Full Frontal Male Nudity in GTA IV: The Lost and Damned

Shock scene appears in the downloadable episode, released tomorrow on Xbox Live.

By Adam Doree

Uh-oh. This isn't going to go down well with the cry-babies who made the 'Hot Coffee' incident into such a scandal.

But now that the embargo for reviews has just lifted (here's ours), we're able to report for the first time that GTA IV: The Lost and Damned - the first of two downloadable episodic expansions to last year's phenomenal Grand Theft Auto IV - contains a scene of full frontal male nudity.

It's the first time we've ever seen a fully realistic 3D penis, complete with pubic bush. And in our review, we describe it as the most alarming scene in the entire Grand Theft Auto saga to date - not because it's as 'extreme' as some of the violence and torture on show in the game, but because it's just so completely unexpected, and bound to cause some sort of outcry in the vein of San Andreas' "Hot Coffee".

The scene, which players will encounter about a third of the way into the game's substantial 10-hour-plus story, sees protagonist Johnny Klebitz' first encounter with a new character, Congressman Thomas Stubbs. Stubbs has just received a back massage from an unknown lady, and goes about discussing business with Johnny entirely in the nude.

What makes it so surprising is that throughout the scene, nothing is seen for the most part, so it's just Rockstar's typical dry sense of humour; its loves flirting with controversy, and that comes across in all but the briefest glimpses of just the top of Stubbs' pubic region.

And then, right at the end of the scene, BANG: Rockstar stops 'flirting' with controversy and gives it a full on facial. Full-on cock and balls, on your screen, on Xbox 360, in GTA IV.

My jaw simply HIT THE FLOOR.

If Rockstar's intention was to shock - if only because of the shitstorm it may well bring about - then it has succeeded. But it also suits the game's whole 'ballsy' attitude.

But The Lost and Damned has plenty else going for it besides, well, an old cock. For the full details, check out our review, which just went live, here.

Cameras at the ready for the first pictures to be posted on the Internet, starting tomorrow.

Update: 1UP's posted a video of it here. Spare a thought for their bandwidth...

Update 2: I am going to quote NeoGAF user bigdaddygamebot here:

"Cocks (or cock) in the game is Rockstar's trojan horse. If they can get people to ignore/accept that, then the next step is naked women and sex. Seeing a naked guy in the game is a big deal BUT not as big a deal if they had a naked woman walking around. In an industry known for it's exploiation of the feminine form, they went the other way. This is foreplay. Rockstar is just lubing society up for the real business to get started."