Am I playing Grand Theft Auto or playing Grand Theft Normal Boring Life?

We’ve been saying for awhile that violent video games aren’t bad for kids, and now we’ve got research from Harvard to prove it.

They spent nearly one and a half million dollars in four years following the habits of 1,200 kids. As it turns out, violent games are a good way for kids to relieve stress and it doesn’t roll over to real life in most cases.

So it’s OK to let your 8 year-old run over hookers in GTA IV. It really is.

I actually can’t believe there aren’t more glitches in this massive game but Game Trailers finds a few good ones. Wait for the amazing black hole at the end.

via Kotaku

Downloadable content? For my PS3 version of GTA IV? It’s more likely than you think, at least according to Sony Computer Entertainment’s Reeves, who wouldn’t go so far as to confirm it’s coming, but was very vocal in saying “probably” to videogamer.com.

Downloadable content is one of the things Xbox owners like to hang over the heads of PS3 fans when it comes to GTA IV, and if a deal is struck soon, then we uppity Xbox owners just might get knocked down a notch or two.

An 18-year-old kid in the UK was walking home after purchasing a copy of GTA IV when he was mugged and beaten by two ruffians who stole his game and broke his jaw. They were caught, likely for racking up a two-star wanted level. They should have hidden down with the bike in that alley.

OK, this is getting way too real. You guys take care of each other out there, alright?

The story here isn’t that it was GTA IV that the kid got beaten up for, it was that he had something valuable the someone else wanted, and so they took it by force. This wouldn’t be news if it was, say, the new Mario Cart Kart game, but that’s how things work.

Two reasons why this article, “You get points for driving drunk in this game,” merits your attention. One, the author, Phil Villarreal, totally calls out a director of the Parents Television Council, the no-fun group that, for whatever reason, doesn’t want children playing violent video games like Grand Theft Auto IV. Two, his name is Villarreal, the name of the subcampéon of La Liga this year.

After a bit of this and that, Villarreal plainly asks the director, one Dan Isett, if he’s even played the game.

Did he?

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So you know how all those people have been up in arms about the adult content in games like GTA IV? And how they think that the ratings need to be tougher? A few politicians don’t think they go far enough. They want to actually start using retail cashiers to police who buys what, IDing people when they purchase to make sure they’re of age.

I’m OK with this for cigarettes and alcohol, but for a game? Games aren’t dangerous, but I guess someone has to think about the children. Or, how about if they go about the real work of congressmen, trying to end the war, feed the homeless, and fixing our gas prices?

Yes, Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and Jim Matheson (D-Utah), I’m talking to you. STFU & GBTW.

There was much speculation — especially on the part of this blogger — that the release of GTA IV the same week as Iron Man might hurt the films revenue, the idea being that nerds would be hunkered down with their Xboxes trying to finish the game, or that many had spent their monthly fun budget on the $60 game, with nothing left for Tony Stark.

That’s not the case. In fact, both the game and the film did boffo, with GTA IV bringing in close to $500 million, and Iron Man grossing $100 million its opening weekend.

Either nerds smartened up and saved for both, or they decided they needed a break from Roman, always bugging them on the phone. Both the game and film are absolutely excellent, and both worth the money, and that, I think, is the reason they both succeeded.

Soon after GTA IV launched it was rather apparent that all the bugs weren’t squashed for the PS3 and the only solution Rockstar could muster up was to re-install. Sometime today, if it hasn’t already happened, Sony and Rockstar will release a patch to help alleviate the stress being put on the servers.

“reducing the loads on the servers at GameSpy and hopefully the completely random hangs that some users have seen.”

Can any PS3 owners in the audience check on this for us?

EA’s current offer for Take-Two is set to expire on May 16 and it’s highly unlikely that EA will up the bid like T2 thinks it should. Yes, GTA IV sold more than $500 million globally making it one of the most profitable ‘entertainment’ events. If you recall, Halo 3 sold $400 million in the first week. Take-Two’s stock closed yesterday at $26.35, which is 61 cents higher than EA’s current offer of $25.74/share.

EA’s VP of corporate communications Jeff Brown spoke with GameIndustry.biz and says the current deal is “at best it’s a 50/50 proposition.” He also states that EA is not desperate to takeover T2 and that they just want to utilize their worldwide manufacturing prowess to rule the holiday season.

“EA’s not desperate,” he explained. “Part of our model for making this thing work at USD 2 billion is the assumption that if we can get this done in time to publish their games going into the Christmas holiday in ‘08 – because EA has an unchallenged publishing capability around the world – we could without question sell more units of those games than they could if they were on their own.

“The passage of time serves to weaken the value and the certainty of this deal.”

Brown goes on to say that T2’s decision to wait till after GTA IV was launched is ‘mystifying’ since everyone and their mom knew it would sell well. All this nonsense because EA slipped on some stupid ratings poll. Oh well. Good luck to you, EA.

