JFK Reloaded picks up press, none pretty

The game's developer is calling it a "docu-game," but most of the press surrounding the release of the $9.95 downloadable game from Scottish developer and publisher Traffic Management is calling it utterly bad taste.

The game, JFK Reloaded, offers a single-player experience that casts gamers in the role of convicted assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, who, by most accounts, was the sole sniper who shot and killed President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

Reacting to news of the game, a spokesman for John F. Kennedy's only living brother, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, called the game "despicable."

The developer said in a statement that it took a "10-man team seven months to research and six months to program an accurate re-creation of the surroundings and events of November 22, 1963. ... Painstakingly detailed, the reconstruction enables players to examine the challenges that faced Oswald and determine on their own if he was, in fact, the only shooter on that fateful day."

Sen. Kennedy's spokesman, David Smith, told the Associated Press he had no comment on whether the senator's family intended to block sales of the game. Apparently, the game does not carry an ESRB rating.