The Student is Now the Master

Judo Boy is kickin' ass. He has moved from the easy setting on Guitar Hero III to Medium. For those of you that have not played this game, this is quite the accomplishment due to the jump in difficulty. At this rate the kid is going to be shredding on Expert in about a month and then I'll have choice but to put him in a rock band and book his first tour.
Did I mention that I'm still on the Easy stages?

In other video game news Grand Theft Auto IV is released today and it seems to be the best one in the series. Watch a review here. It's expected that this will be the biggest and fastest selling game of all time. I have to admit the series is well done and I've enjoyed my time with it. Of course, there has been a great deal of controversy around the games as well because you can do all manner of criminal things such as gun people down, steal cars, and have (implied) sex with hookers. The beauty of the series is that you do not have to do those things. You can put out house fires, take sick people to the hospital, and play pool in a bar.
The biggest problem that I have with people that rail against these games in particular and video games in general is that typically they are uninformed or misinformed. They may criticize GTA but would consider The Godfather (or Good Fellas) to be a shining example of American cinema. The subject matter is pretty damn close what separates them is the method of delivery. Film is established, video games is a new medium. I will admit that video games started out as a medium that appealed to children but they have come a long way in the last 30 years.
Several states have tried to pass laws that would restrict the sale of mature rated games to children under 18. While this may be overkill of the part of government I don't have a problem with it. If parents don't have the time or are too lazy to check on their kids to see what kind of content they are consuming then I suppose we do need the government to raise our kids for us. We talk more about this later.