DUBSTEP GUN: Seven Minutes Of Saints Row IV
The countless hours of discerning thought put into all those dumb, mindless "top 10 videogame gun" lists have just been rendered pointless. Wanna know why? Because DUBSTEP GUN. It is the most sublimely ridiculous thing I've seen in ages - pretty much since, er, the entirety of Saints Row: The Third. People struck by its sledgehammer-like beats fall into a state of physics-defying slow-mo undulation, equal parts stylishly modern and grotesquely unnatural. It is, in other words, a thing of the purest beauty. Oh, and it's just the focus of this Saints Row IV video's first couple minutes. A preview of the remaining five: "We decided that Saints Row needs a mech."
The mech did The Robot to electronic music. That is just... yes.
And then came the super powers, which look like all the good parts of Crackdown 2 (pretty much just the super powers) mixed with Half-Life 2's end-of-game gravity gun. Leaping and soaring and plummeting into crowds like a bowling ball hurled by Zeus - all of it feels so delightfully maniacal. And that's just my impression from watching. I quite desperately want to play this one for myself.
Saints Row IV may well be the videogamest of the videogames. It quite obviously knows that about itself and - more importantly - embraces it with hulking, sleeveless Uncle Sam arms. Maybe it'll take the craziness to a point that ends up feeling forced or perhaps these new elements won't be as game-changing as they seem, but so far, all indications suggest that Saints Row IV will be far more than a glorified expansion to The Third. Color me excited. And egregiously purple.