Great franchise, but offers little more than the first, writes Julia Beffon

GAME: SAINTS ROW THE THIRD (PS3)

PRICE: R470

AGE: 18+

IN A year totally dominated by sequels, it's difficult to be objective when the next instalment of a gaming franchise lands on your desk.

Whether you liked or loathed earlier iterations is likely to influence how you react to the latest.

Few developers are willing to alter a winning formula, thinking: "If millions bought a game, give them more of the same."

Only a few dare take that next step, like Francis Ford Coppola did with his 1970s movie sequel: to make Godfather II - without Brando - and make it superb in its own right.

The gangster stars of Saints Row aren't the Mafia, they're the Third Street Saints, but they're facing similar growing pains as their organisation matures. The Saints are so hip and cool that they have their own branded drinks and wannabe Saints rob banks wearing giant masks of Johnny Gat, the gang's leader.

The game itself is just this year's version of Saints Row II.

You begin with a mysterious foreign crime syndicate muscling in on the city of Steelport and deposing the Saints.

So the plot again involves getting your turf back through fair means or foul.

THE GOOD

I'm a sucker for vast open-sandbox games like this. Saints Row is a great franchise. It's unrelentingly non-PC - one weapon is a giant purple dildo - and there is so much to do and discover that (real) days can go by without getting to a formal mission.

THE BAD

Saints Row The Third offers little more than Saints Row II did.

RATING: 9.2