GTA knockoff Saints Row 2 launches today, and a spokesman for the NYPD has criticized THQ's new crime game for its graphic depictions of virtual violence against police officers.

As reported by the New York Daily News:

A blood-soaked new video game boasts enough violence, guns and gratuitous sex to make Grand Theft Auto seem as tame as Pac-Man - and it has cops hopping mad.

The over-the-top Saints Row 2 encourages players to butcher cops with chain saws, smoke drugs, annihilate rival gangsters and run prostitution rings... Many in law enforcement and politics don't find any of it remotely entertaining.

Patrick Lynch, who heads the NYPD union, told the Daily News:

These horrible and violent video games desensitize young people to violence while encouraging depravity, immorality while glorifying criminal behavior.

The newspaper also has a quote from our old pal Jack Thompson:

Jack Thompson, a Florida lawyer and longtime critic of violent video games, called Saints Row 2 a "Grand Theft Auto ripoff."

"As is true with pornography, as is true with violence, the subsequent products tend to push the envelope even more," he said.

An unnamed THQ spokesman defended SR2:

Saints Row 2 is not a gang simulation game. It's a tongue-in-cheek game.
 

Meanwhile, the Daily News does acknowledge some of the satirical elements in the game:

Despite the outrage, some of the scenarios depicted in the game seem hilariously over the top. Players can commit insurance fraud by faking injuries, spraying the contents of a septic tank to bring down property values or appearing on a "Cops"-like reality TV show.

If things get boring, competitors can just strip and run around naked.

When it comes to the crime game genre, it must be difficult to compete with the Grand Theft Auto series.

Perhaps that explains the inclusion of streaking in the upcoming Saints Row 2. Edge Online put the question to Craig Mitchell, media relations guy for publisher THQ:

In terms of backlash from the game's content, we are not too concerned. THQ and [Saints Row developer] Volition have worked within the guidelines of the ESRB and the international ratings boards and the game has been rated appropriately...

In addition, Saints Row 2 has a very over-the-top tone and the activities like streaking play into that.  In streaking, the character's front is blurred out, plus, all the characters were made 'asexual' so even a possible mod/hack would not reveal anything.

In-game streaking earns respect points for the player's character.

A new video trailer which shows off the cooperative mode in the upcoming Saints Row 2 features likenesses of presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama engaging in full-on gameplay.

And in Saints Row, of course, that means full-on violent gameplay...

Eurogamer reports that the Collector's Edition of THQ's Saints Row 2 will ship in a box which depicts a pistol mounted in a fancy gun case:

...in keeping with the game's general sense of fun and social responsibility, the box is shaped like a gun and you get a USB stick in the shape of a bullet...

 

It's not alone, either, with a 1GB USB key in the shape of a golden bullet to keep it company, along with a 3rd Street Saints poster (a woman blowing the smoke away from the barrel of her man's gun) and a map of Stilwater, the game's sandbox location.

For now at least, the special packaging appears to be exclusive to the Xbox 360 version - and to the European market.

Via: Sports Legends