PixlBit

I got totally obsessed with Saint's Row: Gat Out of Hell today. Mark and I played co-op most of the day. We beat the main objective and then began mopping up other challenges.

This game is so much like Crackdown, I can't believe it. I hazard to say it may be even better, but that would be making fine distinctions. They are both excellent. I'm just surprised the game ran so smoothly in co-op over Xbox Live no matter how much mayhem Mark and I created, and we created a lot. We were both searching for more collectibles and racking up kills with specific types of boosts and doing flying-based challenges. We're both around 95% complete in the game, but I have only about half of the achievements. Most of them will unlock without too much trouble next time I play it except for the "clear all challenges: one. That's one's going to take some doing. The hardest challenge so far has been the several flying ones where you have to catch a lot of falling and rising souls within a set time limit. Getting gold on those has been tricky. I thought the time trial flying races would be the hardest, but we killed those good. 

Really, flying is what puts this game one step above, or to the side, of Crackdon. You are free to roam the skies at will. Scaling buildings is no sweat too with the wall run ability. You can rip up the highest building in seconds. In Crackdown it took careful leaps to handholds to get to the top, which is fine, it's an experience. Crackdown is a little bit more down to earth. Crackdown 2 had the wing suits, but in Gat Out of Hell, you can actually gain altitude with wing flaps. That's a big difference. You can stay aloft for a very long time. I see now why there's no need for helicopters and planes in Gat Out of Hell like there was in Crackdown. Helicopters are cool, but a pair of wings might be a notch better. 

That's all. Now I do some 1996 research for the present week. Fun nerdy fun.