Gears of War 2 Filters Replace Blood with Sparks, Remove Swearing for Younger Players

Finally someone moving in the right direction. Unfortuneatly this game at any level is based on excessive violence and these filters are not applicable.

But it shows that it can be done.

I suspect they will get flak for it sadly because the game at its core is "M" and you really cannot hide it. Something like this would be excellent for those games that seem to think cursing every other word advances the story line.

L.O.L. I'm sure cutting a guy in two with a freaking chainsaw giving off sparks will be totally non-violent...

Epic should be very careful about how they promote this feature.

ESRB regulations prohibit marketing M rated games towards younger players.

I'd play with the spark settings turned on. Seems more fun to me to think I live in a magical world of chain saw weilding robots. :)

I would prefer they replace the blood and sparks with an assortment of breasts in all shapes, sizes, and colors.

This is...CAKE TOWN!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcnG0PJQmY8

I think this is brilliant -- every M game should do this. I don't think this is an excuse for parents to play Gears of War or GTA type games in front of their 2 year olds, but I think it helps for parents. Plus, it's a good step towards getting anti-game politicians to back off.

Great job Epic.

Bullshit.

So cutting people in half is OK as long as sparks come flying out instead of blood?

Bottom line is financial of course. The Wii is outselling both the 360 and the PS3. I have a 360 and a Wii and because I have kids (12, 8, 6) I buy way more stuff for the Wii even though I think the 360 is a better gaming machine. The Wii is a fun family thing for casual gaming. I'm sure Microsoft is trying to increase its kid/family friendly appeal. (The new avatars anyone?)

Now I don't know if I'll let my kids see/play Gears 2 and that greatly depends upon how much of the gore is replace with magical pixie dust...

Might as well replace everyone with robots that bleed oil like for Red Alert in Germany.

I grew up in the 80’s/90’s where my titty I sucked on was R rated movies with tones of blood, gore, meet chunks, and tits and ass and the occasional vag. No one makes movies like they used to in the 90’s, whats a little blood/gore and tits and ass.

Censorship is mental, your parents should decide what you watch and play not the media or anyone else. I think the filter is a smart idea to allow more people to play the game and allow your parents to be able to tone the game down a bit.

I must agree though turning off the blood and showing the body cut in half, kind of defeats the purpose no?

Skip forward a year and we have an article about some kid chainsawing someone to make the sunshine dust come out.

As lame as this all sounds, I'm actually for it. A few years ago I would have kicked myself for saying that...but that's before I had a daughter. She's 10...she's seen the shooters I play, the blood, and all that. What gets me is the language.

I cannot play the Rainbow Six Vegas series with my daughter around, as the terrorists yell "mother fucker" or "what the fuck was that?" or "shit! Where is he?!" every other word. On the flip side I don't want them yelling "moron!" or "what the heck was that?" or "dang!" either. The option to tone it down when my kids or family is around would be great. Not seeing the blood is fine, but hearing cuss words from the other room isn't ok.

As far as games like Call of Duty 4 where there are a bunch of 10yr olds talking about things they haven't even seen or are old enough to do yet -- that's another thing and I don't see it being controlled for a long long time, if ever. My best defense is plugging my mic in, muting it and setting it on the table.

I know a 5 year old who plays GTA 4 on his PS3.... IM not even kidding, I was over my friends house, he lives with some family, the 5 year olds mom lets him play it and doesnt phase her or him!

As if there aren't enough 10 year olds playing games like this online as it is...

I'm trying to decide if this makes an outright mockery of the rating system or just points out an inherent flaw of trying to rate entertainment software in general. I was thinking that it would be nice for Rock Band to include songs with the explicit lyrics not blanked out, but then what? Would there be 2 different versions of the game, one T rated and one M rated? Or are they all rated M as a catch-all? Could there ever be a T rated version of Gears of War at the same time as an M rated version? I dunno.

Here's hoping players also gib into hamburgers, tricycle wheels and rubber duckies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQKnOUhs6KY