25 to Life is a third-person shooter video game developed by Avalanche Software and Ritual Entertainment and published by Eidos Interactive for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox and released in 2006.
25 To Life Game
Set in a modern environment, the game allows the player to play as both a cop and a gangster, at different times, in a "cops and robbers" style game. The game can be played online with up to 16 players using the network adaptor for the PS2 and through Xbox Live for Microsoft Xbox, and there is online play for the Windows version as well. On purchasing the Windows version, customers would also obtain a free, "Street Warriors" playing card which included a featured character from the game itself. These playing cards were exclusive, in which they were only included in the PC copies.
The game is about a man named Freeze, his friend Shaun Calderon, and police officer Lester Williams in the fictional city of Las Ruinas. Freeze commits crimes with Shaun to get money, which he spends for his family, while Williams is trying to stop the organized crime and across the city.
One night upon returning home, his wife confronts him about these actions. Saying they are a bad influence to their son, she wants him to stop. After an argument, he agrees. The next day, he tells Shaun he wants out of the game. Shaun levels a gun on Freeze, informing him that he must do one last job, a narcotics trade.
USA Today gave the game a score of four stars out of ten and stated that its only strong quality "is a decent multiplayer mode. Most of the action is team-based, allowing you to choose between police or thugs. Players can choose to rob a location and return the stash to their home turf, raid a criminal hangout, or engage in an all-out deathmatch. Freeze's goal at the start of this story was to get out of the "game." Five minutes slogging through this shooter will have players wanting the same."[15] The A.V. Club gave it a D+ and called it "a half-baked copy of someone's urban nightmare."[20] Detroit Free Press gave the PS2 version one star out of four and stated that it "lacks everything that would make it new, innovative or just plain fun. The graphics are really muddy and sub-par. The controls seem to be a bit confusing."[14]
25 to Life is a Third-Person Shooter developed by Avalanche Software and Ritual Entertainment and published by Eidos Interactive. It was released on January 17, 2006 for the Playstation 2, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows in North America (in Europe and Australia, the game was released in June 2007 for the Playstation 2).
You play as one of three characters: Andre "Freeze" Francis, a 22nd Street D-Boys gang member and drug dealer looking to leave the gang and start a new life in Miami with his girlfriend Monica and son Darnell; Lester Williams, a US Marine turned Las Ruinas police officer; and Shaun Calderon, a 22nd Street D-Boys gang leader.
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Last week, "25 to Life" was just another upcoming video game in the growing virtual-gang-warfare genre popular on Xbox and PlayStation 2. It may have been easily confused with "Fear and Respect," "187: Ride or Die," "Crime Life," "Saint's Row," "Bulletproof" and "True Crime" -- which are all due in a store near you by the end of the year.
Uproar over violent games tends to follow their release, not the other way around. Haitian community leaders, for example, made headlines protesting depictions of Haitians in "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" several months after the game hit stores as an instant best seller.
So what made "25 to Life" stand out from the herd of bloody cops-and-gangs titles? The game first caught the attention of a group of assistant district attorneys working gang units in late 2004. That's when "25 to Life" was originally set for release from Eidos, the British-based publisher also responsible for the "Tomb Raider" series. The game was delayed until 2005, by which time it had caught the attention of an assistant district attorney working the gang detail in New York's Richmond County (Staten Island). "When we saw the nature of what was on there and how repugnant it is, we knew we had to do something," said William Smith, a spokesperson for the district attorney's office.
Smith explained that his office is familiar with many violent video games, but that this one hit close to home. He cited a community concern for cops that was heightened by the execution-style murders of two officers in 2003. "We don't find any redeeming characteristics [in a game] where you can go and shoot at cops," he said. To make matters worse, he said, "25 to Life" made a game of choosing gang colors and -- by including a hip-hop soundtrack containing songs from Xzibit, Tupac Shakur and DMX -- seemed to be marketed to a youth audience.
The game will be rated "M" by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, indicating that it should be sold only to players over 17, but Smith said he wasn't even happy about the game being sold to adults. "When you go to a movie theater you can control who's going in. What's to stop a 25-year-old from buying this game and giving it to his 9-year-old relative?"
In recent months, politicians across the country have sounded off against violent video games. In late May, the Illinois state legislature approved a bill that would ban the sale of "violent" and "sexually explicit" video games to minors. In California and Washington, D.C., local politicians have called for content regulations on the gaming industry. In March, Schumer's fellow U.S. senator from New York, Hilary Rodham Clinton, came out against "Grand Theft Auto."
Despite the increasing volume of concerns, the video-game industry has been largely quiet in public. Calls to Eidos and "25 to Life" developers Highway 1 Productions and Avalanche Software were not returned by press time.
"This game is not going to do very well," Pachter predicted. "The people that video games appeal to are not cop killers." He cited another envelope-pushing crime game -- "Narc" -- that failed to connect with consumers and observed that in "Grand Theft Auto," players are encouraged to actually steer clear of the police.
Pachter added that, from what he has seen of it, he doesn't expect "25 to Life" to be very good, and believes the title could somewhat benefit from the political spotlight. Without it, said Pachter, "I think the game would have kind of just passed under the radar and nobody would have cared."
25 to Life is a third-person shooter video game developed by Avalanche Software and published by Eidos Interactive. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox and Xbox 360 on January 17, 2006.
Origins: The e-mail forward quoted above calls attention to a petition from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) regarding the video game 25 to Life, which the group decries due to "the violent nature of the game, in which participants role-play shooting gang members and police officers and using civilians as human shields":
Players of 25 to Life are presented with a scenario that enables them to choose between playing as a law enforcement officer, or a drug dealer who role-plays shooting fellow gang members and law enforcement officers. The Web site advertising the game boasts that players have "more than 40 weapons to choose from, including shotguns, machine guns, stun guns and tear gas."
Noting that in the past 10 years, 70 officers have been killed by people under the age of 18, Mr. Floyd said, "While it's true that players are given a choice between wearing a badge or the colors of a gang, the ultimate message carried by the game is that some players are justified in endangering the lives of police officers. That's a terrible message for anyone, but particularly so for young people who are already confronted with numerous choices that can lead to dangerous consequences. Regardless of your views on free speech or marketplace dynamics, there is really nothing good that can be said about this game. The images are wrong. The messages are wrong. And stocking it in U.S. stores is wrong."
"We're focused on this game right now because children and communities are facing the greatest threat from it right now, but our broader goal is to encourage all parents and caregivers to be more aware of what their children are exposed to or encouraged to emulate," added Mr. Floyd. "Any type of media that glorifies violence against law enforcement or civilians should be scrutinized very carefully."
The 25 to Life game was released by Eidos (with a "Mature" rating) in January 2006 and quickly became one of the top video game rentals in the U.S. market, although enthusiasm for the product has since dropped off sharply due to widespread disappointment with the game's graphics, story line, and mechanics. As a Los Angeles Daily News reviewer wrote:
Visually, the game is flat and boring. There's a chance you've seen better-looking graphics on the PlayStation Portable. That alone isn't enough to sink this title; the game play does that all by itself.
In single-player mode, you are placed in the role of a gangbanger who's trying to find a way out. While other games and movies have used this kind of story to craft intriguing tales of redemption, in this game, much of your solution comes through blowing away as many cops and other gangsters as possible. 2ff7e9595c
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