THQ Gamer Day 2008 - Saints Row 2

The big headliner at THQ's Gamer Day this year was the much touted sequel, Saints Row 2 being developed by Volition. Our night kicked off first with the announcement that the game had received a release date of August 26, 2008, followed up by a lovely video showing many of the new features in the game and a very special guest appearance at the closure.

First on the list of features was a demonstration of the very impressive customization available to the player when creating a character. They showed the characters ability to range in body size from freakishly thin to borderline obese, enough to cater to any player's appetite. I'm sure the other normal options of skin color, facial features or other details have also been increased since they quick to boast that the game has the widest range of character customization of any game to date. Adding to all of this, they announced that the player can now choose the sex of the character and opt to play the game as a female. It's always refreshing to see a game trying to cater to more than just the male-protagonist crowd.

On top of all the physical customization in the game, Violation has added the ability to customize the taunts and insults that your character can use in the game. They had insults ranging from 'Yo Momma' jokes to the actual gestures of 'teabagging' available, which I'm sure will have plenty of machinima makers happy to experiment with. Along with these taunts and insults, they told us that NPCs in game will have appropriate responses to them, such as flipping the bird or retorting with an equally lewd quip. The video then showed that even the player's crib will be customizable with items purchased to give you home more 'style'. Stylizing your crib apparently can add more missions to your roster too, so it pays to be 'fly'.

As for the actually gameplay, one of the points the video tried to stress is that the WHOLE storyline can be played in a split-screen co-op fashion, allowing a multi-player experience in a normally single player genre. The muliplayer further lends itself to the many different types of vehicles that you take command of in the game (helicopter, airplane, water vehicles, and motorcycle), by allowing one player to pilot the vehicle while the other uses the available firearms to accomplish whatever task may be assigned to that mission. One mission that they showed us in action was the helicopter escort of a car where you, as the helicopter, make sure to blow away any cars that might try to harm your client.

Add all that gameplay and customization to the 'nextgen' graphical look of the game, and Saints Row 2 seems to be living up to its predecessor. At the very end of our introduction to Saints Row 2 we were treated (or accosted) by the acting talent that is Gary Besy. He went on to extol the virtues of teabagging and 'Yo Momma' jokes as only Mr. Busey can, you can see the video on Gametrailers after the jump.