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.”