I am about 65% of the way through Saint's IV. Not as good as the magnificence that was Saints II, but still fantastic fun.

I can look at GTA IV objectively and know why, from a reviewers perspective, it gets more hype. GTA came first and the production values are a lot higher. But Saint's games are just ridiculous fun for me in a way that GTA games stopped being a long time ago. Its like GTA tried to become story-driven games (which is fine) but didnt get the story good enough to make the drop in gameplay fun worth it.

Saint's 1 and 2 would likely feel a bit dated now (especially 1), but I strongly advise people who want sandbox games to go back and play them anyway. You can probably pick up the first three games for absolute peanuts, and you'll get 15-25 fantastic hours out of each one.

Saints row 3 is better than GTA IV. lets be honest though, GTA IV is a god awful game so its not hard to beat.

I am going to wait on GTA V. Looks like it will be good but might play like crap just like 4. Not gonna trusts reviews on this, gonna wait and play it at someone house first, The critical acclaim GTA IV got is criminal.

What I loved most of all was just how batshit crazy this game was. They went full retard and never looked back. So many parodies of stuff most people probably won't even get. Optimus Prime's dialog in the 80's Transformers cartoon, a pretty great parody of the movie They Live, some insane Metal Gear and Streets of Rage moments, and a shocking Mass Effect twist. The game made me smile. I wish the "Loyalty Quests" had more variety but in the end, I was satisfied with this game. I just wish there was more for me to do besides chase achievements, now.

Here's a new review of it. Says it's an amazing game but just missed the brilliance of SR3. The dude really liked the sound design though in regards to the voice acting and the radio. Thought that was interesting.

http://twodashstash.com/all-review-list/saints-row-4-review/

I'm gonna read it but I just wanted to say that I thought Saints Row 1 was good, Saints Row 2 was a fantastic, Saints Row 3 was a step back but more vulgar, and Saints Row 3 was redemption.  My opinion, of course.  Also, voice acting was fantastic but music selection kinda sucked despite having some gems.  It just didn't have that many songs.  I was hearing the same tunes repeatedly.

Still don't have GTAV.  My car decided to explode yesterday and it cost me $355 to get it fixed.  Fucked up my entire weekend.

No. GTA is worlds better than Saints Row. They tried to make their own version of GTA but its like generic brand to what GTA is. Saints row after part two gave up completely. Since then the series has been batshit crazy.

Well, they kinda say this at the beginning of Saints Row 4.  Something like how they started off as pretenders to the throne and then found their own identity.  I guess that identity is to be Grand Theft Auto's cocaine addicted cousin.

Saints Row doesn't hold a candle to Grand Theft Auto. It's more on the level of Just Cause and Sleeping Dogs, definately good fun but nothing even close to greatness as far as quality goes.

If we take both and compare them to San Andreas or Vice City, it's easy to see that GTA is no longer like those GTA games, and neither is Saints Row.

It could be said that RockStar decided to move on and reinforced the plot side on GTA games, making them more about a story and what happens. Meanwhile Volition decided to focus on the fun and crazy parts of San Andreas and "turn them to 11", resulting in games where the story takes a back seat and the crazyness takes the reigns of the game.

The Saints row formula is moving away from GTA, saints row II was the closed to GTA quality while Saints Row (III) IV is more stepping to Infamous quality.