Saints Row: The Third Message Board older than one year ago

Gosh, did we really miss this? New missions and stuff for the superbly horrible Saints Row The Third were freaking the site from orbit on the 21st. The new Gangstas In Space DLC apparently features “a big budget Hollywood blockbuster in which you must battle sexy alien invaders using new sci-fi weaponry”. Sexy alien invanders, eh? Hm. You can see that stuff happening in a new trailer, below, and the thing itself is on the Steams.(more…)

If THQ doesn’t exist a year from now, it won’t be uDraw’s fault. But it may have been enough to teeter it, a $100 million bet that spectacularly backfired as THQ finally turned around creatively.

Worse, the uDraw actually seems neat, if hobbled and misguided.

Based on headlines alone, it would seem logical to assume nobody is using a uDraw, except sites like us discovering we’ve had one buried in the office for weeks. But just like anything else in the world, the uDraw has fans, and despite recent events, THQ has continued to highlight that community, especially on Facebook.

World of uDraw is the central hub for uDraw on Facebook, and currently has 136,783 fans.

The uDraw launched on Wii in fall 2010, and experienced enough success for THQ to produce more content for its quirky peripheral on Nintendo’s platform, and to work out plans for a version of the simple, cheap tablet to debut on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The accessory launched in November, no one bought it, and THQ has 1.4 million unsold uDraw tablets in warehouses, now forced to ponder how to get rid of them. The device is responsible for turning what should have been a promising THQ financial quarter into a disastrous one. Poor Saints Row: The Third.

But there are surprising uses for the uDraw, such as a controller for players with physical disabilities.

"As a tool for therapeutic use I would recommend it if person enjoys drawing, it’s a simpler interface than software like Coreldraw," wrote assistive technology reviewer Kati Lea, after evaluating the original uDraw on Wii. "I don’t think I will be producing masterpieces but if it keeps the connections working between my hands and my brain I think it would have been worth the money (if I had bought it myself!)."

There are less surprising but no less interesting uses, like engaging very young children.

"At aged two and four this proved to be the best game from our selection and he kids happily took turns and played with it," said an unnamed blogger at Being A Mummy, also talking about the Wii version. "In fact they have been playing at at every opportunity since. I thought it looked very basic but they loved it. It's hard to find a game which is so suitable for this age group and requires very little adult intervention. This is that game."

And, of course, there are artists.

Connie Deng is a senior illustration student at the Art Institute of Boston, and I found her by through the World of uDraw community. She does own a uDraw, though she didn’t pay for it. Speaking over email, Deng told me she found a uDraw ad on Facebook, which was promoting a contest to win free uDraws. As she’s about to graduate, the prospect of getting free games sounded pretty great, doubly so if the hardware itself could integrate into her work.

“The commercial for it was pretty cool,” she said, “and while it looked like it was for kids/folks that like to draw or make art, I saw a lot of potential for it to become a professional artist medium, like Adobe Creative Suite.”

For example, since the uDraw connects to a television, the screen size is much bigger, which would allow Deng to have a closer view of her work without having to always zoom in and out, ala Photoshop.

When the tablet showed up, she put the device through its paces and came away impressed for what it actually could accomplish, despite her experience with much more advanced (and much more expensive) tablets from companies like Wacom. It edges close enough that she has some pretty nuanced criticisms about the uDraw.

“I have an issue with it being sensitive to ‘finger painting,’” she said. “It can be fun, but it also has a drawback for when I want to use my pinky to rest or help pivot the motion of my hand when I draw. The pinky thing is a classical technique and many artists use it so you could imagine it can become annoying.”

One of the more common complaints on the Facebook page are related to the pen being tethered to the tablet, but as someone who has lost countless DS styluses over the years, I can see a good argument for it. So can Deng.

“Even sometimes I lose my pen form my Wacom Bamboo tablet and I get a mini heart attack trying to find it,” she said.

Since uDraw places a limit on drawing time--35 minutes--Deng finds herself using the tablet on simpler pieces, despite her traditional attention to detail in her work. Often, she’ll leverage a uDraw for sketching and blocking, then bring what she’s worked on into software like Photoshop, Illustrator, or Corel Painter to touch up.

While Deng’s training to become a professional artist, she had advice for wanna-be painters that find themselves with a uDraw, such as collectors buying up the soon-to-be-cheap devices.

She happily recommended uDraw as an entry level tablet, and pointed to art history books as a stepping stone. Next, pick a piece to imitate and treat the 35-minute limit as an exercise. If you’re looking for tutorials outside of uDraw, knowing that uDraw’s tools focus on a “painterly” style will point you in the right direction.

“The only other art tablet/digital art stuff is really expensive compared to the uDraw game and tablet,“ she said, “so unless that person really likes art or is a professional artist then I'd tell them to stick to uDraw.”

Given how much funding is drying up for arts education, Deng wishes there were more online tutorials provided by THQ, but with the company already saying it won't produce anymore uDraw games, that seems unlikely.

I’ve collected some of the best stuff from uDraw’s Facebook page into a gallery below. You can continue to follow Deng's work over at her personal blog. If you’ve made any of your own pieces with a uDraw, let me know.

No matter how great Saints Row: The Third was, there’s no denying that THQ, as a company, is in trouble. It's impossible to ignore.

The publisher has not been totally clear about its financial situation, but when Nasdaq sends a notice about being delisted, the result of company stock falling below $1.00 per share, trouble is afoot.

THQ received word from Nasdaq on January 25, according to a SEC filing disclosed this morning.

