Grand Theft Auto Pushes Buttons

Many games have been met with outrage

(NEWSER) - A storm of bad publicity about Rendition: Guantanamo—a video game about falsely-accused Gitmo detainees trying to escape—forced the game makers to can it this week. It's far from the only game to test the boundaries, ABC reports:

• Atomic Games dumped development of Six Days in Fallujah amid protests from vets and others; it would have portrayed the real 2004 battle for the city.
• Faith Fighter had leaders of the world religion's duking it out until it was deemed too incendiary.

Chinatown Wars is getting good reviews from early users

(NEWSER) - Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars has been released for the iPhone, for those who want to indulge in a little Liberty City mayhem in between emails. The game is a direct port of the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP versions and costs $9.99, a little pricey for an iPhone game but much cheaper than the game console versions. More»

Boston police talk boy into shutting off PlayStation

(NEWSER) - A Boston teen's excessive video game playing caused his mom to call 911 this weekend. Angela Mejia awoke at 2:30am to find her son still playing Grand Theft Auto IV, so she unplugged his PlayStation. "I want to help my son, but I can’t find a way," lamented the stressed-out mom. The video-addled 14-year-old argued, so she called the cops, who managed to persuade the son to hit pause on his life of virtual crime. More»

(NEWSER) - A federal appeals court ruled today that violent video games can be sold to minors in California, GameSpot reports. Upholding a lower court's decision, the judges struck down a state law that sought to ban the sale of violent games to those under 18. The law violated free speech rights, said the three-judge panel, which dismissed research suggesting that such games lead to violent or anti-social behavior, the AP reports. More»

Download-only add-on episode revs new life into franchise's fourth outing

(NEWSER) - Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and the Damned brings gamers back to a Liberty City as gritty and darkly funny as ever, Seth Schiesel writes in the New York Times. The add-on episode, only available as a download through the Xbox Live service, swiftly ditches GTA IV's protagonist to let players take the role of a would-be biker gang leader. More»