Spoiler alert! If you're going to play Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned and find digitally rendered flaccid penises offensive, you may want to avert your sensitive eyes during one in-game cinematic.
Rockstar Games, no stranger to controversy as marketing tool, will likely come under fire for its inclusion of completely uncensored, full frontal male nudity in The Lost and Damned, giving us our very first glimpse of digital dick on the Xbox 360. To say it was a surprise would be an understatement, as the scene in question is expert at providing flirtatious glimpses of one character's fleshy business, only to give Congressman Thomas Stubbs' junk plenty of screen time.
Allow us to set the scene...
Stubbs, in his first meeting with lead character Johnny Klebbitz, is receiving a massage at the private gentleman's club Jousters when we meet him. The Congressman, dressed in nothing but a towel, quickly becomes pretty comfortable with his new biker friend, choosing to deliver his monologue in the buff.
While Rockstar's cinematics director teases the player with mere glimpses of Mr. Stubbs' junk, during the final moments of the cinematic, we get to see everything: a very poorly groomed, uncut and unabashed set of man tools.
We've opted not to include a shot of the scene, instead choosing to show the next encounter between Messrs. Klebitz and Stubbs, which also happens to be mostly clothing free.
The ESRB rating for the game—which is "M" for Mature—does make mention of the gratuitous digital dick on display, noting that the game has "Nudity" in its content. The original Grand Theft Auto IV is listed as having only "Partial nudity."
There is no lack of homosexual innuendo in the expansion, as the Lost bikers regularly question one another's sexuality and gush about the love of brotherhood throughout the game, but it certainly was surprising to see Rockstar go there.