Taken from
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Senator Calls For Ban Of Shoot-'Em-Up Video Game
POSTED: 7:25 am PDT June 20, 2005
UPDATED: 11:11 am PDT June 20, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO -- A U.S. senator called for a ban Monday of a South Of Market video company's new game that allows players to attack police with an arsenal of weapons including Molotov cocktails, broken bottles and baseball bats.
Senator Charles Schumer, D-NY, says the objective of the game called "25 to life" is to shoot police officers, and use civilians as human shields. He claims the game is so gruesome that it lowers common decency.
"It's the worst in a series of violent and gruesome games that lower the common denominator of decency," said Schumer, who is spearheading efforts to block the game from hitting stores in September and also is urging leading game platform manufacturers Sony and X-Box maker Microsoft to cancel their licensing agreements with the company's British-based parent company.
"We want to stop it," the New York Democrat said in a Monday news conference "Bottom line is, we are asking every retailer not to stock this game."
The game, created by the British company Eidos, is similar to the best-selling "Grand Theft Auto" series, but Schumer claims goes even he further.
'25 To Life' makes "'Grand Theft Auto' look like 'Romper Room,'" Schmuer said.
The company's website says the video game allows the player to "experience the gritty lifestyles of police task forces or as an iced out gangster." The game's soundtrack features some of the biggest names in Rap music.
The Entertainment Software Rating Board has given the game a M (Mature) rating, warning parents that they game is only suitable for for persons ages 17 and older. In its rating, the ESRB says the game contains blood and gore, drug reference, intense violence, sexual themes and strong language
multiplayer gangster games are the future 
