Gamertell

Grand Theft Auto IV was recently removed from store shelves in Thailand by the order of New Era Interactive, one of Asia’s largest game distributors. The reason is that Polwat Chino, a 19-year-old boy, killed a taxi driver while trying to recreate a scene from the game.

Ah. Yet another case of “life imitating art.” Remember the problem though. Before games, movies and any violent media, there was still violence. So, in comes the obvious step of scapegoating. The easiest thing the blame is something that really can’t defend itself. It’s the basic psychology of blame. Since the Columbine school shooting, the popular thing to blame for violence has been videogames.

We are in an age where one of crime’s biggest motives and accusations is…

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Title: Grand Theft Aufo IV
Price: $59.99
System(s): Xbox 360, PS3
Release Date: April, 28, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Take-Two Interactive (Rockstar)
Rating: ”Mature" for blood, intense violence, partial nudity, strong language, strong sexual content, use of alcohol and use of drugs.
Pros: Great game play, great narrative story, great mechanics, great online, long game play length, great city details and nearly bug-free.
Cons: The game ends eventually, not as funny as past titles, removal of past additions, some system crashes, not enough of the city is used.
Overall Score: Two Thumbs Up, 95/100, A , * * * * 1/2 out of five

With every little bump or minor complaint I’ve had with this game, it doesn’t in the slightest way detract from the overall experience.

With an online element that really allows players to experiment and create their own modes of game play GTA IV has more under its hood then any five games. GTA IV may be an evolution that doesn’t add much that we haven’t already seen in previous titles but it certainly takes everything we’ve played before and perfects it into a truly epic experience not seen since GTA III.

Click through for the full review…

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Rockstar’s recently released epic, Grand Theft Auto IV, has been on the receiving end of a great deal of controversy for quite a while but parent company Take-Two Interactive is finally fighting back.

Take-Two is suing the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) for pulling all GTA IV related ads from buses and transit displays throughout the city just days after they were put up on April 22.  The ad campaign was supposed to last for six weeks.

Take-Two claims that by…

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While the streets might be safe for a few weeks while everyone is inside playing Grand Theft Auto IV: Vice City, it’s only a matter of time before hooligans decide to stretch their thumbs and break out of the family den or dilapidated tenement apartment (adorned with a 42 in. LCD screen cranked up to 1080p, natch).

This is the fourth time a GTA has cracked the skulls of our law- and god-fearing youth, and it’s hard not to see its influence everywhere. Take this piece in the Sunday New York Times Magazine about a group of former gang members who try to head off attempts at gangland shooting violence…

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Much like the movie industry started the season with the release of Iron Man, the game industry has already started off Summer 2008 on the sunny side with Grand Theft Auto 4 and Mario Kart Wii.

Typically this is the time of year when gamers have to sort through stacks of games lacking in quality and originality. Summer 2007 was a particularly low point in what was otherwise the most profitable gaming year in history. For Summer 2008, however, many high-profile titles should help make this am unusually more enjoyable season..

Click through for a look at some of Summer 2008’s best-looking games…

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In a post by QJ.net, the site mistakenly reported that a countdown clock on the Rockstar web site suggested that Grand Theft Auto 2 (and yes there was other games before GTA3) was coming to Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network as a full download.  It was soon discovered that the source codes was actually from 1999. Fans of the series who wanted to see what GTA was like before it became the world’s most hounded game are out of luck.

The site’s codes had miscounted the date, setting the clock back to…

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Cnet’s Don Reisinger posed a very heated question to gamers of the world today on the Digital home: “What’s the best videogame series of all time?”. He lists a few of the bigger (and safer) franchises - Halo, Mario, GTA, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Zelda, etc. before positing a couple of more obscure series like Lunar and Shenmue. Then, he wisely turned to the masses, opening up the comments section to the potential flame war discussion of the greatest series ever to hit the gaming world.

The results were relatively unsurprising. The above mentioned standbys got the largest number of shout-outs, along with the Command & Conquer, Civilization, Mega Man, Half-Life, Madden, Splinter Cell, Fall Out, and Smash Brothers series. It seems as if the bases are fairly well covered, but I’d like to open the floor yet again - what are your favorite series?

Read [Cnet Blogs]

Mobile game Coolest Girl in School has been dubbed a Grand Theft Auto for Girls and has already raised some concern in Australia where its currently being beta tested.

The goal of the game is to lie, bitch and flirt your way to the top of the high school ladder to be the coolest, even if it means experimenting with fashion, drugs and sex. Cut classes, manipulate your teachers to get what you want and spread rumors to get the upper hand on classmates who stand in your way. Above all, do not embarrass yourself. Every interaction with the inhabitants of the school affects your social status in the game.

Although this game is not scheduled to be released until January 2008, a beta test in Australia has already stirred up attention.

“The activities in the game have been shown through vast amounts of research to cause significant, long-term problems for young people,” said a spokeswoman for the Australian Family Association.

