New York's powerful police unions say that a violent new video game called "Saints Row 2" is an abomination. In the game, the player controls a gang member who can steal, do drugs and kill as many characters as possible, including police officers.

Yesterday Manhattan District Attorney candidate Leslie Crocker-Snyder spoke out against the game, which I am positive she has never touched, but I am sure the police unions appreciated it and will put in a good word for her when voting comes around. I sigh.

New York Police Union Wants Video Game Pulled from Shelves [WPEC News 12 Now]

Hit the jump for the full list, lovingly extracted from table format by hand, the way grandpa used to do it.

K12

We Are Rockstars - Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Death Of A Moralist - Daniel Mansury
Don and Sherri - Matthew Dear
Give Me Every Little Thing - Juan Maclean
North American Scum - LCD Soundsystem
Sexy Results - Death From Above
Special Effect - TRS-80
Street Justice - MSTRKRFT
Over and Over - Hot Chip
Through The Hosiery - Crystal Castles
Crossover Appeal - Guns N Bombs

Funk

Love Fades - Amnesty
Trespasser - Bad Medicine
Gotta Get Your Love - Chocolate Star
Keep Running - Cliff Nyren
Drugs Ain't Cool - Ebony Rhythm Band
Street Scene - Leon Mitchison
You Can Be A Star - Luther Davis Group
Wake Up Pt. 1 & 2 - Pure Essence
Look What You've Done To Me - Sheila Skipworth
Funky In Here - Dayton Sidewinders
Put A Smile On Time - The Rhythm Machine
The Cissy's Thang - The Soul Seven
Don't Get Discouraged - UPC Allstars

Krunch

Anthem - Trivium
Bat Country - Avenged Sevenfold
Colony of Birchmen - Mastodon
Milk Lizard - Dillinger Escape Plan
Nothing Left - As I Lay Dying
Ghosts of Perdition - Opeth
Stars - Hum
Resurrection - Chimaira
Unsung - Helmet
What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse - The Black Dahlia Murder
Redneck - Lamb Of God
Deadly Sinners - 3 Inches of Blood
Barnburner - The Agony Scene
Woman - Wolfmother

Underground

And She Would Darken… - The Twilight Sad
Cheer It On - Tokyo Police Club
Dead Friends = The Saps
Don't Call It A Ghetto… - Architects
Every Single Line Means Something - Marnie Stern
For Real - Okkervil River
Hazel Street - Deerhunter
Here's Your Future - The Thermals
Shoot The Runner - Kasabian
Western Biographic - Bound Stems
Call In The Debts - South Street
Terror - The Rakes
House Of Cards - Shipwreck
Third Gear Scratch - Shiner

GenX

All That I've Got - The Used
Lying Is the Most Fun… - Panic At The Disco
Rock And Roll Queen - The Subways
Teenagers - My Chemical Romance
Hate ( I Really Like You) - Plain White T's
Hole In the Earth - Deftones
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is - Jet
Knights - Minus The Bear
Let Me In - Hot Hot Heat
Makedamnsure - Taking Back Sunday
Face Down - Red Jump Suit Apparatus
Coat of Arms - The Life and Times
What You Need - Galactic
Misery Business - Paramore

Krhyme

Trick Me - Kelis
One Thing aka 1 Thing - Amerie Featuring Eve
Tell Me Bout It - Joss Stone
Fandango / DJ Quik Feat. B-Real
So Sick / Ne Yo
Me & You / Cassie
Hands Up / Lloyd Banks
New York State of Mind / Nas
Gangsta Bitch / Apache
Sucker MCs / Run DMC
Ridin In That / Wale
Twinz / Big Pun Feat. Fat Joe
What A Thug About / Beanie Sigel
Good Girl / Chrisette Michelle
I Luv It / Young Jeezy

