Aliens! And they're flying through airplane hangars!

So, I've returned to Saint's Row 2, which has since been patched and is even more of the best sandbox game this generation. It's numerous one-ups to GTA are really evident when it comes to the collections. There are less of everything. 50 tag locations, 50 Audio CDs, 80 stunt jumps, and 35 flying stunts. What's even better is that the stunt jumps unlock the second you hit them, rather than GTA, which insists you have to land everything perfectly. The flying stunts, while in theory next to impossbile, are infinitely easier with the Gamestop pre-order codes. Dial #728237 to get a UFO, which handles perfectly. The only times I ever crashed on it were due to carelessness. The only singleplayer achievement I have left is Blue Collar, and I'll have that done the second my cousin and I are on Live together.

Moving on to the multiplayer. Strong Arm is genuine fun. Basically, everyone's put in a sizeable (about 1 square mile) playing field. On this playing field, there are four tag locations. Having control over them will give your team powerups, anything from having CPU cops shoot at your opponents to increased ammo. At this point, it's a multiplayer I would be happy with, but there's more.

The activities from the singleplayer return again, 4 per match. Your team earns $10,000 for winning each one, in addition to whatever they get during the activity. These activities range from killing random pedestrians to having a plain old-fashioned race around the map.

So, basically, imagine throwing yourself in front of civilian cars, with the intent of ragdolling on them to get increased money for the Insurance fraud activity you're playing. Suddenly, an enemy appears, and he's advancing on you threateningly with a giant foam hand that kills in one hit. You try to shoot at him, but your view is obscured by a big pillar of smoke, activated by another enemy that just sprayed that tag. At the last moment, a CPU-controlled car comes by and smacks him at 90 mph, killing him instantly.

That's pretty much what happens over the course of the game. You get money for doing anything related to the activity at hand, as well as killing opponents. First team to $100,000 wins. The rest of the achievements will take me around 100 hours to complete, but it'll be nonstop fun.