LOS ANGELES--Saints Row for the Xbox 360 is an attempt by THQ to emulate the success of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. It's an original IP set in a made-up Midwestern city that drops the player into a world of modern-day street-gang warfare. The overall aim of the game is to help your gang take over the city, district by district, and you do this by completing various missions that increase your respect rating and make you money.

　　When you first jump into the game, your first task is to actually create your character. THQ has gone to some lengths to make the face of your avatar as customisable as possible, with four different racial bases and eight general facial areas that you can manipulate. Each of those areas has a whole range of sliders, giving you pretty much complete control in creating what you will. Hair colour and style is also fully changeable, and if you know UK comedy shows, it might help you to visualise my character if I tell you that (completely by chance) my avatar looked shockingly like Daffyd from Little Britain.

　　The initial cutscene reveals your newly created character becoming caught up in a street fight between three rival gangs. You're rescued by a member of a fourth gang, and recruited to the cause. Your first mission, to help you adjust to the controls more than anything, is to prove your mettle by beating up a few other gang members. That duly accomplished, you're off into the city to wreak some havoc.

　　The environment itself is pretty big--according to THQ, bigger than GTA: Vice City yet not as big as GTA: San Andreas. You are free to roam around on the whole, although some areas were blocked off artificially, and you can either run around on foot, or just jack a ride from anybody that happens to be passing. Both the on-foot and in-car gameplay is pretty easy to pick up, with a driving style that sits somewhere in between realistic and fun. Shooting weapons is pretty important in completing missions, but the aiming is manual, which can make it a little tricky when you're driving, as it gives your right thumb a fair bit to do.

　　One nice touch is the real-time damage model, which remembers details such as bullet holes, although it's not clear if this sort of information survives reloading saved games. While driving your own health doesn't diminish when hit, but if the vehicle is damaged too badly it will explode, killing you with it. There are around 80 vehicles in the game, including vans, lorries, and tractors, and it's possible to customise your car as well as your character.

　　Visually the game is pretty impressive. Buildings are rendered from a long distance, so there's no pop-up to speak of, and the draw distance for vehicles, which has been problematic in other games of this kind in the past, is quite extensive. We experimented by watching a car stop at distant traffic lights. After turning the camera away and then back again the car was still there, which was pleasing. Sounds basic, but it all adds to the realism.

　　Overall it looks like THQ has put together a solid, nice-looking, and entertaining game. From what we saw the emphasis seems to be firmly on immediate gameplay, with missions that start off short and sweet but get longer and more demanding as you progress. We're told that the game doesn't involve long drives for the sake of increasing the life span of the game, and THQ estimates the game should last the average player about 40 hours for the solo game.

　　There will also be episodic content released via Xbox Live and a number of multiplayer game modes, including death match and co-op levels, although those weren't on show this week. The game is set for release in August 2006, and will be rated M for Mature in the US.