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"Grand Theft Auto:Rothbury" based on actual murders (British Newspaper makes shit up)

M

Mama Robotnik

Member
145380_1.jpg


British tabloid the Daily Star is running an exclusive at the moment, the leaked boxart for what they declare to be a GTA game based on the recent Northumbria shootings.

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/posts/view/145380/Raoul-Moat-Video-game-film-and-book-plans-cause-fury (EDIT - story has been removed after being up for most of the day and 404 link is now borderline NSFW). Complete story as it was is below, Google Cache version is also available.

21st July 2010
By Jerry Lawton

FURY erupted last night over plans for a Raoul Moat book, movie and game… before the man he killed has even been laid to rest.

A book on the crazed killer is due out in weeks and film companies are lining up bids for the rights.

And last night gaming websites showed the cover of Grand Theft Auto Rothbury – a version of the XBox hit Grand Theft Auto.

It is named after the Northumberland town where Moat, 37, hid then shot himself after his gun rampage in which he shot ex-lover Samantha Stobbart, 22, killed her lover Chris Brown, 29, and shot and blinded Pc David Rathband, 42 in both eyes.

Chris’s family are still waiting to hold the funeral but the coroner has not yet released his body.

Samantha’s grandmother Ann Hornsby, 69, said: “I can’t believe someone wants to make money out of people who have been killed.

“It is sick – it’s blood money. The game is beyond belief.” Samantha’s sister Kelly, 27, added: “Does the person writing the book know what they are talking about?”

Author Vanessa Howard defended her book saying: “We need to understand why Moat is now a hero to many.”

And Ray Mudie, of John Blake Publishing, which has bought her book, said: “If we didn’t do this book someone else would.”

A publishing source said several film companies had “expressed interest’’ in Moat’s story.

A second post-mortem will be carried out on Moat today to see if a police Taser could have made him shoot himself involuntarily.

Police arrested four more people suspected of aiding him, bringing the total arrested to 20.
Click to expand...

The Daily Star have turned off comments for this story, not totally shocked.

MCV tries to debullshit this story.

Unless MCV is hugely mistaken, the British tabloid is actually claiming that a Raoul Moat game is in the works

In what could possibly be the most outrageous piece of video games reporting in a national UK paper, The Daily Star has today expressed its “fury” at news that a Raoul Moat version of Grand Theft Auto is in production.

Apparently “gaming websites” (though obviously not the ones we read) have showed the cover of “a version of the XBox hit Grand Theft Auto”, supposedly called GTA Rothbury, that’s based on the recent Northumberland shootings that dominated the news earlier this month.

“It is sick – it’s blood money,” the sister of Moat’s ex-partner Samantha Stobbart told the paper. “The game is beyond belief.”

MCV’s guess? Someone somewhere in a dark corner of the internet mocked up the cover (pictured). Somehow this came to the attention of a sorely uneducated non-gamer at The Daily Star. The rest, minus any fact checking or common sense, is history.

MCV has contacted The Daily Star for comment.
Click to expand...

CVG also adds in their commentary.

Read this sentence carefully: This image is the only evidence the Star has to back its claim that a Raul Moat video game is being planned.

The most shocking thing of all? Not content with taking/creating a fictional/tasteless image of 'GTA Rothbury', The Star then asks the (watch us fly into justifiable tabloid capitalisation here) 69-YEAR-OLD GRANDMOTHER of Moat's ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart - who was not only SHOT AND LEFT FOR DEAD by Moat herself, but whose BOYFRIEND MOAT KILLED - what she thinks of its conception.

"It is sick - it's blood money," Mrs Ann Hornsby tells the paper. "The game is beyond belief."

Understandable rage? You betcha. But "beyond belief". That's kind of the point, isn't it? It's made up. By The Daily Star. Responsible.

The idea that a game is planned at all is linked to the reported publication of a book on Moat and the shocking incidents at Rothbury. The Star does at least speak to a paperback publisher on that one.

It also notes that 'film companies are lining up bids for the rights' to Moat's story. Without noting any source.
Click to expand...

