Ah, sweet Xbox 360 coverage…this opportunity was music to my ears. When I saw what the game had to offer it only got better. Okay, probably like most of you out there I was like, "What the hell is this, a GTA ripoff??" Well, since it'll be coming out soon - around the time the 360 gets released - would a GTA-ish game straight out upon the console release be such a bad thing? The answer for me would be no—matter of fact, the more I saw of the game the more I started to fall in love. It was like having a girlfriend you only get to see every once in a while and then having another totally hot babe clamoring for your attention that kind of reminds you of your girlfriend…yeah, like that…course that's just an analogy—I wish I knew what that was *actually* like!

Much like the game it's comparable to, SR features a free-roaming environment where you can go anywhere and do anything you can put your little deviant mind to. The graphics were pretty decent at this early showing, but since it is a 360 game I expect the finished game is going to look absolutely jaw-droppingly gorgeous. The physics engine got a good workout during our behind-closed-doors demo, and it was pretty awesome to see pedestrians get mowed down, and the barehanded fighting looked like a good old-fashioned brawl should—low-down, dirty, messy and with bodies flying from landed punches!

The game features the idea of territories much like GTA: SA. The player's gang, from the 'Saint's Row' hood, need to expand their territory before they are pushed out of the gang scene forever. In order to expand your territory, you must earn Respect, which is a valuable commodity in this game's world. You earn Respect by doing things—winning a street race here, pimping out a ho there…there are many possibilities for the player to grow their 'Spect. Even your appearance (the clothes you wear, your hairstyle, etc,) can garner you a certain amount of Respect. Basically the game will progress depending on what activities you have completed lately—activities like street racing, drug trafficking, hijacking vehicles, pimping hoes, and more. This means that there'll be no need to worry about tracking down who has a mission for you and exactly where was that mission-giving guy anyway—the game will automatically progress the story along for you. The devs are going for a pure emergent style of game storytelling. It will be interesting to see how close to the mark they can hit.

What would a thuggish game be without the ability to steal cars? Of course there is the possibility for the player to do that every turn, but in this game you may also purchase cars if you so desire. While driving around in your car you may decide to peruse what's on the squawk-box and lo and behold there shall be a variety of radio stations for the player to listen to, including two of the NPRish/talk radio variety—and others of a funkier/street music variety (I learned one of the radio stations' names is WPMP—now that's funky!). One of the cool things I learned about the aspect of the radio in this game however is that the events, calls and promotions that the player may hear during the broadcasts can actually have an effect on the game world. For instance, if a commercial comes on the radio saying that Ling-Ling's Bling-Bling store has diamond-crusted Rolexes on sale, $4,000 off, the player can drive to that store and find that situation to be true. I see much gameplay potential for this aspect of the game, if the devs leverage it right. Till this game comes out, presumably around the launch of the 360, I'll be chillin' in my crib waitin' for it to drop. Word son!