Can a sports sim really have a "mature" rating?

The first trailer for the next iteration of EA Sports' Fight Night series is live, complete with all the face-punching, slow-motion, HD goodness that we've come to expect from the franchise.

What was not expected, though, was EA's announcement that Fight Night Champion will ship with a 'Mature' rating from the ESRB, the first game in the franchise to do so. It's not unprecedented for sports games to carry an M rating, but those games are usually cartoonish and over the top -- here's looking at you, Blitz the League. But when a game that has always been more 'sim' than 'silly' decides to take this route, it raises some eyebrows, as well as some questions.

The most obvious question, of course, is what will EA add to Fight Night that jumps its rating from the 'Teen' rating that previous iterations have earned, to the 'Mature' rating that Champion will earn? The damage system in Fight Night Round 4 was fairly realistic, with eyes that would swell shut and cuts that would open. The shot of blood we see in the above trailer is graphic, but I find it hard to believe that the gore will be such a departure from previous installments that it will warrant an increased rating.

It's also important to note that while boxing is undeniably a bloody and brutal sport -- just ask Antonio Margarito -- I don't think that the violence is at a level that an M rating is necessary. If EA shoehorns in addition blood and gore, they move farther away from the realism that has made the franchise great to this point.

And if violence isn't the reason, the possibilities get more ridiculous. From the trailer, it looks like Champion's career mode will have some sort of plot and voice acting. Will there be swearing? Will your character have to navigate the pitfalls of drugs and strippers that come with being a successful athlete?

I, for one, hope that this isn't the case. Leave the over-dramatic plot points to the other genres and give me a streamlined sporting experience. Sure, an M rating will turn some heads initially, but is it really a selling point?

The debut L.A. Noire trailer

Rockstar released the first trailer for the long-anticipated L.A. Noire yesterday and it has created a lot of buzz around the internet.

The trailer is very Rockstar-esque, in that in contains no actual game play elements, choosing instead to cut together cutscenes like a movie trailer. It's the same treatment that they've given Red Dead Redemption and GTA IV in the recent past.

So while we don't know much about how the game will actually play, what we do know is that L.A. Noire is supported by some pretty damn impressive graphics. This might be the first game where I actually feel like the characters are emoting with their facial expressions. Games like Mass Effect 2 have gone a long way to furthering what can be done in compelling cutscenes, but L.A. Noire looks to be a few steps ahead.

L.A. Noire released in Q1-Q2 2011. So what do you think? Does this new trailer get you excited, or do you want to see gameplay footage before you judge?

Dante's Inferno review

Dante's Inferno is a hack 'n' slash game inspired by -- and I use that word loosely -- the section of the Divine Comedy of the same name. But where the source material sees Dante following a guided tour through Hell, the video game has Dante fighting to save the soul of his late wife Beatrice. And by fighting, I mean brutally kicking some demon ass.

First and foremost, I cannot speak to the obvious God of War comparisons. I've never owned a Playstation console -- the unfortunate byproduct of not having money for multiple systems -- so Kratos' exploits have sadly passed me by.

99% of Dante's Inferno takes place in one of the nine circles of Hell, where you'll face demons and the damned based on those circles. Some of the enemies are truly grotesque and will stick with you long after you put down the controller. Combat is quick and violent, with Dante slicing through the opposition like a tornado of knives on lower difficulties.

When you're not swinging your 10-foot scythe like a blood-thirsty Babe Ruth, you'll spend the rest of the game traversing lower and lower via vines, climbing walls and swinging ropes. There is nothing revolutionary about the platforming, but I did enjoy the sensation of constantly descending. As you near the conclusion of your eight-hour climb downward, you really get the sense just how far you've descended into the earth.

Unfortunately, eight hours is all that the campaign lasts. There is also a 'Gates of Hell' mode to unlock, which is a timed series of battles against increasingly difficult enemies, but it doesn't do much to add to the experience.

What really holds Dante's Inferno back, though, is the repetition. The entire game can essentially be beaten by spamming the same two or three combos over and over again, and while the enemies change based on which circle of Hell you are in, they're all variations of the same six or seven base models. You fight normal minion and demon in circle one, but fire minion and flying demon in circle five etc.

The environments also bleed together, which add to the repetitious feel. The two most memorable levels -- an abandoned desert city and ice state -- are the last two stages of the game and are over far too quickly. More level and enemy variation would have gone a long way toward breaking up the monotony of combat.

What's good:
- Combat controls are tight and satisfyingly bloody
- Interesting bosses
- The sense of descent

What's bad:
- Repetition
- Short campaign
- Doesn't bring anything new to the table

Score: 7/10

MK back to basics

A new Mortal Kombat trailer dropped yesterday, featuring some slick combos from uber-ninja Scorpion.

