In Play: Saints Row

Saints Row

Xbox 360

See Grand Theft Auto.

Saints Row offers more of the same with better graphics and online play. The hardcore-sex mod from San Andreas is absent, but what Saints Row offers instead is hardcore plagiarism, with the boldness usually reserved for college freshmen and Bob Dylan.

But immature video games imitate, and mature video games steal, right? Unlike me, though, Dylan didn't crib famous T.S. Eliot lines, and physics students don't copy chapters out of A Brief History of Time for term papers. THQ can't possibly expect their copying Rockstar's homework to go unnoticed: It's too popular. In fact, the ripoff is Saints Row's main selling point.

Lesser clones fail by diluting the formula with original ideas, usually sacrificing some cooler aspect of the original in an attempt to differentiate themselves. Saints Row avoids this mistake by mimicking GTA's format verbatim with only a few exceptions. (Unfortunately, immaturity, homophobia, and a vaguely insulting white computer geek take on life in the ghetto are not among them.)

You won't find any of San Andreas' rpg-style character development here. Instead, Saints Row gives you ridiculous customization options. Players can adjust everything about the main character from his hair color to nose bridge length. Ever want to implant your flabby gamer ass in the middle of a street gang? Here's your chance to make an eerily similar-looking – though infinitely more badass – digitized doppelganger. There are no options for adding acne, armpit stains, or social awkwardness to your player, however, so he'll probably be an inexact copy.

Speaking of which, Saints Row does offer a few minimal variations and even an improvement or two on standard GTA action. For example, THQ has added a little variety to the general side missions. In addition to the expected murder/rob/steal missions, players can earn money by competing in demolition derbies, escorting drug dealers and prostitutes, and filing fraudulent insurance claims. The game also offers online competitions, including death matches and a pseudo-gangster-rap capture-the-flag variation called "Blinged Out Rides."

See Mark Fagan's review of NHL 2K7 here. Check out the launch of the Chronicle's sports coverage, featuring Taylor Holland's college football report, "Pig Skinny" here.