In Saints Row 1 we got about half way through the process and then we realised that we just couldn't get our heads around Cell. It's just really complicated and I'm sure you noticed other games like Stranglehold push their dates up.

A sad, if familiar tale. But that begs the question: what about Saints Row 2? Don't lose any sleep over it, PS3 owners. Sutton goes on to say that thanks to increased assistance from Sony with some of the trickier aspects of the Cell, Saints Row 2 is coming along just nicely.

Saints Row dev couldn't get its head around Cell [CVG]

The potentially NSFW clip is after the jump for your safety.

A high-res version awaits you at IGN.

Tera Patrick Developer Commentary [IGN]

Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey said that going toe-to-toe with GTA IV on content is "an unusually pompous position... considering GTA IV is estimated to be the highest grossing 1st week entertainment release of all time."

Hickey also nodded to GTA IV's Metacritic-leading score, and maintained his "conservative" estimate for Saints Row 2 sales, "in light of mediocre game previews and a delayed release in-part from quality concerns."

In general, it seems a bit of a risky strategy for any title to compare itself, even jokingly, to a sales record-smasher like GTA IV. When I spoke to THQ during their preview event, though, a rep told me the aim was to show what was different about Saints Row, not necessarily to make superiority claims.

Hickey: Saint's Row 2 'Pompous' To Attack GTA IV [Gamasutra]

THQ delays 'Saints Row 2' by nearly two months [Reuters]

THQ president and CEO Brian Farrell said that most of its struggles were due to a crowded and competitive market for kids' games, as well as key franchises — Juiced, Stuntman and Conan that ultimately "were simply not competitive."

"Insufficient game quality led to inadequate sellthrough, resulting in markdowns at retail," Farrell said.

Farrell said the company spent heavily to promote Juiced and Stuntman, and had to take a loss when those titles fail to perform. What growth THQ did see, Farrell credited to Frontlines: Fuel of War, MX vs. ATV Untamed and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008, all of which exceeded expectations.

Farrell also said the kids' market, in which THQ has several franchises, was the most competitive in years, and that the company's currently struggling to compete with music games and Nintendo first-party titles.

Nonetheless, THQ appears to have placed its faith in the Wii, concentrating much of its upcoming original IP there. Although Saints Row 2 and Red Faction Guerrilla are still the "anchors" of its lineup, Darksiders, De Blob, Deadly Creatures, Big Beach Sports and All Star Cheer look likely to be slated for Wii along with other unannounced projects, though the company did not announce specific platforms.

New installments in existing franchises for fiscal 2009 include WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009, Disney/Pixar's Wall-E film tie-in, and its previously-revealed Nickelodeon portfolio. The company will publish a game based on DreamWorks' Animation's unannounced 2010 fall film, and has slated WWE: Legends of Wrestlemania for 2009.

Notably, the company seems to have an eye on the free-to-play, microtransactions-driven online gaming market in Asia, highlighting the co-publishing agreement it's signed with Shanda Interactive to bring Company of Heroes Online to China in 2009.

THQ is more confident about the year to come, with three new initiatives in place: "We are rolling out a stronger slate of products. We have put in place and are executing against initiatives to improve our product quality and competitiveness. We are also realigning our cost structure to generate significant operating leverage in fiscal 2009. We believe these initiatives will restore profitable growth and improve value for shareholders," said Farrell.

"We faced a number of challenges, but I believe we have the right strategy to overcome these challenges and achieve significant growth."

The first thing I checked out was the character customization which was quite rich, aside from the absence of nipples on the male characters. You can take your gang banger from ripped hardbody to overweight and flabby in a matter of seconds. I was actually pretty impressed by the fat character models which were nicely detailed, rather than just looking like a big balloon. Volition also added the ability to create a female character if you so desire, though as they were wearing bras, I couldn't tell you if they had nipples or not.

Another new customization feature was a series of taunts and compliments that can be done by your avatar, prompting appropriate reactions from non-player characters. And yet even more customization can be had through decorating your gang's crib, featuring a ton of new items like pool tables and even a pole dancing stripper.

