Saints Row the Third Product Details

Released on 18-Nov-2011

• First Saints Row 3 details emerge

  The new issue of Game Informer is filled with glorious details regarding THQ's gritty and hilarious crime game Saints Row: The Third, and thanks to a write-up in Eurogamer, we've got all the facts for you right here.

  Alongside some co-operative multiplayer stuff, the story will throw you right in at the deep-end with the Third Street Saints bungling a bank job, and the player character ending up a hostage in a private jet owned by a rival gang, and the bank's owner - a crew know as The Syndicate.

  Fighting your way free - it ends badly for the jet, apparently - you parachute into the city of Steelport, where the game has you fighting to take over the metropolis and waging war against four other gangs.These gangs include a bunch of European nastiest, some drug-dealing Mexican wrestlers, hi-tech geniuses, and a crazy over-powered SWAT-type unit called the STAG, which stands for Special Tactical Anti Gang Unit. Tweaks to the formula include the ability to upgrade weaponry and speed up your actions with the L1 or LB button. Oh, and air strikes.

  Saints Row: The Third is looking pretty good, then. The game's out this winter, and will be crash-landing on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. BAM.

• Tomonobu Itagaki joins Saints Row cast

  Legendary eccentric Japanese developer Tomonobu Itagaki will appear in Saints Row: The Third, it's been confirmed today.

  Itagaki rose to infamy as the head of Tecmo's Team Ninja, where he oversaw the revival of Ninja Gaiden and bosomy beat-em-up Dead or Alive. He left Team Ninja in 2008, and is now working for Saints Row publisher THQ on Devil's Third, with his new company, Valhalla Game Studios. Itagaki will appear as a pre-rendered option in the character customisation options of Saints Row: The Third, wearing his traditional leather jacket and sunglasses.

  He'll certainly fit in well with the game's cheeky confrontational style. This is, after all, a man who has publicly mocked rival titles such as Tekken, Bayonetta and Devil May Cry and once claimed that inferior fighting games would "give your fingers cancer".

  You'll be able to join Itagaki for adventures on the mean streets of Stillwater when Saints Row: The Third struts onto PS3, Xbox 360 and PC on November 18th.

• Saints Row The Third - Preview

  Gang war

  Life is good as a member of the Third Street Saints, a street gang whose status has been elevated to that of a household brand. Having defeated the rival gangs of fictional US city Stilwater at the end of Saints Row 2, the Saints are now national superstars with their own energy drink, clothing range and a legion of fans.

  But the good life is threatened when the Saints are offered the chance to join the Syndicate, a legendary global criminal fraternity, in exchange for the majority of the gang's profits. Your refusal sparks an explosive war in the game's new setting of Steelport, a once-proud metropolis reduced to a struggling city of sin under Syndicate control.

  Childs play

  While the original Saints Row was viewed by some as a shameless Grand Theft Auto clone, the follow-up embraced a childish imagination and offered a host of entertaining ideas at a time when Grand Theft Auto began prioritising gritty atmosphere. Saints Row the Third takes things to a whole new level.

  If you've ever played a Saints Row game, you'll be unsurprised to hear that the latest entry in the open-world action series is wilfully, gleefully over the top. In a world full of grimly realistic shooters and tortured anti-heroes, it has the potential to be one of the most refreshing games in years.

  Serving up a giant list of outlandish gameplay scenarios, you'll take a tank skydiving, call in a satellite-targeted airstrike on a Mexican wrestling gang, pilot a jet through an urban centre and defend yourself against a highly-trained military force using only a sex toy. And that's not the half of it.

  Customisable madhouse

  Offering empowerment and escapism in abundance, Saints Row the Third gives you all the tools required to create total havoc in an unscripted world. You'll use achingly desirable military hardware and experimental technology, including a gun that allows you to assume control of any vehicle you point it at, a giant false hand that blows up anybody punched with it, and a vehicle with a cannon that sucks in unsuspecting passers by and fires them out at your will. Weapons also have a new four-stage upgrade system, which turns even the plainest of firearms into something spectacular.

