The reviews caused stocks for the Embracer Group, the parent company for Deep Silver which publishes the game, to take a tumble. Which is not great, especially since it considers the reboot as one of its more important releases for the quarter. One could look at the reviews and believe that critics aren’t too high on the game – and truth be told, the number of mixed and negative reviews on Metacritic outweigh the positives, 42 to 18.

However, if you look at the reaction from gamers, whether it’s in the comments on videos or the limited user scores on Metacritic, you’d think this is one of the worst games ever made. So what gives? Why do some gamers hate Saints Row so much?

The amount of hate actually goes back to the reboot’s initial reveal and announcement. At the time, Saints Row garnered hate for a variety of reasons. These include a setting that opted for more realism, but still stretched credulity as the series usually does (just not as organically as a “real” Saints Row title would); a new cast of characters that didn’t resonate in the few minutes they were showcased; visual quality that wasn’t quite up to par; being a reboot in general; and of course, for being “woke.” Such was the backlash that the developer had to come out and say that it wasn’t backing down, even as it acknowledged the “knee jerk reaction” and how “no one has rebooted like this before.”

First off, it’s worth asking – why did Volition opt for a reboot? After the events of Saints Row 4 and Gat Out of Hell – not to mention Agents of Mayhem with its own universe – some people felt it was necessary to start with a clean slate. Furthermore, sticking with a more grounded approach made sense in many ways. There were complaints that Saints Row 4, despite being a blast, had jumped the shark by a massive degree. How does one even go back to the days of Stilwater after all of that?

But another angle to the discussion is just adapting to the times. Principal designer Damien Allen told GamesRadar, “It is a balancing act, between what’s old and what’s new, but at the end of the day we have to keep moving forward with the times. If we stay the exact same, then it’s not going to do well. We are creating a game that we love, and we are creating something that we think is Saints Row.

“And even if there are some older fans who are vehemently against it, I think there’s going to be so many players that will end up falling in love with it – whether they’re old fans, new fans, or just happen to stumble upon our game on one of the various stores that it’ll be available on. I think there’s something that’s really cool about that.”

Once Volition started showing off more of the game, it became obvious that certain things fans loved about the series were still in place. You could still create your own character and go crazy with the customization. The combat was still over-the-top and explosive, even though it was using new systems like Flow and Perks (and mostly sticks to more realistic weapons). Santo Ileso looked a lot bigger than one initially thought and while there were no powers, it was possible to Wingsuit around at high speeds and assault NPCs indiscriminately.

However, these aspects being in place weren’t enough when the characters that one liked weren’t present. In that sense, I can empathize with those who dislike the game. Not seeing Kinzie, Shaundi, Pierce, Matt, Asha and Keith David return was a shame, especially after everything we had been through together.

In the same GamesRadar interview, UX designer Kenzie Lindgren said that while creating new characters with no strings attached was “really freeing,” the process was daunting because “are people going to love these characters?” For some, the first impression is usually the last and they weren’t impressed with what Neenah, Kevin and Eli had to offer.

The visual quality is another pain point. Even though Volition delayed the game and improved its fidelity, it’s still a major step behind contemporary open world greats like Horizon Forbidden West, Ghost of Tsushima, Red Dead Redemption 2 and so on. Not that the previous Saints Row series were known for their visual brilliance either, but I don’t fault some fans for expecting a much bigger visual leap nine years later.

There are also reports of bugs and glitches, some players facing way more than others. Though a part and parcel of nearly every game, especially open world titles, these added further fuel to the fire. Of course, if I faced such a significant number of bugs when paying full price for the game, I’d be annoyed too.

But the main reason I believe that Saints Row is going down well with some fans and absolutely reviled by others goes back to that “balancing act” that Allen spoke of. The cast is subject to long-standing life issues like struggling with rent or just finding the motivation to get out of bed. Instead of delving deeper into those and fully satirizing US culture like GTA, it embraces the more lighthearted, zany style of Saints Row and its depiction of the underworld.

