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!

Rock Band 3 Pro Mode looks intimidating

Rock Band 3 is right around the corner. I have absolutely no interest in the new keyboard peripheral, but the Pro Guitar mode that Harmonix is heavily marketing makes this game a must-buy.

Check out the video above, which details the two types of guitar controllers that you can use to play Pro Mode. Just watching some of the game play footage gave me the same 'holy crap' sensation I felt the first time I bumped up Guitar Hero II from medium to hard.

Watching the footage reminds you how hard playing actual guitar really is and how challenging some of the songs are going to be. As someone who has played guitar off and on for the last few years, I'm really excited to give this mode a try. It's going to kick my ass, that I'm certain, but the satisfaction I know I'll get from five-starring a song on Pro Mode is will be above almost any video game satisfaction I've experienced before.

Get Over Here!

Some of my fondest gaming memories involve the Mortal Kombat franchise. The fatalities, the karacters, the kontrols... OK I'm done. But really, I love MK.

Between the announcement of a new MK game that looks like it's getting back to basics and the excellent Mortal Kombat: Rebirth short film that made the rounds recently, my MK fanboy-ness is at a fever pitch right now.

The new trailer doesn't tell us a lot - actually it doesn't tell us anything we don't already know - but Scorpion has always been my favorite charater, so I've still watched it about five or six times. 2011 can't get here soon enough.

EA Sports MMA

Well, this is an unexpected turn.

For the sake of context, I spend my days writing for a mixed martial arts training website called TapouTVTC.com (follow the blog here!). I've practiced martial arts since the second grade and mixed martial arts in particular since high school. I haven't missed a UFC event in about four years, and I will passionately argue that MMA is a safer sport to compete in than boxing, football or Ultimate Frisbee (no, really). In short, I'm a little obsessed with the sport.

Prior to 2009, there was nothing in the way of good MMA video games. I played the hell out of UFC: TapouT on the originial Xbox, but not because it was good, but because I had no other options. Developers just hadn't found a good way to mix all the nuances of an MMA fight into a playable formula.

That all changed on May 19, 2009, the day that UFC 2009 Undisputed was released. I picked it up at midnight, played until about 5am, then woke up again at 10 to play some more. Sure, it had some faults (gotta love online opponents that could quit mid-match to avoid a loss), but it was exactly what the MMA gamer in me had craved for so many years.

THQ refined that formula with UFC Undisputed 2010, and while some of the excitement had worn off, it is still a game that I play months after release. When EA announced that they would be releasing their own MMA video game, I scoffed at it as a cash grab. The UFC had approached EA about doing an MMA game and been turned down, but now that there was proven success EA was ready to jump on board.

As such, my interest level was pretty low in the game. The graphics looked too cartoonish, the animations looked stiff and most of the best fighters in the world are in the UFC. I wrote EA Sports MMA off just as I've written off the NBA Live series in favor of 2K's superior product.

The reviews that have come out, though, have given me a lot of pause. Not only are they extremely positive, but some have gone so far as to say that it is the best MMA game on the market. Now, instead of writing the game off, I am extremely curious.

I'll tackle the demo over the next few days and maybe even give it a spin on Gamefly, but suffice to say my opinion has been severely swayed by the positive reception.

NBA 2K11 impressions

My relationship with the 2K NBA series has been a love/hate one. When I'm playing well, I can't get enough of it. When I'm missing open shots because I can't get the hang of the touchy shot stick, I'm controller-breakingly frustrated.

With NBA 2K11, though, it's been all love. Maybe it's because I'm playing with the stacked Miami Heat, but the controls feel a little more forgiving this time around. When I miss a shot in 2K11, it feels like it's my fault, not the controller's fault.

The big draw in 2K11 is obviously the Jordan Challenge mode. For a lot of older gamers (and by 'older' I mean old enough to have watched and appreciated Michael Jordan in a Bulls uniform), this mode must be a great trip down memory lane.

I, however, was 10 in 1998, and had no interest in basketball. For me, playing through the Jordan Challenges has been a great way to discover just how great Jordan was. I knew about the titles, about some of the big shots, about the dunks and the competitiveness, but trying to recreate them is a feat even in the virtual world.

I'm curious if younger gamers in their teens are having the same experience. Other sports games have been giving nods to the past, but props to 2K for going above and beyond the norm.

The Fall Gaming Crunch and Gaming on a Budget

Why does this happen every year?

After suffering through a summer of sparse and lackluster releases, the fall season hits with an explosion of A-list titles, leaving my wallet and limited time severely taxed.

Just for Xbox 360 alone in October, we have Enslaved, NBA 2K11, Medal of Honor, EA Sports MMA, Fallout: New Vegas, Fable 3, Rock Band 3 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2.

Are you freaking kidding me? That's $420 worth of gaming in one month, not even counting collector's editions and instruments.

As a gamer on a very limited budget, dropping half a grand on new games simply isn't an option. So rather than pony up for new release after new release, I plan on using this holiday crunch to go back to some games that have been on my 'want to play' list.

Gamefly.com is a fantastic source for buying games on the cheap. I've learned that if you wait a few months, most gamers will trade in single-player heavy titles and that means prices at a fraction of the usual $60 price tag.

So enjoy your newer, slightly sexier games. I'll be tackling the likes of Dante's Inferno ($13.49), Alpha Protocol  ($13.49), Splinter Cell Conviction  ($13.49), Bionic Commando ($11.69) and BioShock 2 ($15.29).