So British Newspaper photoshops fake cover of a game based on recent murders. Takes said cover to family members of victims for soundbites. Publishes as headline.

Does anyone else hope that Rockstar's Legal Team is watching?
 
W

WJD

Member
The Daily Star is a piece of shit rag that should never be taken seriously in any situation ever.
 
Goldrusher

Goldrusher

Member
British news. :lol

Almost all of it is pure nonsense, full of random useless facts and titles that are always in caps, bolded and underlined for no reason. Sometimes even in color and font size 50.
 
D

Dedication Through Light

Member
I hate to lol in a thread about murder, but it is just an lol moment to see such a photoshop and idea/story carried out by a journalism source.

Id have to agree with the grandmother. I cant believe someone would go to great lengths.
 
P

Patryn

Member
Isn't it easier to prove a libel case in the UK than it is in the US? If I'm right, I see no way that the Daily Star won't be cutting a check to Rockstar in the near future, because that is straight up defamation.
 
M

Mama Robotnik

Member
Goldrusher said:
Looks like they removed it ?
Click to expand...

Yes, its just vanished! The link has now become a borderline NSFW 404 page, I've edited the OP accordingly. Link is still on their front page though:

gtaroth.jpg


Hopefully they've realised they're in the shit, since the story has been up for most of the day.
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
another case of videogame "journalism"

wait what




seriously though, Daily Star and Daily Express (and Sun, and Daily Mail to a lesser extent) are always tiptoeing a fine line between outright racism and levels of bigotry that won't lead to lawsuits.

And we're supposed to be the Nazis. Ha!
 
D

Diablohead

Member
The Star is one of the worst "news" papers out there, it's more about football and topless page 3 models, it sells so they keep on printing :/
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
Couldn't Rockstar sue them over this? I know celebrites have sued tabloids for posting false and damaging info about them. While they don't specifically say that Rockstar is developing it, they posted something that would the boxart and it's clearly laid out like a GTA game would be. So the implication is there.
 
E

Empty

Member
Sipowicz said:
the star and express are owned by the same person. by far the worst british newspapers out there

http://i.imgur.com/wDrfh.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]

i think 'i saw a blond child with madeline eye blemish' is actually the silliest there, though the 'ethnics' one gives it a run.
Click to expand...
 
L

Luigiv

Member
Sipowicz said:
the star and express are owned by the same person. by far the worst british newspapers out there

http://i.imgur.com/wDrfh.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]
What the fuck? How does such xenophobic bullshit fly in a modern western country?
Click to expand...
 
V

VibratingDonkey

Member
Sipowicz said:
the star and express are owned by the same person. by far the worst british newspapers out there

http://i.imgur.com/wDrfh.jpg[/IMG[/QUOTE]
Dey tooker jubs! Boobs....
Laugh or cry etc.

Honestly, why are these tabloids allowed to exist?
Click to expand...
 
Z

Zenith

Banned
The Star isn't a real newspaper, it's not even a real tabloid. I thought it was meant to be one of those tongue-in-cheek rags you see with the headline "Elvis & Lord Lucan living togethr on the Moon" kind of thing.
 
M

Mama Robotnik

Member
Zenith said:
The Star isn't a real newspaper, it's not even a real tabloid. I thought it was meant to be one of those tongue-in-cheek rags you see with the headline "Elvis & Lord Lucan living togethr on the Moon" kind of thing.
Click to expand...

Whatever it is, it gets an estimated circulation of 900,000 newspapers, that's a lot of eyes reading this bullshit.

I still can't believe they took their "evidence" to the grandmother of one of Moat's victims. Its reprehensible.

Though the article is gone from the website, the headline is still on the front page in their "Most read" section. Rockstar, can you please destroy them?
 
J

jooey

The Motorcycle That Wouldn't Slow Down
Mama Robotnik said:
I still can't believe they took their "evidence" to the grandmother of one of Moat's victims. Its reprehensible.
Click to expand...
Who knows about that, even. Why believe even one word of the thing?
 
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