Volition finds Saint's Row 2 PC source code- fixing and updating the game!

[bork]

Developer Volition has pledged to fix the notoriously broken PC version of Saints Row 2 over a decade after its original release, having found the game's long thought lost source code.

Speaking during a special announcement livestream (which also marked Saints Row 2's 11th birthday in the US), Volition's general manager Mike Kulas explained that the studio, when faced with having to create three versions of the game for its original 2008 release, opted to outsource the PC port. And as both Volition, and countless users on the game's Steam page will attest, the results were less than stellar.

For a long time, the only way to enjoy Saints Row 2 on PC in anything like a satisfactory manner has been to rely on community created mods. Volition's Mike Watson, himself a modder and now senior community manager at the company, has lead the charge to improve the game internally for years, but plans were scuppered when the studio was unable to find the original PC source code. Now however, after much searching, that code has been found.

And with that major hurdle out of the way, Volition has now pledged to significantly improve Saints Row 2's original PC port. According to Watson and programmer Thomas Jepp, the two-man team in charge of the project, the new version will improve performance and stability, integrate Steam networking for co-op and multiplayer (previously, the game relied on the now-defunct GameSpy middleware), and add the Corporate Warfare and Ultor Exposed DLC previously only available on consoles.

It doesn't sound like fans should expect the update - which will be free to current owners of Saints Row 2 on Steam - in the immediate future, however. According to Watson, "It's one of those things where it'll be ready when it's ready... We really want to give it the love and care and attention it needs to really, really shine. We want this port to be beautiful on all levels."

 

[Svejk]

How does one lose source code?  Not a technical guy, but that doesn't make sense to me. 

[porkbun]

Best open world game of that generation IMO.  I'm not huge of remasters, but one on PS4/XB1 would be real nice.

[Svejk]

Unfortunately, I missed out on SR2.  SR1 was so bad, I never looked back at the series.  Until SR3 became a freebie on PS+ back then, bork insisted I play it...  It was so damn incredible, it became one of the best games of the gen for me.   I have a hard time imagining SR2 being better than SR3, as some claim.  Will hopefully give it a try some day.   Glad they're finally working on a proper SRV.

[Chooky]

I'm amazed that GameSpy was still a thing in 2008

[Chooky]

also lmao @ autocorrect knowing the correct capitalization of GameSpy

[Rufus]

How does one lose source code?  Not a technical guy, but that doesn't make sense to me. 

What happened to the source code?

Volition didn’t handle Saints Row 2's PC port directly, instead that job was done by a team from CD Projekt Red. When THQ went bust in 2012, Volition thought “the source code was lost in the bankruptcy auction”. Seven years later, though, it’s back.

[Human Snorenado]

CD Projekt Red out here doing god's work all over

[MMaRsu]

Cdpr fucked up the port, did u even read?

Also who cares in 2019 about sr2 haha jesus

I love sr1/2 but cmon

[Don Rumata]

Saint's Row 2 was the peak of the series, the right mix of taking itself seriously and comedy, created the perfect "so bad it's good" story, whereas the sequels went full on parody and ended up being less funny for that reason.

Also the customization was at its best, too.
The gameplay was best in 3, but whatever.

I'm happy about this, the bugs were annoying, and the game was worth saving.

[bork]

Cdpr fucked up the port, did u even read?

Also who cares in 2019 about sr2 haha jesus

I love sr1/2 but cmon

Plenty of people, hence the interest...?  I'd love to give this a replay and be able to play the previously XBL-only DLC again.

[MMaRsu]

I already finished the game like two times so I dont really have any interest to go back.

Yes it's the best SR but it's also 10+ year old, in terms of open world games ages.

It might be fun to play for a bit but I doubt it holds up

[Don Rumata]

I already finished the game like two times so I dont really have any interest to go back.

Yes it's the best SR but it's also 10+ year old, in terms of open world games ages.

It might be fun to play for a bit but I doubt it holds up

It's a free update. 

[Joe Molotov]

I already finished the game like two times so I dont really have any interest to go back.

Yes it's the best SR but it's also 10+ year old, in terms of open world games ages.

It might be fun to play for a bit but I doubt it holds up

It's a free update. 

Or a $40 new release on the Switch.

[Trent Dole]

Speaking of did they ever sufficiently fix the SR3 port on Switch?

[MMaRsu]

I already finished the game like two times so I dont really have any interest to go back.

Yes it's the best SR but it's also 10+ year old, in terms of open world games ages.

It might be fun to play for a bit but I doubt it holds up

It's a free update. 

we;; obviously imagine paying for a patch?

[bork]

Speaking of did they ever sufficiently fix the SR3 port on Switch?

Nope.  If this is anything to go by, maybe in another 10 years!

[Don Rumata]

I already finished the game like two times so I dont really have any interest to go back.

Yes it's the best SR but it's also 10+ year old, in terms of open world games ages.

It might be fun to play for a bit but I doubt it holds up

It's a free update. 

we;; obviously imagine paying for a patch?

Many "remasters" on PC. 

[porkbun]

I already finished the game like two times so I dont really have any interest to go back.

