While GTA IV had some problems, and some nuisances, I still love that game - indeed I've had 200 hours out of it and the two DLCs.
Saints Row was a bit of fun, but it was rather hollow. Saints Row 2 brought it up a few notches, but the story was rubbish and the level of polish varied greatly across all aspects of the game, so it was good fun, but would frequently do something bloody annoying/stupid/absolutely-totally-100%-frustrating (some of the story missions were so goddamned fiddly/annoying/tricky at certain points that I got a gamer-rage going ... and who wants to be pissed off by a game? Those numerous moments of frustration really put a dampener on a product that started out as really fun, for me.
That video for SR3 though, looks like they've brought on board more talented and experienced programmers and such to make something more polished - here's hoping they've learned from the mistakes of SR1 and SR2, because SR3 looks joyously over-the-top fun - so I do hope there's no stupid balancing issues, glitches, or out-right-frustrations like those that marred the first two games.
GTA IV - the little side things (like bowling or pool) were fun ... initially ... but your list of friends did become quite needy so it felt, and being that there wasn't much variety to the things you could do, it became a chore that you wanted to get out of the way as soon as possible (just so you could arbitrarily keep your friendship level up). I can see what they were trying to do, but there was too much of it and it became a nuisance rather than an infrequent bit of fun on the side.
There are other niggles that I had with GTA IV, which I've gone on about before in various threads, but the story was much, much better (I decidedly preferred it to that of San Andreas, which didn't draw me into whatsoever, unlike Vice City or indeed GTA IV). The characters were much more interesting, the driving mechanics (while inititally tricky to get a handle on) were superb, the city looked and felt fantastic to drive around in (although there needed to be more fun on offer, less pinickity cops, and more variation in the landscape itself) ... although it is interesting to note that in The Ballad of Gay Tony (the 2nd of two DLCs for the game) they injected more of that fun. You could be a bouncer at a nightclub dealing with lowlifes (and getting sexual favours in return from the female manager who has the hots for you), you could go drinking, go dancing, go sky diving, and you could even drive around in a gold Rolls Royce. So they injected more of that fun (indeed one mission has you steal an APC and go on a rampage through the city) ... however they need to ease off on the toughness of the police response and allow for more maniacal fun to be had now after GTA IV clamped down on it and made it harder.
Yeah, they were trying to make a more realistic game, but the balance tipped too far that way from previous entries. Hopefully they redress the balance with the new one coming out (seemingly) next year.
Something that looks rather fun about SR3 is the sheer volume of things you can do - and customisation - just in beating up NPCs there's a whole bunch of options. Sandbox games should be a playground, but it also has to suit the type of game being made (such silliness wouldn't match Red Dead Redemption - which did a better job of balancing the fun of shooting up the place and having an appropriate response from in-game law men).
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Saints Row 3 looks UTTERLY MENTAL!
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