The Mix:
Down Under / Men At Work
Karma Chameleon / Culture Club
Pretty In Pink / Psychedelic Furs
Take On Me / A-Ha
The Reflex / Duran Duran
Don't You (Forget About Me) / Simple Minds
Out of Touch / Hall & Oates
Sister Christian / Night Ranger
Everybody Wants To Rule The World / Tears For Fears
Everybody's Working For The Weekend / Loverboy
The Final Countdown / Europe

420:
Hey Boy / Buju Banton
Stop the Fussing and Fighting / Dennis Brown
Boom ShakA Tak / Born Jamaicans
Who Am I? / Beenie Man
Ganja Smuggling / Eek-A-Mouse
Guns Out / Ninjaman
Heads High / Mr. Vegas
Here I Come / Barrington Levy
Krazy / Elephant Man
Picture This / Vybz Cartel
Murder She / Chaka Demus & Pliers

The World:
Over The Moor To Maggie / Greg Knowles and Mike Taylor
El Viento En La Isla / Liza Carbe and Jean Pierre Durand
Bangara Dance / Ravi Shani
Zahrat El Sahra / Roger Abaji
The Drunkard's Song / Viktor Mastoridis
Schenkt's Ma Mal Was Boarisch / Karl Barthel
Mountain Hut Landler / Martin Beeler
Mandilatos / Robin Jeffrey
Mambo De Fito / Liza Carbe and Jean Pierre Durand
Hungarian Sundance / Friedrich Sehl
Humours of Glen Dart / Greg Knowles and Mike Taylor
Hot Nights / John Leach
Gypsy Dance / Laszlo Borteri
Good Morning Polka / Jan Schneeberg
Friss A Rozsa / Niko Radic
Emerald Jig / Ian Clarke and Simon Painter
Drumjig / Greg Knowles and Mike Taylor
Connaught Chase / Greg Knowles and Mike Taylor
Cigany / Niko Radic
Barasilian Fiesta / Claudia Figueroa, Forbes Henderson, Tony Hinnigan, and Martin Taylor
Baidoushka / Robin Jeffrey

Klassic:
Coppelia Ballet Suite, Act 1, No. 1 / Leo Delibes
Water Music Suite No. 1 in F Major / Handel
Sleeping Beauty Waltz / Tchaikovsky
Nutcracker Suite / Tchaikovsky
Hungarian Dance No. 5 / Brahms
Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba / Handel
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 / Bach
Concerto No. 4 in A / Bach
Eine Cleine Nachtmusik / Mozart
Four Seasons No. 1 - The Spring / Vivaldi
Four Seasons No. 2 - The Summer / Vivaldi
Haffner Serenade No. 7 in D Major / Mozart
Moonlight Sonata (First Movement) / Beethoven
Music for the Royal Fireworks / Handel
Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 - Anitra's Dance / Grieg
Ride of the Valkyries / Wagner
String Quartet in G Major - 2nd Movement / Mozart
Symphony no. 40 - 1st Movement / Mozart
Symphony no. 5 in C Minor - Allegro Con Brio / Beethoven
Symphony no. 5 in C Minor - Allegro / Beethoven
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor / Bach
Water Music Suite No. 1 in F Major - Overture / Handel
Marriage of Figaro - Overture / Mozart
Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 - In The Hall of the Mountain King / Grieg

Ezzzy:
Naughty But Nice / Walt Rockman
Marvellous Singers Remix / Marc Durst and Laurent Lombard
Love For Life / Sammy Burdson and John Charles Fiddy
Kalamazoo Style / Olivier Andres and Christian Seguret
Just Strolling Along / Sammy Burdson and John Charles Fiddy
Coconuts / Gerhard Narholz
Dancing On The Avenue / John Cacavas
Dolce Vita / Bruno Bertoli
Face To Face / Sammy Burdson
A Girl Like You / Norman Candler
Jarabe Tapatio / Carlos Periguez
Tooba Boogie / Otto Sieben
Walkie Talkie / Gerhard Narholz
Whistle Happy / Colin Baldry and Tom Kane
Tchoupa Twist / Nicolas Folmer
A Sunny Day In Heidelberb / Horst Jankowski
Swing Paname / Angel Debarre
Stereo Cha Cha / Umberto Pagnini
Colonie Celeste / Jean-Jacques Perrey
A Cielito Lindo / Carlos Periguez
Chanson Pour Toi / Alfred Jack
Bossa Cubana / Gerhard Narholz
Berg Und Tal / Gerhard Narholz
Bachelor Samba / Marc Durst

The game is slated for release on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 October 14th in North America.

