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In the game, reports Reuters, the player can choose either to play the role of the gangster or the police and it is the former which has raised the hackles of Democrat Senator, Charles Schumer from New York. 'Little Johnny should be learning how to read, not how to kill cops,' Schumer told the news agency. 'The bottom line is that games that are aimed and marketed at kids shouldn't desensitise them to death and destruction.'

The game is similar in many ways to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, last year's runaway best seller. As with San Andreas, the game is set in an inner city gangland where the players can have their choice of weapons and choose their gang colours. The main character is Andre 'Freeze' Francis, who is described as a 'good-hearted drug dealer'. Big hearted Andre apparently attempts to save his son from a life of crime by burning down the town while tooled up with the arsenal available in the game.

One can see where the Senator is coming from. He has called upon Sony and Microsoft to end their licensing agreements with Eidos, although with this kind of publicity that is unlikely.