bigboyplaya

[bigboyplaya]

sort of playing with the idea of victoria and her brother antonio literally being raised by Julius after both their parents die. he was her mentor, her father-figure and she looked up to him even before she joined the Saints. and they both wanted the crime in Stilwater to be controlled, and in Victoria's case completely eliminated. except, she went off into the police force, and Julius starts the Saints. when she gets fired from her job, he lets her into the gang and looks out for her still.

which would make his betrayal hurt her even more.

she's not on the boat when it explodes, but Axel is. and axel's the first person who she'd consider a close friend and like a brother to her by the end of the sr1 arc.

and when victoria kills him at the end of the sr2 arc, she chose her "brother" over her "father," but she isn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. she is still racked with guilt and conflicted over it leading into the sr3 arc.

I typed this out right before i went to bed a week ago lmao and left it in drafts in case i wanted to add anything, but nope, i got nothing more to say ab it for now :3

[bigboyplaya]

ik some people don't like hearing anything slightly critical of Saints Row 2 but there's just so many minor/missable details and small things in Saints Row 1 that makes it feel like it had "more" love put into it in comparison.

The activities introductory cutscenes

The running animations

Reload while sprinting

Keeping your weapons even when they're empty

The hijack animation where Playa shoots the driver and drags them out actually using 1 bullet from the gun

The lighting/graphics

The art style and NPC models

Barber shops

Hair length slider (God that was cool)

There is less overall sliders in the character creator, but things like rotating your mouth and nose to have them crooked was a nice little thing to have.

The option to roll your pants in multiple different ways among other ways to wear your clothes

just the style of the clothes in general and the way it hangs off Playa definitely leans into the hip-hop/90-00's era more than the weirdly clingy and modeled clothes in Saints Row 2.

The metro system

Sitting in the back of the taxi (this one might be a bit subjective but I just find it strange that Playa sidles on up to the driver in the passenger seat like they know the driver personally lmao)

Robbing stores

Hijacking. Surprisingly, it's the least frustrating Saints Row 1 activity since Forgive and Forget makes it a breeze on the later levels. It's also more fun than Chop Shop imo.

The way there is just random walls and dead ends in the city. I know there's a reason for it, dev's just didn't know what to put since it was their first open world, but it kinda adds to the sketchy urban vibe Stilwater was going for. IDK if i'm explaining it well, but I guess I could also just that some parts of Stilwater make me feel like I'd legitimately get mugged or stabbed there irl lol.

Stores closing and opening at normal hours.

LOTS more drugs that actually did something other than distort the screen.

The hip-hop and RnB influence and culture was VERY prominent in Saints Row 1, which coincidentally, is a genre of music I do like. I didn't get any vibe from Saints Row 2 to be honest. The clear inspiration in SR1 sort of made the theming of everything coherent, in a sense, and it all aesthetically slotted together rather neatly. SR2 is a little more jumbled, imo. All the gangs are independent of each other, like in a secluded area restricted to their hoods where they don't interact with each other at all. I don't remember the Brotherhood shooting at Ronin or Samedi, or vice versa. I don't even think the three gangs are even seen together at the same time lmao.

There are many things Saints Row 2 does better, but like I said before, it's the little things like these that make it seem like there was TLC put into every inch of the game. I feel like with SR2 they were so focused on adding "more" and making it "bigger" that they forgot about the cool, small details that add a touch of immersion. I could do without the plethora of new activities and just have updated and nerfed older ones (including Hijacking), and idk lose most of the clothing options just to have ones that I can wear however I want to.

i mean, i still play saints row 2 but i'll always end up back in Saints Row 1's Stilwater eventually.

Also, to add, Saints Row 1 was the LAST SR game I played (before the reboot released obviously lol) so I don't have any nostalgia for it. if anything, I should have nostalgia for Saints Row 2, but i try to be "unbiased" when talking about my favourite games so I don't let nostalgia factor in the slightest bit during my critiques and praises. I try to actually review things "objectively" (but preferences do factor in if u know what i'm trying to say lol)

[bigboyplaya]

another WIP

guys it took me forever to draw cats so dont come at me for the fucked up dog I WILL FIX HIM T_T

anyway, wanted to give Victoria a pet Doberman who is like halfway feral but she doesn't really care and just lets him loose on enemy gang members lol. because i'm pedantic, I have done the math for Butcher the dog.