Yes it's the best SR but it's also 10+ year old, in terms of open world games ages.

It might be fun to play for a bit but I doubt it holds up

The graphics are pretty blah now and the soundtrack sucks (fuck you Paramore) but the game is still really fun.  Do the pimping side missions right away to get unlimited dual uzi ammo and go to town.  The only part I really don't like is the DLC with Tera Patrick, those missions are just a PITA to finish.

[benjipwns]

Cdpr fucked up the port, did u even read?

Also who cares in 2019 about sr2 haha jesus

I love sr1/2 but cmon

NEW* DLC

*to PC

[benjipwns]

It's kind of a little odd that they seemingly didn't think to ask CD Projekt Red before, the GOG version has been patched around the edges in the past including fixing the problem with the frame rate running in fast-forward that Watson had patched himself in his mod.

[bluemax]

True story, a few years ago Volition found a PSP devkit with a copy of Saint's Row PSP on it. When they announced this on twitter, I DMed them to let them know I had briefly worked on it. They hit me up and I put them in touch with a few of my coworkers who were more involved with it, then they had them all on Twitch to talk about it as they showed it off. Mind you this was a game that got cancelled 5+ years prior and we had never been allowed to publicly mention. Afterwards they released the whole thing as is on the internet as an ISO. It apparently was fairly playable in a PSP emulator back then.

Anywho, they seem like cool people who care about Saint's Row a lot and I appreciate that.

[benjipwns]

Here's that stream:

Our Jan 28, 2016 stream of Saints Row Undercover, the cancelled PSP title from 2009! Alex Mejia and Josh Stinson from Volition are joined by Andrew Rai, Christopher Richardson, and Val Nunez formerly of Savage Entertainment, who share dev stories of their time working on it while we play through an early prototype and show off some of the missions and open world!

It does work just fine (well, as fine as it can work) on PPSSPP iirc.

[bluemax]

Nice! I didn't know they archived it.

We were all so excited to be working on Saint's Row. Trying to retrofit our internal engine that had mostly been used to make linear story based action games using movie licenses into an open world thing was pretty nuts. I wish I still had the code, but I ended up wiping that hard drive years ago and it died a few years later.

On the topic of lost source code, I wonder if any of the source code exists for any of our games at that company any more. The company was "acquired" but at that point that meant they hired a couple of the final programmers and kept some of the computers. The rest was auctioned off I think (pretty normal for insolvent game studios). Probably lost for all time unless one of the other programmers kept backing it up.

[benjipwns]

That is what tends to happen from what I can tell especially when studios close. Like the story a few years ago where everyone was shocked that Sega had lost source code and entire asset chains, it was from games during that whole Dreamcast ending era where they split up the studios and formed new ones out of the AM Group, and then all those eventually closed up and came back more internal and stuff, so there was all kinds of shifting offices and closing down and nobody really thinks about it.

Hell, SingleTrac became Incognito became Eat Sleep Play became LightBox with the same people and they still lost all kinds of stuff because Sony and GT and Sony again technically were the owners of stuff and were the ones who were "holding" it but in reality nobody really was. IIRC, a bunch of that "lost" Twisted Metal stuff they put in the one game as a bonus was available because Dave Jaffe personally had saved it even though he had no idea how to use the files or anything. But the same people being at ESP were able to know how to get them working.

[thisismyusername]

There is also the Elderscroll's PSP->Oblivion tie-in that leaked. But that's a little different. It's not source-code, it's just the prototype leaking:

[pilonv1]

Saint's Row 2 was the peak of the series, the right mix of taking itself seriously and comedy, created the perfect "so bad it's good" story, whereas the sequels went full on parody and ended up being less funny for that reason.

Also the customization was at its best, too.
The gameplay was best in 3, but whatever.

I'm happy about this, the bugs were annoying, and the game was worth saving.

Stilwater was so much better than Steelport.

Time for some more Septic Avenger 

[bluemax]

That is what tends to happen from what I can tell especially when studios close. Like the story a few years ago where everyone was shocked that Sega had lost source code and entire asset chains, it was from games during that whole Dreamcast ending era where they split up the studios and formed new ones out of the AM Group, and then all those eventually closed up and came back more internal and stuff, so there was all kinds of shifting offices and closing down and nobody really thinks about it.

Hell, SingleTrac became Incognito became Eat Sleep Play became LightBox with the same people and they still lost all kinds of stuff because Sony and GT and Sony again technically were the owners of stuff and were the ones who were "holding" it but in reality nobody really was. IIRC, a bunch of that "lost" Twisted Metal stuff they put in the one game as a bonus was available because Dave Jaffe personally had saved it even though he had no idea how to use the files or anything. But the same people being at ESP were able to know how to get them working.

From all of the studio closures I've been a part of or heard about usually either the place died a slow death and people take some hardware that isn't worth nearly as much as the money they are probably owed, or a place shuts down and people just got crazy and take whatever because there's no tracking of anything, so who knows who walked off with that Cintiq! Or you show up and there's a lock on the door and maybe if you're lucky a guard lets you take your personal shit from your desk and then you're escorted out and corporate does whatever with the hardware.