I refuse to make some snarky, sarcastic entry about the Hot Coffee fiasco. I've had it. I don't care anymore. It went out of control, becoming an orgy of press and populace. Nutter protestors and politicians (and Jack Thompson, who deserves a category all his own) are on a rampage, going after everyone and anyone who looks at em' funny. It's like watching those insane Japanese arcade gamers bust-a-groove to Dance Dance Revolution. And much like the DDR fanatics of the far east, I don't know what the hell these protestors are doing (besides making a lot of noise, drawing tons of attention, and scaring me just a little). But do I care? No. And I refuse to make any sort of quasi-witty remark about it all. That would just be childish of me, wouldn't it?

Now, with that said and done, here's the deal: Rockstar Games has tossed up NoMoreHotCoffee.com, a website that offers a content patch which (I presume) will be added to future releases of San Andreas.

Even though it's your own choice as to whether or not you install Hot Coffee in the first place, if you're one of those paranoid few who think garden gnomes are going to bust into your room late at night and install Hot Coffee under the cover of darkness, you may want to take a look at this patch.

Related Links:
NoMoreHotCoffee.com
Rockstar Games Tech Support (If you're having trouble installing the patch)

For the most part, it seems the Hot Coffee controversy has been put on the back burner pending the outcome of the FTC investigation. So what have the critics done to channel their self-righteous rage and stay in the spotlight? Well, in Thompson's case, as you've surely heard already, he's simply widened his fear-mongering campaign against The Sims, Bully, and Killer 7, among others. He also found time in his busy schedule to do an 80 minute radio interview over at ChatterBox Video Game Radio. At one point in the interview, he all but agrees that Hot Coffee was okay in an M rated game since the actors were all fully clothed, while attempting to further demonize The Sims 2. The best part of the interview was when he attacked Rockstar North...

And now we have a lawyer sitting in Miami spreading racial and hurtful stereotypes about people he accuses of doing the same. Brilliant. Someone send this man a dictionary so he can look up the definitions of irony and hypocrisy.

Elsewhere in the "land of the free", the Governor of Michigan is also trying to help protect the children by preventing adults from buying San Andreas. As reported on GamesIndustry.biz, said Governor is pressuring retailers in her state to refuse to stock AO games, and the Michigan House is contemplating legislation to make it law. So, let me get this straight, the goal of this new anti-game McCarthyism is to protect kids, but now lawmakers want to make it illegal for stores to sell them at all? Even to adults? Sounds an awful lot to me like outright censorship, albeit in a dodgy, roundabout manner. The funny part is, while there's all this hooplah over retailers selling M or AO rated games, a number of chains which pulled San Andreas continue to carry NC17 and unrated DVDs with no resistance.

And on a final note, GamesIndustry.biz has a story about Bully which further demonstrates that the critics just don't get it. In this story which mentions that the folks at Bullying Online have been invited by Rockstar to preview Bully (which is news in and of itself), the anti-bullying group's director, Liz Carnell, was quoted as saying the following:

Do these people need a 30 foot tall chart with neon letters showing that over 60% of gamers now are over the age of 18 to realize that games aren't just for kids anymore? If, in some bizarre twist, all parents actually did do their jobs and stop letting their kids play mature games, the industry would carry on just fine selling these games to the massive 18-34 year old demographic for which the games are intended. Since when is it shooting oneself in the foot to make products for the most profitable market share? That's almost like saying the automobile industry would go bankrupt if parents stopped buying cars for 8 year olds.

Correction: ChatterBox Video Game Radio doesn't just air on the web, but on traditional broadcast radio too. Sorry about the mix up.

Kick back, relax. Have yourself a sandwich. Just because Chappelle's Show has officially bitten the dust, it doesn't mean that the world is without it's humour. Take the following email, for instance - sent on behalf of the "entire gaming industry" to Patrick (the modder behind Hot Coffee), it seems to have come from someone who wasn't breast fed enough as a child. Pat did nothing wrong, of course - he just uncovered a nifty lil' bit of code. Too bad some thickheads just can't seem to grasp the fact that Patrick is not at fault. Yeesh.

