Saul Gaston, a developer for the upcoming game Wild Summer, wants me to know that the game's hero is not a murderer. Other games, he says, are often about killing people, but Wild Summer is about "What makes people smile. Going out with girls. Getting drunk with your friends."

On the screen, a teenager is running around a city while pedestrians go about their business. GTA immediately comes to mind, of course, and as Gaston shows me around the game and describes the gameplay, the similarities are numerous. A wide-open city you can run around at will, missions you can choose to take or ignore, bystanders that will react to your actions. The difference is that while GTAIII was influenced by movies like Goodfellas and The Godfather, Wild Summer is influenced more by Karate Kid and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

This doesn't mean you can't cause a little mayhem, though. You can still punch random people just for looking at you funny, but you won't be handed submachine guns to do it with. In fact, Gascon suggests that in the final game, some missions might require you to get a bad reputation in order to get into places that don't like goody-goodies. But the focus of the game will be on good times and low-key teenage troublemaking.

There's not much there at this point — the game will be coming out in winter 2007 — but if you're running a pool on next-gen sandbox games Wild Summer is another to add.