Sure, I won't be entirely on the up-and-up in the video game world, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Besides, by the time I'm through playing catch-up, most of the October new releases will have dropped in price anyway.

That's how you game on a budget.

More X-Men News: X-Men The Arcade Game to XBLA and PSN

Last week, I touched briefly on the X-Men Destiny teaser trailer that made its way around the internet.

It's funny to look at the progression that video games and their trailers have made throughout the years. The medium has evolved to the point where game trailers can actually create suspense and look to evoke emotion from the viewer. Circa 1992, that wasn't the case.

Like a lot of arcade beat-em-ups, X-Men: The Arcade was a quarter thief. As a little kid, I tried it, died almost immediately, and moved on to another machine. Rinse. Repeat.

It will be nice to revisit it without having to drop in another coin every few minutes. I might even make it to level two this time!

Star Wars: The Force Unleased II story trailer

Star Wars is a strange beast in that normal video game standards don't always apply.

Fanboys (like myself) are often so starved for a good Star Wars game that they are willing to overlook flaws if the game that they do get is half decent.

This was the case with the first Force Unleashed, which was a good game, but not a great game. Targeting was a little wonky and there was an unforgivable amount of QTEs, but the overall product was enjoyable force-powered romp through the Star Wars universe.

I have high hopes for Force Unleashed II, where the additional time should have given the developers time to iron out some of those gameplay issues. What really interests me, though, is the plot. From the looks of the trailer above, you play as a clone of Starkiller after (SPOILER ALERT) your character is killed during the 'good' ending of the first game.

Cloning the main character always seems like a bit of a cop-out plot point to me, but I'm willing to give this game the benefit of the doubt until I get all of the details.

X-Men Destiny trailer

With the exception of the Saturday morning cartoons, X-Men was never a big part of my childhood. A large part of that was that I didn't read comic books, so my interaction with the series was limited to once a week at most.

Despite that lack of intimacy, X-Men is one of my favorite superhero series. The characters are diverse and interesting, the plot (from what I know of it) is fun, and the three movies were very entertaining (despite my crushing disappointment that Gambit was not in them). So when this new trailer for X-Men Destiny hit the web today, I was intrigued.

From the looks of the trailer, the game will allow you to create your own mutant and insert him or her into the X-Men world. If that ends up being the case, this game jumps to the top of most anticipated games.

I've seen some concerns that Destiny will be an MMO, but with Marvel Universe Online around the corner, I think we can safely put those fears to rest.

Achievement Grab: Cabela's Outdoor Adventures 2010

I make no apologies about being a Gamerscore whore. As such, my Gamefly queue is dominated by games that 1) I will never buy and 2) have quick and plentiful achievements.

For some reason, it seems that the lower a game's Metacritic average is, the easier its achievements are. I don't know why crappy games tend to be Gamerscore gold mines, but they are, and that means I end up playing some pretty bad games.

Cabela's Outdoor Adventures 2010 is one of those bad games. One of my biggest pet peeves is when a developer tries to create the appearance of an open world without actually creating it. Nothing is more frustrating than getting slightly off course, then running into invisible wall after invisible wall as you stumble back to the one route the developer deemed correct to travel.

The thing that is really hindering my enjoyment of the game, though, has nothing to do with the mechanics or graphics. As an animal lover, I actually cringe a little every time I blow away a defenseless deer or bird. I have murdered countless people, aliens, monster, you name it I've killed it, but there's something sad about killing a defenseless animal for sport, even in virtual form.

In reality, I'm probably just a sissy. More importantly, I've already earned 70G after just an hour or so of playing, so I'm well on my way to that perfect 1000G.

Impressions: Final Fantasy XIII

I'd been putting off playing FFXIII for a few months now. It wasn't due to a lack of interest (far from it), but it's hard for me to jump into a game knowing that it's going to consume 60 to 70 hours of my limited gaming hours. That's a hell of a lot of investment, especially with a stack of other quality titles collecting dust on the shelf.

Last weekend, I decided I was ready to take the plunge and despite only being about five hours in, I am completely hooked.

Heading in to FFXIII, I had heard two major complaints; the linearity and length of the first section, and the battle system. In regards to the former, I've actually enjoyed the pacing quite a bit. Rather than throw everything at you all at once, FFXIII does a nice job of rolling in new features of the battle system every twenty minutes or so, so you get nice and familiar with one feature before tackling the next.

The linearity also solves a problem I have with a lot of RPGs, where you are thrown in to the middle of a grand world, with not a lot of driving force. Sure, I'm supposed to be saving the world, but is that fishing over there? And oh look, an archery contest I can enter! Keeping the game on a linear path for the first few hours allows FFXIII to push the narrative forward at a quicker pace before then opening up a vast world to explore.

In terms of the battle system, I'm just now starting to get into the meat of it. This is actually the first Final Fantasy game I've ever played (disgraceful, I know) so I don't have much basis for comparison. I've enjoyed it so far, though, and I'm looking forward to really digging in to it.

Welcome to the Average Gamer Blog

If you've stumbled upon my little corner of the internet, welcome to the Average Gamer Blog (or TAG for short).

If you're wondering what this blog is about, well, I'm kind of wondering the same thing. They say you should write about what you enjoy (I don't know who 'they' are, but it sounds like good advice) and I enjoy video games, so I'm off to a good start.

What I plan to do here is chronicle my gaming experiences. Game impressions, reaction to news, trailers, really whatever comes across my scope.

In short, I just want to share my enjoyment of all things gaming. If you see something you like, something you hate, or just something you want to add, drop it in the comments.

Let's see where this thing takes us...