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[GamerJM]

Personally I think Uncharted is fine with T. There's blood and such but nothing I'd really actually object to letting a 13 year old see.

Halo on the other hand is definitely too high with M, save for maybe a couple moments across the entire series.

Honestly, most games that get the M rating I'd argue don't deserve it.

Oh, and one time at FYE I saw some Tom & Jerry game that was rated T. I was like wtf?

I've actually played the game in question (War of the Whiskers), and there's actually a bizarre amount of violence. It's definitely more of an E10+ game, but I could actually see why the ESRB saw that game and basically decided it was too much for an E.

 

[quantumnerd]

I can see a few reasons why TF2 is rated M, but it still strikes me as kind of funny.

 

[TreasureHunterG]

Perfect Dark had blood splatters too (while Goldeneye only had blood decals on bodies), plus you had stuff like guards cursing at you and audibly choking on their own blood when you get headshots sometimes. It was at least a step above Goldeneye in that department.

Yeah, but something a T-rated game could afford easily. Body Harvest had blood splatters and human killings by giant bugs and was rated T.

Well, if Megaman games for PSX were KA/E rated, I don't get why Jet Force Gemini was T, really. They had very similar aesthetics. JFG had some bug's blue blood here and there, but c'mon.

Wasn't Starcraft originally M-rated? If it really was, LOL.

 

[FataIChoice]

Not the ESRB, but I know that in Australia, one of the Atelier games was rated either R18+ for "High Impact Sexual Violence".

EDIT: Here we go. Atelier Totori: The Adventure of Arland.

Japanese games really get a bad rap.

Even better is that the part of the game that the report quotes as the reasoning for the R18+ rating was in the PG release.

 

[lucius]

Halo games should have probably always been rated Teen that one always suprised me, but the M rating probably helped it sales really, people/kids want M rated FPS. Uncharted is where it should be at Teen there are TV shows now on the big networks with TV-14 rating that have pretty graphic killing, Hannibal, Revolution etc. which there is nothing wrong with that just seems like a double standard. Sure games are more realistic now, but it's still doesn't look close to real people in real life situations, the whole Mass Effect thing was a joke considering network TV sex scenes have got away with more for sure especially since they are trying to keep up with cables popular shows. PG-13 movies now have clear shots of T&A in sex scenes so games are still treated like some weird medium. Just be consistent across the board if they wanna be more conservative treat them equal, wanna let loose with sex and violence rate them consistent with other mediums.

 

[flkraven]

Halo games should have probably always been rated Teen that one always suprised me, but the M rating probably helped it sales really, people/kids want M rated FPS. Uncharted is where it should be at Teen there are TV shows now on the big networks with TV-14 rating that have pretty graphic killing, Hannibal, Revolution etc. which there is nothing wrong with that just seems like a double standard. Sure games are more realistic now, but it's still doesn't look close to real people in real life situations, the whole Mass Effect thing was a joke considering network TV sex scenes have got away with more for sure especially since they are trying to keep up with cables popular shows. PG-13 movies now have clear shots of T&A in sex scenes so games are still treated like some weird medium. Just be consistent across the board if they wanna be more conservative treat them equal, wanna let loose with sex and violence rate them consistent with other mediums.

Bringing up network TV is interesting. We have a Halo TV series coming out in the near future. Based on it's content, I wonder how it compares (rating wise) to the game series. Funnily enough, I believe the Forward Unto Dawn movie was rated 14+ here in Canada.

 

[Eusis]

right, but i'd imagine that's one of the reasons they re-evaluated it in the first place.

Nope, at best that rating is only a obvious sign of the real reason: they gave the ratings years ago when the system was still young and getting ironed out, now that it's more mature they want to give a better evaluation.

 

[SapientWolf]

I can see a few reasons why TF2 is rated M, but it still strikes me as kind of funny.

The censored version is hilarious. The gibs are random junk like hamburgers and gears.

 

[Earthpainting]

Ace Attorney 5 is a weird one. It doesn't do anything explicit, but it touches on a lot of subjects that the ESRB is iffy about.

