Oh it is. It was on my list even above GTA4. I'm one of those Saints Row fans who fully appreciated the tongue in cheek approach to open world gaming, and it looks like they upped it a notch or two for the sequel. I can't wait to make my own unique character again!

That video did it for me. Day one!

That trailer really sells it. I'm curious now as to whether I missed a great game with the original Saint's Row.

Now that GTA's out and looking fantastic I think the original SR loses a bit of edge, there will be too many comparisons. It was (aside from Crackdown) the king of the open ended hill for quite a while, but GTA improved so much with the last game it's pretty hard to top.

I never played the first one...so two questions:

1. Is the series any good.
2. Will I need to play the first game to get what's going on?

I loved the first one. I doubt you would need to play the first to know the second but no one can say for sure till the developers say so or we play it. Either way rent the game it's fun.

1. Yes
2. First game ends with your character betrayed and seemingly blown to bits by a bomb. This one starts off with your character surviving, getting plastic surgery (hence being able to customize your character again) and going on the trail for revenge.

I think the new SR2 trailer does a really effective job at highlighting GTA4's weak points. After putting a lot of hours into GTA4, I'm feeling a little disappointed in its Tamagochi-ish relationships, repetitive missions, and general lack of things to do.

Saints Row had much more of a sense of anarchic fun.

As impressive as GTA4 is, the GTA series gameplay hit its high point in Vice City and has been going the wrong direction in the subsequent iterations.

I really enjoyed the first one, and they would have to break the sequel quite badly for me not to day one it.

GTA4 is the greater acheivement, but I had more fun with Saint's Row.

Well if you listen carefully you can hear a "splash" sound just before the explosion so I figured you jumped just before and survived. I guess the explosion did leave a few marks though. I think that's a good set up for the second game. Can't wait!

Oh, and SPOILER.

I've heard that the whole plastic surgery thing was just an off-handed joke to explain why your character can be female. And of course that set off all the teens who worried that the possibility of being a shemale would make them catch The Gay. More recently I've heard that the game acts like whatever you pick as your character in the second game is who you played in the first game, though if you pick a female there are a few inside jokes about it. I'd imagine it'd be more along the lines of, "nice to meet you, I'd always imagined you were a man, ha ha," than "hey, didn't you used to have a dick?," but on the other hand this entire genre has never shied away from crude humor, so who knows.

K, that video has made me want to purchase an Xbox 360 just for this game.

I will say this, that is a kick ass trailer for a game.

October? Aww man, the original release date was going to be perfect for my birthday.

Wow. That makes me want to pick up Saints Row 1 like tomorrow. This game looks much more interesting story-wise than... um... other nameless open world games.