I just finished reading EGM' s Gears of War feature, and I am finding myself very turned off by the ability for your character to " curb stomp" other players.

For those who have who have not read the feature, Cliffy B says when talking about a move you can do on a bleeding badguy, that, " You essentially do that scene from American History X, which is the curb stomp." You stomp his head in on the ground, killing him as a finishing move.

I' m sure it' s a bit hypocritical to say that I have no issue with the guns and the chainsaw, but maybe that' s because I' ve been de-sensitized by the number of chainsaw killer movies. Here though they' re emulating the one and only curb stomping scene in cinema, which isn' t about a faceless crazed killer killing anyone randomly, but a racially driven cold blooded murder by essentially a normal guy. I don' t know why you would want to emulate that in a game.

It has been a long time since game makers have made violent games just for the sake of putting more violence in games, Mortal Kombat, and the unreleased Thrill Kill are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head, and I' m not exactly sure why we' re returning to that.

I find it amusing that Cliffy B says, " We want to make sure the visual fidelity is so significant that your mom would be like,' Wow, Billy. I' ll spend $299 on this system for you.' " If parents know of the content of this game I don' t know how many are going to spend $299 on it for their kids.

Honestly if I had the option, I wouldn' t want to be able to curb stomp in the game. Maybe I' m getting to old (at 23?), but it' s too much. I have no issue being brutally violent to stupid beetles or other lowly baddies, or the " zombies" of Resident Evil 4, but it' s a different thing being violent to a person.