FAQ on Saints Row Straight from Volition Developer

Dive into the world of rival gangs and corrupt officials, in this third-person shooting game from THQ Inc., and Volition titled Saint’s Row. Set in the fictional urban jungle of Stilwater, the 3rd Street Saints must conquer the city or face destruction. This game offers an unparalleled level of freedom to experience the seemingly alive environment as the player sees fit. Engage in a number of different activities in order to gain respect so the 3rd Street Saint’s lieutenants will grant you with more dangerous missions. Combine all that and cram it into the incredible features of Xbox Live’s online gaming service.

If you’re already hooked and curious here’s a Full FAQ from one of Volition’s game developers, Stocks109. It covers all you want to know about Saint’s Row like character creation, vehicles, gameplay, environment, AI and miscellaneous tidbits.

The FAQ is also a running thread so if you want to be up to date about this game just head on the forum via the read link. Meanwhile, here’s an excerpt of the FAQ.

Character Creation

Is it possible to render life-like faces with character customisation?
Yes. A month or so ago we had people here at the office creating all sorts of real life celebrity lookalikes. Everything from the A-Team to Urkel.

Also, can the character’s voice be customized as well?
Yes and no. Yes as in the voice matches the race. No as in the player doesn’t have control over the voice.

Is it possible to render female characters using this system?
No, female creation is not supported.

Can we change the physical appearance of our characters after we start the game? If I make a fat character can I make him skinny if I choose to?
Yup, via the plastic surgeon. Oh yea, it’ll also lower both police and gang notoriety. But it does cost some money though.

Vehicles

Can we fly? If so, what is available to fly?
No flying vehicles for this iteration of SR.

Was the reason you didn’t include flyable vehicles or bikes/motorcycles a technical one or was it simply a design choice?
A little bit of both. Fact is even though the X360 poly / texture pushing skills have gone up by a considerable amount, DVD transfer speeds have not. Now thats not to say we can’t ever do the vehicles you mentioned but for this round we wanted to learn the 360 first before attempting something as ambitious as that. Now that we have the tech down (it didn’t use a licensed engine like GTA does) we can explore the options of expanding upon it, in the future.

Are there motorbikes?
No motorbikes for this iteration. But we have a ton of different vehicles you can discover in the world. If there is a sequel you can bet we’ll look really hard at adding them in.

Are there any actual real cards in the game?
No real cars.

I’d like to know if visible damage from gunfire can be seen on cars, i.e. bullet holes on the chassis, shattered-glass, deflated tires, etc.
Yup. Glass breaks, bullet hole decals show up when a car gets shot, and tires can be deflated. Our vehicle deformation system is light years ahead of GTA’s because we actually do real-time deformation while GTA’s was purely canned deformation. This means in SR no two car collisions will produce the same damage effect.

Dive into the world of rival gangs and corrupt officials, in this third-person shooting game from THQ Inc., and Volition titled Saint’s Row. Set in the fictional urban jungle of Stilwater, the 3rd Street Saints must conquer the city or face destruction. This game offers an unparalleled level of freedom to experience the seemingly alive environment as the player sees fit. Engage in a number of different activities in order to gain respect so the 3rd Street Saint’s lieutenants will grant you with more dangerous missions. Combine all that and cram it into the incredible features of Xbox Live’s online gaming service.

If you’re already hooked and curious here’s a Full FAQ from one of Volition’s game developers, Stocks109. It covers all you want to know about Saint’s Row like character creation, vehicles, gameplay, environment, AI and miscellaneous tidbits.

The FAQ is also a running thread so if you want to be up to date about this game just head on the forum via the read link. Meanwhile, here’s an excerpt of the FAQ.

Character Creation

Is it possible to render life-like faces with character customisation?
Yes. A month or so ago we had people here at the office creating all sorts of real life celebrity lookalikes. Everything from the A-Team to Urkel.

Also, can the character’s voice be customized as well?
Yes and no. Yes as in the voice matches the race. No as in the player doesn’t have control over the voice.

Is it possible to render female characters using this system?
No, female creation is not supported.

Can we change the physical appearance of our characters after we start the game? If I make a fat character can I make him skinny if I choose to?
Yup, via the plastic surgeon. Oh yea, it’ll also lower both police and gang notoriety. But it does cost some money though.

Vehicles

Can we fly? If so, what is available to fly?
No flying vehicles for this iteration of SR.

Was the reason you didn’t include flyable vehicles or bikes/motorcycles a technical one or was it simply a design choice?
A little bit of both. Fact is even though the X360 poly / texture pushing skills have gone up by a considerable amount, DVD transfer speeds have not. Now thats not to say we can’t ever do the vehicles you mentioned but for this round we wanted to learn the 360 first before attempting something as ambitious as that. Now that we have the tech down (it didn’t use a licensed engine like GTA does) we can explore the options of expanding upon it, in the future.

Are there motorbikes?
No motorbikes for this iteration. But we have a ton of different vehicles you can discover in the world. If there is a sequel you can bet we’ll look really hard at adding them in.

Are there any actual real cards in the game?
No real cars.

I’d like to know if visible damage from gunfire can be seen on cars, i.e. bullet holes on the chassis, shattered-glass, deflated tires, etc.
Yup. Glass breaks, bullet hole decals show up when a car gets shot, and tires can be deflated. Our vehicle deformation system is light years ahead of GTA’s because we actually do real-time deformation while GTA’s was purely canned deformation. This means in SR no two car collisions will produce the same damage effect.