I love Saints Row 2, and have decided to share my story for the sake of sharing my love for the game. Thank you, V, for this opportunity, and my apologies for the long entry. I have no intention of keeping the prize, and if I should win it, I hope to donate the prize to the Saints Row Motors Community, who have helped me so much during my Saints Row 2 gaming experience. It would be great if one of the most hardcore fans could take home the prize based on a vote by the Saints Row Motors Community. Hopefully, a neutral Manager at SRM could handle the process. I would immediately like to throw in these names on my behalf: Papi, Kaird, IdolNinja, Jus_call_me_J, Fanfromjapan.
Me & My Saints I blew off the Saints Row series, believing it was nothing but a Grand Theft Auto wannabe, and never even considered the game until over a year after Saints Row 2 release. I can’t even remember how I heard about the game, but somehow, I found out that you have the ability to customize your main character. At $20 bucks, I pick up any game that has character customization.
The minute I pop the game in and am introduced to the crazy main character customization, I am totally blown away! In fact, I’m overwhelmed! I don’t know where to begin! My first character takes me about an hour and a half, and I’m itching to keep tweaking him, but I’m dying more to start the game. I can’t calm my excitement anymore, so I start, knowing that I already got more than my money’s worth!
Unbelievable… Playing your own custom character in third person makes you feel like a God! And you find yourself in this fully 100% interactive Sandbox world with so many well thought-out ways to proceed through a straightforward storyline, build your character’s abilities through comical activities, or to simply mash around and cause random trouble. Not only that, but there is further customization: clothes, cribs, vehicles, gang. For a little bit, I begin to think to myself, “Even if I had wished for a game, I don’t think I could have put all the things in a game that Volition put into Saints Row 2.” Little did I know that I was just scratching the surface…
The more I progressed through the game, the more I wondered if it was possible to obtain certain vehicles, weapons, and outfits that you are “not supposed to obtain.” I hop on to Gamefaqs, do a little searching, and post a few questions. A turning point in my experience came when a Saint known as Kaird responded to my many annoying questions. This guy knew WTF he was talking about, and I was very impressed with his patience. I tell him that the Ronin Tornado is screaming my name, and he tells me that I require a Coop Saint. And then, it happens… he drops the bomb: “Saints Row Motors.” It sounds like an Angel (or Ayngel) from Heaven, so I check it out… HOLY SHIT! That’s a lot of Unique and Rare Vehicles, Weapons, & Outfits! And there’s a PC Version of the game with PC Mods? WOW! Too much already! *tapping out*
I finally find a Coop who is down to start hunting for these Uniques and Rares. Some guy who plays a female character… his name is Papi… little did I know that he would be my greatest Coop partner of all time! We grab the Ronin Tornado, no problem! He loves it! He wants more! I hop on to the SRM site at Kaird’s list, and we decide to go for the Carlos Oppressor…
We spend the first two nights failing to make Carlos’ Oppressor stall during the second flyby, when I notice that Carlos makes a first flyby! The third night, it’s on… My belly is full, my beers are chilled, and I got my first gameplan set up on how I’m gonna catch this baby! We set it up perfectly, and BAM! The Carlos Oppressor stalls! Papi and I are jumping off the walls! We calm ourselves (literally, put the controllers down and took a 1 minute breather), and we set up the jump. I could tell you what happens, but why not relive our experience yourself:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeGoaGhGUgo&... We have so much fun, I tell Papi I have to do it myself! You won’t believe what happened! You can check it out for yourself:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQTQh1uVbWg After that, it was on! We follow Kaird’s list, insisting that we obtain every Unique and Rare Vehicle, Weapon, and Outfit ourselves, mastering the Saints Row Hunt. We begin perfecting a process of grinding out ideas and putting them to the test, until we make our first finds:
1) Ronin Tornado during the Ronin Stronghold “Humbolt Park Science Museum”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKEOmY2aLMM2) Brotherhood Buffalo B “Mobile Lab Drug Van” in Single Player during the Brotherhood Stronghold “Sommerset Apartments” (Originally discovered by FanfromJapan and his Japanese friend by Coop method)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK_s13KzHx0&... And yet, it wasn’t enough! We wanted to discover something completely for ourselves! At least, for myself, my two proudest moments were:
1) Kent Generic –
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfykNrQVHos Discovering the Kent Generic for the consoles with my favorite Coop buddy, Papi, was hands down the best Saints Row Moment of my gaming experience. Nothing beats messing around in Saints Row 2 with your favorite Coop buddy, especially when messing around suddenly causes a legendary “unobtainable” vehicle to appear! I had wanted this vehicle since I first heard about it.
2) Dual Samurai Swords (without Cheats) -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkicRXpzXd4 I worked really hard on developing a gameplan to obtain these bad boys, so I was very satisfied when our gameplan actually worked, and for Coops as well.
All this being said, I would have to say that I came away with something greater than all this…
What makes this game so special to me is that I can see myself pulling out this game 20 years from now, loading up my “perfect save,” and still reenjoying this game over and over, whether it is Single Player, or Coop madness! In fact, I have yet to play this game with cheats, or the PC Version with mods, which I consider each to be completely new games! I have every intention of continuing to play Saints Row 2 for years to come. If I had to make one request from Volition regarding Saints Row 2, it would have to be to maintain the Coop and Multiplayer network for decades for me to continue to play with Papi and other Saint Buddies. If marijuana is the gateway drug, Saints Row 2 has been the gateway game for my gaming experience, and I will continue to play Saints Row games as quickly as Volition can make them.
But more importantly, I see myself keeping in touch with my fellow Saints, whether it’s for future modded action on the PC version of Saints Row 2, or discovering new Unique and Rare elements in Saints Row 3, simply reliving past discoveries through Papi’s youtube video tutorials that we made together, or shooting the shit with my new buddies at Saints Row Motors. I get to share all my cool ideas and thoughts with people who also get excited about them, and who want to share back! And when I’m not playing, I still get to read about what other people have found or are working on, or what funny stories they have to share. The fun never ends, so a big thank you to Saints Row Motors, and of course, Volition!
A very special thanks to Papi. Not only are you my best Coop buddy, but I love our videos! I am lucky enough to be able to remember our great times in vivid technology! Thanks for making my Saints Row experience the best I could ask for, Papi! You are my number #1 Saint (well, maybe second only to Tera Patrick)!
