Video game outrage

April 30th, 2008, 23:06 Posted By: wraggster

The public got its first look Tuesday at controversial video game Grand Theft Auto IV.

Multimedia Watch The Video It's jammed full of sex, drugs, and lots of blood-soaked violence, and it's flying off store shelves.

"It's a good game, man. You get to run over cops, kill people, run them over," one man buying the game on Tuesday said.

For some people, that is a disturbing sign of the times.

One of the groups lining up in criticizing the game is Philadelphia's police union.

It's expected to be the hottest-selling video game ever, and it was the reason hundreds lined up at midnight to buy the shoot 'em up thriller, chock full of sex and violence.

"The glorification of killing of any police officer is just wrong. I mean, it desensitizes people to the real mayhem that's going on out on the streets, and we already have a real problem with people not valuing human life," said Eugene Blagmond, of the Fraternal Order of Police.

But that didn't seem to stop gamers from lining up Tuesday, including four police officers in the span of an hour spotted buying the controversial game.

Gamers said the critics' contention that these games could spur violence against cops is wrong.

"It's a way to get out frustration, you know, so that you wouldn't do that in real life, I would like to believe," another man said.

"People don't seem to have a problem turning guns on cops, and this game -- I know it's just a game, but people sometimes have trouble separating reality from fantasy," Blagmond countered.

Estimates are that Grand Theft Auto IV could make upwards of $400 million in its first week alone.

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