25 to Life Backlash Continues
The furor over 25 to Life seems to have reached - and passed - the tipping point
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Law enforcement groups and elected official all over the United States have taken steps to protest the game. The latest - but certainly not the last - is an online petition created by New York State Senator Dale Volker (R, seen at left).
In a related press release, Volker, himself a former police officer, vows to pressure Microsoft and Sony to cancel licensing agreements with Eidos, publisher of 25 to Life.
Meanwhile, savage critical reviews continue to plague 25 to Life. The latest, penned by Matt Paprocki at Breaking Windows 2.0 is one of the harshest yet.
"This abysmal, cheap, generic, ugly, and flat out disgusting 3rd person shooter exists solely because Eidos knew it would cause the mainstream media to jump on it. That translates to sales, and the more people that play this one, the fewer gamers we have in the world. They won't stick around after this."
"25 to Life isn't just stupid. It's a combination of stupid and dumb, creating a new term for its self: stumb..."
GP: Stumb? ...we like that word!
"Police have a right to protest against this game being on store shelves, but not because it lets the player shoot them. It's because they're portrayed as gun toting maniacs. "
Finally, Next Generation ran an interview late last week with Bill Gardner, Eidos CEO. In discussing the 25 to Life controversy, Gardner told Next Gen, "The game, I thought, was weak. It rated poorly. But the politicians felt that they should step on the game, which caused it to show up much bigger than any marketing money we might have put behind it... I tried to ask them not to but they didn't listen. So the reason that the game got attention and sold at all was because the politicians and the mouthpieces decided to make such a noise."