I’m of the mind that terrible violence on the scale that the Gears of War series has always shown us is a good thing. Bullets, and especially chainsaws, should always cause a massive amount of havoc on an alien body. In the original Gears, pools of blood erupted all over the place, including the player’s camera. This earned the game a very understandable ESRB rating of "Mature." Gears of War 2 will have the same rating and level of violence, except according to WhatTheyPlay, Microsoft will now give parents an extra option to turn off naughty words and replace blood “with sparks.”
I haven’t had the pleasure to see the spark-laden action, but I instantly get the image of the “Grunt Birthday Party” skull in Halo 3 when I think about this. Of course, violence filters are nothing new when it comes to "Mature" rated games. The Mortal Kombat series has always been kind enough to gives us green blood when the action gets too intense.
My question is, if you are this much of a concerned parent, why even bother with buying your child a game that promises to be as violent as Gears of War 2? There are tons of alternatives available on the market. Games like Viva Pinata and the upcoming Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts will be plenty of fun without gore, guns, and chainsaws. Perhaps the Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff were on to something when they said, “Parents just don’t understand.”
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Contest:
5:29 AM on 08.05.2008
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Video games don't turn children into killers and to suggest that removing blood is somehow an improvement is laughable. If you don't want your kids playing violent games, don't buy Gears of War; removing blood doesn't change the fact that your kid is shooting and sawing people in half.
It isn't so much for parents, but also for competitive play:
While it's fun and all to see the gibs and blood covering your screen, it screws things all to hell when you get shot with a shotgun point blank and blood covers your screen, obscuring your view in the middle of a tournament. (in the original, it only happened most frequently with the host, but given that there will be servers in Gears 2, it may be a widespread problem) Also, makes things a tad easier to manage when the game doesn't have to process all that violence splashing over the screen. I've seen the framerate take a bit of a hit when there's a lot going on.
There are other reasons, like making it friendlier for MLG blah blah blah, I don't support the league and their mission to make every game play like Halo, but you get the idea.
The point is...it's been in there for two years. How did you miss it?..
There's a lot of talk about making games more "accessible." If this makes it easier for some adverse to these "mature" material to actually play the game, all the better. It doesn't even have to be a kid, it could be anybody who is turned away by the more extreme elements presented.
I'd rather not have it go to waste.
if it doesnt i will cry!
it kinda sucks that it aint comin ot ova der.
iv heard a lot about GOW2 some places say it will b ot in AUS some say it wnt! Which is it?
if any1 finds ot will u plz let me knw!
thanx