If it really was NYC, it would be black and dry.

Statue of Happiness??????

...No. Nuh-uh. Can't do it. Sorry.

Statue of Happiness is my favorite dish at New Green Bo.

You should consider approaching Rockstar's marketing people. Perhaps they'd like to advertise here?

I had a bf who called his penis that.

The Illuminati hath no heart.

Should'a been a giant eye that you have to impale.

Post as advertorial. Another barrier broken.

I'm going to go hide now.

This town doesn't need heart. It needs more liver.

this is really gross and unethical, kudos.

I want a statue of Lady Liberty giving the finger to New Jersey.

Talk it about it more! No! More! Still not enough! More! More, dammit! NO! MORE!

The irony just kills me...

@rightbrain: careful - She's in New Jersey waters

@allyzay: If imprisoning a giant disembodied heart in a tourist attraction is wrong, I don't want to be right.

@StonedAndDethroned: does this even qualify as gorilla advertising?

I find it interesting there is so much controversy about a picture of a girl with a bare back while a video game is released in which players are able to car-jack, murder, rape, drive drunk, use and sell drugs, cause road rage, hire prostitutes...etc, etc, without protest.

@StonedAndDethroned: More coming, as soon as I can get a clip from I'm Rich, the GTA celebrity gossip show.

Denton is clearly just snapping photos as he is playing.

@HamptonShmampton:If she were really from New Jersey her hair would be much bigger.

If the Statue of Liberty was actually an organic being and contained an actual beating heart it would make that eternal climb to the top up a staircase originally designed for the Keebler Elf Tree soooo worth it.

These GTA posts by Denton certainly foster the appearance of a conflict of interest, what with the publisher plugging the advertiser non-stop.

That said, though, the game sure does looks like it kicks ass.

@Nick Denton: I watched that last night. The amount of additional content on Niko's apartment television and car radios is absurd. The I'm Rich thing was pretty funny. I don't have any way to capture it, but I'm assuming you won't have any trouble finding it.

Wha? Isn't the heart chained to the interior walls, not the exterior walls?

... although I support chaining all of the internal organs to the outside of the Statue of Happiness. For the art & the liberty & the happiness of it all.

And by "sure does looks like it kicks ass" I meant, of course, "sure does look like it kicks ass."

@HamptonShmampton: Gorilla advertising like LeBron James on the cover of Vogue or guerrilla advertising like carjacking someone and then ramming their car into the nearest Game Stop?

@fiveinchtaint: Last night, I killed everyone in a Bronx strip club. Mostly because I was mad about driving all the way to the Bronx to see strippers.

You played video games instead?

@sassypants: Because "Statue of Life" sounds like a JRPG item. What was left?

@Conbon: I was too busy getting into Michelle's pants to drive that far north.

@HamptonShmampton: Video games aren't real.

Are there really people commenting here who somehow believe that Gawker is some sort of modern news site, with an implacable mission statement?

This is a privately-owned (well, I think) gossip blog, in which the owner can do whatever the good christo he wants with his property.

And so if he's paid to advertise for a game, and he also likes the game, and wants to devote his free posting time to doing so, why exactly are you complaining about it? It's only "unethical" because you've dreamed up Gawker as some sort of farty principled MSNBC press blog or some shit like that. Get over it. This is a neat game, and it makes new york look like a fun place where strippers have big asses and people have a sense of humour.

@Pope John Peeps II: Actually, it's not a gossip blog, it's a message board.

No, we'd never come here for anything "farty principled," to

say the least. It's just that this was really blatant, even for

Gawker.

Nice way to end the thread, with the sound of lips kissing

ass.

If I may rant for just one minizzle.

All the people getting up in arms over the GTA 4 posts are just ... super-tiresome.

(Actually, let me expand that group to include all the whiney bitches who long for the days that Gawker was updated 6x daily with obscure (and trust me, I'll be the first to say - delightful and insightful and all the other ightfuls!) stories of minor media bickering and masthead movements.

Slow your goddamn rolls and learn to scroll past posts that you don't feel like reading.)

According to Wikipedia, Grand Theft Auto has garnered average reviews of 99.5%. Yeah, I used the bold AND italics tag on that one. As Marcos over on Tumblr, who I stole that link from, wrote, that's like going to Blockbuster with 12 friends and all agreeing on the same movie. And it's going to set all kinds of sales records, obvi.

AND ITS BASED (and not loosely, as someone in another GTA thread wrote) ON NEW YORK. And this website ... covers New York! And media! Which, last time I checked, included video games. Should this cultural sensation be ignored because of a few banner ads? Really?

Yes, there are ads for it on Gawker. And yes, Gawker sometimes covers other magazines' inabilities to separate church and state in this way. I get it. But what I don't get is why you people seem to take these posts so personally. Did someone at Rockstar break up with you or something? Do the screenshots of kickass, New Yorky, gorgeously-imagined wonderlands come as a personal affront to you? I get the feeling that when you go to hell, you'll mope that it's not hot enough.

Anyway. Sorry. Usually my comments are one liners about old Nickelodeon shows or cuddly New Haven bums (love ya, Country Ray!). But if I have to see the word "advertorial" bandied about in one more comment thread, I'm going to go insane.

In fact, I think I already have. Someone get me an IV of whiskey.

@mrs_hevesi: and dating site.

@Pope John Peeps II: "This is a neat game, and it makes new york look like a fun place where strippers have big asses and people have a sense of humour." Too bad it takes Scottish game creators and an Anglo-Hungarian blogger to appreciate New York.

@Nick Denton: an Anglo-Hungarian blogger

is this what you're calling yourself now, mr. denton? am I to have new business cards made up for you? were you happy with the last batch? because I thought my blood made for a handsome ink choice, sir.

Credit ur sauce

[www.gamesradar.com]

@Phyllis Nefler: Someone get me an IV of whiskey.

How about GTA IV and a bottle of whiskey? Great comment, btw.

@CaptainFantastic: Even better. You buying?

@Phyllis Nefler: @Pope John Peeps II: Hear, hear! I, for one, can't wait to get my copy today and play for hours/days/weeks/until they find my corpse clutching the controller.