Saints Row: The Third Message Board

Normally I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash at some random cross-game promotional effort – let alone dedicate precious RPS Hyper Maturity Space to it – but this time is different. The reason? Two of the dumbest, most laughably enjoyable games I’ve played in ages are colliding, and there is now no way that last clause wasn’t a euphemism for something, authorial intent be damned. Yes, it’s finally happening: Saints Row The Third‘s infamous dildo bat is invading another game. I know, I know. It’s only a matter of time before it replaces the standard-issue pistol as every game’s go-to default weapon of choice, but for now Shadow Warrior’s caught its purple, pulsating disease. Continue not being able to look away below.

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News out of IdolNinja suggests that Volition are gearing up to support modding on Saints Row The Third, with potential support for mods on the fourth game. They explain: “Jeff Thompson, the Studio Director of Programming at Volition, is putting together a package for us containing documentation, file formats, tools, and more on the Saints Row: The Third engine. Myself, Minimaul, and gibbed will be working closely with Jeff over the coming months to use this information to create a robust set of modding tools to supplement our existing ones and creating what is essentially a full sdk for the game! But, that’s not all! Saints Row: The Third is only the beginning!” I can only imagine how awesome this could end up being, especially if it really is a test bed for modding support on the fourth game.

Let’s have a look at that Saints Row IV trailer again…(more…)

This kinda seems to be happening a bit too soon – don’t open world games take years and years and years to make? – but I suppose Volition wouldn’t want to sit on their hands after their recent dice with death. And heck, this is probably Saints Row: The Third with bits on, but when those bits include making the player a superhero I’m not complaining. Offering godlike, reality-bending powers is an entirely logical outcome for a series which started life snipping at GTA’s unconcerned heels then increasingly (d)evolved into out and out AAAARGH WOOOO YEAH WHATEVS ANYTHING EVERYTHING LOOK AT MEEEE POO BUM WILLY HAHAHAHAAHHA happy-madness.

Part IV goes further still, and is somehow out in August. Take a look below.(more…)

Times are hard at THQ, despite their releasing a ton of good games of late. The publisher is strapped for cash, and it just keeps getting worse, most recently its shareholders launching a class action suit over the disaster of their U-Draw flop. Whether that’s a factor in today’s announcement, that Saints Row: The Third stand alone expansion ‘Enter The Dominatrix’ is now to be integrated into the fourth game, we’ve no idea. But that’s what’s happening, according to THQ boss, Jason Rubin.

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THQ sent out a release this morning detailing some updated plans for what was to be a "standalone expansion" to Saints Row: The Third. Titled "Enter the Dominatrix," the game was to be concerned with an alien invasion set immediately following the events of the third Saints Row game.

During said invasion, your character would be captured by an insidious alien called Zinyak, who locks you into a VR simulator. It essentially sounded like SRTT's cyberspace section stretched across an entire expansion. That setting would also allow for some gameplay enhancements, or as THQ's now-former EVP Danny Bilson was quoted as saying at the time, players would get "freaking super powers."

All of that is history now, as the release of Enter the Dominatrix has been scrapped and its ideas are being incorporated into a full-on Saints Row sequel, due for release next year. Beyond that (and a few quotes about how impressed new THQ President Jason Rubin is with what Volition's doing) there aren't really any hard details about what the game will contain. Will the story of Dominatrix live on in the sequel? Will superpowers still factor into the new game? No idea. Oh, wait. There's one more bit of information.

The current working title for the game is "The Next Great Sequel in the Saints Row Franchise." Hell, they should just stick with that.

THQ is a financially troubled company, and newly appointed president Jason Rubin probably has enough on its plate, but comments featured in a recent story on Polygon have provoked the ire of many fans. Rubin's chosen to respond twice now.

Rubin has been THQ's president less than a month.

Rubin pushed back on his quoted characterization of Saints Row: The Third as “embarrassing” after that blew up last Friday, and he published a lengthy statement to Darksiders fans on the game’s Facebook page today.

The inflamed response was the result of this quote:

"Darksiders II is very interesting," said Rubin. "but I think I can get that team to make other very interesting games."

Darksiders fans took that to mean he was coming in and killing the Darksiders franchise. Not so, according to Rubin.

“The quote implied that I am not enthusiastically behind the Darksiders universe, and that THQ has made decisions not to continue the Darksiders franchise,” he said. “This is simply untrue.”

