Saints Row stifled by immature humor, says Bleszinski

Regardless of what this man says, I enjoyed the Saints Row Series, the second one most of all. Me AND my partner play Saints Row 3 together all the time. Yeah the humour is immature but some parts are genuinely funny.
GTA (recently at least) has moved away from any form of humour and become. frankly, boring. I really hope Rockstar fix that with GTA V But I am not rushing out to pre-order it just yet.

Posted:4 months ago

I think they use the dildos ironically.

Posted:4 months ago

The game is not meant to represent to video game industry image, it's meant to target a specific demography who like this kind of stuff (which is quite large obviously). Just like specific sub-genres of any movies / music / books / art forms.

Posted:4 months ago

Of course Gears of War neatly sidesteps the eventuality of making any of its fans embarrassed in front of their partners.

Posted:4 months ago

I think giving the woman a dildo weapon is a good antidote to tea-bagging.

Posted:4 months ago

To me it sounds like Mr Bleszinski is a bit miffed that he did not come with it himself.
Chainsword guns and electrified whip mechanics would have taken a lot of design and talk to perfect, which they were.
But a wobbly pink stick thing, 3 mins tops. And it became the main icon almost of the game too.

Posted:4 months ago

So, he wants them to get rid of their unique selling point?!

"If your average guy is embarrassed to be playing a sequence in a game when his wife walks in that's a bad sign...

But, that's 90%* of games out there today. I can't honestly say that I'm 100% okay with playing a Tomb Raider game - or most games that feature women in front of a woman or parent when they make a comment about her unrealistic proportions or apparel.

What about all those bloodthirsty shooters and gory brawlers and 3rd person action adventures? What about virtually every puerile, adolescent, ham-fisted video game story?

Frankly, the majority of gaming is embarrassing.



*A gross generalisation!

Posted:4 months ago

Mr B obviously forgot that Volition tried to compete with GTA with Saints Row 1 but when they realised the mammoth task ahead of them, they went the opposite direction and hit a gold mine. THQ saw this as a sign and they went with it, which is why Saints Row 2 and The Third were such big hits.

Furthermore, some people either play both franchises (Like myself) or moved away from GTA and to Saints Row purely because they are "allowed" to be wacky and crazy

Of course, now that the franchise is in new hands, it will all depend on the direction the new owners want to take it but I seriously hope they continue the series as it is and maybe even focus more on the co-op element that made SR3 so much fun. In fact I can guarantee myself and 3 other friends would buy Saints Row 4 in a heartbeat if they added 4 player co-op rather than just keeping it to 2 player

Posted:4 months ago

I love Saints Row and I have to say that ""If your average guy is embarrassed to be playing a sequence in a game when his wife walks in that's a bad sign..." then there are other problems with their relationship and their comfort in sexual themes than the game.

There is nothing in the three games that I would be embarrassed for my wife to see me playing, in fact it generates a lot of laughs. It is rare in games now to actually laugh and have fun with the game as games try to go serious and more realistic to "improve the perception of games to the outside world". Games can be funny, games can deviate from the norm that is in todays games and still have a market, just like Saints Row.

I'm glad it isn't a more serious title, if it was it'd be dismissed as another GTA clone and I have played all three SR titles through to their conclusion, I have never done that with a GTA title. I hope Saints Row 4 continues the humour and Volition are left to do what they do best, make Saints Row how it is and not chase after GTA.

Posted:4 months ago

I've not had time to play SR3 yet, but I enjoyed SR2 a lot more than GTA4 precisely because of its irreverence and immaturity.

GTA has lost its sense of humour and become a really dark, dull experience, from the desaturated colours and grimy streets to the cast of East European immigrants whining about money problems all the time. The missions are so scripted and linear they're virtually on rails, and there's precious little to do outside of the story and not much to spend your money on, producing a very staid, sterile, empty feeling world.