  You can dictate the look of your character to a ridiculous extent too. Visiting a plastic surgeon allows you to change everything from your sex to your age in a great character creator system, while tattoo shops offer a hundred different designs and clothe stores enable you to dress up like a cowboy, soldier, space marine, lingerie model, or any combination of the above.

  Control the city

  Amongst all the madness it's easy to lose sight of the story, which sees you rebuilding the Saints' reputation in their new city and defeating the Syndicate in a series of big, challenging and bizarre missions. Block by block, you'll begin taking control of Steelport by destroying local gang strongholds, making contacts and buying shops and apartments.

  It might not be to everyone's taste and it's certainly not a game for children, but Saints Row the Third looks set to pack enough hilarity into its running time to make it a winner with big kids everywhere. Oh, and it's all playable co-operatively online too, making for double the crazy fun.

  Preview by: Tom 'Third-Street Massive' Ivan
  Platform: Xbox 360, PS3
  Release date: 18/11/2011

  Published: 02/11/2011

• Planning for Saints Row 4 already underway.

  Planning for Saints Row 4 already underway, THQ confirms

  Fans eagerly awaiting the release next week of slapstick openworld crime caper Saints Row The Third will be pleased to learn that work or at least planning is already happening for a fourth game in the series.

  The news comes from an interview with THQ head Danny Bilson which will air on US games show X-Play tonight. "I already know what Saint's Row 4 is about, and it is wilder than this one," Bilson told the show. "It's a good example of how you take what you have and you say, 'What can happen in the next?'"

  It's hard to imagine what could be wilder than some of the footage already released from Saints Row The Third Nurse catapults! Cat masks! - but developer Volition seems determined to give it a try.

  Saints Row The Third is out next week, on November 18th, for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. You can get a head start by downloading the free Initiation Station app and creating your characters now.

• One million characters created with Saints Row Initiation Station

  One million characters created with Saints Row Initiation Station

  THQ has revealed that more than one million weird and wonderful characters have been created using the Saints Row Initiation Station, the downloadable preview application for the upcoming Saints Row: The Third.

  The Initiation Station, which can be downloaded for free on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, allows users to design and share their own playable characters, which they can then use in the new Saints Row game when it launches this month.

  So far, more than 1.2 million gamers have been taking advantage of this, creating bizarre and often disturbing characters with oddly-coloured skin and freakish appearances.

  Kevin Kraff of THQ said: "With the crazed creativity we've seen in only one week, we can't wait to see what's to come. One million is just the beginning."

  The wackiness of the Initiation Station will help set the right tone for Saints Row: The Third, an over-the-top and gleefully crass sandbox crime game from developer Volition.

  GAME customers can get hold of the special Professor Genki Edition, which gives them access to an ostentatious human cannonball truck, an octopus-firing gun and a suitably weird-looking cat-headed skydiving suit.

  Published: 09/11/2011

• Guillermo Del Toro promises Insane will be 'really nasty'

  It's been a year since Oscar-winning director Guillermo Del Toro announced he was developing Insane, an ambitious horror game with THQ's Volition studio. The fruits of that labour are still several years from completion, but the mercurial Mexican has offered up some more teasing glimpses of what he has planned.

  'We're really trying a lot of stuff that I don't think would even fly in the movies,' he told Wired magazine when asked about the level of horror and violence...I'm taking it little by little. I think it's going to be a fun, scary game. It's a maiden voyage into the medium for me. I'm learning a lot of stuff.'

  Del Toro is now shooting his next movie, the giant monsters versus robots mash-up Pacific Rim, but will continue to develop the game during production. Volition most recently gave us the outrageous openworld crime caper Saints Row: The Third, released this week for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

• Saints Row: The Third PS3 owners to receive free game

  Saints Row: The Third PS3 owners to receive free game

  THQ and Sony are teaming up to provide an exclusive limited-time giveaway to owners of the PlayStation 3 version of Saints Row: The Third.

