Yeah, at least there's fan patches and settings to mess around with on SR2, unlike 'True Crime: Streets of LA' which is probably an even worse port!

I didn't read the thread in full, just wanted to say to OP that I consider SR2 to be one of the funniest games I ever played (and I am not middle aged in any way). The third got a lot weirder and I wasn't interested in the 4th in any way.

But SR2 with a friend is really lots of fun, and for the record I really never enjoyed (nor did I play much though) the GTAs.

I also liked how much more alive SR2 was compared to the later sequels, it really felt like an actual place with plenty to do, and there was a lot more customization as well which I really liked.

The SR games aren't that bad really, I played it and had a lot of fun, but I wouldn't touch Postal.

If you're playing SR2 now you need to install Gentlemen of the Row mod, it should fix the speed among other things.

I am not a teenager and I don't like farting, fecal or blatantly sexist jokes. I adore Saints Row series. There is a mix of humour. It is often tongue-in-cheek, crazy, absurd or violent. It is over the top but in the good way. Jokes aren't at the expense of a group of people. Hard to tell. I felt like it was targeted to my generation.I would say 25+. The series uses songs from 80s/90s a lot and it kinda makes fun of areas I am familiar with. I am not able to recall anything right now, though.

From their trailers I mistakenly thought it will be GTA clone with a lot of silly sex jokes and hookers everywhere. It is rather inclusive and its humorous nature made me bursting into the laugh quite often.

The humor is silly and mostly immature, it's not really my cup of tea either, the jokes hardly ever made me laugh but they did make me cringe on occasion - and still I had lots of fun with playing SR3. That the game doesn't take itself seriously and exaggerates everything it does is part of why it's popular and well-liked, but not the only (or even the main) reason why it's good. It's also pretty fun to play because of the smooth gameplay, the rich customization, the light-hearted sandbox style. It's not the game to buy if you're looking for a good story-telling experience with a mature and gripping plot, interesting and likable characters and clever humor. But it's the best for just toying around, and you could end up loving it despite disliking story and humor, just because the gameplay is so much fun. It also has lots of upgrades to keep you motivated, and a RPG-like reward system.

Besides, the humor plays a role on more than one level. While I didn't care much for most jokes, I rather liked the variety of absurdities that the game comes up with and how it integrates them into the gameplay.

If you decide to give it a chance, don't give up just after the two tutorial missions - the tutorial demonstrates all that you might find annoying about the game without letting you do what you might enjoy most. I nearly made that mistake, but once I got to play the game the way I liked and had some time to get accustomed to the intentionally bad taste, I was hooked. I played through it pretty quickly, and before, I would never have guessed that I'd be even interested in it.

I also tried SR2 and it seemed very similar but didn't feel as smooth and polished as SR3, presumably due to a bad PC port. Driving cars was awesome in SR3, a pain in the ass in SR2. So I'd advise against buying the PC version, because driving is an essential part of SR.

GotR doesn't fix the speed issue, although it is essential due to it fixing numerous other crashes in-game. Also, if you're playing with a joypad, GotR will give you the right joypad button prompts on-screen, which makes things a darn sight easier.

The speed is fixed using Powertools. The most recent version is rev5, but I didn't have any luck using that. The beta did, however, work for me.

http://saintsrowpowertools.com/oldbeta/beta.html

Yeah, pretty much.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I appreciate it. :)

Yeah, I think OP focused on the wrong part of the game when he compared it to Postal; you can "postal" in any sandbox game, really. I never got the appeal of postal-ing, tbh, but all I know is that there's jokey banter, silly references etc. in SR games, and whether or not you like it depends on how stiff you are when it comes to jokes. The best way to decide, still, is to watch videos of cutscenes.

*cough*

edit: I have to say, if you're worried that you might not like SR humour, then you probably won't like it, anyways :p

One of the side missions in SR2 is to ride a septic tank and shoot shit all over people's houses and everything. And it only gets worse in SR3. This should be enough information so anyone's able to judge whether or not they will like the humor of these games.

(I personally thought SR2 was okay, genuinely fun even: SR3 was too over-the-top imo)