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Saints Row: The Third – The Full Package arrives this November

Earnest Cavalli
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Saints Row: The Third Yarngasm

When Saints Row: The Third hit store shelves in November of last year it was instantly hailed as a breath of silly, wacky fresh air for the open-world sandbox action game subgenre. Where Grand Theft Auto is hyper-serious in its efforts to simulate a Hollywood-caliber cinematic experience, Saints Row: The Third gleefully asks players to create as much awesome mayhem as possible — even giving players a button specifically designed to make pedestrian actions like fistfights and carjackings a bit more stylish (if physically impossible). This trend of “fun over realism” continued with the game’s many, many DLC offerings, but developer Volition Inc. quickly became a bit too good at releasing extra content for the game, and it’s not at all surprising to see many players overwhelmed by the sheer number of extra downloadable goodies on offer for the game. Fortunately publisher THQ has opted to simplify the experience a bit — particularly for those who’ve yet to play the game — by releasing Saints Row: The Third and all of its DLC content in one huge package dubbed Saints Row: The Third – The Full Package.

We’re going to assume that the double entendre there is absolutely intended.

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According to THQ, The Full Package will be released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC platforms on November 6. Regardless of which platform you choose, the game will set you back $50. That’s $10 less than the game’s original retail price point, but this version also includes a massive amount of new content that, by our math, should add somewhere on the order of 20 to 30 extra hours of gameplay. That’s all three downloadable mission packs (Gangstas In Space, Genkibowl VII and The Trouble With Clones), all the new weapons, vehicles and clothing options added by the game’s 13 smaller DLC packs, and though not explicitly stated, we’d also assume all of the game’s extra pre-order content. All told it’s a ton of gameplay content, and that $50 price point is totally valid — particularly if this is your first time playing Saints Row: The Third.

On the other hand, maybe you’ve already played through Saints Row: The Third. What’s the value of this package in that case? Well, as we reported in June, Volition is already hard at work on a fourth Saints Row title, and according to THQ president Jason Rubin that game will be built on top of an unreleased Saints Row: The Third DLC pack dubbed “Enter The Dominatrix.” Thus, it’s a safe bet to assume that Saints Row: The Fourth (or whatever it’s eventually called) will be quite similar to this enhanced version of Saints Row: The Third. If nothing else, that means that you (and any friends who join you in the game’s crazy-fun online multiplayer modes) can use The Full Package as a bit of practice for the imminent sequel. You don’t want to be caught off guard when Volition unveils the next game’s answer to beating old ladies to death with giant, floppy sex toys, right?

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Earnest Cavalli
Earnest Cavalli
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Earnest Cavalli has been writing about games, tech and digital culture since 2005 for outlets including Wired, Joystiq…
NPD: Gaming industry hauls in $3 billion in November 2011
first look e3 2011 modern warfare 3 new york

Based off data released by consumer market research firm NPD on Friday, the gaming industry had a very profitable November due to sales of games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Totaling just over three billion dollars, approximately 58 percent of that figure is attributed to software sales. Software sales are up by 16 percent over the previous year, but hardware sales are down by nine percent due to slowing Wii sales and accessory sales are down approximately 34 percent over November 2010. After the NPD numbers were released today, Microsoft released a statement that the company sold about 1.7 million consoles in November and approximately 60 percent of those sales happened on Black Friday.
While Activision's Modern Warfare 3 and Bethesda Softworks Skyrim easily took the number one and two spots respectively, Electronic Arts Battlefield 3 and two Ubisoft games, Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Just Dance 3, rounded out the top five. Other popular games during November include sports franchise Madden NFL 12, Sony's popular adventure game Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, THQ's sandbox title Saints Row: The Third, Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Warner Brothers popular sequel Batman: Arkham City. According to NPD, sales of Skyrim in November brought Bethesda Softworks within about half a million units of matching lifetime sales of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Batman: Arkham Asylum's lifetime sales figure is also very close to being beaten after just two months of Arkham City sales.
In a related story, gaming social network Raptr stated in a blog post that Skyrim is the most played game of 2011 with just being on the market for a period of four weeks. While Modern Warfare 3 has more total playtime due to sheer volume of sales, the average Skyrim player has about 23.5 hours of playtime in the game and the average gaming session runs nearly three hours long.

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Saints Row: The Third Review
saints row the third review

You might be surprised to find out that the life of a video game reviewer isn’t all champagne kisses and caviar dreams. When we aren’t jet setting around the globe in our private jets and swimming in our Scrooge McDuck-sized pools of gold, we occasionally take breaks to, you know, review games. Sometimes we have to endure some real stinkers, and other times we get lucky when true gems come along that remind us brilliantly why we love video games so much.
Saints Row: The Third is one such game, a glittering and oh so shiny gem that stands out among the rest -- made even more impressive with the sea of games that warrant your attention this holiday season. While Saints Row isn’t genre defining or breaking new ground, it is a clear example of a game done right. Of course it isn’t without its problems, and issues certainly arise in the open and seamless city of Steelport, which while not gamebreaking, do detract from the overall experience.
Welcome to the Streetz
In Saints Row: The Third, The Third Street Saints are now bonafide international celebrities, with everything from their own brand of energy drinks to popular clothing line, with a media empire and success known around the globe. But with mo’ money comes mo’ problems. After an adrenaline-rushed intro mission goes awry, The Saints must relocate and rebuild, shifting the setting from Stilwater to the new city of Steelport. But pimpin that new territory ain’t gonna be easy, as new rival criminal group known as The Syndicate has stolen The Saints money--and that ain’t gonna fly.

In Saints Row: The Third, you play as the leader of the Third Street Saints, tasked with wiping out the Steelport’s rival gangs and taking down the Syndicate. The sheer amount of customization afforded you in Saints Row: The Third is quite honestly staggering. I spent the first few hours alone customizing my character, selecting everything from her hair color and weight, to her voice and uh...bust size.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg. While the character customization is insanely deep and awesome, it doesn’t stop there. You can customize everything from your vehicle, to your guns; even the gang members in your crew down to what they wear, how they taunt, even what they drive. In fact it’s pretty safe to say that no two people will have the same experience with Saints Row: the Third.
Putting the FU in Fun
All that customization and bling doesn't come cheap, and for you to truly experience what Steelport has to offer you gotta start earning two things: Cash and respect. Cash is earned easily enough--complete missions, assassinate targets and partake in the various side missions and optional activities the game has to offer.
Want a break from the story missions? Professor Genki’s Super Ethical Reality Climax show has you participating in a farcical ‘Japanese’ game show funhouse of death, capping bad guys dressed in giant cat-suits or other zany get-ups. If that doesn’t sound like fun then why not try your hand at some insurance fraud? Simply hurl yourself at oncoming traffic and rack up the points. Or my personal favorite, Guardian Angel, where I would deliver some heavenly justice from on high while riding a chopper and laying down some rocket launcher love on rival gang members stupid enough to mess with me and my crew.

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Saints Row: The Third footage is seven minutes of open world mayhem

Saints Row: The Third looks like full-contact Fable. That's the impression created by this latest gameplay clip, which basically amounts to seven minutes of mantastic posturing and crotch-punching, with the occasional game feature demonstration thrown in for good measure. Some standards need to be maintained, after all.

The Saints Row series has always existed as a bizarre sort of polar opposite to Grand Theft Auto. While the Rockstar Games franchise reaches for more serious fare, delivering an intricate narrative alongside a realistically gritty take on violence, Saints developer Volition, Inc. is more concerned with rendering unique weapon animations for those aforementioned crotch punches. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

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