Strip Saver 2
Primary Category: Babes
Secondary Category: Special (video screensaver/wallpaper)
Additional Keywords: Video screensaver and wallpaper for Windows,
high quality babes photography (on the Strip Saver website)
Reviewed December 29 2006
Important: Strip Saver 2, like VirtuaGirl 2, has been replaced entirely by the new VirtuaGirl HD. Links on this page will redirect to the VirtuaGirl HD website. You can read my review of the new and much improved VirtuaGirl site and software here.
Click here to visit Strip Saver 2
|
|
|
The regular scoring categories are not entirely appropriate for this special review (at least not for the main product, the photo and video content could arguably be scored as usual, though I've chosen not to do that). The numeric overall score above - rather than just a more general "good" - is solely there because it fits better into the scoring system used on this site, and I can avoid messing with category pages and other things.
|
Strip Saver 2 (I assume there was a version 1 once upon a time) is a combined screensaver and video wallpaper application for Windows. You join the accompanying website like any other paysite, and you are then given access to a large number of downloadable animation/video packs for Strip Saver 2 as well as bonus content in the form of really impressive high quality photosets and slightly less impressive video clips with the numerous gorgeous Strip Saver girls.
It's a great idea, in theory, and the website as well as the actual content indicates that this is - or at least should be - a quality product. Unfortunately I feel the actual implementation of the screensaver/wallpaper is less than successful, and I was left with a feeling of having installed a program that neither did anything I needed, nor looked particular good doing what it did, with pixilated shimmering outlines around the otherwise beautiful stripping babes.
Virtua Girl 2 from the same company is a better product in my opinion, even if it's slightly older and perhaps not quite as technically advanced as Strip Saver 2, and you get a bit more for your money as well with a larger selection of girls.
(Read the full review below)
|
 |
| Visit Strip Saver 2 |
Hardcore Meters
Overall:
Minimum:
Maximum:
Help
|
Site info help
Site info valid on date of review
| Basic info: |
Screensaver/video wallpaper application for Windows (free demo version available)
Membership to the Strip Saver 2 website unlocks all features and gives access to several hundred new animation packs as well as bonus photosets and videos.
34 girls (nine animation packs each) are included in the basic price, an additional 157 are available for unlocking at $5 each (and will additionally be rotated in and out with more recent content over time) |
| Pictures: |
Photosets with approx. 150-300 photos per girl
1840 or 1150 px resolution |
| Video: |
Approx. 3 clips per girl (approx. 3-4 minutes each)
Windows Media (wmv) available
Highest quality: wmv 384x288, 300-350 kbit
No DRM protection |
| Bonus: |
Regular wallpapers
Screensaver backgrounds
Access to site with 3rd party hardcore feeds |
| Pricing: |
1 month recurring: $24.95
$5 one time payments (using a shopping cart system) to unlock 157 of the 191 models if you can't wait for the rotation system to reactivate them |
Dancing and stripping hotties as a replacement for your regular boring Windows screensaver (well, unless you got one of those 3D aquarium thingies, they are pretty neat too), and even a semi-transparant video overlay with same hotties flashing their goods right on your Windows desktop.
Sounds like a neat idea, and I guess it is - in theory anyway. Before I get to the part where I explain why Strip Saver 2 will unfortunately be leaving my computer once I'm done with this review (but also explain why that's partly due to personal preferences and doesn't necessarily mean you would feel the same), I better tell a bit more about the program and the site that goes with it.
You can download a sample version of Strip Saver 2 with a single model (and a softcore strip only). Once you've signed up at the main Strip Saver 2 site (works like any other paysite) and followed the easy guide to registering and unlocking all functions of the screensaver/wallpaper program, you can start downloading additional girls from the member area of the website. Each girl typically have nine different animation/video packs (the most popular girls will be back for another round of nine new packs), each pack containing two or three animations, with the girl wearing different outfits in all or most of them. I haven't timed it, but supposedly each girl ("nine-pack") contains around 30 minutes of video.
After you've downloaded a new pack to a location on your harddrive, you install it by double clicking on it (it's an exe file), and the new girl and animation pack can be selected from the Strip Saver options menu, and you'll have a new beautiful babe dancing on your desktop.
You can install as many animation packs as you like, and you can check/uncheck as many of them as you want in the options menu, making the girls take turns providing the entertainment or just sticking with your one or two favourite babes.
The program also allows you to choose whether you want to use both the wallpaper and the screensaver or just one of them, and you can adjust a number of settings as well, like screensaver delay and transparancy of the video wallpaper (so you can see your regular Windows desktop behind it). You can also select either a color or a picture (or a random collection of pictures) as a background for the screensaver. A few beautiful photo collections of exotic locations are available in the bonus section of the site (along with some great looking regular wallpapers with some of the girls, available in four different resolutions).
The Strip Saver 2 website doesn't just offer animation packs for the screensaver/video wallpaper program though - each "nine-pack" is also accompanied by a photoset of the girl that can either be viewed online or downloaded in a zip file. Most of the sets are shoot on a clean white background, so the focus is really on girls here, and the sets generally look awesome. The resolution is also very impressive, around 1200x1800 pixels for all recent sets (the ones labeled "Strip Saver HD") and a still pretty good 750x1150 for the older original "Strip Saver 2" content.
In addition to the photosets you also get three 3-4 minute video clips with each girl, but unfortunately the quality here is pretty disappointing at 384x288, 300 kbit. Since you already have a lot of video with the main product - the screensaver/wallpaper animation packs - I guess it's hard to complain about what's really just a nice little bonus though.
