LiquidOxygen80: It's not securom, but it's still dependent on Games for Windows Live, and it expects you to be logged into it AND Rockstar Social Club to launch. That said, the experience on PC is far beyond the console versions, not even including the mods you can get for it. (Of which there are MANY.)
tinyE: Yeah, I spent four days getting "invalid code" sending emails back and forth, downloading shit, finally got it up and running and it immediately told me my specs weren't good enough, and closed down. When I shut down and tried to restart it asked me to start entire code bullshit thing again, so I took the disc out of the drive and tossed it into the back of my closet.
I don't blame ya. It IS a frickin' hassle, even as a fan of the game. Saints Row is all well and good, but it just doesn't scratch the same itches that GTA does, so I just sort of dealt with it. (I already had accounts with both, so it was less of a hassle than you experienced, I'm sure.)