"According to a report from newspaper La Vanguardia, by way of GamePolitics and Google's Spanish to English translator, Spain's cabbies are calling for a ban on Grand Theft Auto — Grand Theft Auto IV, we presume. After a Thai teenager was arrested on suspicion of murdering a taxi driver, claiming to have been inspired by GTA, the game was pulled from shelves in Thailand.

Now, Josep Maria Goñi, secretary general of the Catalan Taxi Federation, is asking the Spanish government to do the same,..."

"So does media imitate society, or does society imitate media? Since both are extensions of human nature, the answer can only be both. But as a video game, GTA is just a simulation - a make-believe world where you have no consequences for shooting peoples' heads off or cutting up cops with chainsaws while stoned off your ass.

These troubled teens have learned the hard way that reality doesn't translate well from video games and that they can't get away with everything.

Interestingly, ..."

"The NPD Group has worked with Forbes to release a list of top sellers over the last 15 years (since NPD began tracking point-of-sale data in North America). Interestingly, as further proof of the explosion in game industry growth in this century, the top games were all released after 2001.

Rockstar's "Hot Coffee"-licious GTA: San Andreas sold through 9.4 million units, and there's a chance that this year's GTA IV could break that figure to take the top spot. Activision's Guitar Hero III c..."

"Mr. Houser denies using those words, but says he has often felt the sentiment they imply. "That's an area I've grown up in, definitely," he says."

"It's all related to realism or their attempt at it. All the fun of the old GTAs has been severely reduced because you cant do stuff any more. The driving; you used to be able to fling the cars around at almost max speed - it was really fun. Now they are forcing you to drive slow at corners or you skid off. When you roll out of a car, you take tons of damage - it used to be much less. The driving isn't even realistic, ask anyone who drives. Someone on a forum joked that their Vauxhall Corsa ca..."

"We all feared that if EA took over Take 2 they would destroy GTA forever just like they have done with takeovers in the past. I think that EA would have completely destroyed GTA by trying to make it ’their’ game and just lose that GTA touch altogether. It wouldn’t be GTA at all. No one can do it as good as Rockstar.

We no longer need to worry because it hasn’t happened and Take 2 has rejected all of EA’s offers.

What’s your view on this? Do you think EA had the potential to destroy the ..."

"When did a videogame release become such a big deal?

Well, the U.S. videogame industry is worth a whopping $18.8 billion a year--that's less than McDonald's makes selling burgers and fries but 2.5 times as much as all the music CDs sold last year. It's also enough money to turn even the most conservative of entertainment executives' heads. Scott Steinberg, vice president of product marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America, predicts we're about to see the "GTA Effect"--box office sa..."

"Heroes, cities and decades change, but in the world of Grand Theft Auto, the hard-working hooker will forever remain. No matter what the year or console, we can always count on her to patrol our virtual streets.

Isn't it time, then, that this beloved gaming icon received the spotlight she deserves? And more importantly, isn't it fun to laugh at really cruddy last-gen graphics? We think so - which is why we've rounded up every prostitute we could find and pitted them against each other in a..."

"Just recently Hillary Clinton has been doing badly in the primary elections. For everyone with any interest in video games this is excellent news. Because she is one of those politicians who attack video games to further their own career. Her official website says that a priority as president would be: ”Protecting children against violence and sexual content in the media and studying the impact of electronic media on children’s cognitive, social, and physical development.” What this looks l..."

"• A proposed settlement of a class action lawsuit will provide replacement discs and/or cash to consumers who
purchased a valid copy of the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video game.
• The Plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim that copies of the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video game manufactured before
July 20, 2005 contained elements that could be modified to display scenes of a sexual nature that have come to be
referred to as the “Hot Coffee” content.
• You may receive a replacement of th..."

"The recent trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV portrays Liberty City as looking more like New York City, raising concerns among politicians over the inclusion of their city in a notoriously violent game. So, we investigated the cities of Grand Theft Auto (GTA) to find out which streets were the most dangerous to walk down as a gaming bystander."