All will be revealed soon, teases the game's publisher THQ. In the meantime, Tera will be at the company's booth at Comic-Con on Saturday to pose for photographs and give convention goers the completely false impression that they have a chance in hell of getting together with her.

Porn star joins Saints Row dev team [CVG]

“Our new partnership with GameTap allows both a brand new audience and fans alike to enjoy our titles and franchise games online,” said Adrienne Lauer, National Sales Director, Market Development for THQ, “Digital distribution is a great way to extend the reach of our properties and GameTap is an ideal outlet for this effort.”

See? GameTap knows what it's doing. The editorial content always seemed unnecessary to me anyway. More games is good! Hit the jump for the full PR.

GAMETAP SIGNS PARTNERSHIP WITH THQ

New deal includes top titles and franchises like Company of Heroes

ATLANTA – July 22, 2008 – GameTap, the first-of-its-kind broadband entertainment network from Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., announced today a long-term partnership with THQ Inc. that includes worldwide subscription play and digital download rights for a wide selection of the publisher’s games for Windows PC. Additionally under the new agreement, some THQ games will also be made available for free play on GameTap’s ad-supported website www.gametap.com.

“We are excited to be adding THQ’s roster of top content to GameTap,” said Ricardo Sanchez, vice president of content and creative director for GameTap. “With this new deal, subscribers and website visitors will enjoy great games from THQ, including Company of Heroes and Red Faction.”

As part of the new agreement, GameTap will now feature titles from the THQ and ValuSoft catalogues, including critically acclaimed games such as Company of Heroes®, Warhammer® 40K, Red Faction®, Supreme Commander®, Titan Quest™, Saints Row™ 2, PuzzleQuest and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.

“Our new partnership with GameTap allows both a brand new audience and fans alike to enjoy our titles and franchise games online,” said Adrienne Lauer, National Sales Director, Market Development for THQ, “Digital distribution is a great way to extend the reach of our properties and GameTap is an ideal outlet for this effort.”

The thing about watching Shatner act goofy is that you know that he knows he's there to be "Shatner." The thing about watching Walken act goofy is that you know that he knows he's there to be "Walken."

But Busey? We have no fucking clue.

THQ Enlists Gary Busey to Discuss Saints Row 2 [Gaming Today]

It's not Donovan's fault that things are weird. Someone has painstakingly setup a small table filled with various drinks and snacks that, as Donovan explains, "aren't there everyday."

Things are weird because I have an absurd headache on top of an even more absurd head cold making me a complete bitch to talk to. Donovan breaks the silence again.

"I saw you ran that quote." What quote? Oh, right, where he said that Saint's Row 2 would have bugs.

"Yeah, the internet just went crazy on that one," I respond.

"95% of gamers aren't even going to come across them," he assured me.

Tsai arrived moments later, and we loaded up Saint's Row 2. Donovan had to be at least a little relieved.

Saint's Row 2 takes place an unspecified number of years after Saint's Row 1 (though ironically, the development of Saint's Row 2 began with a small team of people before Saint's Row 1 was even out).

Your friends have betrayed you, and you'll have to start building the Saints from scratch. Tsai explains, "The player comes back, he's pissed, and he does some nasty things...you are definitely a criminal this time around."

Unfortunately, you choose to wear purple once again.

Starting with the character creation screen, I immediately see that SR1's robust character customization engine has gotten some major upgrades. To start, your model looks better, a Calvin Cline underwear ad adorning shader-chiseled muscles.