The usual array of teleport punches and 'Get Over Here' spears are present, but the video speaks to what I think will be Mortal Kombat's saving grace; a return to basics.

The MK fighting system had become complex and convoluted, almost to a suffocating level. While giving each fighter three different fighting styles that can be switched on the fly is a nice idea in theory, it meant that many more combinations that needed to be memorized. Having every character ever to appear in an MK game was ambitious, you lost some of the intimacy gained by having a smaller, more focused roster.

MK creator Ed Boon has said that this game's fighting system will be deep enough for tournament play, a la Street Fighter. Fortunately, it looks like his team hasn't confused deep with overly complex, which should make the game all the more enjoyable.

For a brutal example of one of the game's new features, skip to the :55 mark of the video

2D platforming is sexy again

With recent releases like New Super Mario Bros, Metroid Other M, and Kirby's Epic Yarn, Nintendo has been giving fans a lot of franchise love lately.

Like a lot of gamers, I grew up in the era of the 2D platformers on the NES and SNES. My hands-down favorite game from that era was the original Donkey Kong Country, which came packaged with the SNES that I got for my birthday.

There was so much to like about DK Country. The levels were filled with collectibles and shortcuts, the graphics were beyond their time and the soundtrack still ranks as one of the best game soundtracks of all time.

Donkey Kong had yet to receive a starring role on the Wii, but that changed when Nintendo announced Donkey Kong Country Returns.

The short of it is that the game looks spectacular. From the various videos and previews that have been released so far, the level design looks fantastic. Retro Studios seems to have captured a lot of the magic and charm that Rare first created back in 1994.

Donkey Kong Country Returns releases on Nov. 21, right in the middle of this crammed holiday season. My wallet is already whimpering.

Cars Mater-National quick review

What it is: A racing game sprinkled with mini games and collectibles in an open-world environment.

Who's it for: Your children, or the most unapologetic of Gamerscore and trophy whores.

What I liked:
- The aforementioned wealth of achievement points.
- Some interesting characters from the Cars universe

What I didn't like:
- Wonky physics
- Boring mini games
- The entire game can be completed in a few hours
- Repetition
- Repetition
- Repetition

Summary: Even for a game aimed at younger gamers, Mater-National is short and feels like an add-on rather than a proper game. The racing is divided into three different sections and consists of road races, relay races and a stadium race in each section. The problem is that even with slight variations, the maps become very repetitive. There are also mini games and collectibles, but they only add to the game's length by a couple hours. There's nothing broken about Mater-National -- although collisions send your car bouncing like it has no weight -- but there simply isn't enough here to recommend the $50 price point.

SCORE: 5/10

TAG Ten: Ten awesome first-person perspectives

The first-person perspective has been a part of gaming since the mid-1970s, allowing the user to see the game through the eyes of the protagonist.

Examples of first-person perspective can be found in all genres of gaming, from adventure and RPGs to sports and racing games. In 1993, Doom introduced the world to the first-person shooter and gaming was never the same.

In this edition of Tag Ten, I take a look at ten of my favorite first-person perspectives. This isn't a list of the ten best or the ten most impressive views, but rather is ten that I've enjoyed throughout my years of gaming.

Mirror's Edge (Xbox 360, PS3, PC - 2008)

Faith was one of the best characters of 2008

Released during the 2008 holiday season, Mirror's Edge was a solid IP whose sales took a massive hit due to being released at the wrong time.

A first-person parkour game that sometimes (frustratingly) forced you to fight, Mirror's Edge scored major points for its fast game play, beautiful environment and creative effects. As Faith, you ran, tumbled and jumped your way through a playground of building rooftops, hallways and city streets. Build up enough speed and the edges of your screen would blur. You could literally hear the wind whistling past Faith's ears.

No other game has given me the same sensation of vertigo as I jumped over 40-story gaps at breakneck speed.

Myst (PC - 1993)

Was this ship important? I have no idea

Myst came out when I was five years old. So while I never actually came close to figuring out what the hell I was supposed to do in the game, I remember it having a profound effect on my young gaming self.

See, Myst was my first foray into a 3D environment. Even if it was just a series of point-and-click screens, it blew my five-year-old mind. You mean you can go FORWARD instead of just to the right??!?!

I still have no idea what Myst was about, or what I was trying to do on that island and it really doesn't matter. As they say, you never forget your first.

Star Wars Episode 1 Racer (Nintendo 64 - 1999)

Moments before crashing... again

The Star Wars nerd in me still bristles at the mention of Jar Jar Binks or Jake Lloyd, but podracing is still a pretty sweet concept.

Episode 1 Racer was a wickedly-fast racing game that had you blasting through various Star Wars locales at 800 km/h. While the default view was a trailing camera, the first person view planted you in the cockpit, bouncing along behind (or in Neva Kee's case, in front of) two rocket engines.

