Personally, I rarely play open-world games past their main campaigns, which is why I delay playing the main campaigns of Fallout 3 and Oblivion (killing any sense of urgency), but with Saints Row 2, even more than GTA San Andreas, it just feels like so much fun, and not work, to start over.

GTA IV, Mercenaries 2 and such have their own pros and cons, but after I finished the missions for each I just put them down, and started up a different genre. Not even multiplayer seemed fun anymore once I felt like I had gotten what the single-player game had to offer. I've restarted GTAIV to pick up the recently-added trophies, but that's really just busywork, stuff I'll do "for added value".

But there's something about Saints Row 2 that makes it actually FUN to start from scratch, to replay my taking over the city, one neighborhood at a time. Stilwater isn't as interesting or memorable a town as Liberty City, Vice City, or Los Santos (and San Fierro and Las Venturas). Saints Row 2's driving isn't as much fun (in GTAIV it took at least some skill to learn and finesse), and its combat laughably easy, but why do I want to start again immediately, as I finished the last of the missions ten minutes ago.

I've also got a lot of games just waiting to be played, so it's not as if I'm starved for content. Prince of Persia, Yakuza 2, Dead Space, Resistance 2, Mirror's Edge, all are available to me*, and yet I can't tear myself away from the sweater vest-wearing, Kung Fu-fighting, Spanish-speaking monster that I birthed from a plastic surgeon's ward. Why have I become so attached to Saints Row 2?

And I haven't even tried multiplayer.

*There is, of course, Persona 4, which I will unbox as soon as I return to my apartment in mid-January. That is when I am SURE I'll want to put Saints Row 2 down.

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PSN: unangbangkay, Wii: 6258-3610-4242-3684, Steam: unangbangkay