Saint's Row is the complete antithesis of this. It's bright, brash, silly and yes, immature. It's all bling, sharp suits and daft mini-games. It's GTA as it used to be, not GTA as it's become. And that's why there's a market for it. It's never going to succeed going head-to-head with GTA, but it's carved out its own little niche who are looking for something a bit more .. fun.

Posted:4 months ago

@Mike Thorpe

Exactly, its like Andrew Dice Clay criticizing Sam Kinison. If you're a one trick pony, just count your blessings and keep your mouth shut.

Posted:4 months ago

It would have been far more honest and accurate to say "If your average player is embarrassed to be playing a sequence in a game when his mother walks in, that's a bad sign..."

Posted:4 months ago

As has been said. SR is excellent because of it's twisted sense of humor. It does not take itself seriously at all. In my opinion that makes it a better game than GTA, which tries to come across as far too serious. In a game like GTA i feel guilty if i driver or a pedestrian, in SR i do it with a tank and laugh (yes that might well be down to me being twisted, who knows).

Personally i never used the dildo in the game, but the fact that it's in there shows the mad sense of humor the devs have.

I hugely respect Cliff, but in this case i guess i'll have to disagree with him.

Posted:4 months ago

Anyone who bases their industry perception on one game and its humour must be an idiot, so I don't get his point!

Posted:4 months ago

Is reporting what someone said on twitter now considered journalism? Anyone who cares about Cliff's opinion probably already follows him. Must be a slow news day.

Posted:4 months ago

Hey man I LOVED Saints Row the Third. I didnt mind the dildo weapon since its not something you have to use. Didnt mind the gimps either. I dont know why this series has to compete with grand theft auto. I find it has its own identity and character. And I like it. It doesnt take itself to seriously, yet the game play is super fun. Storywise it managed to keep me there. I tried Grand Theft Auto, but couldnt really get into it. I like that in Saints Row you can create your own character. I dont think it has to compete with grand theft auto. How is anybody gonna do anything different if they keep looking at other games. But I got to admit the only thing that annoyed me, was Zimos voice.

Posted:4 months ago

I don't follow Cliff just like I don't follow many other people. I would likely miss comment like this if it would not be aggregated on site like Games Industry. More importantly, I would miss comments of other users and they can sometimes be more valuable than the original story.

If anything, it’s rather a question of who and what is worth quoting.

Posted:4 months ago

I recently watched Frank Marquart's GDC talk on the Art Direction of Saints Row: The Third. Definitely worth checking out: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1015596/The-Art-Direction-of-Saints.

Posted:4 months ago

I can't take seriously anyone who calls themselves CliffyB.

FrannyM

Posted:4 months ago

@Fran: how about AndyG ? :)

Posted:4 months ago

You'd be beautiful but pretentious, AndyG :)

Posted:4 months ago

hahaha :)

To be fair though i never had a problem at all with his nickname. Most devs have some online nickname from the good old unreal tournament, counterstrike or ultima online days (or various other games). I always just thought CliffyB was that as well (his surname can be harder to pronounce for some people - god knows i know how that goes...).

Posted:4 months ago

I'm fairly sure he actually ditched that years ago and asked people to stop calling him by it.

Posted:4 months ago

@ DaveyH - that's what I thought, then I noticed it was on his Twitter, so I don't know. In all seriousness, it's hardly a big deal - just always found it a bit strange, that's all.

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Fran Mulhern on 28th January 2013 4:56pm

Posted:4 months ago

I played Saints Row twice from beginning to end with all the DLC... didnt mind the dildo or the gimps... provided a few laughs. Its a game that knows what its doing and its not out to compete with grand theft auto. It is its own thing, it has its own character and identity. I tried grand theft auto, but could never really get into it. Saints Row however was truely addicting.

Posted:4 months ago

Maybe someone mentioned this already, but I didn't see it mentioned. At any rate, the dildo is really a non-issue.

There was one in the police station of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This level of humor has been around in the game industry from the early days and it isn't going away any time soon.

Posted:4 months ago