And while it doesn’t stay “the exact same” as older games, many critics have pointed out how dated it feels in the controls and overall gameplay, whether it’s the shooting, movement or design of side activities. However, for some fans, it could serve as a classic throwback to the older games, just with some tweaks and changes. This is one of the problems with “balancing” the old and new since satisfying everyone rarely goes well. The range of review scores is an indication of that.

At the end of the day, the reasons that one hates Saints Row for could very well be the same reasons that someone else likes it. I may not find the main cast endearing due to my connection with previous games’ characters. Others have found the new characters quite enjoyable and fleshed out, even if the overall story is somewhat lacking given its initial setup.

I may want a game with extensive side quests and painstaking attention to detail. Others probably like the arcadey nature of Saints Row’s gameplay, whether it’s playing Insurance Fraud or just going out and blowing stuff up on the streets. I’m not a huge stickler for visual fidelity but others may feel that a game should achieve a certain visual benchmark when it’s priced for $60.

Everyone has different expectations. As Allen noted, “Sometimes I hear from fans and they love different aspects of the franchise, and that doesn’t resonate with me in the same way. So as much as possible we focus on breadth, on variety, and on making sure that we are really asking ourselves ‘does this add to the player’s enjoyment, and is it something that’s worth their time?'”

With the sheer amount of ideas that the franchise has had since its inception, the question of whether the development team has truly plucked “all the best ones and put them together into a cohesive story, game, and world” will have many different answers. You may agree with some or disagree with others, and it probably wouldn’t be a Saints Row title otherwise. However, if the reboot proves anything, it’s that you can’t please everyone, no matter how many explosions, wingsuits, vehicles, crazy missions and set pieces your game has.

More importantly, even if someone likes your game, they won’t always like everything about it (and will oftentimes let you know). So it goes, until the end of time.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Original story follows:

Sony has announced its lineup of titles coming to PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium this month, starting from July 19th. Just as the rumors claimed, Final Fantasy 7 Remake (PS4) and Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade – which includes Episode INTERmission – will be available for subscribers. They’re joined by Marvel’s Avengers and Stray on PS4 and PS5.

Numerous Assassin’s Creed titles are also coming to the service. Assassin’s Creed Unity, Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag, Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered, Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry and Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection are all going to be available on PS4. Saints Row 4: Re-Elected and Saints Row: Gat out of Hell on PS4 are also included.

The remaining roster includes Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure, Jumanji The Video Game, Paw Patrol on a Roll! and ReadySet Heroes on PS4 along with Spirit of the North: Enhanced Edition for PS5. Classic titles include No Heroes Allowed! and LocoRoco Midnight Carnival on PlayStation Portable.

Interestingly, PlayStation Blog Italy notes that Dino Crisis on PS One and Ridge Racer 2 and Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny on PSP will be added to the Classics catalogue as well. It remains to be seen if these will be available for other regions later. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

We’re reaching the end of the year now, and what a year it’s been. Between a deadly pandemic basically bringing humanity to its knee to the launch of new generation consoles, it’s been a memorable one for good and bad reasons all around. Microsoft will also, of course, end the year with a brand new batch of titles for Games With Gold.

Next month’s headlining title is Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell that will be available from December 1st-15th. The Xbox 360 title was a standalone expansion to Saints Row 4 that continued the craziness of that open world series with a focus on the side character, Gat. After it is another 360 title, Stacking, a smaller title from Double Fine Productions that features sentient matryoshka dolls in a strange adventure and it’ll be available December 16th-31st.

On the Xbox One side, for the entire month you’ll be able to get The Raven: Remastered, an adventure game where you play a police officer who finds himself sucked into a conspiracy. To round things off there is Bleed 2, a hardcore arcade-style shooter that will be available from December 16th-January 15th.

These games will be available to all Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass Ultimate subscribers starting on December 1st. All titles will be redeemable and playable on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and Xbox One.

Microsoft’s mission to have as much of the Xbox 360 library as possible playable on the Xbox One continues. With hundreds of Xbox 360 games now already playable on the Xbox One line of systems (some even playable in 4K!), the initiative has not at all slowed down, and has, in fact, continued to gather steam instead.