While players will still not be able to face map with the LIVE camera, the seemingly endless sliders should make up for it. I particularly enjoyed watching models be subjected to the age slider. Let's just say moobs become moooobs.

Apparently Lead Designer Tsai is a huge fan of wrestling games. And the influence is undeniable as you look through various animations that you can now assign your character. Everything from the style of gait to combat techniques, players will find more movements unlocked as they play. But the animations are a lot more than just a bonus for completion—they really signify SR2.

Open up the taunts, for instance. Your character can flip someone the bird. They can do the famous throat cut. Or, in a turn to the absurd, they can squat down on someone and gesture defecation complete with butt waggling.

Donovan explains, "We gave up any pretense of being authentically hip hop."

Everything is streamlined for fun. While SR2 will feature a compelling story with a near feature-length set of cut scenes, players can make the choice constantly to have a serious or outright zany experience. Create a hard-nosed gangster or create a computer geek with a pot belly. No one's gonna judge you.

They take me through the example mission and I see one of the new area expansions to the game's 1.5x larger city. You are in a dusty, almost wild west world. It's a trailer park, and you're here to blow it up. Running into one of the 130 new internal environments, you grab some satchel charges (essentially sticky grenades that can be remotely detonated).

Heading around outside, Tsai dropped bombs in dramatic sequence, blowing up trailers one after another. He spoiled an otherwise impressive street of open world AI and animation at its finest, in which I'd seen a jogger tie their shoe, a power walker anally strut past, an old man hobbling slowly and one guy lounged out on a beach chair (who I was assured would get up and go about his day if we'd watched him long enough.)

But Tsai wasn't content with spoiling a good day. He's played the mission before. So he opts to throw a satchel charge onto a jogger instead of the next trailer. It seems like a normal enough decision as it sticks to the side of her head like a lopsided cubic afro. Then he throws another and another. Now the jogger is having a tough time jogging. Finally, Tsai steps back and blows her up with a massive explosion. She shoots 50 feet into the air...then he hits the trigger again...and again, "juggling" the innocent in mid air.

I could act mature about the situation now, but I chuckled.

The neat thing about this sort of debauchery is that Saint's Row 2 will reward you for it. Called "diversions," these mini achievements are built for fucking around and will earn you "respect" that's usable in the storyline. "Chances are, if you try it, it's been done," Donovan assures me, meaning that the game will acknowledge any feat you throw at it. And it's an idea that's long overdue in a genre in which gameplay so often...digresses.

But what I didn't get a chance to see was the game's co-op. The full campaign supports two players ala Crackdown. Oh, and those "diversions" we talked about above? They will include co-op combos, as well as the rare moment when you might actually try to harm your friend in crime with a submachine gun.

"It will be a lot of fun," said Tsai. "In Crackdown, players sort of had this static objectives...in SR2 our missions are a lot more complex, we're actually forcing more interaction."

I ask him why we've seen co-op games explode in the last few years.

Tsai laughs and lets me in on his personal theory. "All the guys like you and me who grew up playing...Contra, Ikari Warriors, Jackal...have disposable income." He's probably right.

After talking to Donovan and Tsai and seeing the game, those still bent on fueling some war between GTAIV and Saint's Row 2 need to realize something...in what is maybe the crudest analogy I've ever put to print.

Rockstar is like Hugh Hefner. They create a product that hides behind (what is often) a facade of high artistic vision. Volition is more like Larry Flynt, not shying away from what they purport the audience is really looking for—the gynecologically precise experience of juggling a woman in mid-air with properly timed sticky bomb explosions—fulfilling your deepest id impulses, spread eagle on your monitor.

"They're gonna do what they're gonna do," Donovan said. "That's actually a good thing for players."

Building interiors will also be a new focus of the game, with over 130 throughout a city that's now 45% larger than SR1. Oh, and you can be a transsexual now, too. Hmmm...I wonder what I have to do for another invite to Volition...(not just because I'm extremely interested in transsexuals or something).

Saints Row 2: A first look at GTA's competition [via n4g]