Gearfuse

I’m sure you can pick this up at every other subway stop in New York, but, ah, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Tarzan? Nice. Real nice.

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This has gotta hurt the ego of Take-Two and Rockstar Games. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, the latest iteration of GTA on the Nintendo DS, hasn’t been selling. At all. Since its release in March, it’s sold a mere 88,704 copies. Compare that with over 7 million copies of GTA IV and you have a complete massacre. Business Insider thinks the reason for the lack of sales is due to the fact that most DS owners are children, with which I somewhat agree.

Regardless, Rockstar better start pushing this game hard or its top franchise is in for a hurtin’.

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A Thai youth confessed to robbing and murdering a taxi driver while trying to recreate a scene from Grand Theft Auto 4. It is said that he was curious about whether or not it was as easy to steal a taxi in real life as it is in the game. Well kid, it is. Was your curiosity worth the pending charge that could result in death by lethal injection?

In an effort to disparage future occurrences of impressionable kids gone mad, Sakchai Chotikachinda, sales and marketing director of New Era Interactive Media has urged distributors to pull the game from their shelves. This is the worst news we’ve heard since Rockstar Games declared a GTA for the DS. We all know no gamer is more impressionable than a Nintendo fan boy.

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Grand Theft Auto mania is running wild, brother! We figured in the spirit of the game’s release, many of you hooligans are either feeling the game so much that you’ve got your own little real life crime spree planned, or you’re so scared from the game’s contents, that you’re ready to go all out military protection and armor down the hatchets.

Either way, we’ve got you covered. (more…)

I won’t be able to check out GTA IV until later tonight, but apparently, if you venture into an Internet cafe and explore around the private network the Rockstar crew has set up, you’ll find a page poking fun at everyone’s favorite company.

Instead of Apple, you see Fruit. And yes, it implies two things. That you are gay because you use Apple products and that you are a snob. While both aren’t necessarily true for every Mac user out there, it’s still a fun jab at the corporate world. After all, would you expect any less from the guys who let you fuck hookers in cabs? Didn’t think so.

Love the banana-shaped iPhone.

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More than a year ago we wrote about an artist who featured drawings made using only the super-retro Etch-A-Sketch. Sorry to Mr. Gagliardi. I mean, we love the fact that you have the awesomeness to feature the word “Gag” in your name, but this artist, who made a rendition of the Grand Theft Auto IV cover art on his Etch, totally blows you out of the water.

This boy has got some serious sk1llz! He calls himself The Etch-A-Sketchist and a name as mysterious as that is always cool. Some serious work must have went into this cover piece because there is some crazy detail. Etch-A-Sketch doesn’t make it very easy. I mean, you can’t just trace over the box. It takes a keen eye.

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Though GTA IV might be causing more controversy since the release of its trailer than the other games in the all-around controversial Grand Theft Auto series, the buzz around the game might even overwhelm the political backlash. These scanned photos from the newest Game Informer magazine reveal a little more detail about the game and its pretty incredible graphics.

The shot shown above is a great example of the realism the game offers, which we’re pretty sure is the reason NY politicians are steamed over the game. Hey, as long as there isn’t airplane themed terrorism going on, who the hell cares right? The main character is Serbian for gods sakes, not Afghani. Everyone just has to chill about it. It’s a game, not a cultural revolution. Or is it? Either way it looks absolutely amazing. (more…)

Well, that settles it then. The Russian guy shown in the GTA IV trailer seems to be confirmed through the newest cover of Game Informer magazine. After the release of the uber-hyped Grand Theft Auto IV trailer late last week, speculation was a brewin’ on whether the man featured in the trailer was to be the main character or was just some thug used as a teaser. His appearance on the magazine cover seems to be a confirmation.

And if it isn’t a confirmation, we ask, Why the hell would they put him on the cover? The magazine cover also features the first official release of GTA IV artwork. What else will lurk inside the pages? — Andrew Dobrow

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The fallout was inevitable. What else could you respect from a game trailer that glorifies the slaughter of mass amounts of people and the theft of their vehicles in the streets of a New York City-esque Liberty City? Politicians are almost as hyped up about the GTA IV trailer as tech blogs were the last few days. We suppose the anger is justified, but we hate the idea of gaming being exploited for political gain. *cough, cough* Tipper Gore *cough cough*

NYC councilman Peter Vallone says “Setting Grand Theft Auto in the safest big city in America is like setting Halo in Disneyland”. Halo in Disneyland you say? Now, that’s a good idea! A spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg also spoke out saying that the Mayor condones no game where cops are killed or injured. Well, that’s just odd. Take Two Interactive remains quite on the subject, retaining their duck and cover PR strategy. — Andrew Dobrow

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Here it is. After the long wait and the sustained suspense the GTA IV trailer has finally been unleashed on the public. The game looks awesome. Simple as that. The city looks like a mock up of NYC and the game will no doubt be a HUGE hit. — Andrew Dobrow