‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ is spectacular, but not for kids

Last night I beat up two prostitutes.

I also ran over countless pedestrians, murdered a rival drug dealer and was killed in a shootout with the police - without even leaving my couch.

If you haven't heard by now, Grand Theft Auto IV, by Rockstar games, the latest in the company's series of ultra-violent and controversial video games, has hit store shelves. The makers have outdone themselves yet again, as the game is a masterpiece in detail, graphics and most of all, fun. For adults, that is.

The cars themselves look very realistic - you can tell the designers really took their time in the game's minute details - and a Prius-like auto is even available for gamers who want to be environmentally friendly while performing a drive-by shooting.

But for me, it's the little things that make the game stand out. In past games, for example, if you couldn't open a car's door, you couldn't drive it. In GTA IV, however, you can shatter the car's window by kicking it, elbowing it, or even throwing a brick through it, which I thought was a nice touch. If you are driving at high speed and hit a stationary object, your character is sent flying through the windshield, leaving a bloody smear wherever he lands. And your character can even log on to the Internet and visit matchmaking Web sites, watch television or deposit money in an ATM.

But if I were a parent, there is no way I would let my child play GTA IV unless he or she was at least old enough to attend high school - or older. The language alone is salty enough to make any gangsta rapper blush, and the violence and sexual content even surprised me, a fan of the Grand Theft Auto franchise for the past 10 years.

Apparently, other people feel even more strongly about GTA IV. Florida attorney Jack Thompson, for one, called GTA IV "the gravest assault upon children in this country since polio."

And since the game is set in Liberty City, an obvious allusion to New York City, naturally NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg, as well as the city's police - who are lampooned throughout the game - are going to have an issue with how their city is depicted. Even the license plates on all of the cars are almost an exact match of those used in the state of New York, the only difference being that they all read "LIBERTY CITY." I'm personally hoping GTA V will take place in Texas; everyone carries a gun here, right?

Feminists have cried foul, too, and I guess I can't blame them. Throughout the game, for example, the main character, Niko, an eastern European immigrant, has the ability to pick up a prostitute in his car just by honking the horn. One can clearly see the hooker performing her - ahem - services in the front seat of Niko's car for the bargain price of $20. That's not the sort of thing I'd want to explain to a young child, especially since gamers have the ability to kill the prostitutes and get their money back after the ladies' "services" have been utilized.

To add to the mayhem, in multiple scenarios, Niko performs a grisly execution with a pistol at point-blank range. Drug use is rampant throughout the game, and the violence alone eclipses any video game I've ever played, without giving too much away about the storyline.

The GTA series is probably my favorite in terms of video games, with honorable mention to the venerable Madden football franchise. GTA's violence, ethnic stereotypes and sexual innuendo are part of the series' charm and keep me in stitches. But in my opinion, GTA IV might be too much for younger, more impressionable gamers.

If I had to grade the game, I'd give it an A+ in a heartbeat. On the downside, though, GTA IV costs $60 and requires either an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 to play it. Both systems, by the way, run in excess of $300.

So if you're a young adult, you have access to an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 and if you find an extra $60, I highly recommend you go out and buy Grand Theft Auto IV. There are some differences, mostly positive, from the previous GTA games, but you will not be disappointed.

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Andy Comer is a copy editor for The Monitor. He can be reached at acomer@themonitor.com.