“On January 25, 2012, THQ Inc., a Delaware corporation (the “Company”)," reads the filing, "received a written notification from Nasdaq notifying the Company that it fails to comply with Nasdaq's Marketplace Rule 5450(a)(1) (the “Rule”) because the bid price for the Company's common stock, over the last 30 consecutive business days, has closed below the minimum $1.00 per share requirement for continued listing. The notification has no immediate effect on the listing of the Company's common stock.”

THQ has 180 calendar days (July 23, 2012) to regain compliance or face delisting. If THQ’s stock moves above $1.00 and remains there for at least 10 days, the company will be removed from the Nasdaq watch list. If the company faces true delisting, several options are available to THQ, including filing an appeal and possibly moving securities elsewhere.

“The Company will continue to monitor the bid price for its common stock and consider various options available to it if its common stock does not trade at a level that is likely to regain compliance,” concluded the SEC filing.

Yikes.

By now, you already know you should play Saints Row: The Third, so I won't say it again, even though I just did.

Saints Row: The Third was one of Giant Bomb’s most beloved games from 2011, and a press release from THQ today discussing the company’s movement away from games aimed at kids also notes that Volition’s totally nuts sequel has shipped 3.8 million copies worldwide. The company expects to ship between five and six million copies.

That’s shipped, not sold, which means retailers have purchased 3.8 million copies of the game, not consumers.

Now, if only Volition would roll out some new story-based downloadable content. Jeff’s response to Genkibowl VII was...not so good.

THQ and Volition have released a few, mostly cosmetic additions to the Saints Row: The Third since its release last year, but Genkibowl VII marks the first actual new gameplay that's been bolted onto the open world of Steelport. Unfortunately, there isn't much to it, so unless you're positively desperate for a few new side activities--most of which are light overhauls of activities that already appear in the main game--save your money.

As the name "Genkibowl" might imply, the activities found in this pack add to the legacy of the twisted Professor Genki, who runs the somewhat forgettable set of side-missions in the main game that have you running through a murderous game show, gunning down mascots until you earn enough cash to open up the exit. Two more of those missions appear in Genkibowl, albeit with a jungle-themed makeover that mostly just makes the exits harder to find. There are three more activities in this DLC pack, with two instances each. One is an altered version of the escort missions from the main game, except you're rolling around in a car armed with flamethrowers as you try to keep Professor Genki safe from harm and run people over to fill up a meter. Another takes the tank mayhem side-missions and replaces the tank with a large yarn ball that can fire off a few shockwaves. This almost gives it a Katamari Damacy sort of feel, but the control you have over the large yarn ball is kind of crappy. The ball feels like it's being crammed into the game against its will, and it seems to get hung up on corners and stuck in the environment a little too often.

The final activity is actually new, and it has you skydiving while wearing a panda suit that, for no good reason, lets you glide around without losing much altitude. This one has you doing a combination between bouncing on large balloons, flying through burning rings, and landing on the rooftops to cut up a few mascots with a chainsaw. The control is terrible. Once I got used to it, I completed both versions of the activity and took solace in the knowledge that I'd never need to do that ever again. And that's it. Eight activities, six of which lightly flip things that you already did in the main game. The best part about Saints Row: The Third is its sense of humor, and there's a bit of that here. The DLC opens and closes with some decent cutscenes, though a lot of that feeling comes from the way they expertly use the Monday Night Football theme (Johnny Pearson's "Heavy Action," not some sort of silly-ass country music). The ending cutscene has your character speak, and the ending speech is pretty funny, but he/she is wearing a panda costume that, much like the beginning of the main game, "distorts" the voice. This prevented the developers from having to record the end speech seven times to account for all the different voice options. That's pretty weak.

If you ended up with the Saints Row: The Third season pass, well, all you can do is grit your teeth and hope the next two packs are more inventive than this one. And sure, calling in a ball of yarn via the vehicle delivery function is pretty goofy, but it's not enough. THQ wants you to pay $7.00 for eight missions and a handful of mostly meaningless unlockables. That's just crazy.

A mistake Saints Row: The Third didn’t make, but always seemed horribly likely to, was promise more than it could deliver. Those trailers, those terrifying spoof gameshows, the hype of such a scale of silliness and violence, was all delivered. Which is one of the many reasons why it was one of 2011′s best games. But how do you follow it up? With a weird cat-thing and his twisted competitive event, Genkibowl VII.

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Ryan and Jeff strap in (and on) for another go-round in Professor Genki's sadistic fun house.

Celebrated crazy-em-up Saints Row: The Third is handing out a freebie to all Steam players tomorrow, and going a teeny-tiny bit further than most. You know how Team Fortress 2 likes to gives you hats from other games? Saints Row 3 gives you the TF2 gang’s entire heads, to wear and do with as you will. Fight, dance, love, laugh. The first and the last ones at least.

But you know what else can you expect from this TF2 intrusion?

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Next Tuesday will see the release of the first DLC for last year’s fantastic Saints Row: The Third, Genki Bowl VII. What is it? According to the details we’ve received, it’s some sort of in-game event that will feature a number of games. And they are… Sexy Kitten Yarngasm, Sad Panda Skyblazing, Angry Tiger’s Apocalypse Genki, and Super Ethical PR Opportunity. Yes indeed. There’s a teaser trailer and some screenshots below.

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I’m just pulling together some rambly thoughts about my year in games for the site. Which reminds me that I wrote about one of my faves for Tom “Tom Bramwell” Bramwell over at EG towers, and makes me think I could link to it as an aperitif or something. And I totally can. Lots on Saints Row: The Third and yours truly. I didn’t even get into my apostrophe confusion, which could be another couple of thousand words, but would be less sex obsessed.