Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+
US EditionUS CA EditionCanada UK EditionUK AU EditionAustralia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Games
    • Game Insights
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • Big in 2026
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
    • Genres
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
    • Franchises
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • Insights
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
    • Computing
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
    • Accessories & Tech
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
  • home
  • Games
    • View Games
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • Big in 2026
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • View Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • View Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • View TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • View Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • View Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • View Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • View Hardware
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • View Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • View Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
Trending
  • Pokemon Winds and Waves
  • New Games for 2026
  • GamesRadar+ Replay
  • Mario Day deals
Don't miss these
Ghost of Yotei gameplay showing Atsu sitting on her horse between bright pink cherry blossoms, looking at a distant fortification built against a mountain
Open World Games Best open world games to play in 2026 and completely forget real life exists
Kratos approaches Aphrodite's bedchamber in God of War 3
God of War "The God of War sex mini-games were designed by women," which is why Aphrodite's bed looks "like a labia"
Best PC games: Screenshots of Baldur's Gate 3, Helldivers 2, Split Fiction and the Resident Evil 4 Remake
PC Gaming The 25 best PC games to play in 2026
Best Ps5 games
Games Best PS5 games: The 25 greatest PlayStation 5 games in 2026, ranked
Mass Effect 2 - Garrus
Adventure Games The 25 best video game stories of all-time
PS3 photo taken by Future Studios
Games The 25 best PS3 games of all time
GTA 6
Action Games GTA 6: Everything we know so far
Best Batman games: Batman getting ready to punch someone with Gotham in the background.
Action Games Ranking the best Batman games
Leon Kennedy drives a car at night in Resident Evil Requiem, with the GamesRadar+ On The Radar branding
Resident Evil 14 years later, Resident Evil Requiem achieves what the series' most controversial game couldn't
The protagonist of GTA 4 holding his hand out in front of a Diner
Grand Theft Auto All GTA 4 cheats for weapons, cars, and more
GTA San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto GTA San Andreas cheats for unlimited money, health, armor, weapons, and more
Borderlands The best Borderlands games, ranked
In Hitman World of Assassination, Agent 47 sits at the departure gate in an airport during the loading screen
Roguelike Games After weeks spent locked into Hitman's Freelancer mode, I realize there's one vital thing 007 First Light needs to learn
Key art for John Carpenter's Toxic Commando showing the squad readying up with weapons against a backdrop of a zombie horde, including themselves blasting them from a truck
FPS Games John Carpenter's Toxic Commando review: "A great horde shooter for the first run through the story"
GTA 5 new
Action Games 25 Best Rockstar Games of all time, ranked
  1. Games
  2. Adventure
  3. Saints Row: The Third

E3 2011: Saints Row: The Third hands-on preview

Features
By GamesRadarChrisAntista published 18 June 2011

5 things in Steelport that made me a Saints Row believer

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Flipboard
  • Email
Share this article
Join the conversation
Follow us
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Get the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more


By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

You are now subscribed

Your newsletter sign-up was successful


Want to add more newsletters?

GamesRadar+

Every Friday

GamesRadar+

Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.

GTA 6 O'clock

Every Thursday

GTA 6 O'clock

Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.

Knowledge

Every Friday

Knowledge

From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.

The Setup

Every Thursday

The Setup

Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.

Switch 2 Spotlight

Every Wednesday

Switch 2 Spotlight

Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.

The Watchlist

Every Saturday

The Watchlist

Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.

SFX

Once a month

SFX

Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!


An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Subscribe to our newsletter

I’ve been critical of Saints Row in the past, rather unfairly, and almost entirely because I could never see it as anything other than a GTA knockoff. Even if that may’ve been true in the beginning, the series has found a way to distinguish itself by diving face first into territory even Rockstar won’t attempt. While the Grand Theft Auto series has taken a more serious, plot driven route with its gameplay and characters, Saints Row has cranked up the absurdity to levels most games wouldn’t dare to tread. And God love ‘em for it!

