Volition: November releases "basically the same" as last year

Saints Row: The Third stands out in the end-of-year release squash because it's not a boring reiteration, according to lead designer Scott Phillips.

"Looking at everybody else that’s out in November, obviously there’s a lot of huge games - but I think everyone can also see that a lot of those games are basically the same as they were last year, and the year before and the year before," Phillips told Ausgamers.

"And I think that we are something that’s brand new; totally different. We’re very different than what we were before three years ago with Saints Row 2."

The designer commented that Saints Row: The Third builds on Saints Row 2 to "deliver an experience that no one has ever seen before".

"This sort of guilty-pleasure gaming where it’s all about fun and enjoyment and you’re just having a blast playing the game. We’re not trying to teach you a lesson or make you cry, we want you to just laugh and have a blast the whole time," he said.

A philosophy of "embrace the crazy' gave Volition plenty of free reign, enabling them to include anything and everything as long as it fit one particular requirement.

"There’s still always questions like 'does that really fit in the game? Does cyberspace really fit in the game? Should that be happening?'. In the end, what it always had to come down to was 'Is this going to be fun?'" he said.

"'Yes!' Ok, then we need to put it in the game and we need to figure out some way that it’s going to fit and it’s going to make sense and people are going to be able to grasp it."

Saints Row: The Third launches on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 next month.