Never mind that it was damn near impossible to navigate the twists and turns from this view. Racer let you learn exactly what it would look like to crash directly into a wall at twice the speed of sound.

NFL 2K5 (Xbox, Playstation 2 - 2004)

This is the closest any of us will get to playing a down of NFL football

Lots of sports games promise to put you in the game.

NFL 2k5 actually did it.

Sporting a $20 price point, 2K5 looked like a serious competitor to Madden when it released in 2004, so much so that EA snatched up an exclusive licensing agreement with the NFL, forcing 2K Sports to cease production on the franchise.

2K5 touted a first-person football mode (which was also in 2K4) that let you see the eyes through players on the field. In truth, it wasn't much more than a gimmick mode, but the real tragedy is wondering how it would have evolved had 2K Football not bit the dust.

Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare (Xbox 360, Playstation 3 - 2007)

Still gives me goosebumps

Killing your lead character in a game today seems as common as pushing X to not die (I love you QTEs), but when Infinity Ward did it in Modern Warfare, it was a total blindside.

By now, most of the internet is familiar with the story. As Sgt. Paul Jackson, you perform a harrowing rescue of a downed teammate. You breath a sigh of relief as you fly away, thinking that the mission is over, until a freaking nuke goes off in the middle of the city, leveling the city and knocking your chopper out of the sky. As you crawl out of the wreckage, you collapse onto the ground and die, staring at the mushroom cloud in the distance.

It was shocking. I spent the next few missions thinking that Jackson had somehow survived and we would rescue him from the debris sometime later. It never happened. Jackson was dead, and you had experienced his dying breath through his eyes. Wow.

Star Wars Trilogy Arcade (Arcade - 1998)

Even poorly-pixelated, Vader is intimidating 

When I was young, I went to Gameworks for one reason; to pump quarters into Star Wars Trilogy Arcade.

The first-person flying and shooting sections were okay, but the real treats were the lightsaber battles against Boba Fett and Darth Vader.

Following visual queues on the screen, you moved the joystick to block and swing. The controls would vibrate when you made contact, making it feel like you were actually making contact. It remains to this day the best video game lightsaber experience I've ever played.

Doom 3 (Xbox, PC - 2004)

You're going to be shooting at him a lot

Doom 3 was filled with cheap, jump-out-of-closet scares and I didn't play it unless it was the middle of the day and all the lights were turned on.

The monsters weren't just scary, they were huge and they were out to kick your ass. You could be walking down an empty hallway, then turn around and see a hulking mass of teeth and claws running at you at full speed.

Halo might have been the predominant shooter on the Xbox, but there was something special about back-peddling at full speed, unloading a full clip into a helldog that wanted to snack on your face.

Fatal Frame II (Playstation, Xbox - 2003/2004)

Oh Japanese horror

One year after its Playstation predecessor, a director's cut version of Fatal Frame II released on the Xbox with an option to play the game in first person.

How scary was this game? In order to hurt the ghosts, you have to take pictures of them with your camera. The better -- and closer -- the picture, the more damage you did. In other words, it was beneficial to let the ghost get as close as possible before snapping the shot.

This is the gaming equivalent of seeing how long you can hold your hand over a candle.

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (Nintendo 64 - 1996)

Just like the movie!

Three Star Wars games in one article? Absolutely. If you don't like it, start your own gaming blog.

Shadows of the Empire hasn't aged gracefully, which is a nice way of saying that it looks like ass today. It was one of my favorite N64-era games, in no small part because of the vehicle levels.

The on-foot levels featured a first-person camera, but it was only good for leading you off cliffs. The swoop chase and space battles were better, but the game really shined in its first level, the battle of Hoth.

Putting you behind the wheel (do they have wheels?) of a Snowspeeder, you were tasked with defending Ecko Base from waves of Imperial forces. It was a sequence straight out of The Empire Strikes Back, and it remains to this day the best representation. Trying to trip AT-ATs with your tow cable in cockpit mode was more than a little frustrating, but it made it all the more satisfying when you finally pulled it off.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64 - 1998)

So many memories...

Look, there isn't much I can write about this game that hasn't been written a hundred times over on the internet. It is, quite simply, the best video game ever created, bar none.

Pressing C-Up on the controller changed your perspective from third to first person, allowing you to look around the sprawling environments. Equipping the slingshot, longshot or bow also snapped you into first person, turning the game into a stationary FPS.

There is so much I love about the feature. The noise when you zoom in, Navi yelling, 'look!' when there was an object of interest in the room, climbing to the top of Death Mountain to survey Hyrule. Everything about Ocarina of Time was awesome, including the view.

What are your favorite first-person perspectives? Let me know in the comments section!