Unlike the Jak and Daxter Collection news earlier that is quite interesting, the new ESRB ratings from today aren’t as noteworthy, though they do confirm what the Fast and Furious: Showdown video game is about, since it still hasn’t been detailed by Activision or the supposed developer, Firebrand, after it was rated two weeks ago by the ACB.
So, starting with Showdown, which we don’t know if it’s a PSN or retail title, the ESRB has given it a Teen rating and the following description:
This is an action-racing game based on the Fast & Furious movie franchise. Players perform heists from the movies’ plots and engage in various missions, which sometimes involve avoiding/contending with police vehicles. Other missions feature partnered play, in which one character drives while the other shoots at enemy cars: characters are depicted shooting machine guns, pulse rifles, and grenade launchers while leaning out of car windows. Collisions, explosions, and realistic gunfire highlight the frenetic action. The word ‘a*s’ can be heard in the dialogue; a handful of song lyrics contain suggestive material (e.g., “And every night I check a new position off the sex list”).
Next up is the newly dated Fuse, and you can expect a Mature rating, due to “blood and gore, intense violence, strong language”:
This is a third-person shooter in which players assume the roles of elite mercenaries in a futuristic setting. Players battle robots, human soldiers, and helicopters in frenetic gun battles. Characters use machine guns, pistols, crossbows, and laser blasters to kill enemies; combat is highlighted by realistic gunfire, cries of pain, and frequent explosions. A handful of cutscenes depict more intense instances of violence: a character cutting an enemy’s eye out, as he screams in pain; a woman shooting a bound man in the head; a man exploding into chunks of flesh. Large amounts of blood-splatter effects and blood pooling occur throughout the game. The words “f**k,” and “sh*t” appear in the dialogue.
In one of the longest ESRB summaries I’ve ever seen, Deadly Premonition: Director’s Cut gets slapped with a Mature rating, because of all this:
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
This is an action-horror game in which players assume the role of a detective investigating a series of strange murders in a small town. Players examine crime scenes, interview townspeople and suspects, and occasionally use guns, knives, and metal pipes to battle zombie-like creatures. One humanoid-like monster (naked, but with no genitalia or nipples) crawls along walls and can be killed by using a submachine gun. In one flashback sequence, players are able to control the villain (the Raincoat Killer) as he uses an axe to kill the townsfolk—toxic gas has left them in a deranged state; the grainy black-and-white sequence depicts the townsfolk emitting red blood-spurts when hit, as their bodies disappear.
Graphic depictions are presented during investigations of crime scenes, where players sometimes discover the victims: a woman is found tied to a tree with her abdomen sliced open—blood surrounds the open wound (hair partially obscures her breasts); another woman is strung up by wires in a shower, covered with blood, and strangled by an elaborate trap; and a ‘profile’-montage depicts still-frame images of a struggle between killer and victim amid sounds of crying and desperate pleas (e.g., ‘stop, please . . . I swear . . . I won’t tell anyone . . .’). A couple of cutscenes are intense as well, depicting suicides via gunshots to the head. The dialogue contains mild sexual innuendo (e.g., a woman at a gas station says, ‘Let me know if you want me to pump it’) and more direct commentary about sex: ‘She’ll scr*w anyone’ and ‘Oh, I sleep with anyone I wish. Anyone I prefer to sleep with . . . I could sleep with you, if you’d like.’
I know seeing WWE 13 in the title may have been a little confusing, but with 2K re-releasing the game under their publishing name, they had to go through the process once again. When we reached out to 2K a couple weeks ago after spotting the brand new box art (below), they told us we can expect more info “in the coming weeks,” so stay tuned for that.
Provided you didn’t care too much about spoilers, what do you think about Deadly Premonition: Director’s Cut? Let us know in the comments below.
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