Once we got into the nitty gritty of actual gameplay, even more changes were revealed. A new over the shoulder view allows those of us who are disabled in the ways of first person shooters to get a better handle on the game. One new weapon feature was a remote sticky bomb that can be placed anywhere, then detonated whenever you see fit. Just make sure you're far enough away or you may find yourself blown up along with everything else.

Probably the most gruesome and yet hilarious new mechanic was the ability to use a human shield. Any NPC can be grabbed and held in front of you to take the gunfire intended for you. When you are done with them, you can simply toss their limp corpse through a plate glass window. You know, just for grins.

A new mini-game type deal was also present, allowing you to hop in a helicopter and fly around the city blowing up cars. It seemed pretty cool, although I really only got a glimpse of that particular mechanic. The game also includes a co-op mode that will allow you and a friend to play the game as a team from start to finish.

During my brief time with Saints Row 2 I was really impressed with the graphics and the control scheme. The aforementioned over the shoulder view made the shooting an easier time for me and much more enjoyable. If you were a fan of the original title, there will certainly be a lot of new content for you to discover and enjoy.

And of course, the inclusion of a pole dancing stripper is always going to put any game at the top of your list. Or it should anyway. I just wish she looked like Elizabeth Berkeley.

Saints Row 2

We wouldn't be releasing this year if we didn't think we could be competitive...The only thing I know about GTA is what I've read. From what I've read it seems like they're going in a more realistic direction. For us it's more about almost a hyper-realistic quality, over-the-top, all about these memorable moments.

It won't be bug free. I don't think any game is. But part of what we did was to start development early on. Our development schedule is all about getting the gameplay in and even though this (version of the game shown to press) is pre-alpha, we're all about iterating the gameplay now.

Oddly, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is overlooked for the Wii, a game whose success is all but guaranteed on the sales leading platform. A handful of 2008 potential candidates, Resident Evil 5 and Blizzard's possible offerings in Wrath of the Lich King and StarCraft II, also deserve attention.

Video-Game Publishers See Another Blockbuster Year [The Street]

Announcing Blazing Lizard

Savoy, IL, August 7, 2007 - Industry veterans announce the formation of Blazing Lizard, Inc, a new game development studio dedicated to producing high quality and compelling console downloadable games for all ages and demographics.

The core development team is lead by Sandeep Shekar, Jiovanie Velazquez, and Christopher Stockman and has a combined industry experience of over 30 years. The team was most recently at Volition, Inc where Jiovanie served as Studio Artist Manager leading the growth and managing the careers of the studio's art department. Chris and Sandeep, most recently, lead the design team for the critically acclaimed, million-selling Saints Row for the Xbox 360. Saints Row has gone on to receive numerous nominations for 2006 Action / Adventure Game of the Year and won 2006 Sandbox Game of the Year from Official Xbox Magazine.

The Blazing Lizard team has played leadership roles on many other games including the million-selling Red Faction series, Summoner series, The Punisher, Freespace, and Elite Force 2.

Blazing Lizard's first game, an original IP for unspecified platforms, will be announced on August 13, 2007.

ABOUT BLAZING LIZARD, INC.

Formed in early 2007, Blazing Lizard's goal is to create high quality, compelling console downloadable games for all platforms. Their first game, an original IP for unspecified platforms, is poised to take the fledgling console downloadable genre by storm and will be unveiled on August 13, 2007.

Bring on the guys in wife-beaters and in Yankees caps! A Saints Row party was held in Shibuya's Club Unit, complete with hip-hop DJs. The club had a playable demo kiosks, but the real head turner was the Hummer Saints Row limo. While the Hummer seems relatively popular for rich Japanese who love impractical cars, there are only a handful of the limo versions. Side note: in my old apartment building, one of the tenants had a hummer. Dude would spent at least 15 minutes everyday squeezing that truck out of the cramped parking lot. Brian Ashcraft

Famitsu writes "Satins Row", "Saitns Row" and "Satints Row" [Famitsu]

Over a game site Next Generation, Tim Rogers has the rundown of this week's Famitsu scores. For the unfamiliar, magazine Famitsu has four editors rate games on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best. Here are the noteworthy mentions:

• Saints Row: 9, 8, 8, 9 Comments include "Gives the player a good sense of freedom" and "It's like GTA, with awesome graphics!"
• Folkssoul AKA (Folk Lore): 8, 9, 8, 8 Comments include that the game handles atmosphere and game play excellently.
• Shadowrun: 7, 7, 7, 7 Comments include "Sense of cooperation in the online mode is excellent".

