New York City Politicians Outraged Over Grand Theft Auto IV

24 hours after rearranging its entire Board of Director’s and Take Two is already receiving flak from politicians in New York over its upcoming video game, Grand Theft Auto IV, which is set to be released stateside this October 16th and in Europe on October 19th.

While hopeful gamers fawned over the trailer - helping to knock the servers hosting Rockstar Games and IGN to the ground, New York City officials lamented over its featuring of New York as the setting for Liberty City.

According to New York Daily News:

The latest version of an ultraviolent video game will unleash its murderous mayhem on the streets of New York.

And outraged political leaders say the rampant brutality of the game, Grand Theft Auto IV, has little in common with reality.

Commenting on the subject, City Councilman Peter Vallone of the Council’s Public Safety Commitee had this to say:

“Setting Grand Theft Auto in the safest big city in America would be like setting Halo in Disneyland.”

Rayond Kelly, Police Commissioner stated, “It’s despicable to glamorize violence in games like these, regardless of how far-fetched the setting may be”.

Despite these comments, their story seemed slightly biased and in some cases, entirely distruthful. As most people (whom have actually played the game, rather than listen to the negative press) are aware, you can not sell drugs to children, let alone anyone at all. You also do not [directly] advance through the game by killing prostitutes, although it can be done. However, according to the NY Daily News once again:

In previous incarnations, players advanced through the game by killing cops, selling pornography to children and killing prostitutes.

Such can lead one to believe that the writers of the article hasn’t played Grand Theft Auto a day in their lives, however, it is not far from the rhetoric of a certain other critic: Jack Thompson.

This is not the first time the setting for Grand Theft Auto has been in New York. It has been in Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto 3, GTA: Liberty City Stories, and even made a brief appearance in San Andreas. Hence, this is obviously not the first time it has drawn negative remarks from New York City Officials. “The mayor does not support any video game where you earn points for injuring or killing police officers,” said Jason Post, speaking on behalf of New York City’s mayor.

Known as “Things Will Be Different”, the first trailer premiered for GTAIV yesterday. The latest character of the GTA series (featured right), bearing a rugged appearance and an accent hinting towards a Russian background, states the following as the trailer closes: “Life is complicated. I killed people, smuggled people, sold people. Perhaps here, things will be different.” Given the fact that this is Grand Theft Auto we’re talking about, that idea is extremely unlikely.

Take Two declined to comment on this story.

Below are various screenshots for the upcoming GTAIV.

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