Ghost of a flea: Things will be different

? Zeraphine: New Year's Day | Main | Kleerup feat. Robyn: Every Heartbeat ?

June 12, 2007

Things will be different

This Grand Theft Auto IV trailer was supposedly produced using the RAGE game engine. Spectacular. I hope they hold on to Philip Glass for more than "Pruitt-Igoe" for the game soundtrack too...

Predictably, New York City officials take exception to all this free publicity; worrying, as usual, more for the care of the simulation than the city.

"It's despicable to glamorize violence in games like these, regardless of how far-fetched the setting may be," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. "The mayor does not support any video game where you earn points for injuring or killing police officers," said Jason Post, a spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg.

"Setting Grand Theft Auto in the safest big city in America would be like setting Halo in Disneyland," said City Councilman Peter Vallone, chairman of the Council's Public Safety Committee.

Because that would not be extremely cool.

In related news: An unexceptional cathedral made far more interesting in its virtuality than ever it had been in its actuality. The Church of England will not sit still for that (hat tip to Mr. Pack).

The Church of England on Sunday asked entertainment giant Sony to apologise and contribute a large donation for featuring a prominent British cathedral in a violent video game. Church officials had earlier accused Sony of using the historic interior of Manchester Cathedral, where memorials for gun crime victims have been held, as the backdrop for parts of the new Playstation 3 game, "Resistance: Fall of Man" without permission.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at June 12, 2007 06:54 AM

Comments

Speaking of simulations, I trust you read about this.

I'm not into GTA (being more of a Myst type of gal), so I'll leave it to those who are to decide whether GTA:SPQR would be wicked cool. (You could also do Grand Theft Chariot, I suppose. Or Ben Hur. The possibilities are endless!)

Posted by: Angie Schultz at June 12, 2007 12:47 PM

GTA:SPQR deserves to be built if only for the acronym! Though I like the idea of chariotjacking too.

Posted by: Ghost of a flea at June 12, 2007 01:11 PM