Now, Microsoft has added three more games to the list of Xbox 360 titles that are playable on the Xbox One- Saint’s Row, Saint’s Row: Gat Out of Hell, and Toybox Turbos.

Saint’s Row, the original game in the series, was meant to be a relatively straightforward GTA clone for the Xbox 360 back when it was not clear that GTA4 would be making the jump to it. It lacks the ridiculous over the top antics of its follow ups, and therefore some personality- but many like it the most out of all Saints Row games for precisely that reason.

Hopefully, Microsoft continues to add many more fan favorites to the Xbox One’s backward compatibility list in the coming months.

https://twitter.com/majornelson/status/1001493427899387904

PlayStation Plus subscribers will be receiving quite the selection of games in July as part of its Instant Game Collection.

From July 5th onwards, subscribers will receive the Paragon Starter Pack which includes access to the game’s beta along with three Master Challenges for Gadget, Murdock and Rampage. The pack itself is worth $40 and completing Challenges will net you Challenger skins, Hero Level XP boosts, taunts, a three-win rep boost and an Exclusive Master Skin.

Other free games include Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell and Furi for the PlayStation 4. PS3 players will receive Fat Princess and Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood while the PlayStation Vita gets Prince of Persia: Revelations and Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines. Overall, it’s not a bad collection, even without the Paragon Start Pack.

What are your thoughts on July’s free PlayStation Plus games? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.

Tacos Malos Drive Thru Collectibles Locations Guide:

There are many collectibles You will find all three Tacos Malos on your map should you enable the Visit All Three Tacos Malos quest in your quest log. Placing an order on each of them will unlock weapon parts. Unlocking all weapon parts will unlock the Last Supper weapon.

Other Collectibles:

There are many collectibles in the game. One of the basic collectibles are the Soul clusters. The blue ones can be used to increase your Arcane. However there is another variation that is of purplish color which will give rise to more clusters once the player touches it. Important point to note here is that these are timed that means you have to collect them within a limited time period. If you miss any one of them, you will have to redo the process. Make sure you collect both types of clusters as this will help you unlock all abilities and skills.

The other type of collectible is commentary. These are littered around the map and can be easily collected. You just need to press the corresponding prompt on the screen to collect them.

Later in the game you will collect something called as Glyphs. These can be found on the map much later in the game and if you find all three of them, you will be able to open chests.

In order to find all collectibles, make sure you have level 15. Thereafter go to Abilities and get the Collectible Finder skill which will cost you $10,000 in game money. What it does? It will highlight every collectible in the game. All treasure chests, hidden weapons, orbs and everything will now display on the in-game map.

Earning XP (Experience Points)/Levelling Up Quickly/ Earning Money:

There is no easy way to level up and earn money. The Quest Log is your best guide to level up. Complete all the tasks in the quest log. This is the easiest and the toughest way to level up quickly and earn more money in the game.

Unlocking The 7 Sin Weapons:

We wrote about finding the Glyphs collectibles so make sure you have the Collectible Finder skill so that these are showcased on your map.  The Glyphs will be unlocked after you have completed side Blackbeard’s missions. In each sector you will find three Glyphs. You would need 3 of them to unlock a hidden chest. The chest contains of the 7 Sins Weapons.

The 7 Sin Weapons are:

Gallows Dodger – You will come across Dex randomly. Dex will be marked on your map as a red target. Kill him 7 times to unlock this weapon.

Uriel’s Edge – You need to convert all five Marshaling Ground. The player will then need to go to the 6th port to find the sword.

Last Supper – Refer Tacos Malos Drive Thru Collectibles Locations Guide above to know how you can unlock this weapon.

Armchair A Geddon – You will find this in the north west section. Once you reach there, fly over the the roof of a building. You will find it there.

Diamond Sting – You can get it for $100,000 from the beginning of the game. This gun will generate bonus money whenever you kill enemies.

Boom Chicka – Find the Glyphs to unlock this. Should be easily doable if you have the Collectible Finder skill.