This Week In Japan [Next-Gen]

Quick, which is worst: Cannabis or video games? Last fall, Twenty year-old Dominic Anderson did his best to prove both The Daily Mail reports. After drinking alcohol, smoking skunk cannabis and playing Saints Row for the Xbox 360, he slit his wrists with a 12 inch carving knife and tried to stab himself through the chest. At 11pm, he then left his house and began jumping onto moving cars. For added craziness, he even threatened bystanders with the knife. Police arrived on the scene, causing Anderson to flee. To disarm Anderson, they hit him repeatedly with batons. He received dozens of stitches in each wrist, suffered from internal bleeding and was placed in intensive care for a week. Says drugs intelligence officer Detective Constable Steve Kelly:

In the computer game [Saints Row], there are instances where you play a person who jumps on top of cars and tries to steal them by pulling the drivers out of them... There's obviously a shocking similarity between the game and the way Anderson behaved, jumping on cars and trying the door handles... His actions were one and the same as those in the video game... People who take skunk cannabis should be mindful that it is much stronger and they can experience very different effects from it.

Anderson received a nine-month prison sentence suspended for two years and was ordered to complete 150 hours of community service. So remember kids, alcohol, drugs, gaming and sharp objects are a recipe for disaster. Brian Ashcraft

Drugs and Buggy Saints Row [The Daily Mail via Xbox 360 Rally Thanks, James!]

Why the cancellation? According to Gamespot's report, THQ CEO Brian Farrell told analysts:

We think the most important thing for the Saints Row franchise is to have a simultaneous ship into a larger installed base next year. We think the bigger opportunity is a multiplatform launch.

In other words, there aren't enough PS3s out there to make it worth their while. Okay, now make with the "I didn't want it anyway" or "PS3 is doomed" comments. I'll tally 'em up later. Michael McWhertor

Saints Row 2 rollin' onto PS3, 360 in '08 [Gamespot]

Over at Japanese website Game*Spark, reader nek5195 has sent in a lighthearted Saints Row clip that features a chubby Hironobu Sakaguchi (Blue Dragon, Final Fantasy) and the bittersweet Blue Dragon score from legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu. Thing is, the combination really, really works! Brian Ashcraft

Saints Row With The Gooch [Game*Spark]

If ever there was an Xbox 360 from last year that needed a PS3 port, this is that game. Normally I would make some snide comment about Sony's system getting 360 leftovers, but this is pretty good news for PS3 owners...heck, I might even buy it again. Maybe this time around they'll even fix the bugs that inspired the musical that moved a nation to tears. Michael Fahey

THQ to Bring Award-Winning Saints Row(TM) to PLAYSTATION(R)3 System

AGOURA HILLS, Calif., Jan. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — THQ Inc. (Nasdaq: THQI) today announced its critically acclaimed, next-generation property Saints Row(TM) is scheduled to make its PLAYSTATION(R)3 computer entertainment system debut this spring, featuring stunning next-generation graphics, extensive customization options and unparalleled player choice. Developed by renowned internal studio Volition, Inc., Saints Row brings the hugely popular open-world genre to Sony's new console for the first time and will mark the first open world online experience available through the PLAYSTATION(R) Network.

"Saints Row has established itself as one of the most successful original properties in next generation gaming, and we're excited to bring the groundbreaking experience to PLAYSTATION 3 system fans worldwide," said Kelly Flock, executive vice president of worldwide publishing, THQ. "Bringing the open-world genre to the PLAYSTATION 3 system for the first time will help grow the Saints Row fan base and expand the open-world online community."

About Saints Row

In Saints Row, players begin the game as a member of the 3rd Street Saints, battling rival gangs and corrupt officials while attempting to conquer the city of Stilwater. Gamers personalize their experience through an unparalleled level of character customization and the freedom to progress through multiple storylines in any order they choose. Unique activities such as Insurance Fraud and Snatch help a player earn respect, which in turn open up missions that stretch through a vast, fully dynamic game world. Saints Row will also bring open world gaming to the PLAYSTATION 3 system for the first time, allowing gamers to battle rival gangsters in a variety of single and multi-player modes. The game will support players online via the PLAYSTATION(R) Network.