It’s true for the series now more than ever with The Third, the closest thing to a spiritual successor to GTA: San Andreas this medium has to offer. Saints Row has always epitomized what the (disappearing) genre of sandbox games should strive to do: Go anywhere, do anything, by any means the player can think of. Not only does it have fundamentally solid gamplay to build off of, Volition, Inc’s tossed all restraint out the fucking window. Nothing is too crass, offensive, illogical, or ridiculous to be included, and the game’s all the better for it. Here are my five faves:

5. Dildo bat

You may like
  • Dollman rides on Fragile's shoulder in a Death Stranding 2 screenshot with GamesRadar+'s best of 2025 logo Death Stranding 2 is the purest expression of "a Hideo Kojima game" yet, and it's got nothing to do with the long cutscenes or esoteric plot
  • Destroy All Humans! "Instead of being 80% UFO and 20% on foot, we flipped it": How Destroy All Humans' sci-fi action oddity conquered all
  • GTA 5 new 25 Best Rockstar Games of all time, ranked

GTA may’ve abandoned its famous weapon of phallic purple pain back in 2005, but Saints Row is more than willing to pick up where CJ left off. Besides, the one in San Andreas was more like a little rubber blackjack. Volition’s fed it a fistful of Enzite and turned it into a six foot Neanderthal club of lethal humiliation. I wish I could be more mature about inclusion of a Dildo Bat, but every time I see it I think of Bigfoot eating it like a popsicle and I laugh my ass off.

4. Dr. Genki%26rsquo;s Fantrabulous People Canon

Why should you have to constantly pick between a 4-door sedan that handles poorly and an SUV that handles even worse? Surely, there’s a better vehicle out there that comes standard with projectile weaponry that moves a tad faster than a Sherman tank, right? You have your answer with the Genki Mobile! As you drive around Steelport, this classy ride gives you the ability to suck up undeserving pedestrians and then fire them at will. Cruel, yes… but we’re talking unlimited ammo here, people. And just like everything else in Saints Row, it’s always funnier with nuns.

3. VTOL Jet

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sick of games playing coy with their aerial vehciles. Maybe I don’t want to jump through a bunch of hoops for hours on end just to take flight in a weak ass helicopter? This here’s a government issue jet, heavily fortified with long range missiles to boot. Not only can you hover gracefully above the streets terrorizing innocent citizens, you can go supersonic and send the craft screaming cross the entire city at Mach… something. Doesn’t matter – fly how ya want. Just have a parachute handy.

2. Sweet, beautiful nutshots

That first Saints Row: The Third gameplay tease wasn’t fucking around. Saints Row truly prides itself in unnecessary roughness. I didn’t think anything could top the ability to piledrive a women on the street for no reason whatsoever, but then I spent some time with the crotches of Steelport. It’s not just that every weapon in the game has a melee function… every weapon has a unique nutshot. Just because…

You may like
  • Dollman rides on Fragile's shoulder in a Death Stranding 2 screenshot with GamesRadar+'s best of 2025 logo Death Stranding 2 is the purest expression of "a Hideo Kojima game" yet, and it's got nothing to do with the long cutscenes or esoteric plot
  • Destroy All Humans! "Instead of being 80% UFO and 20% on foot, we flipped it": How Destroy All Humans' sci-fi action oddity conquered all
  • GTA 5 new 25 Best Rockstar Games of all time, ranked

1. Nudity!

Go balls out. No really, let ‘em swing! Saints Row might be the first console game I can think to finally realize that the greatest clothing option in a game all about personalized customization, is no clothes at all.


And we’re just scratching the surface, people. Obviously, Saints Row has much more filth and depravity to deliver, and I couldn’t be more excited. Honestly, I had no idea I’d like the game so much, and you can see in the video below that I was sincerely moved - flustered even - by all the glorious juvenile behavior on display. Keep an eye on this one, opportunistic politicians.

Jun 17, 2011

Jun 17, 2011


And we’re just scratching the surface, people. Obviously, Saints Row has much more filth and depravity to deliver, and I couldn’t be more excited. Honestly, I had no idea I’d like the game so much, and you can see in the video below that I was sincerely moved - flustered even - by all the glorious juvenile behavior on display. Keep an eye on this one, opportunistic politicians.