  Gamers who validate their online pass for the new Saints Row game will be able to download a digital copy of its popular predecessor Saints Row 2, completely free of charge.

  The older game will allow fans to enjoy all the madness of the 2008 hit, in which the Saints gang vie for supremacy over the city of Stilwater, engage in antisocial behaviour and experience various extra missions originally featured as DLC.

  PlayStation 3 owners can take advantage of this special offer until February 13 2012, giving them plenty of time to register online and join in the fun.

  Saints Row: The Third was released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC last week and has enjoyed the biggest debut of any game in the series to date.

  The new game relocates the action to an all-new city called Steelport and features more madcap destruction and crazy weapons than ever.

  Published: 23/11/2011

• Saints Row: The Third Review

  Saints Row: The Third Review

  
  

  Welcome to Steelport

  As in the previous Saints Row games, The Third sees you play as the leader of the Saints, a purple clad street gang who have grown to become a global phenomenon with legions of fans, tacky merchandise and movie deals. Saints Row 2 ended with the gang taking over of the city of Stillwater by eliminating their rivals, cops and anyone else who stood in their way, and The Third doesn deviate much from this formula.

  Looking to expand, the Saints find themselves embroiled in a new war with a criminal group called the Syndicate, with your goal to take control of a metropolis called Steelport. The story may not reinvent the wheel, but the game filled with humorous moments and takes frequently imaginative swipes at contemporary culture.

  Bonkers

  Saints Row has managed to carve its place in the open world action genre that has for so long been defined by Grand Theft Auto by effectively becoming the 'anti-GTA'. While the latter has most recently favoured more sophisticated storytelling in realistic game worlds, Saints Row focuses purely on shameless entertainment with few limitations.

  In The Third, youl pilot jet planes through urban areas, call in satellite-targeted airstrikes, take the wheel of a hover bike and the Manapault (a car that lets you hoover up and then fire out pedestrians), escape from a bondage club on a rickshaw pulled by a gimp, and defend yourself against a paramilitary force using only a sex toy. The basic driving and shooting gameplay is also the best in the series yet.

  The city never sleeps

  The main campaign is roughly 13 hours long, while there are loads of side missions and mini-games to keep you busy. Insurance Fraud sees you hurling your character into oncoming traffic and taking out as many other cars as possible, Trail Blazing sees you plough through the city on a flaming quad bike blowing up anything you come in contact with, and Professor Genki's Super Ethical Reality Climax is a Running Man-style Japanese game show where people in mascot costumes try to murder you and you have to kill them for prizes.

  While the majority of activities are a blast to play, the fact that there are so many means it unavoidable that some of them aren up to scratch. Escort missions, which can be summed up as rive X to Y, wait while they do Z, drive them back feel a little outdated, and somewhat frustratingly, youe required to complete a few too many of them to advance the story.

  The game can also be played with a friend via drop in and out co-op, with some missions adding additional elements exclusively for the second player, while the horedmode is a traditional hoard co-op mode which sees you fending off waves of increasingly strong enemies with (or without) the help of friends.

  Gangster Paradise?

  Steelport itself is a big industrial town with a few residential areas and plenty of neon lights and skyscrapers. The downtown area is impressive enough, but the surrounding suburbs are a little unimaginative at times and overall the game world could be more diverse. That said, Saints Row: The Third sticks two fingers up at reality in favour of ridiculous, overblown madness. If we haven made it clear, this is a game in the purest sense of the word and not an immersive, story-driven or cinematic experience. It lewd, ludicrous and strictly for adults only, but as long as youe not easily offended there a hell of a lot of fun to be had.

  GAME Verdict

  + Pure, unadulterated fun.
  + A massive city full of things to do.
  + Fun driving and shooting.

  - Content not to everyone taste.
  - Some repetitive side-missions.
  - World could be more diverse.

  Review by: Tom Ivan
  Version Tested: PS3
  Review Published: 02.11.11
  

  Published: 02/12/2011

• FIFA 12 breaks records with fifth straight chart-topping week

  EA Sports' FIFA 12 has claimed a fifth successive week atop the UK all-formats chart, breaking a number of industry records in the process.

