Gangsters and Capes

Two topics up for discussion today. Firstly Heroes because I'm not going into much detail. This show is fantastic. Finally a show I have gotten into right from the get go rather than sticking with it because I feel like it could go somewhere. I'm not sure I've done that since Buffy started on Sky One. It really does feel like someone had a comic story to tell but managed to get a TV network to make it instead.

Secondly there's Saints Row. It was one of the first demos I downloaded off Xbox Live and while not overly impressed I did think it could be quite fun, and I've been craving some GTA like action recently. When I first put the game in the machine I hated it, I thought it was very badly done. The car handling is atrocious, the cars feel extremely similar, its only you start getting into the game and start driving very different types of cars that you can start to notice the difference in the handling. Though the handbrake never improves, no matter what you're driving the normal breaks barely do anything while the handbrake is the guaranteed to stop you dead with a near perfect 90 degree turn.

The early missions aren't anything special, at least for the Vice Kings anyway. There are three gangs to take down in the City of Stillwater and it's entirely up to you which order that you do them. I've just finished the Vice Kings and moved onto Los Carnales. The difference between the early Kings and Carnales is quite shocking as I'm really enjoying the Carnales missions while the Kings I did get bored with half way through and it's only my worrying determination to finish games that kept me with Saints Row at that point. Also the activities, while initially standing out as good, just don't work for me really. I realise that they are pick up when you fancy them but I just find myself getting very frustrated with the level system used for them.

All said and done Saints Row is an alternative to GTA, not a better one and not necessarily worse either. They both do certain things better than the other, car handling is certainly better in GTA while targeting is better in Saints Row for instance. One thing for Saints Row is that although the story isn't great is does feel a better gang experience than San Andreas was, which seemed to forget where it came from once CJ’s brother got arrested.