Anyway, here's the email.

This coming from a man whose company seems to rely on the likes of MS Paint for visual effects, has a development staff of 5 (4 of which are under the age of 18), sends "corporate emails" from his aol email address, and worst of all... relies on Yahoo! PageBuilder to design his website.

Seriously. Ewww. If you can't even handle basic HTML markup, please, stay out of the programmer kitchen. Ye' who knows not of what he speaks should shut his trap, aye?

Now, if you'd like to give Joe a nice, big hug (or throw your two cents at him en massé), his email is [email protected], and his "company" website is at www.hyperactiveproductions.net.

Much homie love from GTANet, Joe. Much homie love.

GamePolitics.com, the gaming news supersite that deals with the delicate relationship between the videogame community and the political world, has been in a flurry of GTA mania lately. It's not surprising, of course - the Hot Coffee controversy has brought both sides out swinging. If (for some reason) you don't have these guys bookmarked, here's a rundown of today's top stories:

Wacko Jacko sets sights on Vice City... again.

Seems our old friend from the south is on a roll. His latest attack on the GTA franchise comes in response to the interview illspirit had with GamePolitics.com earlier, and in typical Thompson form, it's a mangled mishmash of twisted words and statements taken out of context.

GTA blamed, in part, for triple-homicide.

Devin Moore went on a rampage through a police department in Florida back in '03, and is now in court for the murder of two police officers and a police dispatcher. His grounds for defense? Insanity - Moore's compulsive playing of GTA drove him to kill.

From what I can see so far, it's a textbook "the *insert popular culture item here* made me do it" defense, something that has been used time and time again throughout the years.

Protestors rise up against T2 & Rockstar

Washington-based activist group Peaceoholics raged against Take Two Interactive on Tuesday in protest of the upcoming Rockstar Games title "Bully". Bully is set in the fictional boys-only school of Bullworth Academy, and looks like it'll feature a free-roaming, melee-combat atmosphere similar to Grand Theft Auto. The game is the first major title from Rockstar Vancouver, and stays in line with the "bad boy" image Rockstar Games has given itself. Up until now, however, all of the controversial titles have come from Rockstar North (based in Scotland).

Protestors picketed outside of T2's Manhattan offices to voice their opposition, waving signs that read "Prosecute Rockstar Games - they are Felons!", "Stop Bully Now!", and so on. The group was led by activist Ronald Moten who had this to say to WABC TV news:

Oh shit, they're onto us - stash the hash, man, it's the fuzz!

Along with their march outside of Take Two's corporate offices (it seems that Jack Thompson was also on hand for the event), the Peaceoholics issued the following list of demands:

- Not to release Bully under any circumstances

- Volunteer to sell its violent and sexually explicit games in adult video stores only.

- Let parents return Grand Theft Auto for a full refund until they do a national awareness campaign to educate parents of content and possible effects.

- Create a fund for victims of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and car-jackings, etc.

- Make a national apology for misleading and lying to children, parents, and legislators about their intentions and causing insurance premiums to sky rocket.

- Give a written response within five business days of receipt of these demands.

Fun stuff.

Source: GamePolitics.com

In other news, this is why I love webcomics.

Check out the BBC's latest piece about the ESRB/Hot Coffee fiasco, written by our very own illspirit.

"It's also worth mentioning that nearly everyone in the GTA3/Vice City/San Andreas mod scene have purchased each title twice. Each of those three games was released in the month of October for the PlayStation 2, with the PC version following in May or June of the year after. Most of us ran out to buy the console versions to play the games as soon as they came out, and later bought them again for PC just for the mods. So for Rockstar, the ESRB, or the US Congress to prevent us from modding games would have a devastating impact on sales."

The program creates CAR packages for your custom made cars complete with all data needed for installing the car and checks for the need of Dmagic1 wheel mod so that almost nothing can go wrong during installation, the program also contains many useful features which are dedicated to car modders such as manual car data installer and San Andreas col into dff merging which will be extremely helpful in the future. The program works with all 3D gta games, that are GTA3, Vice city and San andreas.

Click here to get it.