Considering saints row has all sorts of superpowers now, I can't help but wonder if you can even call them the same genre still.

they're both 3rd Person shooters in a sandbox world. The superpowers were only in the simulation. There were levels where you were outside of it and couldn't use them.

Without the Superpowers and the brilliant They Live reference, SRIV would probably have been one of the worst games I have ever played this gen.

There was a lot of stuff wrong with the game, gunplay, driving and production values sucked, but the humor is great and those superpowers, especially running and jumping was an amazing feat. I would say SR3 is the best in the series, and better than GTAIV.

Saints Row 2 imho blows away GTA IV and it is rated about 17 points lower. So yes, Saints Row for me is already on par quality wise. Marketing dollars and hype inflated review score, no, it's not quite inched close to there yet.