Grand Theft Auto IV Has Critics Up In Arms About Sex

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto is just one day from launch on Tuesday the 29th and the advertising hype is going wild as this game has the potential of breaking all entertainment records for sales in the first week. But naturally the game has its critics as well. Among them is the most outspoken of them all, Florida attorney Jack Thompson, a frequent interview guest on GameSHOUT Radio and GameSHOUT.com.

It seems that Mr. Thompson again is attempting a sanction a offering of the Grand Theft Auto series, this time in a letter to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, R. Alexander Acosta. In the letter, Mr. Thompson is asking that legal action be taken against Take-Two and it's executives, as well as retailers that sell the game to those under 18 years of age including Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and GameStop saying that this game should be rated as "Adults Only" by the ESRB Board and not sold by retailers. Thompson further names Sony and Microsoft for making this "pornographic game available to minors, and openly so, on their PS3 and Xbox systems."

To make things even worse, Mr. Thompson offers as a source of evidence, none other than a fellow gaming site, IGN and a video compilation that they put together called the "Ladies of Liberty City" showing what many would term to be to be the worst that the game GTA IV has to offer, making some believe that this is what the game is all about. The video clip lasting about four minutes long shows the game's hero, Niko cruising the streets and shooting down hookers, visiting a strip club where lap dances are performed, sometimes by two strippers simulating sex acts, and picking up hookers and performing sex acts in the cars only to let them out to run them over or shoot them.

First at no time is there any nudity shown in the video clip and it is explicitly for "mature audiences", as a birth date must be entered to see the clip. But someone watching this clip might think that this is all that the game is about and that is just not so. There is no special mission in the game for picking up and shooting hookers, but that is the prerogative of the player. This part of the game is a very small part of the game and there is so much more involved in the game, but that we will be able to tell you more in our review of both versions of the game.

For now, it is unfortunate that some will take this one video clip out of context and believe that this is what the whole game is about. But it is this reporter's considered opinion that this controversy is actually good for the sales of the game, in fact better than any advertising could be. It may just be that these critics don't understand that they are a great help for the sales of these games, and that the publicity that they provide gives the game sales the boost that the game publishers greatly appreciate. As it is, it looks like Grand Theft Auto IV will be a launch for the record books and that the critics may again be tilting at windmills again.

Grand Theft Auto IV Has Critics Up In Arms About Sex

The picture taken from a video produced by IGN, the "Ladies Liberty City" shows Niko in the car with a hooker, giving Jack Thompson and other video game critics a distorted view of the overall game.