Months before it’s set to go on sale, the ESRB rating for Twisted Metal has changed. For the longest time, it was known that Twisted Metal would carry a T-for-Teen rating. At Twisted Metal’s Comic-Con 2011 panel, David Jaffe revealed that Twisted Metal will scrap its previous rating in favor of the more graphic M-for-Mature rating.

EA Sports is going into new forbidden uncharted risky territory with Fight Night Champion, which will be the publisher’s first Mature-rated title.

The series has never been shy about portraying face smashing punches in gory slow motion detail. The “M” rating will allow EA to get even more graphic with the body blows, shots to the head and, according to EA, the rating is not just because of the brutal violence associated with the sport. The game will also contain mature content found in the “lifestyle and culture of boxing.”

When one considers the negative (and often unnecessary attention) that video games receive for displays of violence and overt sexuality, it should come as a surprise when one hears of any one opening calling for games to maintain and even increase shocking displays, provided that they are handled in a mature manner.

The person who is sounding this alarm of positivity is Winda Benedetti of MSNBC. Benedetti, who pens game columns as MSNBC’s “Citizen Gamer” humorously, begins her piece by giving the impression that she is an individual who saw a male organ for the first time. While gamers would undoubtedly dismiss this childish display, her mock reaction in the article’s intro shares some similarities to the realistic responses expressed by…

Censoring video games has been an issue since Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil. If parents don’t want their children to play violent games, that should be up to them and no one else. However this isn’t the case in Australia where censoring laws are so strict, not even a forty-year-old man can play Grand Theft Auto.

Australia uses the rating R18+ for their mature games. With censoring laws as they are, however, it is very unlikely to ever see a game on a shelf with that rating. Australia bans any game that is deemed too violent, includes sexual content or has too many drug references. Apparently the government is full of old fogies who think video games are only for kids. Not only is this not true but it is ridiculous…

Leave it to the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to take the fun out of this year’s most anticipated game, Grand Theft Auto IV. Teaming with the National Institute on Media and the Family, the two forces are strongly advising parents to take special notice of the ESRB rating for the upcoming game before buying it for children under the age of 17.

Due to be released Tuesday April 29, 2008, GTA IV isn’t the first game to be targeted by watchdog groups. Upon the release of GTA III numerous media groups and even the United States Congress targeted GTA for its explicit violence and graphic nature, many calling for the game to be pulled from shelves. However, these comments only helped promote GTA’s sales.