Spoiler

You have the terrorism in public buildings, a character playing loosely with gender labels and expectations, implied homosexuality, and some imagery of a blood-covered girl looking pleased.

I don't agree with the M, but I definitely see why they would opt for it.

 

[flkraven]

So I just noticed Infamous: Second Son was rated T. It's an open-world, ultra-realistic game, and it was cited as having:

Blood, Drug References, Language, Sexual Themes, Violence

On the other hand Assassin's Creed 4 is rated M.

So...discuss?

Why is Infamous okay for a 13 year old, but you need to be 17 and up for AC?

 

[Hinchy]

Ace Attorney 5 is a weird one. It doesn't do anything explicit, but it touches on a lot of subjects that the ESRB is iffy about.

Spoiler

You have the terrorism in public buildings, a character playing loosely with gender labels and expectations, implied homosexuality, and some imagery of a blood-covered girl looking pleased.

I don't agree with the M, but I definitely see why they would opt for it.

I think it's that last one that did it. The game was rated a step higher in Japan as well, so it's not like it's just our weird American cultural sensibilities at work.

 

[OfficerRaichu15]

Always found it odd that Metroid Prime was T but that's probably due to time it released. The worse thing was a little violence and alien blood...

 

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Always found it odd that Metroid Prime was T but that's probably due to time it released. The worse thing was a little violence and alien blood...

Yeah, I'm sure that's because there was nothing between E and T at the time, and the game is probably just slightly too violent to be suitable as an E-rated game. More or less the same reason Super Smash Bros. Melee is T, I'm sure.

 

[poipoipoi9]

Today I just realised Ace Combat 4, a game where you blow up planes with other planes and features a pretty heavy story about life under foreign occupation, was given an E Rating of all things. Later games were all T.

 

[WhiteRabbitEXE]

Always found it odd that Metroid Prime was T but that's probably due to time it released. The worse thing was a little violence and alien blood...

At the time there was no E10+ rating, and it's definitely not an E game. Honestly though, even now it would likely be T, and that doesn't really seem off to me.

Federation Force being T though, lol

 

[Stallion Dan]

PEGI doesn't seem to care about nudity much, can have it in 12 rated games and 16 at worst, 16 is also the upper limit for bad language, the 18 rating is purely about violence.


http://www.pegi.info/en/index/id/33/

 

[Acquiescence]

Not the ESRB, but I was always stunned that the BBFC gave Fear Effect a 15 certificate and not an 18, considering it is still one of the most consistently violent and gorey games I've ever played. Lots of people die in a variety of awful ways.

 

[Deadpool_X]

I've had a theory for years that the Halo series always bounced back to MS with a T rating, but because Microsoft wanted a "cool" M rated series back on the original Xbox, they got the ESRB to bump it up to an M. Seriously, someone tell me what's in Halo 1-4 that is any worse than Halo 5, which is rated T. There's nothing in the first 6 Halo games that is worse than Uncharted 2, which is T rated. It makes no sense.

 

[Lupin the Third]

I've had a theory for years that the Halo series always bounced back to MS with a T rating, but because Microsoft wanted a "cool" M rated series back on the original Xbox, they got the ESRB to bump it up to an M. Seriously, someone tell me what's in Halo 1-4 that is any worse than Halo 5, which is rated T. There's nothing in the first 6 Halo games that is worse than Uncharted 2, which is T rated. It makes no sense.

100% agreed and have entertained the same theory myself.

Although, M used to be a lot less R-rated at the time. Think about how racy MGS1 is by comparison to newer M-rated games...it's practically T now.

Still agree on Halo CE, though.

 

[WhiteRabbitEXE]

I've had a theory for years that the Halo series always bounced back to MS with a T rating, but because Microsoft wanted a "cool" M rated series back on the original Xbox, they got the ESRB to bump it up to an M. Seriously, someone tell me what's in Halo 1-4 that is any worse than Halo 5, which is rated T. There's nothing in the first 6 Halo games that is worse than Uncharted 2, which is T rated. It makes no sense.

This isn't exactly a novel theory, people have been saying it for 15 years. Doesn't make it accurate.

It's well known they aimed for T, but the ESRB objected to the Flood.

Also, Halo 4 had this: