Saints Row 2 PC?

[Telefrog]

Anyone getting Saints Row 2 for PC? Apparently, the performance of the game is not so hot (http://pc.ign.com/articles/941/941952p2.html).

What does that translate to in terms of quality? A crazy good time. Or at least, what would have been a crazy good time if not for the game's poor coding on PC. For whatever reason the PC version absolutely chugs. Even on my Intel Core2Quad 2.4 GHz with 2GB RAM, an Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX, and a Vista 32 operating system, the game ran between twenty and seven frames per second and had a host of other performance issues. In other words, it was nauseating and almost unplayable. The core gameplay is the same, but the general performance basically kills the experience.

[...]

The real negatives for Saints Row 2 come in the technical department. And on PC these sadly cripple the game. From graphics to AI to the sheer inner-workings of the game, SR2 has blemishes in every area. First, graphically, it isn't as attractive as the competition. There isn't much going on in the environments and yet there are still inexcusable performance problems. Character models and environments aren't as detailed as they could be unless you flip the overall quality to high which kills your play experience and the collision detection is wonky at best. I constantly got pedestrians stuck in the grill of my car (no joke) or sometimes even stuck inside my car.

While driving on the streets you'll also notice a good bit of draw-in and fade that includes cars that downright disappear in some places. I've been chasing people on a hitman mission and had their car completely disappear from sight and radar. Not cool. I've also had helicopters warp to the basement of a barge when reloading a game and other open world wackiness that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Toss in the fact that I've actually had the game lock up on two separate systems a handful of times, and I can't help but feel that Saints Row 2 could have used some more time in the shop.

Add numerous complaints from people seeing some really poor framerates and it appears Volition did a pretty hack job on the port. Impressions yet?

[biosc1]

I read that review earlier and I'm wondering what settings he used...I wonder if it's like GTAIV, where it kills your pc if you up all the settings.

[Telefrog]

I read that review earlier and I'm wondering what settings he used...I wonder if it's like GTAIV, where it kills your pc if you up all the settings.

I don't know. I was hoping some guinea pig here would let us know... :D

[biosc1]

To me, it's really a $29.99 game...for some reason, that's the sweet spot for me. I'll probably end up getting it for the 360 in that case, though.

Of course, I have to finish Saint's Row 1 first...which I've been sitting on since it fell into the backlog :(

[Karak]

Well I have an amd5000 and a 8800gt. The game seems locked at 30(never goes higher). But thankfully I don't get the fluxes like the guy above gets. I am using XP by the way. Its not perfect but for me its like GTA4 after the patch.

[biosc1]

Sometimes I really wonder about the makeup of the machines used by reviewers...how clean and well maintained are they? Are they full of junk? Too many anti-virii programs running, etc?

I like it better when a reviewer states their test bed and in-game settings.

[Deadend]

Odd, the game runs just great on 360, sometimes has hiccups, but nowhere near what GTA IV did.. and Saints Row 2 tended to have more crazy shit going on.

[H.Bogard]

*sigh* Another sub-par rushed port. There goes my enthusiasm.

[Deadend]

*sigh* Another sub-par rushed port. There goes my enthusiasm.

Rushed AND late port. Which is really bad, as Volition used to be a GREAT PC game studio, and Saints Row 2 feels like the fun version of GTA IV, what with the tire spikes on a reinforced lambo firing off the NOS after a custom paintjob popping the tires on a rival gang while being chased by cops and with a buddy firing a rocket launcher out the window.... good times.

[RandoM51]

I'm going to pick this up some time in the next few days. Looking at the reviewer's machine, I can see that I won't have 2-3 problems that he had. ;)

[Grifter]

My friend should be getting his copies in today's delivery so I'll be testing it out this afternoon. I don't know how comparable my experience will be to the reviewer being as my system is quite a bit faster than his but it'll at least give us a better reference point.