“My quote ‘I can get the team to make other interesting games’ was intended in the context of having different teams within this incredibly talented studio work on new original IP, as well as continuing to support the Darksiders franchise,” he continued.

That sounds pretty good to me.

Darksiders II, set prior to the events of the original Darksiders and featuring a different member of the four horsemen, Death, is scheduled for a release on August 14. It had originally been aiming for June but was briefly delayed.

“I'm incredibly excited about Vigil and the Darksiders franchise,” said Rubin.

Open world comedy violence ‘em up, Saints Row The Third, is going to get a standalone expansion. A standalone expansion! Just like the old days. The expansion is called Enter The Dominatrix, and will apparently contain “freaking super powers”. It will tell the poignant story of an alien invasion of Earth. Only the Saints – now a global mega-corporation/slapstick paramilitary – stand between some weird alien dude, Zinyak, and conquest of the world. No other details at the moment, but all will apparently be revealed in the summer.

We don't pay a lot of attention to April Fools' Day around these parts, mostly because we spend the vast bulk of our calendar year not taking the video game industry too terribly seriously, so it seems just silly to hyperfocus on a single day of doing exactly that. Still, occasionally some good gags do come out of the industry's collective goofing of its audience, and every once in a great while, one of those gags actually sounds good enough to become reality.

One such gag was Saints Row: The Third's "Enter the Dominatrix" expansion. The update, which purported to give players incredible superpowers they could choose to use for positive or nefarious purposes in the world of Steelport, is now no longer just a nifty sounding gag. It's really real, and it's coming this fall.

Volition announced the expansion today, highlighting the various abilities your ultimate super-gangster would be able to take advantage of, while also explaining why all of the sudden you have goddamn superpowers.

Aaaaaaand...

Saints Row: The Third - Enter the Dominatrix picks up immediately following the events of Saints Row: The Third. For centuries, alien warlord Zinyak has eyed Earth and its precious natural resources and females with a watchful eye. As he prepares an armada for invasion, he has only one worry: the Third Street Saints.

Once a simple street gang from Stilwater, the Saints have evolved into a global empire, replete with bombastic TV advertising and tasteful consumer products, the kind of TV advertising and consumer products that would give any alien warlord pause. Clearly, the Saints are the biggest badasses on Earth.

Now, in order to prepare his forces for domination, Zinyak captures the leader of the Saints and imprisons him in an elaborate virtual reality simulation. This simulation program looks and feels like Steelport, but it is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. Here, you are a slave. Welcome... to the Dominatrix.

I maybe would consider calling into question the relevance or usefulness of Matrix-oriented gags in 2012, but see the thing is I get superpowers now, so really, who cares? Granted, those powers will come at a steep price. The expansion is currently set to retail for $29.99, which gives one the impression there is a good bit more content contained within than in the combined efforts of the DLC packs released for the game thus far. At least I hope that's the case.

Volition says we'll be hearing more about Enter the Dominatrix this summer.

Saints Row The Third’s third DLC pack was just released, detailing the further exploits of the Third Street Saints, this time with the foul creations of unhinged Science. When will people learn? The Trouble With Clones is the latest in Volition’s short-form content packs for the silliest excuse to have fun there is, keeping with the scifi B-movie themeing following last month’s groovy Gangstas in Space. I’ve got some brief thoughts below about the way Volition are treating DLC, as well as the new Clones trailer. It features purple superpowers.

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The third Saint’s row game was a tonne of fun, crammed with all sorts of over the top features and missions, but what of all the things that didn’t make it into the game? Lead designer Scott Phillips in his GDC post-mortem shared some of the elements of the game that got cut, including 6 months work on a game where you played an undercover cop, infiltrating the Third Street Saints, which got entirely canned. (more…)

When you make a character in Saints Row: The Third, there are seven different voices you can choose from, including a damn zombie. At one point, however, there were eight.

This groundbreaking revelation was part of Volition senior audio designer Ariel Gross' presentation at the Game Developers Conference this morning, a largely developer-focused talk on voice production for Saints Row: The Third.

The mysterious eight voice? A completely auto-tuned player.

When Gross said this, the entire audience groaned in disappointment.

"I know," said Gross. "I know."

Like I said, the whole audience, which was mostly developers, was audibly upset.

"It was a really painful cut, but it was the right decision in terms of scope," he said.