Someone sitting on the bench in Washington state actaully had enough sense to strikes down an unconstitutional violent video game law. Let the masses rejoice in a festival of gore-filled games!

Salon takes a look at Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in their usual irreverent way. I know my copy of the Miami Vice-inspired game of guns, drugs and mob rules hasn’t left my PS2 since I got it.

The game is nowhere close to being moral, nor has the series ever pretended to be. Then again, real life isn’t. Gangers movies aren’t. I say if people care to go on a murderous rampage, best to let them do it on a bunch of polygons for whatever reason they so choose. Even if it’s just over bad fashion sense:

Vice City practically eggs you on to play like a murderous Mister Blackwell, barreling down bystanders on a bad fashion jihad. (“You call that a necktie?” WHACK! “Suspenders are for farmers, sweetheart, not arbitrageurs!” SQUISH! “So many zippers, so little time.” THWUMP!)

Do I think everyone old enough to buy a pack of cigarettes who owns a PS2 should own this game? Yes. Do I think little Timmy and Suzie should be allowed within 25 feet of where this game is being played? Hell no! That’s why they rated it (and every other game in the series) for Mature audiences. I was happy as hell when the clerk at the store asked me if I was aware of it’s rating when I purchased it — self policing by the industry like that will give game makers that much more ammo to shut the mouths of over-zealous moralists (although the chances of that are about as close as the race between a Model-T and the Space Shuttle).

OK, rant over. I’m done now.

A short while ago I made reference to a shooter game called Rez, “a fusion of light, vibration and sound completely immersed in synaesthesia,” as its creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi puts it (translation: lots of pretty lights and sounds while you play). Well, leave it to those zany Japanese to find a way to enhance the game with some strange one-off peripheral:

A vibrator.

Not just any old vibrator, but a “trance vibrator” that pulses along with the music and game play. Human nature got the better of one girl gamer who was nice enough to share her experience with the rest of the world. I sense a sudden surge in sales once this little tidbit makes the rounds. Of course, the vibrator is only packaged with the Japanese version of the game, so those of you looking for some new stimulation from your PS2 need to import it.

This might be the first time in history where a man’s skill at a video game is a turn on for a woman. ^_^