New York appalled with GTA IV setting

Political leaders, politicians and policemen have already downloaded the GTA IV trailer, watched it numerous times and gone apeshit at the fact that the fictional city resembles New York. You can see thetrailer here.

While the city does resemble New York, it's actually the old GTA haunt Liberty City, which, as we all know, is heavily based on NYC. You can read more about thesimilarities between the cities based on thetrailerhere.

"Setting Grand Theft Auto in the safest big city in America would be like setting Halo in Disneyland," said City Councilman Peter Vallone, chairman of the council's public safety committee.

The New York Daily News reported "Grand Theft Auto is set in a mythical city that bears a striking resemblance to New York." Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly isn't one bit impressed. "It's despicable to glamorize violence in games like these, regardless of how far-fetched the setting may be."

Jason Post, a spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg, put the final nail in GTA IV's coffin: "The mayor does not support any video game where you earn points for injuring or killing police officers."

April 2, 2007