Holly Owen creative director of Champagne for the Ladies, feels the attack on the game is unfair.

“We have had a lot of press and, unfortunately the game has been misrepresented in some articles,” Owen said. “It is ... a very tongue-in-cheek look at the perils of the quest for cool in high school. Keyword: irony!”

Owen said the negative activities such as smoking or using drugs “might seem obviously cool,” they can work against a character within the game as they have to deal with the consequences of their actions such as being sent to rehab or have bad breath when a potential love interest approaches her.

Christine Daviault, an expert on female gaming at Montreal’s Concordia University, said she’s not certain that the average female teen playing the game will see the tongue-in-cheek intentions Owen describes.

“I just don’t think most people will see it as tongue-in-cheek,” says Daviault. “(Youth players) are at a crossroads in the formation of their personalities and a game like this basically fosters a warped idea of what constitutes success and how to get it.”

Daviault said just being called a Grand Theft Auto for Girls will certainly draw their attention to the game, but predicts that the same gamers will quickly lose interest in the game and move on.

“The tween and teen girls who don’t already engage in this type of behavior may think it’s an interesting fantasy for a short period of time, but I don’t think it’ll keep their attention for very long,” Daviault said. “For a fantasy to be successful, it needs to make you feel good. And I think this game is too corrosive to have that effect.”

Read [Game Politics] Read [Canada.com] Site [Champagne for the Ladies]

Take Two announced today that it has finally settled all consumer class action lawsuits pending in the US against the company and its subsidiary Rockstar Games regarding the controversial third party program called “Hot Coffee Modification” that unlocks a sex scene in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

The lawsuit began when 85-year-old Florence Cohen who, up until July 20, 2005, didn’t care if her 14-year-old grandson played mature rated games like GTA: San Andreas. That is, until her grandson, who had the modification program unlocked a very steamy scene in a game where the player’s objective is to please the woman he’s with.

The program Hot Coffee v2 was made available online on a few GTA-specific websites on July 7, 2005, allowing players to unlock the scandalous secret hot sex minigame that Rockstar hid in the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of the GTA: San Andreas game. Since posted, there have been more than 31,200z viewers and has been downloaded more than 7,200 times.The most recent download was made November 10, 2007. The download also unlocked other secret sex scenes and the ability to interact with any female characters any time the player wanted.

“If the case had continued, we believe the court would have agreed that Take-Two was not liable for consumers acting independently to modify their games with third-party hardware and software to access normally inaccessible content,” said Ben Feder, Chief Executive Officer of Take-Two. “Nonetheless, we believe it is in the best interest of the Company to avoid protracted and costly litigation to prove our case and to finally put this matter behind us.”

It was already bad enough that Take-Two’s subsidiary, Rockstar Games, had already caused controversy because of its violent content, but things got out of control when it was discovered that sexually explicit scenes could be unlocked.

As a result, under the terms of the settlement Take-Two agreed to offer the following benefits to consumers who were upset or offended by the “hot coffee” content of the game if they:

• Bought a copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas before July 20, 2007.
• Were offended and upset by the ability of consumers to modify and alter the game’s content using the third-party Hot Coffee modification.
• Would not have bought the game had they known that consumers could modify and alter the game’s content using the third-party Hot Coffee modification.
• Would have returned the game, upon learning the game could be modified and altered, if they thought this possible.

Take-Two also agreed as part of the settlement to offer benefits that ranged from exchanging the game disk for an edited “sex free” copy of GTA: San Andreas to paying consumers up to $35 if they can submit detailed proofs of purchase for the game. The actual value of cash payments will depend on the number of consumers who actually apply for these benefits. Take-Two said in their press release that it’s prepared to commit to $1.025 million in settlement benefits.

This amount is in addition to the out of pocket costs, cost of providing notice to class action members and paying a fee to the plaintiff’s counsel, the expected cost of the settlement and other related expenses Take-Two must endure as part of the agreement.

“Its coming out of a rough stretch and we’re very optimistic for the new year,” said Mike Hickey, Janco Partners analyst, who added that this lawsuit would not likely have any negative effect on the company but its organizational restructuring would help their earnings.

Take-Two took the initiative to set aside more than a million dollars to pay the benefits and set aside as much as $2.75 million if needed to meet the needs despite the companies shares dropping 9 cents and closing at $16 per share prior to their announcement of the settlement.

Read [CNN Money News] Read [Take-Two Press Release] Read [Game Politics] View [Original Complaint] Site [GTA-themed Forum]

Gun enthusiast website GunsLot has a nice, no-nonsense list of the top 25 games of all time based purely on sales numbers. Only sales independent of package deals were counted.

Unsurprisingly, Pokemon, Mario, Sims, and GTA titles dominate the list. There was a heavy focus on Nintendo titles both old and new, with 17 of the 25 being products of…

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