San Francisco- The industry group that sets ratings for video games is probing whether hidden features within the blockbuster title “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” allows players to make their characters engage in simulated explicit sex acts.
The ESRB’s investigation will examine whether the mod unlocks preexisting code, as appears to be the case, or is actually a purely third-party creation.
“While San Andreas is already full of violent behavior and sexual themes, the pornographic sex scenes push it over the edge,” said David Walsh, founder of The Minneapolis-based National Institute on the Media and the Family, which issued a “nationwide parental alert” Friday.
“We also feel confident that the investigation will uphold the original rating of the game, as the work of the mod community is beyond the scope of either publishers or the ESRB,” Rockstar said in the statement.
“If after a thorough and objective investigation of all the relevant facts surrounding this modification, we determine a violation of our rules has occurred, we will take appropriate action,” ESRB’s Vance said.
There have been instances where ESRB has discovered undisclosed content in a video game and changed a rating, said an ESRB spokesman, who declined further comment on the current investigation.
If the investigation were to lead to a rating change from M (Mature 17+) to AO (Adult Only), it could limit sales from major retail outlets.
Review of the game from Gaming Horizon: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Review:
Chances are that if you haven’t heard of the Grand Theft Auto series of games, you probably got to this page from a Google search looking for car alarms or something along those lines. And even if that is the case, chances are you have still heard of the series mentioned by various congressmen and sensationalist news reports condemning the highly-popular “virtual prostitute murdering game”. Because truth be told, the GTA series has had a large impact in the gaming industry and society alike, re-examining what the limits of a videogame are, and pushing them to the extent where you control a character who has free will in a large virtual environment, able to do just about anything he pleases. And now Rockstar has pushed those boundaries even farther with the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Originally released for the PlayStation 2 under a year ago, the game has finally hit the Xbox.
The year is 1992, and after a few years in Liberty City, Carl Johnson is ready to return to the streets of San Andreas. No sooner than it takes him to leave the airport, Carl is confronted with the harsh reality of what his former stomping grounds have transformed into: his mother has been murdered; his gang, the Grove Street Families, are falling apart and losing turf with in-fighting, crack, and increased turbulence with rival gangs; crooked cops are already making his life miserable; and the friends and family he was once close with now question his return and view him as a deserter. This is just the beginning of a story that once again one-ups itself from the rest of the series with realistic characters with real personalities and traits, plot twists and just plain fun as Carl works his way up the criminal ladder, taking jobs from various individuals such as his gang, crooked cops, the Chinese Triad, a whacked-out pot dealer and even jobs that he puts together himself to further propel himself on up.
The missions Carl goes on range from mowing enemy gang members down drive-by style on his home turf to intercepting top-secret government property, starting businesses and doing what he can to destroy the competition, and your GTA staples like tailing missions, chase missions, run-from-the-cops missions, assassinations and all the rest that give you that warm and fuzzy feeling of familiarity. Indoor missions are back and better than before, featuring larger areas to play in that are more detailed and better constructed layout-wise. In many of these missions Carl can use the abilities seen in Rockstar’s other controversial game, Manhunter, and hide in the shadows to sneak up quietly behind enemies and kill them silently. He can also manually aim from afar for a head shot with a silenced pistol and no one will be the wiser. The new stealth addition to gameplay is a breath of fresh air to the series and really changes the way you approach missions. There are also many side missions and minigames to play; Carl can pimp his rides at upgrade shops and race them, date girls, play pool, gamble, pimp, burglarize houses, start gang wars on other gangs’ turf and claim it, buy a wide assortment of clothes and much more. The amount of things to do in San Andreas is mind-boggling when you try to sit down and recall it all at once.
San Andreas is a huge leap for the series, mostly due to the mammoth scale of the city -correction – state of San Andreas. The previous GTA titles allowed you to run rampant in a city divided into two or three areas to unlock. With SA, players are set loose in Los Santos, a recreation of Los Angeles down to the orange haze always present in the sky, palm trees, pier, LA (or LS in this case) river, the run down flats of the Compton-type ghettos to the downtown financial district, beach houses, country clubs, mansions – it’s all there, and all available to you as soon as you boot up the game. Like all GTA games, completing missions for various bosses will allow you to continue the story and then unlock more parts of the city, and in this case additional cities in the state unlock.
Next up would be San Fierro – you guessed it, a GTA-styled San Fransisco, complete with Golden Gate Bridge, Transamerica building, insane hills perfect for recreating chase scenes from Bullitt, and the famous colourful Victorian style houses. Also a part of the outskirts of San Fierro is what’s known as Mt. Chiliad, which has to be the largest object ever to be seen in a videogame. Its tip is usually enshrouded with clouds, but that doesn’t mean you can’t hike, bike, drive, or get to the top by aircraft if you wanted to. It just takes quite a while.
Las Vegas would be the last stop; known as Las Venturas in San Andreas, this huge piece of desert is home to gambling and everything else that earns it the nickname Sin City. The huge desert is there, complete with the top-secret government facility in the middle of the desert, blocks and blocks of the cookie-cutter suburban homes, and of course the vast main strip of casinos that light up the nights with neon lights.
You can take a train to get from city to city, but of course cars play a major role in getting around too; the cars are all from the early 90’s and earlier, featuring earlier models of cars we’ve seen in previous GTA’s and all-new additions like the Turismo (McLaren F1) and Bullet (Ford GT). The cars can be customized at garages now, allowing you to add hydraulics (essential for low-rider competitions), nitro, and change cosmetic things like rims, custom paint jobs, lights, spoilers and more. Various racing side missions will find you returning to the garages for that added edge against the competition, as well as just being able to increase your odds against Johnny Law when you know a mission is going to require a quick getaway from the cops. All forms of aircraft are now at your disposal in San Andreas as well, including commercial, rescue, industrial and fighter helicopters complete with machine gun and missiles, planes in the form of huge 747-style passenger planes which you can either buy tickets for a trip on or hijack, private jets, fighter jets which work similar to Harrier jump jets in that you’re able to hover off the ground before taking off; you can even engage in dog fights with these jets. And should you wind up in trouble in the air, simply ditch the aircraft and pull out yet another addition – the parachute. You can skydive from the plane, hover around into the direction you want, and then pull the cord for a safe landing. This also comes in handy for base jumping off high buildings and is an extremely fun new feature in GTA.