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Grand Theft Auto Used To Steer Children Away From Violence? That’s New
Grand Theft Auto, often the whipping-boy for the anti-violent video games movement, is being used by a program in Merseyside, England to help stop children becoming desensitized to violence. Welcome to Bizarro world. Whenever the subject of violent video games arises, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto franchise seems to be the go-to example of a game…
By Mike Fahey -
Chinatown Wars Accounts for Half of all M-rated DS Sales — All Time
Considering the ESRB lists all of 10 Nintendo DS titles rated M, this isn’t surprising. Still, the publisher of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars bragged the game accounts for more than half of M-rated game sales on that platform. Speaking to MCV, the CEO of Take-Two Interactive addressed Chinatown Wars’ disappointing sales performance by saying…
By Owen Good -
From Productive Writer To Cocaine Addict, Just Add Grand Theft Auto
Tom Bissell was a productive, healthy, and somewhat disciplined young award-winning author, before his passion for Grand Theft Auto helped transform him into a cocaine-addled gaming addict. As a travel writer with an eye for politics and history, Tom Bissell has visited Uzbekistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan, but it wasn’t until his first forays into Vice…
By Mike Fahey -
L.A. Noire‘s Lead Actor Says He Skips the Cutscenes
The voice actor for the lead character in L.A. Noire is “Mad Men’s” Aaron Staton, while Staton says he enjoys games, particularly Grand Theft Auto IV, he usually skips over the cutscenes. Staton, who portrays Ken Cosgrove on the AMC series, tells Game Informer in its latest edition that he’s played all of the Grand…
By Owen Good -
I Guess He’d Already Completed “Violation of Probation”
Guess what game Michael Ray Ekes was playing when the fuzz came to arrest him for stealing a car. Hint: It wasn’t “Possession of Burglary Tools with Intent to Use,” although he was also wanted for that. The Tampa Tribune had a big ol’ time informing us Ekes, 30, was playing hisself some Grand Theft…
By Owen Good -
Family Guy Teaches Us How to Drive — Using Grand Theft Auto
Last night on a very special Family Guy: When Peter loses his memory, he needs to re-learn everything. That includes driving. Trouble follows when Lois hooks him up to the murder simulator. By the way, can you tell that’s a hooker? It’s a hooker. Look how she’s dressed. Peter Uses Grand Theft Auto as a…
By Owen Good -
The Straight Story of ‘Gay Tony’
Calling it “the straightest Grand Theft Auto ever,” largely for effect, PopMatters’ G. Christopher Williams says The Ballad of Gay Tony hews to some hetero-driven crime-novel representations of both sexualities, but in the end is about much deeper themes. Warning, this discussion will contain spoilers of “The Ballad of Gay Tony,” released Oct. 29. “Club…
By Owen Good -
Houser Interview Teases Grand Theft Auto V
Strauss Zelnick may be adamant about not announcing the next Grand Theft Auto, but Dan Houser, in a lengthy interview with The Times of London, so casually mentions work on the next GTA that it sounds rather inevitable. Writes The Times: There’s a Western game in the works for next spring, and the next GTA…
By Owen Good -
Is Rockstar Teasing Next GTA Location?
GTA4.Net noticed this “ad” in the Episodes from Liberty City instruction manual that, reading between the lines (or around the torn out part, anyway) seems to tease where the series is headed next. And maybe when. The ad, apparently for a fake movie, declares “Liberty City, It’s Over!” implying, naturally, that we’re all done here.…
By Owen Good