[Ravenlock]

Well that kinda blows, especially since I think the general response to GTA IV PC was "hunh, well this kinda sucks on the PC, oh well, at least Saints Row 2 is coming and will almost certainly perform better". I'm still trying to get GTAIV to perform acceptably on my rig (2.66 Ghz processor, 2GB PC6400 RAM, 8800GTS 640MB), so far without much success. The patch helped a little, I still need to try the newest beta drivers.

Frankly, there's no excuse for either of these games running poorly on a modern system. The X360 does not have more graphical power than my computer, and neither GTA4 nor Saints Row 2 looks better than, say, Crysis or Assassin's Creed, both of which run very nicely on my box.

It's a real shame, since all 3 previous GTA console-to-PC ports ran very well, even better, on the PC.

[Disgustipated]

360 version it is, then.

[MagGnome]

What is with so many sloppy PC ports lately? It's inexcusable.

Yet these companies wonder why their PC sales are tanking.

[biosc1]

The reviews aren't too horrible. So far that IGN one is the lowest I could find...I have yet to find confirmation that the game runs as horribly as mentioned in that review.

As mentioned previously, we do need some "real-people" guinea pigs.

[Karak]

Complex Shadow maps makes a HUGE difference.
However now mine is suddely causing issues. It stopped running well right after I updated to SP3...fuck.

[SilentScreams]

Well I'll be getting it when I get paid. I'll let you guys know how it runs, but my PC is also fairly high spec:

Intel C2Q Q9550
3gb DDR3 1333
2GB Radeon HD 4870X2

Like I said, I'll tell you how it runs. If I can't get a good frame rate out of it on this machine then there's something very wrong with the port.

[Karak]

Well I'll be getting it when I get paid. I'll let you guys know how it runs, but my PC is also fairly high spec:

Intel C2Q Q9550
3gb DDR3 1333
2GB Radeon HD 4870X2

Like I said, I'll tell you how it runs. If I can't get a good frame rate out of it on this machine then there's something very wrong with the port.
Good computer there.
I was dissapointed that mine dropped so quickly. I am not sure if it was the patch to windows or a reboot. However, if you turn off Shadow Maps and an illumination setting you can get excellent framerates and the game still look good.

[RandoM51]

It really is a crappy port. It runs ok at 1920x1200 with everything off except max draw distance. I could probably tweak a couple other settings but the graphics would still be pretty weak. They're weaker than the original Saints Row on 360, it seems.

On top of that, I decided to use a 360 controller but the built in help system isn't smart enough to tell me controller buttons instead of keyboard buttons.

I'm going to check out the console version reviews/videos and maybe get one of those versions instead or just skip this game.

[Wackman3000]

I can tell you right now that the PS3 version has lots of moments of slowdown/framerate drop. Not sure if it happens in the x360 version but it's blatantly apparent for the PS3.

Other than that it runs decently.

[muddi900]

The 360 version also had problems. Not as many as these. But the truth is that this is not a "fun" version of GTA4. It's a extremely mission pack for Saints Row 1.

[RandoM51]

Bleh, once you start doing missions where you have serious car chases with the police the game just becomes unplayable, at least on my machine. Between the shitty performance while driving and the piss-poor controls(even using a controller instead of a keyboard) all you do is bounce off everything until you blow up, long before you get wherever you're going.

Do not buy this game for PC unless they come up with a major performance patch.

[Deadend]

The 360 version also had problems. Not as many as these. But the truth is that this is not a "fun" version of GTA4. It's a extremely mission pack for Saints Row 1.

Yeah, but you are wrong. It is the fun version.

[Grifter]

I have a pretty good rig and this game runs like complete ass on every setting that makes it look better than a PS2 game. It also doesn't support 1920x1080 Think I'll Gamefly the 360 version.

[RandoM51]

I'm playing it at 1024x768 at the lowest graphic quality settings. I suppose the fact that I am doing that is a testament to how fun I find the game. Took out two gangs, working on the third, having a blast.

[Telefrog]

Just an FYI. The PC version of this game is $19.90 at GoGamer right now.

The latest patch apparently helped with some issues, but people are still reporting problems.