The biggest hype around the big GTA franchise is the release of GTA IV on the Xbox 360 and PS3. OK, maybe the biggest hype about GTA right now is the fact that there are early copies (first PAL, then NTSC) of the game floating around on torrent sites, but second to that, it’s the impending simultaneous release of the game on April 29 2008, officially. A couple of GTA IV launch parties are even happening in the Johannesburg area (Arranged by BTGames, probably others too). And you know what? I couldn’t be less excited about it.

Rockstar aren’t idiots, that’s for sure. A lot (all??) of their recent games were met with controversy, either causing them to change the name of the game (As was the case for Bully on the PS2, that had to be renamed to Canis Canem Edit for PAL territories), or print new versions with edited-out content, or having to fight to get the game actually released in a country. But with GTA IV, it seems they’re just getting the whole “Gaming is escapism” thing a bit wrong. I don’t *want* to play a game where, in one instance in Australia, the game had to be edited to remove a certain part of the game where “the scene involves a weapon being inserted into an enemies private area during a mission”. A game that contains that kind of content is really no longer a game is it? It’s bordering on reality-simulator isn’t it? Even the war violence in a game like Call of Duty 4 is not as serious as what GTA has become.

I have to admit, I’m curious about the game, as I’ve seen screenshots and the game looks *good*. Really good. But not curious enough to fork out R650-odd for the game (More than R1000 if you want the special edition). I suppose my arm could be twisted to review a copy, as I try to stay objective regardless of my personal opinion on a game before even playing it.