SR1 - 2 years old

SR2 - 7 years old

SR3 - 11 years (old boy lol)

[bigboyplaya]

phew completed all the bullshit sr1 activities now i just have demo derby, the races, chop shop and hijacking left. coincidentally, all the car related ones lmao.

actually now that i think about it, most of the activites are car related. Drug Trafficking ur in a car, Escort ur in a car, Chop Shop you steal cars, Hijacking u also steal cars but in a more interesting way imo, Snatch ur in a car (unless you hate urself and intend on walking the hos back), Racing ur in a car and Demo Derby ur in a car.

the only ones where you don't have to use a vehicle is Hitman, Mayhem, Insurance Fraud and the Loan Shark.

[bigboyplaya]

did all the hitmans in a day (minus two targets i did months ago)

wasn't that hard just took a LOT of taxi rides.

[bigboyplaya]

lmao so u know that video where it's like "Eva Mendes in REHAB Kirsten Dunst in rehab WITH EVA" its so funny. that video lives in my head rent free lol.

also gave me the idea of Shaundi spending six months in rehab after SR2 and that's why she's clean in SR3.

[bigboyplaya]

chillin

[bigboyplaya]

i just know i've been blacklisted by all the taxi services in Stilwater on account of me punching the drivers and stealing the car after i use them in order to find my hitman targets.

but i would also be their number 1 customer with how many times i call them up. usually to just go one block over from where i am.

[bigboyplaya]

axel's big beard in sr2 hides his baby face.

he and lin don't technically date, unlike Shaundi and Viola, because she dies 😔 they hook up tho so that's close enough.

since i'm completely erasing srIV from my rewrite's timeline and going straight to the Reboot, i am free to let shaundi and viola explode during the events of sr3 if i so choose :p depends on whether or not i want to give axel a happy-ish ending or let him suffer more idk.

[bigboyplaya]

i wish barbershops were in saints row 2 cause it seems like a waste to go to a plastic surgeon to just change my moustache lmao.

[bigboyplaya]

Glad to see you posting about SR again, friend :)

yess after 422 hours in Cyberpunk and playing it all day every day since January, I think i've got it out of my system and can play it a normal amount. which leaves me time and brain power to play saints row too!

i've invested too much time and too many years into the saints row series to just abandon it lol so i'll always end up coming back to this blog eventually. plus i love my original characters and the saints row characters too much to leave em.

[bigboyplaya]

axel after five years in a coma with atrophied muscles and incredibly luscious hair growth

he gets a hair cut almost right away (cause long hair is too much effort for him to maintain) but is told to keep the beard (so he does) and after a multitude of peanut butter, protein shakes and working out he gets back all his muscles and weight.

also obviously, he's got atrophy so i'm sort of reimaging the prison break out where Carlos ends up wheeling him out of there wielding a pistol in one hand and pushing Axel's wheelchair with the other. Axel moved into the Price mansion during Saints Row and after he got blown up, Vicky moved in to fend off squatters (and partially because she feels guilty ab what happened to him but isn't at the point of admitting that yet), so he gets Carlos to take him there. that's when he meets vicky again.

I feel like he and Vicky would brute force his "rehabilitation" so he'd be up and running to get the Saints back on track. But, haven't got that far into thinking about that part yet.

also in my rewrite i'm hoping to give carlos more screen time. i'll kill him off a little later, in the same way, so he has time to shine a bit before his demise.

[bigboyplaya]

i thought my all activities only save on SR would be easy since I did it once before. it is not easy.

i had to take a break and just do the save glitch so i can keep all my unlocks and play through the story again and only earn respect needed to play through the missions. cause if i mindlessly grind out the activities for hours on end i will lose my marbles.

[bigboyplaya]

Final product :D

In game she wears the bandana on her head not her arm.

[bigboyplaya]

vicky wip

[bigboyplaya]

I can't rmbr what was the last thing I uploaded here so I'm just gonna skip some posts and just upload my new things Gatsune Miku, a mix between Johnny Gat and Hatsune Miku. This piece was inspired on the SR2 mission "Bleeding Out"

[bigboyplaya]

i was so right with this lmao i am BRIMMING with ideas. A tighter plot (old one was vv cluttered with characters and plot points and i'm lowkey blaming saints row 3 and later for that since i tried to follow the game canon lol), better character motivations and better characterisations and arcs in general. it's more focused, basically.

also Axel is still a little piss baby in the beginning but he's not that big of a piss baby. he and vicky are just awful narcissists and impulsive short-sighted brats at the start. hopefully i don't make them too unlikeable, as they're incredibly flawed people that you wouldn't like to deal with irl, and i like to think i've balanced them enough. tbh they're alright on their own (actually no they're really not when i think about it), but together, they're toxic enough that they give ricin a run for its money.

taking a break from my Saints Row fic to write my Cyberpunk one

gonna be refreshed af when i come back to it 🙏🙏