they've ruined the series by making it canon.
I was bummed to see the Earth destroyed, because I don't want Saints Row to turn into just another Science Fiction space game. I already have enough of those games. I miss the cool stylishness of Saints Row 2 and 3. I enjoyed exploring the cities and interacting with "real" people. The Saints were larger than life heroes, the epitome of "cool", with cool clothes and cool cars and cool cribs. But they were heroes in a world full of regular people. Now the world and the regular people are gone, and they are heroes to no one. Although I love Saints Row IV and GOOH, I miss all of that.
 
GTAV is closer to Saints Row than Saints Row is.

It's not just a creativity issue, it's also about how far they have diverged from Saints Row itself.
 
You have to be blind to think SR4 does not look like SR3. Not silly if it's true.

yes ,the word 'Steelport' comes to mind (insert rolling eyes icon here )

Anyway it's supposed to be a sandbox to have fun in ,which is why 9 out of 10 cats say YES!
 
Saints row 4 is fun game and the people who worked on it did great job with what they were given with resources and time. But my problem is with both SR3 and SR4 they completely abandoned their original style. There is so little content and so few missions compared to SR2. GOOH was good for one time laughs but i have no interest in returning to it. I find it more fun to run around in SR2 doing grazy shit than sr3 or sr4 because there is much more to do, customization is better and the city is interesting and fun to be in.
 
Isn't fun subjective? You can't say outright a game isn't fun, all you can say is *you* didn't find it fun. I know I found SRIV more fun than I'm finding GTAV. A lot more.

I never said it wasn't fun for others, I said it wasn't creative or innovative, and my first like about fun was in the sense of claims that SRIV/GooH are "so much whacky fun lol komedy".
Yes, parts of SRIV are fun. But to me, the whole package is disjointed. I had to use mods just to make the game bearable, before finally giving up.

From the looks of things, people are doing the same with GooH especially with regard to the customisable character because surprise surprise that was SR's big advantage over GTA and "OMG Johnny Gat is awesome let me BE him!" fans are in the minority. Something Volition would know if their apathy towards us wasn't palpable.

Pretty much every game on the market that isn't "Barbie Horse Adventure" has care and passion put into it. People put a LOT of themselves into these things and they really do care.

I don't see that in SRIV and I certainly do not see that in GooH. All I see is cynicism and exploitation from a burnt out developer that doesn't give a damn anymore.

Volition don't get Rockstar's timescales, and they don't have several studios around the world contributing in the same way. To give you some idea, GTAIV was launched 29 April 2008, with GTAV launched September 17, 2013. That's a 5 and a half year gap. In that same timeframe we had SR2, SRTT, and SRIV, and the PC launch of GOOH still beat GTAV for PC.

I'm really not interested in Volitions continual claims of poverty and timescales. Who held a gun to their head and forced them to develop SRIV and GooH so fast.
THQ? They're dead and gone, and yet they're still doing it.

Personally, I've got a lot more fun out of SR2, SRTT, SRIV and GOOH than I've got out of GTAIV and GTAV.

Like I said. I'm not making a direct comparison. I can only state that from an objective point of view, Rockstar care more about their games.
I personally do not enjoy Rockstar's games though, so that point is moot. I would enjoy SRIV more than GTA too, but I won't deny which is the game that has more care and attention devoted to it.

Excellent point you made there Minimaul.
Wow! ,i'm amazed when you look at that one fact.
Volition are a very creative studio and have done a brillaint job so far with the resources they have.
I don't just think of Saints Row ,i also think of Red Faction and further back than that for other great games they've released.
I for one am glad they haven't sat on their arses for 5+ years tinkering away on one game.
Gta is all good ,but we need the diversity that keeps pc gaming fresh and fun.
Volition do a pretty good job at that :)

and long may they continue.

P.S..
Some gamers are just plain grumpy :)

How are Volition creative?
How are they keeping gaming diverse?
Why are they doing a "pretty good job"?

I see a lot of claims that aren't being backed up by anything. I realise the knee-jerk reaction of fans is to defend their chosen studio no matter what, but you need to step back and actually think about what you've said and realise there's no substance to it.

Moreover, I'd rather Volition spend 5+ years polishing a game with care and attention to make the best product they want to make possible, than squirt out hollow, assembly line experiences.

Although I hope SRV is something new, I'd also like to defend the Volition creative team and stand by my words about how creative I think they are.

I am a software developer by occupation, so I know how these types of projects work. As Minimaul and bgan69 have already pointed out, the Volition creative team has come up with some awesome and very fun games within the constraints they were given. In most software projects, upper management generally hands the software developers a proclamation stating that the project WILL be completed by a certain date. The developers know that upper management is living in a fantasy world and has no concept of how much time and effort it would actually take to complete the project properly. But, since a paycheck DOES come in handy sometimes, the software developers are forced to agree to the date provided. So now it's up to the software developers to scramble and try to find clever ways to squeeze as much functionality into the time they're given. So, yes, assets had to be reused to finish a game within the constraints the Volition creative team was given. BUT, this fact doesn't make the game any less creative. I am actually MORE impressed by the Volition team for coming up with some really creative and fun games within some relatively short time frames.

I WOULD like to make a plea to Volition management team to give the developers some more time to create something really new and exciting for SRV. I give Rockstar Games a lot of credit for being brave enough to delay the release of GTA5 several times until the game was really ready to release. I think this really helps give GTA a reputation for quality, and it's a lesson that other management teams should pay attention to. Don't sacrifice quality just to make a quick buck, because it will hurt in the long run.

Just please try not to bash the Volition developers because I'm sure they've put a lot of effort into making the best games they possibly could. Okay -- I'm done with my rant now. :D

To be honest, I don't know where the blame lies. Maybe it's Volition's upper management. Maybe Deep Silver are just as brainless as THQ ever was.
But this doesn't change the fact that it is quite apparent to me that Volition do not care. This is not me bashing them, this is the impression I get. Maybe it's not their fault. Maybe the developers on the ground so to speak are tired of dealing with corporate and management, and simply count the days to the next paycheck.

Whatever the reason, the effect is the same. Games I consider mere shadows of what they could potentially be.
GooH seems to me like the result of what you'd get if you fed in elements that out of touch managers think the fans will pay for into a computer.
Johnny Gat is a popular character + what is more conventionally whacky than an alien invasion? Calculated result == "PLAY. AS. JOHNNY. GAT. IN. THE. CHRISTIAN. HELL. THERE. IS. A. 95.4% PROBABILITY. THAT. HUMANS. WILL. FIND. THIS. WHACKY. L-O-L."

Yes, in my vision, Volition's game-o-matic talks like a Dalek.

In any case, this is what I mean when I say Volition don't care. I'm sure that individually they're all very talented people who don't actively hate us or anything, but I'm equally sure that they're not living up to their potential.
 
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If that was true then, CoD is Saints Row when compared to Battlefield (aka GTA) , the same if you compare ARMA 3 to BF or CoD..
 
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