hermes

@brodehouse: The real answer is a little bit more complicated than that, but this is hardly the place to expand on it... I will just say that it is not only Germans that feel uncomfortable about it.

I always thought the main reason was licencing, where a game may not have the appropriate rights to use some content; or a publisher may not have the rights to distribute games in certain territories.

As others have said, another important reason is to prevent market cannibalization. For example, pricing in Japan works different than in the US (it is based on demand instead of a fixed price), so it is not uncommon to find games (even Japanese games) costing way more there... so, they region lock them to force people to buy on their local market instead of importing them.

The other reason is censorship or ratings. A game content may be illegal in some region (like Wolfestein in Germany), so they have to region lock it to prevent people there to get access to the original content.

One of the differences is on the influences. Western developers are mostly influenced by action movies and comics, while eastern developers are mostly influenced by manga and anime. For example, when western try to make stoic main characters, they go for tough and bordering amoral (influence of the 90s Dark Age of comics), when eastern try it, they mostly get emotionally closed up and bordering autistic (influence of series like Evangelion).

These are cultural differences that tweak the way they create games... In the west, there is the objectification of guns as means to empowerment (hence the predominance of FPS), while in the east, empowerment works through self-improvement (hence the predominance of RPG and fighting games). When they are aiming to create empowering and action-filled sequences, most westerners think of explosions and one man armies with big guns (think Rambo), while easterners think choreography and martial arts (think Bruce Lee).

Of course, there are exceptions. I am not saying there are no examples of influences from the west in Japanese games (like Dark Souls) or influences from the east in Western games (like Mortal Kombat); but overall I think its an interesting distinction.

Depends on the game, obviously, but I prefer characters that are well defined to those I have to define myself.

In games like Elder Scrolls and Fallout, the blank character is a way to introduce yourself into the adventure and claim ownership over it. In most cases, though, the main character is well defined and (should be) consistent with the adventure.

In any case, I mostly prefer blank characters to mute characters. Mute characters at this point feel extremely dated. The fact Link or Gordon Freeman are mute doesn't help me get into the character (as the theory indicates), but put me back of it; because it is obvious that you are not supposed to inject yourself into them... they are already defined. Another example of mute character done horribly wrong is Kingdom of Amalur...

I have to push myself to finish Red Dead Redemption.

Not because the mexico missions were not fun (they were ok, I guess), but because the design of every mission was:

1. Go to this corner of the map to start the mission.
2. Ride slowly to this other corner of the map...
3. Ride back to the third corner...
4. Go back to the first corner to start the next mission.

Seriously, all the missions were designed to take place in a completely different location than the place you start it, or end it. The amount of time I spent on a horse in that game just "getting somewhere" was disproportionate to the time I spent actually doing something...

It is a pointless pursuit. Let's say they can make it for faces (L.A. Noire), it will look weird when the rest of the body doesn't have the same level of detail. They can make it for bodies, and it will be weird when the bodies are in motion. They can make it for the animations too, and it will be weird when the environment around it doesn't look as well. They can make it for the rest of the world, and it will be weird when the physics don't match the expected results... The moment our mind notices that weirdness, its back to the bottom of the uncanny valley.

They can spend all the money in the world to make the game look, move and feel like the real world, but they are always going to be limited by the underlying technology. A few years from now, those games will look dated, while games that try to have more creative styles will look just as good (Parappa, Team Fortress 2, Okami, Wind Waker, Borderlands) with a fraction of the budget.

I get it, some styles of games don't lend themselves for abstract and stylized graphics, but the key is to know when it is enough, and not force everything into that style. Sometimes, going for a consistent, stylized style shows ton more personality than reaching for (but never quite getting) photo-realism. It is similar to how everything went 3D at the beginning of the PS1/N64 era. It looked like everything had to be 3D, from Mario and Sonic to Castlevania and Street Fighter, and 2D graphics was almost a cursed word. Some games looked pretty impressive back then, but they look like crap now... I would take Super Mario Bros 3 in the NES over half the platformers on the N64.

I skip most of the side podcast content (like 8-4 play, Alt + F1 or the powerbombcast), because I am not particularly interested in their topics. The only one I consume religiously (besides the giant bombcast, of course) are the box office bomb ones...

Ehh... no.

It is declining. Or, more accurately, it is back to less hyperbolic sales numbers. But it is far from dead... There are still a lot of people that will buy the next COD on release date and drop the previous one like they were disposable tissue papers.

I guess as the public grows, they become more savvy to realize there are other, perfectly valid options, for FPS action; and that the new COD is not really new...

But its still mad popular with a certain demographic...

It used to be New York, which luckily I already did.

Now I am planning to visit Japan some day.

Use comfortable shoes, or socks you can walk on. Get up and walk a little after a couple hours...

If you have problems with legs room, try to book on the emergency door line, otherwise try to get an aisle seat (in fact, if you take into account my previous advise, try to get an aisle seat so you don't disturb other passengers when you get up)

Get a load of activities queued up to keep you busy. Long podcasts, videogames or movies on your tablet, for example. Many airports sell sudoku or puzzles magazines, which can be useful if you are into that stuff (in which case, keep a pen in your pocket)