The following is a review of the Top 5 video games searched for on the Internet.

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Rank 1 Grand Theft Auto IV:

Grand Theft Auto IV is an upcoming sandbox-style action adventure video game. It will be the ninth title (and the first in the fourth generation) in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise. It will be released worldwide on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game will be set in a redesigned Liberty City, based heavily on New York City and New Jersey.

Niko Bellic is Eastern European, between 28 and 32 years of age and has come to Liberty City to pursue the “American Dream”. Niko was persuaded to move to Liberty City by his cousin Roman, who claimed in multiple e-mails to Niko that he was living a fabulous life, with a mansion, women, hot tubs and sports cars. Roman’s claims turn out to be lies to hide his own failures, however, and in reality he only owns a small taxi business, which he wants Niko to work for.

Roman is the only person Niko knows in Liberty City to begin with, and is one of his major connections in the first part of the game. Niko is a tough character, whereas Roman is friendly. Roman is heavily in debt and a lot of people are after him. He desperately needs Niko’s support, hence the reason he deceived Niko into travelling to Liberty City. They are constantly bickering. It is later revealed that Niko has also been avoiding other, as yet undisclosed, problems at home. Both characters are new and there are virtually no returning players.

Price: Approx. $59.99

Game Rating: M (Mature)

Blood

Intense Violence

Partial Nudity

Strong Language

Strong Sexual Content

Use of Drugs and Alcohol

Rank 2 Saints Row:

Saints Row is an action-adventure video game published for the Xbox 360 console. It was developed by Volition and published by THQ. The game arrived in stores in wide release on August 29, 2006 in North America, and on September 1, 2006 in Europe and Australia.

The game has been described as being in the same vein as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in terms of story and gameplay, with the developers referring to it as an emerging genre called “open world”; both games focus on urban gang activity, with the main character attempting to strengthen his gang’s standing amongst three other rival gangs. Saints Row makes additions to the genre, adding an extensive character customization feature and online multiplayer modes.

Price: Approx. $29.99

Game Rating: M (Mature)

Rank 3 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas:

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a sandbox-style action-adventure computer and video game developed by Rockstar North. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise and fifth original game overall. Originally released for the PlayStation 2 in October 2004, the game has since been ported to the Xbox and Microsoft Windows, and has received wide acclaim and high sales figures on all three platforms.

Set in late 1992, the game revolves around the main character, Carl “CJ” Johnson returning home from Liberty City to Los Santos after learning of his mother’s murder. CJ finds his family and his old gang, the Grove Street Families, in disarray. Over the course of the game, CJ gradually unravels the plot behind his mother’s murder while reestablishing his gang and exploring his own business ventures.

Grand Theft Auto series is rich with controversy, the most notable for San Andreas was over the “Hot Coffee” minigame, which was disabled but left in the code, which caused San Andreas to be re-rated briefly as an adult game and pulled from shelves. Since its re-release the game is rated as follows;

Price: Approx. $19.99

Game Rating: M (Mature)

Rank 4 Guitar Hero II:

Guitar Hero II is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems and published by RedOctane. It is the second installment in the Guitar Hero series and is the sequel to Guitar Hero. It was first released for the PlayStation 2 in November 2006 and then for the Xbox 360 in April 2007, with additional content.

Like the original Guitar Hero, the player uses a guitar-shaped peripheral to simulate the playing of rock music as notes scroll towards the player. Most of the gameplay from the original game remains intact, with new modes and note combinations being the major additions. The game features more than 40 popular licensed songs, many of them cover versions recorded for the game, spanning five decades (from the 1960s to the 2000s).

Since its release, Guitar Hero II has been met with both critical and commercial success, helping the Guitar Hero series become a cultural phenomenon.

Price: Approx.

Bundle with Guitar $79.99

PS2 $39.99

Xbox $49.99

Game Rating: Teen

Rank 5 Mortal Kombat:

Mortal Kombat (commonly abbreviated as MK) is a popular series of fighting games made originally by Midway Manufacturing Company. Mortal Kombat began as a series of arcade games, which were picked up by Acclaim Entertainment for the home console versions. Now Midway exclusively creates home versions of Mortal Kombat. It is especially noted for its high levels of blood and gore, including, most notably, its graphic fatalities – Finishing Moves, requiring a sequence of buttons to perform. These were so extreme that they, in part, led to the founding of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) 1 Mortal Kombat is available in PS2, Xbox, Mobile and PC.

The original Mortal Kombat was developed as a reaction to the popular fighting game Street Fighter II, with digitized graphics of real game actors as opposed to animated cartoon graphics. Critics said the game’s graphic violence was only included in order to generate a public outcry and controversy that would gain publicity for the game. Although highly controversial, the mix of realism and violence propelled Mortal Kombat to widespread and historic renown.

Price: Approx. $19.99 – $39.99

Game Rating: M (Mature)

1. Descriptions in large part by Wikipedia.

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