LEGAL NOTICE: I do not condone the piracy of Saints Row 2, regardless of the platform. Please legally purchase the game from the appropriate storefronts.
I've been meaning to get to this for a while now I finally have the time to do it! You see for the past few months Saints Row 2 has been fully playable on the Xbox 360 emulator; Xenia. The purpose of this thread is not so much to declare that either experience is better than the other, but rather to compare and contrast. I'll leave the decision of what the better SR2 experience is up to you. Because emulators and the PC port are often strange beasts whose behavior can vary on a case-by-case basis.
REQUIREMENTS:
PC: The system requirements for the PC port are quite low as it only requires a Windows XP Oper-no...no... NO! We all know the system requirements for this game is a LIIIIEEE! I have a i7-8700k, 32g's of RAM, and an RTX 3070 and my frame rate dips to the 10's. IIIIIT IIIIIS AAAAAA LIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE! Ignore the Steam store page! The requirements aren't REEEEAAAAAL! The true system requirements are probably out there somewhere in the world, but I don't know what they are and I don't have the resources to test out what those requirements are.
Xenia: The system requirements are almost about as concrete as the PC port, that is to say that they are not concrete at all. With one clear exception, you need a graphics card that supports the Vulkan back-end. Also it goes without saying you need a decent modern day CPU as well. If you don't have both of those things than you will have to stick with the PC port for now, and just wait until the official patch releases.
PERFORMANCE:
PC: Alright so I can only speak for my computer, and everybody's computer has their own unique quirks and hiccups. But a very important thing should be noted is that the physics in the cut-scenes break and become misaligned over a certain frame rate. The GOG executable fixes this by limiting the frame rate to one quarter of your monitor's refresh rate. In my circumstance that is around 41fps for my 144hz monitor. It keeps maintains a 41fps okaaaay-ish on foot, but speeding through the streets (especially at night) can tank the frame rate as low as 12fps! Frame rate drops are a guarantee with this game, with the lighting and shadows being the primary culprits.
Xenia: The original release of SR2 on the 360 ran at 30fps, but thanks to the work of Illusion a 60fps patch is available. I was taken by surprise by how much better emulated SR2 performed on my computer. Sure it isn't a locked 60fps at all times, but it only really seemed to dip in very specific areas when racing through the streets and it was only a frame rate drop, not actual slowdown. The frame rate drops overall weren't even remotley as bad as the PC port, only dipping to 43fps at worst when I was speeding past the sushi restaurant where you have the showdown with Jyunichi. Also worth noting is that cutscenes don't have alignment issues like the PC port does at high frame rates. I'm curious what went wrong in the porting process to make them break on PC.
GRAPHICS:
PC: So the PC version does come with... what I will charitably call graphical enhancements. These graphical enhancements being ambient occlusion, 4x MSAA, and camera-based motion blur(not to be confused with the other motion blur which appears when your character falls from a big drop.) The ambient occlusion looks... baaaaaaaad. If I were to leave this option on it would be set to "Simple" not "All", the AO here looks worse the more prominent it is. Motion Blur is pretty self-explanatory, I personally don't like motion blur so I always toggle this option off. Sadly I can't say much good about the MSAA either, if you turn it on pools and other bodies of water will render with a black outline or black entirely when viewed from a far enough distance. However turning it off doesn't work either because hair rendering in this game relies on MSAA, disabling it makes eyebrows render super think(TLOU Part 1 flashbacks) and some hairstyles will render with black outlines in the textures. Oh, and for some reason the PC version has more shadows placed seemingly randomly. Every other graphical aspect of this game aside from resolution is the same as the 360 version.
Xenia: So the resolution of this version is obviously inferior rendering at 720p 2x MSAA. Utilizing Xenia's render scaling options results in the games shadows glitching the hell out and flickering so intensely it would warrant a seizure warning. Saints Row 1 has a similar issue as well on Xenia. Until this issue is resolved, the best we can do is utilize Xenia's FSR and image sharpening options. In addition anisotropic filtering works if you force it through your graphics card settings. Also worth noting is that the colors appear to be way more saturated compared to the washed-out PC port.
CONTROLS:
PC: This is one of the advantages the PC version has over the console version, full re-bindable keyboard and mouse support by default. Rather annoying that while it supports controllers it does not have the button prompts by default. If you want button prompts you have to use GoTR, and even so it isn't automatic you have to stick with the one button prompt type you like.
Xenia: If you really wanted to you COULD use keyboard and mouse controls with something like 'ReWASD' but that still doesn't account for the negative acceleration that would make mouse movement feel clunky at best. However due to the much improved frame pacing of this version button inputs feel way more responsive, combined with the 60fps patch driving feels way better as well. You can change the control schemes, but you can't re-bind every single button like you can with the PC version.
MISCELLANEOUS THINGS WORTH NOTING:
PC:
-PC version has had far more mod support than the 360 version ever had.
-Multiplayer vs and co-op can still be played with the right applications, even if the whole process makes me want to take a nice long walk off of a short cliff.
-If you are on an older OS you might have to underclock your CPU to fix the speed-up bug.
Xenia:
-Uncompressed audio, huzzah!
-All of the DLC is fully functional!
-Multiplayer both vs and co-op can be played in full with a special build of Xenia.
-A metric ton less bugs and crashes. Though the emulator is still in an alpha state so you will still get those.
And there you have it! A full compare-and-contrast of the 2 versions, I'm sure that when the PC mega-patch is released that this thread will become irrelevant as we already know of some of the exclusive benefits that version of the game will have making it the ideal version of the game. Such as the increased render distance they mentioned in a Volition stream. Who knows what other surprises they might have up there sleeves?