  Official GfK-ChartTrack figures show that the football sim is now the highest-grossing sports game in UK history, outselling all previous FIFA titles and spending a total of seven weeks on top of the charts.

  The game's current five-week winning streak is also the second-best of any FIFA entry, behind only FIFA: Road to World Cup 98, which spent 11 straight weeks as the UK's top-selling title.

  Second place this week went to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the UK's Christmas number one, while a trio of threequels - Just Dance 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 - rounded out the top five.

  Also riding high were Zumba Fitness and Zumba Fitness 2, Saints Row: The Third and the acclaimed Rayman Origins, marking its first appearance in the top ten with a ninth-place finish.

  This week will see the return of the Resident Evil series with Resident Evil Revelations, an all-new adventure for Nintendo 3DS.
  

  Published: 23/01/2012

• Saints Row: The Third receives The Trouble With Clones DLC

  Saints Row: The Third fans can now download new mission content following the launch of The Trouble With Clones pack.

  The brand new DLC for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC is typical of the over-the-top sandbox crime game, in that it features a zany storyline, explosive character abilities and a sense of rambunctious fun.

  It sees Saints Row favourite Johnny Gat brought back to life by a hapless amateur scientist, only for the experiment to go horribly wrong and the clone Gat to emerge as an evil giant behemoth.

  Players will need to harness the superpowers provided by the Saints Flow energy drink to take down the monstrous Gat clone, while also wreaking havoc on the rest of the city.

  Saints Row: The Third launched last November and enjoyed the most successful debut of any Saints Row title, as well as winning critical praise.

  The game takes place in a brand new city called Steelport and features more outlandish weapons and crazy plot twists than ever.

  Published: 22/03/2012

• Saints Row The Third expansion now part of Saints Row 4

  THQ is so impressed with what developer Volition had planned for the standalone Saints Row The Third that they've decided to use it as the basis for the next full game, rather than release it separately.

  When originally announced, the Enter the Dominatrix expansion was set to pit the Third Street Saints street gang against an alien warlord called Zinyak, who plots to invade Earth and steal its resources and women.

  New THQ boss Jason Rubin, formerly of Uncharted developer Naughty Dog, explained the decision in a press statement. "When I looked at the Enter The Dominatrix expansion in production at Volition, I was blown away by the ideas and desire to expand the fiction of the franchise," he said. "I asked the team what it could achieve given more time, more resources, and a broader scope for the project. We all agreed we wanted to play that game."

  That game, which may well shed the Dominatrix title, will now be released in 2013. "When it comes to Saints Row, it's clear our fans want bigger, better, and even more over the top," Rubin says. "That's why Enter The Dominatrix will now be incorporated into a vastly expanded, full-fledged sequel, scheduled for calendar 2013."

  The bonkers openworld crime game Saints Row The Third, of course, is out right now for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
  

• Get the full package of Saints Row The Third in November

  Patient gamers who have held off on buying THQ's deliciously daft openworld crime romp Saints Row The Third will be rewarded in November when the game is re-released in a bumper bundle they're calling The Full Package.

  Available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, this special edition not only contains the original game, in all its insane glory, but also three major gameplay expansions. Genkibowl VII offers surreal death games, Gangstas In Space finds the Saints starring in their own sci-fi movie, while The Trouble With Clones finds you tracking down rogue clones of the Saints before they destroy the city.

  The Full Package also compiles thirty other downloadable content packages, adding new weapons, vehicles and character skins to an already stuffed-to-the-gills game. "The fans have asked for it, and with the Full Package, we are happy to deliver," said THQ's Kevin Kraff. "With all the amazing and over-the-top DLC Volition created, the Full Package now stands as the definitive edition of Saints Row: The Third. For anyone that has yet to play this one-of-a-kind game, it's time to strap it on."

  Indeed it is. Saints Row The Third: The Full Package goes on sale on 9th November.

  Published: 25/09/2012

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