Cheat Codes (Thanks To CheatCC For The Codes):

All Unlockables: unlockitall
Give Cash ($100,000): cheese
All Weapons: letsrock
Vehicle No Damage: vroom
Repair current vehicle: repaircar
Clear Notoriety: goodygoody
Infinite Sprint: runfast
Big Head mode: bigheadmode
Evil Cars: evilcars
Fast Forward (time speeds up): fastforward
Golden Gun (one-hit kills): goldengun
Heaven Bound (corpses rise into the air): fryhole
Insane City: insanecity
Rated M++ (everyone killed explodes into blood): notrated
Vehicle Smash (smash vehicles easily): isquishyou
Overcast skies: overcast
Light rain: lightrain
Heavy rain: heavyrain
Clear skies: clearskies

PC Specific Errors:

Crashes during loading: Go to your installation directory and find Display.ini file. Open it in any file editor and change Letterboxfinity’s value to False.

FOV fix: Download Saint Row III FOV Mod and rename the game.exe file to SaintRowIV.exe

Error Code 41: Steam servers are too busy. Make sure you go offline to play the game.

Game won’t Start Up: When you try launching the game on Steam, you are stuck with ‘Preparing to launch Saints Row: Gat out of Hell’ message. Make sure you are not using Saints Row IV DLC hair to your character. If that does not work try and launch the game in windowed mode.

This guide will be updated once we have more information on the game.

Consumers are already getting their hands on the Volition’s Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, the standalone expansion and follow-up to Saints Row IV which sees Johnny Gat travelling to Hell to save the Boss of the Third Street Saints from being married off to Satan’s daughter. Footage has already emerged for the PS4 version and you can watch the first 30 minutes of gameplay in 60 frames per second.

Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell isn’t a brand-new game by any means but adds a ton of new things to do including flaming swords, fallen angel wings, a recliner with machine guns and rockets and much more. You can also team up with Kinzie Kensington for some co-op action.

Available in North America on the PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell will be out on January 23rd in Europe. Stay tuned for more information in the coming days.

Volition’s stand-alone expansion for Saints Row IV, namely Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, will be out on January 23rd for all and sundry. Hyping up the same, the launch trailer for the game has arrived and presents its content in an infomercial-esque fashion. Of course, this is Saints Row so there’s plenty of spoofing to be had (along with jokes on pixel-counting resolution inspectors). Check it out above.

Saints Row IV: Re-elected will also be out later this month and will bring the fourth iteration of the open world, chaos-causing action title to the PS4 and Xbox One. You can look forward to a 1080p resolution, every single piece of DLC release till now and much more. The Saints Row IV: Re-elected and Gat Out of Hell Double Pack will also be available, providing even more content to erstwhile fans.

Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell will be available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and PS4 next week. Stay tuned for more information on the same.

Deep Silver will be revisiting the Saints Row franchise with Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell and for the first time, players will assume the role of Johnny Gat as he traverses to Hell to shoot Satan in the face and rescue the leader of the Saints.

In the meantime, a new behind the scenes video has been released which introduces the voice acting cast, which includes Daniel Dae Kim, who plays Gat, and Natalie Lander who controls Kinzie Kensington. A co-op mechanic will allow the second player to take control of Kinzie on the journey to Hell. Dee Bradley Baker will voice various demons in the game while Matt Mercer is Blackbeard. Don’t ask – we really don’t know.

Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell releases on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 as a standalone expansion on January 20th in North America and January 23rd in Europe. It will also release on the Xbox One and PS4 as part of Saints Row IV: Re-Elected which includes the original game and all previously released DLC.

This is the generation of delays. Almost every major big name game has been delayed at some point or the other, sometimes by a few days, sometimes indefinitely, so that they extend into the following year. Given that almost no game released this year has met its release date, will it come as a surprise to you to learn that the Saint’s Row 4 expansion, Gat Out Of Hell, has also moved its release date, and will not be hitting its original targeted date?

No? Well how about this- yes, the release date for Gat Out Of Hell has been moved, but it has been moved forward. That’s right, instead of delaying the game, Deep Silver and Volition will be releasing the game one week ahead of time, on January 20 in the US, and January 23 in Europe.

So that’s something, isn’t it? It’s always nice when we get games before we thought we would, especially given how rare that situation is.