Bravo, Rockstar. Not for making another game of the Grand Theft Auto series wildly successful, but for making those foolish and naive Congressmen and women along with angry news anchors do it for you. I have to admit, if I had doubted the game one bit before its release, Katie Couric would have put a stop to that with the story I saw while my parents flipped through the news. Seriously, who wouldn’t want to buy this game if they read a story like this ? But that’s just the way things go in the world today; people think they’re doing the public a service by telling them of the evils of a media and they, in turn, give that media free publicity

What seems to be the biggest problem with these self-proclaimed "saints" is that they blind themselves to the obvious truth that video games are still not just for kids. Long-gone are the days that the most violence things kids could see while holding a controller in their hands was a pixelated plumber jumping on what kind of looks like a mushroom with feet (or their drunken father beating their mother, but, of course, none of the problem lies with parents). It’s as if these people believe that there is no rating system designed to stop 5-year-old little Timmy from playing games like Halo or Gears of War. It’s as if the kind folks at GameStop are just handing out copies of Assassins Creed and a free sword to butcher your friends with.

I admit that video games can cause young minds to think that certain behavior is acceptable, but that’s exactly why we have the ESRB rating every game that’s released. That’s why a parent needs to be with a kid when they pick up a copy of a Mature rated game. They legally can’t sell it without the parent right there. And they have to explain to the parent what a Mature rating is and why the media has that rating. It’s far more in-depth than anything you would find if you bought a violent movie. I invite you to see if you can find a legitimate store in your town to let a minor buy Grand Theft Auto IV without a parent’s permission before you can find one that allows the purchase of Scarface on DVD to the same kid.

That being said, Grand Theft Auto is absolutely amazing. By far the best in the series. The graphics do a decent job especially with lighting. But, as is always the strong point of the games, the story-telling and characters are top-notch. Niko is one of the best characters I’ve spent time with in a video game. And the small touches in the game (for example: different in-game websites you can visit, flying out of car windows when hitting something hard, radio-banter, etc.) make it an all-around fantastic experience. But, without a doubt, the most impressive feature this time around would have to be the multiplayer. No, there’s no co-op, but that doesn’t matter when you can run around the entire city with a few friends going anywhere you can in the single-player game. The city is your playground, there are no cops, there are tons of weapons everywhere, oh, and help yourself to any helicopters. Yeah.

I advise you to pick this politically-incorrect game up as soon as possible… as long as your of age, of course.