More information about Saints Row can be found at http://www.saintsrow.com.

About THQ

THQ Inc. (Nasdaq: THQI) is a leading worldwide developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software. The company develops its products for all popular game systems, personal computers and wireless devices. Headquartered in Los Angeles County, California, THQ sells product through its global network of offices located throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. More information about THQ and its products may be found at www.thq.com and www.thqwireless.com. THQ, THQ Wireless, Volition, Inc., Red Faction, Summoner, Saints Row and their respective logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of THQ Inc.

About Volition, Inc.

Located in Champaign, Illinois, Volition, Inc. is one of THQ's premier internal game development studios responsible for high-end creations on next generation systems and Windows PC. Its credits include best-selling console and PC franchises, including Saints Row, The Punisher, Red Faction(R), Summoner(R) and Freespace as well as the award-winning Descent as a part of Parallax Software.

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You know what that means: it's definitely coming. And that shouldn't come as a surprise to almost anyone. With no "Only For Xbox 360" branding and THQ's desire to actually make money, it only makes sense to port the action adventure title to Sony's console.

We'll obviously let you know when THQ formally announces the game's existence. Michael McWhertor

What's better than complaining about a buggy game? Making songs and music about a buggy game! Here's a truly brilliant send-up of infested Xbox 360 Saints Row from cabel, the fella behind those funny DS Lite YouTube reviews. Cabel blogs:

It [Saints Row]... has some bugs. The world's most awesome bugs.

So many bugs that I would keep my digital camera on hand while I played the game. And every time I came across a bug — and I came across a whole lot of them — I'd take a short video.

For a long time now, I've wanted to share these bug videos with you, but I wasn't convinced they were quite funny enough. They needed a hot comedy injection, a little something to tie it all together. And then it hit me: musical theatre. What better compliment to the rough and tumble world of Saints Row?

Give this man a round of applause. ROUND OF APPLAUSE. Like I said, brilliant! Brian Ashcraft

Thanks, Alex

Previously, our resident hermit, Eliza, mentioned she would be venturing outside (the first time in months) to purchase a pretty sweet Xbox 360 bundle that includes a Premium Console, Saint's Row, Dead Rising and Test Drive Unlimited all for US $359.96. Sweet enough to make even the biggest agoraphobe venture over to their local Fry's Outpost and pick it up. Eliza, included.

Well, Eliza just pinged me (she's an insomniac as well) to let me know the deal is lame. It's still pretty good, but ripe with the bad aftertaste of suckage. The Fry's Outpost website now lists the bundle as $449.99. That's not nearly as good as promised and very, very lame. So lame that Eliza is now on the fence—not just about buying it, but leaving the house. Brian Ashcraft

Poll time.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Welcome to the world of microtransactions... when the last few dribbles of outflow in front of the gaming urinal cake can be shaken out for a few bucks apiece.

THQ and Volition have released their first downloadable content update for Saints Row online. It's the "Funky Fresh" pack! It costs 100 Microsoft points! It's a total money-grab insult!

What do you get for your 100 points? Such exciting content as "fake tuxedo t-shirt", "crazy bunny slippers" and "the ankh tattoo." Oh, there's more, but this is the sort of content update a few years ago that developers would have been embarrassed to release for free. Florian Eckhardt

Saints Row Content Incoming [1UP]

The British Gaming Blog has three screens up showing that making avatars look just like their real world counterparts from the front is easy too. Brian Crecente

Saints Row Celebs

I've been playing Saint's Row almost nightly this week, which is sorta unusual for me. What with the Rocky Mountain News, Kotaku and my family I don't usually have or take the time to play a game...nightly.... till 2 a.m.

But Saint's Row has hooked me. I'm not crazy about the graphics, they're sorta cartoony and that bugs me, but the rest of the single player game is golden.

SR is essentially a next-gen GTA. But there are two things that makes the game more addictive for me: the amazing artificial intelligence and the unbelievable rag doll physics.