Jun 17, 2011

Jun 17, 2011

CATEGORIES
PC Gaming PlayStation Xbox Platforms
GamesRadarChrisAntista
GamesRadarChrisAntista
I LIKE TO MAKE THE GAMESRAIDER!!!!!!!1
Read more
Dollman rides on Fragile's shoulder in a Death Stranding 2 screenshot with GamesRadar+'s best of 2025 logo
Death Stranding 2 is the purest expression of "a Hideo Kojima game" yet, and it's got nothing to do with the long cutscenes or esoteric plot
 
 
Destroy All Humans!
"Instead of being 80% UFO and 20% on foot, we flipped it": How Destroy All Humans' sci-fi action oddity conquered all
 
 
GTA 5 new
25 Best Rockstar Games of all time, ranked
 
 
Using Sheath, a gun with a fang-toothed face, in High on Life 2 to blast through Human Con, where aliens party in human mascot costumes
High on Life 2 review: "I smiled, I laughed, I sorely wished the combat was a lot better"
 
 
PS3 photo taken by Future Studios
The 25 best PS3 games of all time
 
 
Bully
"Bully was chaotic from the day I started": Inside the making of Rockstar's 'GTA in boarding school'
 
 
Latest in Adventure
Dispatch screenshots
Dispatch is lying to you about RNG just like XCOM, but don't worry, it's for your own good
 
 
A player runs towards the Pokemon Pokopia release time
Pokopia leaves co-op fans disappointed, saying GameShare between Switch 2 and its predecessor "might as well not exist"
 
 
In Pokemon Pokopia, the transformed Ditto trainer takes a selfie looking aghast in front of a glowing piece of land where a relic is buried
I've spent 20 hours in Pokemon Pokopia obsessing over its mysterious world and what it hides beneath the surface
 
 
a ditto human sitting on some logs with pikachu and pichu
Pokopia's unhinged dialogue is tempting me away from Animal Crossing: "It's a pretty nice butt, don't you think?"
 
 
The lighthouse in Pokopia
Pokemon Pokopia Team Initiation Challenge and how to get every item needed
 
 
The Minecraft Live logo over a promotional image for the Tiny Takeover drop.
How to watch Minecraft Live 2026
 
 
Latest in Features
In Pokemon Pokopia, the transformed Ditto trainer takes a selfie looking aghast in front of a glowing piece of land where a relic is buried
I've spent 20 hours in Pokemon Pokopia obsessing over its mysterious world and what it hides beneath the surface
 
 
BG3
The future of RPGs is isometric
 
 
Photo of a Mario nendoroid figure holding a microSD Express card with a Turtle Beach Switch 2 case in the background.
These Mario Day-inspired Switch 2 accessories will power up your console more than a super star
 
 
Underside of Alienware 16 Area-51 gaming laptop with glass viewing window and RGB fans
We could get a shock when 2026 gaming laptop prices are unveiled, here's what you need to know about buying this year
 
 
Emily Rudd as Nami and Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy in Netflix's One Piece
One Piece season 2 ending explained: Who is Mr. Zero? Who dies? Will there be a season 3?
 
 
In Hitman World of Assassination, Agent 47 sits at the departure gate in an airport during the loading screen
After weeks spent locked into Hitman's Freelancer mode, I realize there's one vital thing 007 First Light needs to learn
 
 
LATEST ARTICLES
  1. The cowboy cat from the desert in Mewgenics
    1
    Steam expert advises devs stick to the "Little League" section of idle games and friendslop before attempting anything like Binding of Isaac or Mewgenics: "Then you can make your dream"
  2. 2
    Nintendo knew Donkey Kong Bananza wouldn't be nearly as fun if you were destroying basic blocks: "It is more fun to destroy that which is beautiful"
  3. 3
    Severance star Adam Scott's new horror movie Hokum just got an intensely creepy first trailer, and it already has my skin crawling
  4. 4
    Dispatch is lying to you about RNG for your own good, just like XCOM: "Those guys are pretty smart, so we thought we'd do the same"
  5. 5
    Valve pleads "if you have a line on a bunch of RAM, we are in the market and would like to buy it," as AI and data centers make building Steam Machines a Herculean challenge

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Add as a preferred source on Google Add as a preferred source on Google
  • Terms and conditions
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Accessibility statement
  • Careers
  • About us
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...