Before I move on to explaining why Strip Saver 2 isn't staying on my harddrive, there are obviously still a few other pretty important questions to answer. How many girls do you get, who are they and can you expect new additions on a regular basis?
You currently get 34 girls when you join (well, 34 "nine-packs", as mentioned a few of the most popular girls have been back for a second round), and a new hottie is added once a week and additionally a few of the older inactive girls are reactivated every week as well. Which leads me to the next point.
There is actually a current total of no less than 191 girls/packs on the site though, but unless you can wait for some of the older additions to be made available again, you'll have to pay $5 for each of those many other girls you may like to download/activate (done with an "add to cart" one time payment system where you'll be asked for credit card information again).
Expensive? Yep. But admittedly this pricy unlocking approach doesn't necessarily make Strip Saver 2 a bad or questionable product. 34 x 9 animation packs plus photosets and videos, and two or three weekly updates isn't half bad, and chances are that you can probably live without all 191 girls, so unlocking a couple of favourites every now and then is probably still a managable expense.
It's obviously not a system I hope to see too many other sites adopt, but I guess it's more or less acceptable in the way it's implemented here.
On a sidenote, while I haven't been able to test it as my membership is still active, I'm almost certain that the Strip Saver application and the installed animation packs will keep working even if you no longer have an active membership to the actual site anymore. You will obviously not be able to download additional packs though, and if you ever need to reinstall the program you'll also need a membership in order to get an activation code (I'm certain you old one won't work, as the program is connecting to see if the membership is active).
I can't guarantee this 100% though, but if need be I'll update the review if Strip Saver should stop working when my site membership expires after New Year.
Oh, and for the names of the girls. It seems to be mostly a mix of more or less well known East European hotties as well as various other popular glamour babes and pornstars. Here are some you might recognize - Nella, Angel Dark, Erica Campbell, Crissy Moran, Anita Dark, Kyla Cole, Aria Giovanni, Boroka, Peaches, Melissa Lauren, Aimee Sweet. Not a bad selection at all, and all the content is obviously shot and filmed exclusively for Strip Saver 2.
Sounds like a pretty decent package so far, doesn't it? Then why did I start out the review by saying Strip Saver 2 is going bye-bye on my computer very soon?
Well, here goes - and keep in mind that these are for a large part personal opinions.
I don't need a screensaver - either I'm working on the computer or I tend not to be in the room at all, so no point in wasting a perfectly good stripshow on a non-existant audience.
Sticking with the screensaver before moving onto the video wallpaper, it's also not geared for high resolution monitors. You can select either 640x480, 800x600 or 1024x768 - none of which exactly look their best on a 1440x900 widescreen monitor (though fortunately it doesn't appear to be stretching the video, at least none of the girls looked unusually... wide). You get somewhat pixilated and shimmering, slightly blurry edges with a bluish tint (the girls are probably filmed on a traditional bluescreen), though I'm sure this has just as much to do with the way they've "cut out" the model from the background (rather than taking a less sophisticated approach and just filming her on a black background and only allowing that color, no images, no alternative colors etc.) as the resolution.
Playing a softcore solo girl video from one of the numerous sites offering high quality video would provide a much better result, and I imagine you might even be able to find a media player or utility that could actually do that as a screensaver function.
What about the video wallpaper then? At least for me that's possibly even more useless. I pretty much don't see my desktop from I boot up my computer in the morning till I shut it down at night. I always have an application open and usually maximized on top of it, and I open new programs and handle file operations from my file manager and assorted shortcuts rather than using icons on the desktop.
Minimizing everything just to occasionally look at a girl dancing around on my desktop (looking even more pixilated than the screensaver, although here my high screen resolution is no doubt one of the problems) doesn't really make much sense to me. Why don't I just hit the play button on one of the countless porn videos I have on my harddrives? If it's just a softcore strip rather than actual porn I'm in the mood for, I have plenty of solo girl videos lying around as mentioned above, many in vastly better quality than what Strip Saver 2 can offer.
Strip Saver 2 is overall a bit of a disappointment to me (actually, that's probably putting it nicely). The idea is interesting, and it's obvious the developers have been pouring a fair bit of work into the project as well as apparantly staying dedicated to improving the product, if nothing else then at least with a growing collection of animation packs and photosets and video clips.
The high quality of the actual content (and the fact that the downloadable photo and video content is included in the package) is the only reason I'm giving it as high a score as I am - the implementation of the main product itself, the screensaver and video wallpaper, just doesn't cut it in my opinion.
If you haven't done so already though - and assuming you haven't entirely lost interest in the potential of this or similar concepts, I recommend you continue on to my quick review of Virtua Girl 2 instead. Same company, similar website, larger collection of girls (it's an older product, most of the recent content seems to be used for both Virtua Girl 2 and Strip Saver 2 though), but rather than appearing on your desktop where you might not be able to see them, or trying to catch your attention when you aren't there, the ladies in Virtua Girl 2 appear in one of the bottom corners of your screen on top of your active application, providing a more appropriate and visible diversion when you need a few seconds or minutes to relax your eyes on something pretty.
That's not to say Virtua Girls 2 hasn't got a few problems of its own though (image quality again being one of them), but follow the link above to read more about both pros and cons. Or by all means give Strip Saver 2 a shot if it sounds like you might find it more to your liking than I did.
(Member area screenshots from the website and a screenshot from the control panel of the Strip Saver 2 application. Due to the nature of the screensaver and the desktop video overlay, it wasn't possible to get any screenshots of the girls in action)
Click here to visit Strip Saver 2
|
|
|
95+ Excellent
85-94 Very Good
75-84 Good
65-74 Acceptable
-64 Don't Bother
Full rating info here
|