It's not that the bad guys are exceptionally clever or use good tactics, actually they sort of suck, it's that everyone in this world seems to have a much higher level of AI than I've ever seen before.

Walking around on my home turf some woman walked by me muttering something about my attitude, so I pistol whipped her of course.

After I knocked her to the ground I was about to walk away, but a fellow banger (your gang's members are all over the place, this one was just walking down the street) ran up and started kicking the hell out of the woman, screaming that the woman needs to show me some respect.

If you whip out your gun and fire a shot or two, people run, cower, beg for their lives. Some even run over and try to stop you. It's amazing.

I noticed early on in the game that you can hop onto the hood of a car and car surf. "This will be fun," I thought. But a few seconds into my ride and the driver just started freaking out, screaming, swerving all over the road. She was basically acting like you or I would if someone just hopped onto our car with a gun and expected to go for a ride.

It's this across the board AI that makes the game, and running around inside it, so much fun.

I know rag doll physics are nothing new, but the way this game uses them is just hilarious.

The first time I noticed something different was when I got into a head-on collision with a convertible. Yeah, the car buckled. Yeah, glass broke. But then something else happened. The front passenger in the other car shot through the windshield and the backseat passenger went flying over my car.

And running into people, they don't just fall over or get knocked to the side. They fly, arms flailing, legs at painfully odd angles, across the screen to land in crumpled heaps.

Sweet lord, this could be it's own game.

The online modes are just as addictive. Volition has done a lot of things to make it tons of fun.

First off, the modes are really interesting. There's Gangsta Brawl, Big Ass Chains, Protect the Pimp and Bling My Ride.

Most of these are modes you've seen in other games with a gangsta twist. But whenever you can pimp slap someone in a game it's all good.

The game also supports gangs. You can form a gang and get members to join in. I've formed the Kotaku gang for those of you interested. Currently it consists of me. (My gamertag is crecente if you want to hit me up in the game.)

The best part is that most upgrades to your character's appearance is done by earning cash in the ranked matches and then going shopping. I'm saving for some pimp sunglasses right now.

Unfortunately, Saints Row suffers from some of the worst lag I've seen in an Xbox 360 game. It makes the modes nearly unplayable. Every single game I've played online to date has suffered from this problem.

Fortunately, THQ have already said they are working on a patch.

We are working hard on the update now. Here are a few (but not all) of the issues we expect it to address: Improvements to the way the game handles packet loss and bandwidth management between players. This will address the issues commonly cited as "lag", and general synchronization problems between the players' clients (vehicles/players warping around, etc). The system for rating a player's quality-of-service has been improved, and made less conservative. This means you'll see many more matches with 10-12 player limits. Fix for the "clothes stealing" exploit in multiplayer Fix for widescreen formatting issues in certain resolutions Changes to Matchmaking phase, to get players in the game faster At this time, we have no ETA on when the update will be available. We want it to be available soon, but we also want to make sure it addresses as many issues as possible.

Microsoft provides product updates to anyone with a Live connection, even without a paid membership.

Get it done already, I need to get me some big ass chains. Brian Crecente

We go to Volition's studio days before the release of Saints Row

I live in the middle of manure and cornfields, which generally isn't the most conducive locale for video game journalism. Aside from the college students, local citizens aren't really the gaming types. Most people go out for lunch or drinks in downtown Champaign, IL, without realizing that one of the top video game developers in the world is just upstairs. Last Friday I visited Volition to talk about their Tuesday release Saints Row and find out what a video game company is like days before a major launch.

In short, it's empty. Jacques Hennequet, producer on Saints Row, explains why.

"We have a lot of very tired people."

Saints Row has been at some level of production for three years. Originally slated as an Xbox 360 launch title, the game was pushed back twice for quality control, during which time the project staff inflated from 70 to 160 employees. We relax in Hennequet's shared office as he explains what development was like on Volition's first "open world" title. I appreciate his French accent.

"It's very easy to break that game, and it was a nightmare to test," Hennequet explained. "We discovered a big bug pretty late. If you load the game 32 times, not 31, without having restarted your machine, you will freeze...given enough people, it could happen."

