Grand Theft Apology.

Some background: A few days ago, someone on the internets made a mock-up of a video game based on the Raoul Moat story.

It looked a bit like this:



Which as you can see, is a quick 'n' dirty photoshop job that achieves nothing more than making a joke. It's obviously an amateur job, and completely different to Rockstar's art style.

So, obviously, the Star did this:



Now, that story has since been taken off the site (understandably, because it's all complete and utter hogwash), and many bloggers and gaming sites have already torn the Daily Star a new one.

Today, however, the Daily Star have published an apology.

And what an apology it is.

I think it's fair to say that Rockstar Games have some fucking impressive lawyers, judging by the smackdown they've laid on the Star here, but it raises a couple of bigger questions:

-What would have happened if Rockstar had gone through the PCC? A square inch on page 24, apologising for anything they 'implied', at best, most likely.

-Did the Star ever believe it was real? The image is very crudely done, and I can't believe that anyone would ever consider it to be real - One has to wonder whether The Star found the picture, considered the implications of posting it, and just thought "Fuck it."

It must be refreshing for Rockstar to be on the moral majority's side for a change as well, after the banning of Manhunt 2 and the furore over EVERY SINGLE GRAND THEFT AUTO GAME EVER, and it shows a patent lack of understanding of the gaming industry from the Daily Star. Rockstar's games aren't gritty dramas set in oppressive cityscapes, with great writing and characterisation, no: They're games where you murder people, avoid the police, and nothing else. This, in turn, raises questions about the legitimacy of the 'outrage' the papers stir up every so often with gaming:- surely if they bothered their arses to play these games, they'd know that they aren't just 'murder simulators' or 'rape games', they're good games that both engage and entertain the player, and to dismiss them as anything less is... well, frankly, appalling journalism.

The Star has been well and truly demolished on this, but it's sad that it took one of the world's richest video games developers and what I'd imagine is an army of lawyers to get a decent apology out of the Desmond owned, bottom feeding scumbags that are the Daily Star.