Hide your parents and your politicians: the Postal Dude is coming back! First annouced almost a year ago under the title Postal 3: Catharsis, the third chapter in Running With Scissors' politically incorrect franchise is once again confirmed as being in development for the PC and Xbox 360 platforms. Only this time around, the devs are willing to spill a couple of extra beans, hinting at a distant release date and talking a bit about the game's technology.

RWS are now calling their game Postal III, and they are aiming to release it some time in 2008, through publisher Akella. FiringSquad got a chance to talk over the phone with Running With Scissors head man Vince Desi, and they found out that the game is more specifically targeted for a mid to late 2008 release, and that the game will include some sort of tutorial. What for? Read below:

"Desi wouldn't reveal much about Postal 3's game play except that it will continue and expand upon Postal 2's open world design. Desi also told us that they will be taking fan feedback to heart for Portal 3. "A lot of things went undiscovered in Postal 2," Desi told us. In order to help players discover how much content there will be in Postal 3, the game will have what he is calling a series of training missions that will inform players on the many different options in the full open world portion of the game."

In their latest press release, the devs also announced that "Postal III will employ the Source engine (the same technology Valve created to drive Half-Life 2) to deliver a new and advanced technical level of social satire and politically incorrect virtual violence". I don't know how many incompetent politicians and frustrated lawyers will get the game's satire, but I'm pretty sure that Postal III will lead to yet another scandal. After all, if it's not Grand Theft Auto or Bully, it's gotta be Postal!

Postal III also promises to include motion-captured performances by various celebrities (from film stars to playful Playboy Playmates), as well as a storyline that offers gamers vast latitude in terms of their behavior.

"We've always maintained since publishing the original Postal that the game is only as violent as the player wants it to be and we're committed to expanding this unique form of gameplay in this next addition to the ongoing storyline", said Vince Desi. And finally, Andrew Belkin (Producer for Akella) expressed his educated belief that: "Postal III will be the sickest and craziest game ever!".

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)