The online portion of the game is particularly interesting because it allows you to create a complete different character and you get rewarded money so you can buy different clothes to wear online. The game modes for online are a standard death match, team death match, and then some unique modes like Big Ass Chains which is similar to capture the flag, Team Big Ass Chains, Pimp Your Ride which is a team based game, and Protect The Pimp which is another team based game that the name gives away the point too. So really the question comes down to is Saints Row going to knock GTA out of its beloved held title King of the Sandbox type games. The answer honestly is a no. The game offers some great things that GTA didn't and does have its good points. The customization completely is wonderful although it lacks all the hairstyles and mustache styles to be able to create every single human on this earth to an exact point but it is quite well done none the less. Then you have its overall addictiveness mixed in with extreme pleasure in blowing the hell out of shit around you and killing random people. Those are very strong points the game offers but the best thing i have found in the game is one specific weapon that you can only unlock by completing the Snatch activities, The Pimp Cane Shotgun. This weapon makes the game just that much more fun as it is by far the strongest weapon in the game next to everyone's beloved rocket launcher.

There's one huge area that the game really out performs any GTA game you can name in my personal opinion and that's the Voice Overs. Volition or THQ had to pay some major money to get some of these voice actors for the game because some of them are major film actors. I mean theres nothing like hearing Keith David, who you may know from Barbershop or ATL, call you a player every time or hearing Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile, Daredevil and Sin City) say something in a cut scene as the leader of the Vice Kings. Throw in other celebrities like David Carradine, Tia Carrere, Michael Rappaport, and Clancy Brown to make a wonderful voice over cast for the game all around which only enhances the games enjoyment. Also the soundtrack is every hip hop fans dream for a soundtrack as it features both underground artist and mainstream artists. I mean you got members of The Wu, Strong Arm Steady, David Banner, De La Soul, Copywrite, Camp Lo, Madvillian, and many many others to select from. However if your a fan of other genres the game does kind of fall short. Most of the other genres are chock full of older songs the Metal genre has mostly 80's metal songs on there, the rock genre has Fall Out Boy and Local H and not much else. So basically you can tell they were playing to the hip hop audience more than anything when it comes to the soundtrack. That becomes painfully obvious as every unique song for the game that you unlock is mostly Hip Hop artists such as David Banner's song Saints Row or the Ghostface tracks. What i did find interesting is that the character Aisha who is a singer in the game actually has tracks on the game that are said to be performed by that character until you see the end credits and then you see they are actually done by Sy Smith specifically for the game. Continued on page 3 »