GTA IV is still in the news. This week, Take Two, the publisher of the game, is suing the Chicago Transit Authority for pulling the game’s ads out of bus terminals and shelters without explanation.

Take Two paid Titan Outdoor, the group that handles advertising for the Authority, $300k for a six-week ad campaign. Titan Outdoor pulled the ads in response to a deadly crime wave that hit the city just as the ads were going up. Take Two, it seems, would like its money back.

We’ll keep you posted on how this develops.

Brian over at Kotaku found this little ad by Target and I have to admit it’s pretty ingenious, but then again it’s pretty stupid. If I already owned GTA IV, what the hell would I be doing cruising around on Target’s site for? Nice try, Target.

I hope you enjoyed your first weekend with Grand Theft Auto IV. I bet you didn’t even touch your Wii.

Yeah, that could be a problem for Nintendo.

The lack of GTA IV for the Wii has been noticed by Forbes, which says such a lack may “threaten” the Wii just as its existence on the PS3 may help revive Sony’s once-ailing console. (Not “ailing” in the sense that it was a failure, but in the sense that the perception was that there were no good games for it.) People may now be “over” the Wii’s quirky little charms after seeing what proper systems can do—good luck create a game with the same scale as GTA IV on the Wii—with proper games.

Now, Forbes clearly says “Wii won’t die,” but the overall suggestion, that Wii could be in for a bit of a rough patch, is certainly enough to upset the many diehard Nintendo fans, the kind who engage in flame wars online like they’re being paid.

Socio-nerd Clive Thompson reviewed GTA IV with a rhetorician’s eye for detail, discussing the “why” of why he liked the game and how cool it is to play through and find little tidbits of sheer beauty in something that should just be an average shoot-em-up.

I finally escaped by ducking into a subway station, and while catching my breath, I decided to explore a bit. That’s when I stumbled upon a lovely piece of artwork: A huge mosaic of a subway train on the second level. It looked precisely like the mosaics you see in the New York City subway, except even more ambitious and gorgeous. And I was thinking, “Man, who put this thing here? Who thinks of this stuff?”

Rockstar has always been good with detail. From the radio stations to giant beating hearts, they always add a little extra something to keep us constantly amazed. Although I probably won’t play through the entire game, I really like the aesthetics of this new version and totally agree with Clive.

I love springtime!

GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV.

GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV.

GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV. GTA IV.

(via GTA IV)

We talked back in March about how all of you nerds spending your time on GTA IV could mean a lull in sales for the opening weekend of Iron Man. Besides spending your weekly allowance on a $60 DVD, you’ll also likely be holed up without food or water, to engrossed in virtual drunk driving to go out and see a movie.

This weekend we’ll find out. Iron Man opens on Friday nationwide, and by that time most people will be four days deep in GTA IV. The film and the game have the same basic target audience, but will they be able to split their time this weekend?

Of course, if you’re in San Francisco you can go watch it today courtesy of us at the Crunch Network, no matter what Marvel says.

GTA IV fever is far from over, and the controversies are still pouring in. But for one organization, it’s not the sexual content or graphic violence of the game that they find objectionable, it’s the in-game drunk driving.

MADD, or Mothers Against an Average Weekend, released this statement today:

Each year nearly 13,500 people die in drunk driving crashes and another half a million are injured in alcohol-related traffic crashes. This is why MADD is extremely disappointed by the decision of the manufacturers of the game Grand Theft Auto IV to include a game module where players have to drive drunk. Drunk driving is not a game and it is not a joke. Drunk driving is a choice, a violent crime and it is also 100 percent preventable. MADD is calling on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board to reclassify Grand Theft Auto IV as an Adults Only game, a step up from the current rating of Mature and for the manufacturer to consider a stop in distribution – if not out of responsibility to society then out of respect for the millions of victims/survivors of drunk driving.

True enough, but does it really qualify — over the other, more obvious questionable material in the game — as something that should have a dreaded AO rating?

How’s your GTA IV day going? We know many of you are skipping work and school and court dates to play the game, and that’s fine.

We’re getting in varied reports of people getting lock-ups during the title screens. If you’ve got the game, is it working for you? Locking up? Have you had a virtual blow job yet? Let us know in the comments.

Disappointed because you didn’t pre-order GTA IV and now can’t play it like everyone else? Even if that’s the case, don’t fall victim to e-mail hoaxes that, according to spam filtering house ClearMyMail, have accounted for more than 50 percent of all spam messages in the past day.

Repeated for emphasis, because italics alone do not convey the gravity of the situation: GTA IV spam—”get your FREE copy HERE“—has accounted for 50 percent of all e-mail spam today.

This isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. ClearMyMail also noted increased spam activity for other sought-after items, including the Wii ’round Christmastime. Look for more of the same when iPhone 2.0 comes out, which can’t happen soon enough.

Bottom line, my fellow Americans, is not to click on strange e-mails. How much nicer the world would be if people merely exercised proper restraint and exhibited sound judgement.