I've been meaning to get to this for a while now I finally have the time to do it! You see for the past few months Saints Row 2 has been fully playable on the Xbox 360 emulator; Xenia. The purpose of this thread is not so much to declare that either experience is better than the other, but rather to compare and contrast. I'll leave the decision of what the better SR2 experience is up to you. Because emulators and the PC port are often strange beasts whose behavior can vary on a case-by-case basis.
REQUIREMENTS:
PC: The system requirements for the PC port are quite low as it only requires a Windows XP Oper-no...no... NO! We all know the system requirements for this game is a LIIIIEEE! I have a i7-8700k, 32g's of RAM, and an RTX 3070 and my frame rate dips to the 10's. IIIIIT IIIIIS AAAAAA LIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE! Ignore the Steam store page! The requirements aren't REEEEAAAAAL! The true system requirements are probably out there somewhere in the world, but I don't know what they are and I don't have the resources to test out what those requirements are.
Xenia: The system requirements are almost about as concrete as the PC port, that is to say that they are not concrete at all. With one clear exception, you need a graphics card that supports the Vulkan back-end. Also it goes without saying you need a decent modern day CPU as well. If you don't have both of those things than you will have to stick with the PC port for now, and just wait until the official patch releases.
PERFORMANCE:
PC: Alright so I can only speak for my computer, and everybody's computer has their own unique quirks and hiccups. But a very important thing should be noted is that the physics in the cut-scenes break and become misaligned over a certain frame rate. The GOG executable fixes this by limiting the frame rate to one quarter of your monitor's refresh rate. In my circumstance that is around 41fps for my 144hz monitor. It keeps maintains a 41fps okaaaay-ish on foot, but speeding through the streets (especially at night) can tank the frame rate as low as 12fps! Frame rate drops are a guarantee with this game, with the lighting and shadows being the primary culprits.
Xenia: The original release of SR2 on the 360 ran at 30fps, but thanks to the work of Illusion a 60fps patch is available. I was taken by surprise by how much better emulated SR2 performed on my computer. Sure it isn't a locked 60fps at all times, but it only really seemed to dip in very specific areas when racing through the streets and it was only a frame rate drop, not actual slowdown. The frame rate drops overall weren't even remotley as bad as the PC port, only dipping to 43fps at worst when I was speeding past the sushi restaurant where you have the showdown with Jyunichi. Also worth noting is that cutscenes don't have alignment issues like the PC port does at high frame rates. I'm curious what went wrong in the porting process to make them break on PC.
GRAPHICS:
PC: So the PC version does come with... what I will charitably call graphical enhancements. These graphical enhancements being ambient occlusion, 4x MSAA, and camera-based motion blur(not to be confused with the other motion blur which appears when your character falls from a big drop.) The ambient occlusion looks... baaaaaaaad. If I were to leave this option on it would be set to "Simple" not "All", the AO here looks worse the more prominent it is. Motion Blur is pretty self-explanatory, I personally don't like motion blur so I always toggle this option off. Sadly I can't say much good about the MSAA either, if you turn it on pools and other bodies of water will render with a black outline or black entirely when viewed from a far enough distance. However turning it off doesn't work either because hair rendering in this game relies on MSAA, disabling it makes eyebrows render super think(TLOU Part 1 flashbacks) and some hairstyles will render with black outlines in the textures. Oh, and for some reason the PC version has more shadows placed seemingly randomly. Every other graphical aspect of this game aside from resolution is the same as the 360 version.
Xenia: So the resolution of this version is obviously inferior rendering at 720p 2x MSAA. Utilizing Xenia's render scaling options results in the games shadows glitching the hell out and flickering so intensely it would warrant a seizure warning. Saints Row 1 has a similar issue as well on Xenia. Until this issue is resolved, the best we can do is utilize Xenia's FSR and image sharpening options. In addition anisotropic filtering works if you force it through your graphics card settings. Also worth noting is that the colors appear to be way more saturated compared to the washed-out PC port.
CONTROLS:
PC: This is one of the advantages the PC version has over the console version, full re-bindable keyboard and mouse support by default. Rather annoying that while it supports controllers it does not have the button prompts by default. If you want button prompts you have to use GoTR, and even so it isn't automatic you have to stick with the one button prompt type you like.
Xenia: If you really wanted to you COULD use keyboard and mouse controls with something like 'ReWASD' but that still doesn't account for the negative acceleration that would make mouse movement feel clunky at best. However due to the much improved frame pacing of this version button inputs feel way more responsive, combined with the 60fps patch driving feels way better as well. You can change the control schemes, but you can't re-bind every single button like you can with the PC version.
MISCELLANEOUS THINGS WORTH NOTING:
PC:
-PC version has had far more mod support than the 360 version ever had.
-Multiplayer vs and co-op can still be played with the right applications, even if the whole process makes me want to take a nice long walk off of a short cliff.
-If you are on an older OS you might have to underclock your CPU to fix the speed-up bug.
Xenia:
-Uncompressed audio, huzzah!
-All of the DLC is fully functional!
-Multiplayer both vs and co-op can be played in full with a special build of Xenia.
-A metric ton less bugs and crashes. Though the emulator is still in an alpha state so you will still get those.
And there you have it! A full compare-and-contrast of the 2 versions, I'm sure that when the PC mega-patch is released that this thread will become irrelevant as we already know of some of the exclusive benefits that version of the game will have making it the ideal version of the game. Such as the increased render distance they mentioned in a Volition stream. Who knows what other surprises they might have up there sleeves?
