The Chicago Transit Authority has reached a settlement with Take-Two Interactive to allow ads for Grand Theft Auto IV to return to Chicago's transit system in time for a needed holiday sales boost. The CTA pulled the ads back in April, breaching the $300,000 contract and causing the lawsuit. GTA may have won this round, but the CTA is planning to win the war. Its board has just voted to ban advertising for video games rated at or above "M" (age 17 and up), citing a "'demonstrable correlation' between intensely violent video games and violent or aggressive behavior." How demonstrable that correlation actually is, is debatable. It's unclear what will happen to current campaigns on the CTA for M-rated games, like Valve's Left 4 Dead. However, the CTA will continue to allow R-rated-movie ads, like the promos that ran this summer for The Dark Knight, a delightful little film in which a demented Heath Ledger blasts the crap out of most of Chicago. Holy double standard, Batman!

—Posted by Rebecca Cullers