(CNSNews.com) - "Grand Theft Auto IV," the latest in a series of phenomenally successful video games, debuted last week, eliciting widespread acclaim from game players, and howls of outrage from parents and family advocates concerned about its highly violent and overtly sexual content.

The game was released Apr. 29 and was hailed by gamers for its cutting-edge graphics that place players in a realistic virtual world.

The "Grand Theft Auto" series, known by its initials, "GTA," is a pop-culture phenomenon: Over the past 10 years, its producer, Britain's Rockstar Games, has sold more than 70 million copies of installments I through III. Some of Hollywood's best-known actors, including Samuel L. Jackson and Burt Reynolds, have lent their voices to characters in the series.

But the series has also become more violent with each new installment, and is increasingly sexualized.

Rated M for Mature, "Grand Theft Auto IV" is considered inappropriate for anyone under the age of 17. The game places the players' characters in a dynamic and realistic rendition of New York City (referred to in the game as "Liberty City"), giving them free rein to cause as much mayhem as desired.

The newest game is a critical success. One widely read entertainment Web site, IGN.com, gave the game a rare, "Masterful-10" rating, applauding its presentation, graphics, sound effects, game-play and lasting appeal.

GameSpot, another prominent gaming site, also gave "Grand Theft Auto IV" a "10" rating, noting: "(T)his is another 'GTA' game in which you'll likely spend the bulk of your time stealing cars and gunning down cops and criminals, but it's also much more than that. 'GTA IV' is a game with a compelling and nonlinear storyline, a game with a great protagonist who you can't help but like."

Calling "Grand Theft Auto IV" a "game that you simply have to play," the reviewer
continued: "When you're not running missions for criminals, taking part in street races, stealing cars to order, or randomly causing trouble, you'll find that there are plenty of opportunities to unwind in Liberty City," including surfing the game's miniature Internet; going bowling, playing darts and pool with friends and even dating through in-game match Web sites.

Criticism of the game, however, is substantial and growing.

PluggedIn magazine, a publication of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Focus on the Family, a conservative organization, strongly condemned its overt sexual content.

"[The protagonist] can always take a buddy to one of the strip clubs in town," the reviewer wrote. "There, busty young women dressed in brief panties and pasties will pole dance, give him an erotic lap dance and coo nasty things into his ear."

The reviewer noted that, for characters, "receiving sex from a prostitute is as easy as driving up, calling her into your car and finding a deserted alleyway." The women stay clothed, but "climb onto [the character's] lap and talk dirty to him while going through all the movements."

The video game also immerses its players in a world laced with foul language.

"'GTA' games are really all about grabbing the nearest weapon and leaving your opponents' brains splattered across the wall behind them," the reviewer noted. "(A)long with an ample rogue's gallery, innocent passers-by and policemen can be run down or blown away whenever the player desires."

PluggedIn concluded: "In short, the makers of GTA IV have gathered together all the possible social evils they could come up with. Prostitution. Illegal drugs. Drive-by shootings. Cop-killings. Carjackings. Political corruption. Racism. Rampant murder. Everything's bundled into one massive and, sadly, cutting-edge game-in which you're immersed for 30 to 80 hours."

The Boston Globe also weighed in against the game, editorializing on May 2: "[T[here is little monitoring of video game sales, and few believe that a determined 14-year-old couldn't get his hands on the game ....

"[T]he 'GTA IV' experience is particularly insidious. The very features its fans love -- high-quality graphics that immerse the player in a convincingly realistic world -- raise the stakes ....

"The targets are not space aliens or cartoon characters, but police officers, taxi drivers, strippers, and the occasional innocent bystander. The violence, especially toward women, is unusually gratuitous."

The Globe accused the game of being obscene and worthy of legal prosecution: "There is nothing about 'GTA IV' that can be considered remotely 'socially redeeming' - one of the tests the courts use to judge whether material is obscene."

Conservative media critic L. Brent Bozell III, meanwhile, brands the game reprehensible.

"There's something odd about our culture when we try to prevent children under 17 from seeing violent or sexually overt material in a two-hour R-rated movie, but we're cavalier about selling the same experience -- actually, more offensive experience since it's entirely non-judgmental -- in an M-rated video game that will be played every night for months," Bozell wrote in a weekly entertainment column.

"There's only one word," he said, "to describe parents who would buy this game for their children: Disgraceful."

More than 600,000 units of "Grand Theft Auto IV" sold on opening day in Britain alone, according to published reports from the (London) Times Online .

(DISCLOSURE: L. Brent Bozell III is the founder and president of the Media Research Center, the parent company of Cybercast News Service.)

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