12 violent video games to avoid

Appropriate for: 18 and older

ESRB Rating: Mature

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows 7

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Dead Space 2 takes gamers through a horrifically scary battle for their lives in an alien-infested world. Players must fight scary aliens to stay alive and battle the Necromorph abominations using updated weapons and tools to defeat them. In the gaming environment referred to as “The Sprawl,” players must avoid or kill the enemies that are manifested as “horrific corpselike creatures.”

Appropriate for: 18 and older
[click 'More' for game details]

ESRB Rating: Mature

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Bing: Video games and violence

The name alone should be enough to keep you away. Mortal Kombat is a wildly popular franchise in the violent video game category that includes the most realistic and gory graphics that go way beyond what you’d expect. The latest version of the game features enhanced graphics, multiplayer functionality (for tag-team “kombat”) and violent killing sprees.

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Appropriate for: 18 and older

ESRB Rating: Mature

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows PCs

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Based on a real, ongoing war, this game hits close to home for many families and is much too violent for children. Hyper-realistic graphics recreate modern day war zones in Afghanistan, soldiers' bodies crumple authentically and gush blood when shot, kill counts are often high enough to populate a small town, not to mention the rampant profanity.

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Appropriate for: 18 and older

ESRB Rating: Mature

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows PCs, Wii

Bing: First person shooter games

Set during the Cold War in the late 1960s, Call of Duty: Black Ops has players engaging in extraordinarily realistic military operations in countries including Vietnam, the U.S.S.R., and Hong Kong. Its urban and rural firefights are among the most frenetic and intense ever created for a video game. Realistic "ragdoll" physics govern the way bodies flail and fall when struck, and blood often soaks soldiers' clothes and the ground. Plus, the series' online play has proven exceptionally habit-forming, luring players into long, late-night sessions.

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Appropriate for: 18 and older

ESRB Rating: Mature

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows PCs

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This post-apocalyptic cross between a role-playing game and a first-person shooter is all about freedom of choice. Not only can players decide how they want to interact with non-player characters, selecting dialogue options that may be rude or result in sexually suggestive conversations, they also choose which part of their enemies' bodies they want to shoot in slow motion, potentially wounding or blowing off specific limbs. Clearly, this game's bleak world and dark narrative filled with opportunistic nuclear holocaust gangs is designed for mature players.

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Appropriate for: 18 and older

ESRB Rating: Mature

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Far from the simplistic side-scrolling Castlevania games that parents grew up with, the latest entry in this decades-old franchise is set in a highly believable 3-D world and delivers sometimes shocking levels of blood and gore. The game's hero, a member of a brotherhood of holy warriors, wields a crucifix-shaped whip handle that contains a long length of chain blessed with Holy water which he uses to lacerate enemies, creating fountains of blood in the process. Players will also see topless female fantasy creatures, such as fairies.

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Appropriate for: 18 and older

ESRB Rating: Mature

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows PCs (Available November 16th, 2010)

Not only do players take on the role of a killer for hire in this 15th-century tale set in a remarkably true-to-life Rome, they have the ability to recruit non-player characters for a fraternity of assassins. Lifelike sword fights see players slashing and skewering foes with realistic crimson effects. Special moves, such as throwing an axe at an enemy's head, have equally bloody results. The extreme nature of the violence combined with mature themes and dialogue make this an adults-only experience.

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Appropriate for: 18 and older

ESRB Rating: Mature

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows PCs

This zombie-battling game has all of the hallmarks of interactive entertainment for grown-ups. For starters, the violence is wildly over-the-top; a motorbike with chainsaws duct-taped to its handles is just one of the game's scores of imaginative weapons used to dismember the dead. Plus, the streets of the Vegas-like city that players explore are filled with scantily-clad cocktail waitresses, and Playboy ads are in the malls. To top it all off, our hero guzzles booze to restore his health -- then vomits it back up if he drinks too much.

Appropriate for: 18 and older

ESRB Rating: Mature

Platforms: Xbox 360

Players' aggression may be directed against aliens, and our heroes may refrain from using coarse language, but there's no getting around the fact that the latest entry in this popular Xbox-exclusive franchise is, like its predecessors, all about glorified violence. The game's extra-terrestrial enemies bleed profusely in shades of blue, purple, and green, and often let out bone-chilling screams. This game is all about finding your favorite weapon and using it to tear holes in your enemies.

Appropriate for: 18 and older

ESRB Rating: Teen

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Don't let its Teen-rating or the fact that it stars nothing but plush teddy bears fool you; Naughty Bear is one of the most violent and disturbing games of the year. It's about a sociopathic bear who spends his time choking his peers with golf clubs, slamming their heads in car doors, and frightening them until they commit suicide. The absence of blood and gore is like removing one letter from a curse word; its meaning is implicit and only superficially censored. This is a game about imaginative murder, plain and simple.