LIMBO from X-Box Live Arcade is as close as anything I’ve ever seen to a video game that could be considered fine art.

Also, let me be perfectly frank:  This game scared the holy crap out of me.

It is probably the most visually-stunning, atmospheric, and morally-complex game I’ve ever played.

It may also be the most disturbing video game I’ve ever played. (Although, to be fair, I tend to steer clear of truly dystopian stuff and I still haven’t played Bioshock.)

I will admit I have a higher-than-average startle reflex.  Did I jump way back in the 90s, when the T-Rex jumped out and ate Lara Croft in the original Tomb Raider, just after you were convinced she’d survived the velociraptors?

Yes, I did.

But even seeing poor Lara become a dino-treat did not prepare me for the constant dramatic tension of LIMBO, a deceptively simple little platformer available for download on XBox Live Arcade.

The controls are ridiculously simple.  Remember Mario, waaaaaaayyyyy back on the old NES? It was all timing, with four basic directions, one jump button and one action button.  This is no more difficult than that (and no less so.)

Except when you fail to time things right, the little silhouetted kid gets it.  Gruesomely.  In black and white.

As a mom, I found this game to be extremely disturbing.  I’ve played or watched more violent games by far, but a few of the stark, black-against-grey images in this game made me nearly nauseous.  I’ve watched survival horror games with far more realistic graphics, and incredibly well-done soundtracks, but none of them created the same dramatic tension as this simple game with only ambient sounds as an aural backdrop.

If you want a more detailed review, I found this one to be pretty thorough: LIMBO Review.

The game is rated T for teens, and it’s definitely a rating it earned.

image (C) Bioware

I got a pretty good response to my last post on adult content and being a gaming parent, which focused on the new Assassin’s Creed II title, and whether it was appropriate for kids.  (Answer: not so much.)

So I thought that I would try to post, at least once a week in the new year, a brief review of a video game that I’ve actually played, the overall quality of the game, and whether or not I would recommend it for a kid.

This week, we’re going to talk about Dragon Age Origins.  If you click the link in the last sentence, you’ll notice that you have to put in your age to even get to the official website for the game.

That should pretty much answer the “is this appropriate for my kid?” question.  But just in case you’re still debating, I have two words for you: virtual brothel.

Dragon Age Origins bills itself as a “dark fantasy epic about violence, lust and betrayal.”  That pretty much sums it up from an adult content perspective.  It’s much like a darker, bloodier, sexed-up Lord of the Rings.

The game is from Bioware, the company that also made Mass Effect, Jade Empire, and the Knights of the Old Repubic series.  Bioware games are known for gorgeously realistic graphics, intricate and interesting storylines, and some of the best voice acting in video games.  They’re really, on the whole, like playable science fiction or fantasy movies–and well done ones, at that.

But they are aiming squarely at the adult gamer, and their products reflect that, in two key areas that affect parents buying for kids: moral choices, and sexual content.

Moral Choices

One element of most Bioware games is the option to go through the game either as a “good guy” or a “bad guy.”  You can win most of their games by making thoroughly morally reprehensible choices.  The games reward consistency of character, not quality of character.  On milder games, like the KOTOR games for original Xbox, this can actually be a good conversation starter about the consequences of moral choices, our influence on others, and other topics.  You can even get into an interesting philosophical discussion with your spouse on whether or not “virtual” choices have real moral weight.   (But that’s sort of a sidebar.)

For our purposes here, Dragon Age Origins is a morally complex game.  Some of the time, neither of the available options could be considered morally right.  There is a lot of “choosing the lesser of two (or three) evils in Dragon Age.

On to the sex!

The cute “romance” subplots of the KOTOR games have evolved into Xbox 360 “Achievements” that basically equate to unlocking a sex scene.  While those scenes aren’t graphic, and are fairly laughable to an adult who has an actual sex life, they also don’t leave much to the imagination.  As a parent, I wouldn’t recommend them for a kid who wasn’t allowed to watch R-rated movies with sex scenes, or even for adults who might be struggling with porn addiction or similar issues.

Additionally, if nudity is a concern for you, there is a whole class of enemies, “desire demons,” which are rendered as essentially busty, topless women with horns and tails.

Which brings up another issue with the game–this is a “dark fantasy epic” which means that it contains depictions of magic, demons and the occult, so if those things are not cool in your household, take a pass on Dragon Age Origins.

thumbnail img courtesy brokenarts on sxc

Our kids are also video gamers, particularly Junior Cheeseburger, who is twelve.

We just picked up Assassin’s Creed II this last week.  We had it on reserve, because the first one was really awesome.  While the first one was rated M, it was mostly for violence.  There was some strong language sprinkled in it, but mostly towards the end.

Let’s just say that Assassin’s Creed II has fully earned it’s M rating, on pretty much any count that a parent could care about.  As Chris put it on Facebook:

“There’s some Bow Chicka Wow Wow and a lot of f-bombs in the first half hour of gameplay…”

I probably don’t need to tell you, given that the name of the game is “assassin’s creed,” that there’s also a lot of killing people in it.  I’ll go ahead and say that right now anyway: you kill a lot of people.  But in the words of Arnold Schwartzenegger in True Lies, “they were all bad.”

I’m the official “gamer mom” in my circle of friends.  I get a lot of questions from my mom friends who aren’t gamers, because they recognize that a Mature or Teen rating is fairly meaningless when it comes to deciding whether or not they’ll let their kids play a video game.

Did the game get that rating because it’s a first-person shooter and you’re spattering purple alien blood throughout it, or am I going to walk in and find Junior watching soft-core cut scenes? (Thank you, Mass Effect.)

Inquiring moms want to know, but they often don’t have the personal interest in video games or the 40+ hours of free time to devote to playthrough to find out for themselves.

So that’s what’s prompted this post. As a blogger, I find tend to be fairly good at three different kinds of posts:

• funny riffs on life and pop culture
• introspective psychological/spiritual essays
• extremely practical informative posts

I’ve been kind of light on the last category lately, partly because I’ve been manic-depressively bouncing between hilarity and introspection in real life.  But also, partly because I’ve had a hard time finding “helpful/informative” topics to write about that haven’t been covered to death.

So I will probably start posting some reviews of video games for my online mom friends who don’t want to save the galaxy to figure out whether or not their kid should play the game at the top of his or her Christmas list.

Any interest? Drop a comment.

P.S.  Just found a Ning network full of other Gamer Moms.  I’m joining it.  If you found this post via a search for “gamer mom” you might be interested, too.

“Ms Pacman” img courtesy miz_ginevra on flickr