Even though Saints Row 2 was released just over two weeks ago Volition have revealed that work is already underway on the next installment to the series.

“Well…durrrrrr Tom, isn’t that a given?”

Of course it’s obvious. The franchise has been pretty well received as a great alternative to GTA, but when Violation producer Dan Sutton says the series is “going to take a new direction” you have a right to start worrying.

Let’s look at GTA IV. It’s predecessor, San Andreas, was pretty crazy. You could do pretty much anything you could think of; like parachute off a mountain, drive a tank, fly a fighter jet etc. GTA IV stripped all this fun and went realistic, which, although it didn’t exactly make a bad game, it signified a big change in Rockstar’s direction. Saints Row now seems to have everything that GTA has taken away, so for Dan Sutton to say that a change of direction us going to happen for Saints Row 3 you can’t help but be a tad bit worried that we’ll have two good free-roaming action games with decent storylines and realistic gameplay on the market, but without the over-the-top fun which made the two franchises so successful.

Given Saints Row 2’s massively unrealistic approach (zombies anyone?) it would be a bit strange for Violation to do away with everything they’re known for in the next installment. Then again, people said the same thing about Rockstar…

In the mean time go out and buy Saints Row 2. Who cares about realism when you have shoot-outs in a hot dog costume?

Saints Row 3 Revealed - Gamespot.