New Grand Theft Auto

Frank Girardot: Justice Scalia becomes new hero in the world of Grand Theft ...

Without any doubt a state ban on such sales is "unprecedented and mistaken," wrote Justice Anonin Scalia in Brown vs. Entertainment Merchants Association.

The ruling stems from an argument over State Sen. Leland Yee's 2005 bill that banned retailers from selling video games deemed to contain mature content and themes to minors. Seems like a reasonable law right?

After all, as Justice Steven Breyer wrote in a dissenting opinion, you wouldn't want 13-year-olds to have unfettered access to XXX porn.

But violence and obscenity are clearly different in both the American psyche and its marketplace. And different, too, in our Judeo-Christian ethic - especially when you consider that just one of the Ten Commandments deals with violence, while at least two deal with sex.

Think about it.

Many parents have no problems letting their kids see a movie like "Saw" or "Halloween." But most of those same adults would draw the line at letting little Johnny rent "Who's Nailin' Paylin" or "Deep Throat."

Nonetheless, in his opinion Scalia compared the level of violence in games such as "Mortal Kombat" and "Grand Theft Auto" to "Grimm's Fairy Tales" and "The Odyssey" - books which have been read by (and to) children for ages.

And when you consider what Scalia's saying, you might have to admit, he's got a point.

Take how he describes Homer's classic Greek tale: "Odysseus blinds Polyphemus the Cyclops by grinding out his eye with a heated stake."

Sounds a lot like the fatalities in Mortal Kombat. Which, by the way, include amputations, stabbings, hangings, disembowelings and assorted other flesh shreddings.

Scalia also takes time to describe a host of other violent episodes in classic liturature including: the death of the Wicked Witch in "Snow White" (forced to dance to death while wearing a pair of burning shoes); the murder of Piggy in the "Lord of the Flies" (a book I read as a ninth-grader at Bellarmine); and Hansel and Gretel's killing of the woman who abducted them (Remember? They stuck her in the oven.)

Ultimately Scalia goes on to argue that video games are not all that different than Saturday morning cartoons and points out that Yee's bill didn't target Itchy and Scratchy or the Road Runner or comic books.

So what are as parents to take away from all this intellectual discussion about child's play?

New Grand Theft Auto Game By 2012? | Kotaku Australia

Gamespot are claiming that sources state this next game is “the big one”, and will be vast in terms of scale.

There can be little doubt that Rockstar is in the process of creating the next entry into the GTA franchise, the only question is when. 2012 may be a reasonable estimate…

What are you guys hoping to see from the next Grand Theft Auto game?

Sources close to Rockstar Games say latest installment in blockbuster franchise is already getting final touches; 2012 release “pretty likely.” [Gamespot]

Fun would be nice. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed GTAIV lots, but part of me missed San Andreas’s 10 meter bunny-hops on a BMX, Fighter Jets and cross-country cop killing mayhem for hours on end. GTAIV just lost part of that enjoyment moving everything to being more realistic, to the point where I was just playing through the story then not even coming back for what made the GTA3 series so enjoyable – just going out and fucking shit up.

“CAAAAHHHZIIIN, DO YOU WANT TO GO TO A TITTY BAR?”

A little bit more variety in the open world. I really don’t need a bigger city, but one where there are more interactive objects than cars, and more interactive people than… well none. I’d love to see GTA blur the boundary between their style of action game and RPG just a little. Make it mean something somehow to do petty crimes, taxi jobs, or … couldn’t you drive an ambulance in San Andreas? Put meaningful characters in the open world, not just in cinematics.

They’ve got the architecture and landscape thing down to a science. I want to be able to engage with that world a bit more.

Quite frankly they could just have stick figures running around a blank screen and I would still buy it just so I can put it with the rest of my GTA games. I liked SA the best though. I really got into the whole “protect my hood” feeling. I also liked going to the gym and shopping so I hope they have more of that sort of thing. Also the country music station was by far the most entertaining thing I have heard this century.

Vice was good but I grew up in the 80′s and found it reminded me of my dad for some reason so I had trouble really getting into it. Vice city stories was right up there however.

I hope they fix the traveling time to failed objectives thing. On GTA4, I spent way too much time failing a mission, then having to drive all the way across the city again to re-trigger it. Frustrating!

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