Volition's "Grandma's Boy" setup

In a non-linear game (or 'open world' as Volition calls it), because there is no set path for a gamer to take, normal cause-effect bugs are tougher to come by. Often, bugs could involve 13 separate steps. Sometimes these steps were not entirely affiliated with Saints Row itself, but with the console menu and Marketplace content as well. It is this painstaking process of bug checking that has made the whole Volition team sick of what they see as constant GTA-clone pigeonholing.

"You're going up against the most successful game of all time and you're trying in one cycle to essentially catch up with what they did in six...you know it's not gonna be easy," Hennequet said. "That's why it grates on me...when they say it's just a clone. Can someone show me the clone button?"

"We really looked at GTA very carefully from the beginning. We analyzed it and went, ok, this is a great game, but there are things in it that annoy us. How can we make it better?"

So the Volition team set out to improve GTA in four steps.
1. Improve combat controls
2. Allow direct restarting if the mission is failed
3. Make the city easier to navigate (GPS)
4. Have every action a player takes impact their advancement

"I thought, [GTA] is a great series of games, but they've never fixed [these issues], and I think they've never fixed [these issues] because they never had an incentive to do so," Hennequet said. "This is not at all a cold, calculating let's make some cash and run attempt. This is a first step into something we're genuinely very interested in which we call open world game design...unless we do it in a genre or an area that [THQ] thinks they can make their money back, they're not going to fund it."

But THQ has hope, as Volition currently has two games in early development, with a third beginning after Hennequet's vacation. All three titles are planned as open world games.

"We have some pretty exciting stuff planned for open world," he said. "No one's going to be able to say 'it's a clone' this time." And he laughs. Mark Wilson

Hit up sister site Gizmodo for more on the technical power of the 360.

Ok, this is random, but we found it on their gaming shelf and thought you should know.

Star Fox Command (DS)
Nintendo gives Fox McCloud and company another go round, this time with a return to 3D space combat.

Enchanted Arms (Xbox 360)
From Software hits us with some sci-fi RPG goodness.

Saints Row (Xbox 360)
Surely THQ is tired of hearing their free-roaming gangster game called a GTA clone, so I'll refrain.

Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins (PSP)
Capcom's old-school 2D platformer (with 3D graphics) isn't for noobs.

Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories (PS2)
A few more dozen hours of big-headed strategy RPG fun from Nippon Ichi.

Def Jam: Fight for NY: The Takeover (PSP)
EA's hip hop fighting franchise makes its bow on PSP.

I'm holding my wallet hostage until next week, when both Okami and Yakuza hit for the PS2. What are y'all pickin' up this week?

Karsten from Shizzle Games points out that Microsoft is listing an Saints Row Bundle on their official press site for Europe.

The bundle, which includes the premium system and the game, will be released on Sept. 8 for 439 Euros. Right now it's only showing up as coming to France, but chances are it will be hitting the rest of the continent too. When the hell is the US getting a bundle, that's what I want to know?

Xbox 360 Saints Row Bundle [Shizzle Games]

Everyone's most anticipated Grand Theft Auto knock-off is now available in demo form on Xbox Live Marketplace. Well, unless you're German or Mexican, in which case (if the latter country's censorship laws are anything like the former) you need to wait for the version of the demo where the hookers you need to beat to death are all replaced with robots. Florian Eckhardt

We've been going around today asking video game developers to explain why anyone should care about or buy their game in fifteen seconds or less. Our inaugural victim: one of Volition's associate producers, trying to sell us on their XBox 360 game Saints Row.

The Guardian s Greg Howson has posted his early impressions from a day spent playing Xbox 360 games in Amsterdam. Bottom line: slick games, but not a lot of substance. His piece does a good job of highlighting what I am convinced will become a real problem with this generation of consoles. You ve got to do more than amp up the graphics and sound to make hardcore, gaming lifers spend the sort of money these things are going to cost.

We don t just want an amp that goes to 11, we want some deep, interactive substantive games and you better deliver if you want our money.

Anyway, check out Greg s post if you want the quick and dirty on a handful of games he played including Condemned (gloomn-noir shooter), Gun (western shooter) and Saints Row (free-roaming shooter).

X05 More Games [Games Blog]