Sudeki

[JRMacumber]

Brats, we really do need to share a beer sometime.

[Chadruharazzeb]

The Sands of Time, Beyond Good & Evil, XIII, Grand Theft Auto III, Galleon, Broken Sword III, Eternal Darkness, Red Ded Revolver etc. Do they all lack imaginative characterisation?

I think they do, sadly. I simply cannot think of any Western developer who makes characters as cool as Capcom, Namco, Sega or Square. Or Konami.

Toby Gard gets acclaim for designing Lara Croft. Sorry, but WHAT design? Which sums up the level of imagination in terms of character anywhere west of Japan.

Solid Snake is so vastly superior to Sam Fisher as to take your breath away.

[Ady]

But what is a 'console style RPG'? If Western developers make an RPG one way, they're copying the Japanese. If they do it another way, they are just porting over 'Computer RPG's'.

Console RPGs have been mostly Japanese because up until this generation, nearly all Western RPG developers focused on the PC as their main platform. Let's not forget the many of the main things that make up all RPGs (including Japanese) were originally developed in the West anyway.

I wasn't saying western coders shouldn't do console RPGs, just that they should do so by developing their own style instead of imitating the Japanese.

[SuperBrother]

Solid Snake is so vastly superior to Sam Fisher as to take your breath away.

Yep, you don't see Splinter Cell artwork books leaping off the shelves do you.

[Ady]

Oh dear, this is turning into one of those east vs west threads, isn't it?

Snake is more of a character, for sure but Splinter Cell was a better game than MGS2...

[Chadruharazzeb]

Nah, we were talking about character design. Keep up, would you!

[Squirtle]

Oh dear, this is turning into one of those east vs west threads, isn't it?

To be honest, mate, I could see that happening before I even ventured into this thread.

[Ady]

Nah, we were talking about character design...

...And the design differences between eastern and western characters.

::ahem::

[Brats]

My point was that Solid Snake is more interesting to look at, but Sam Fisher is more interesting character.

If looks are all you care about, Solid is your man .

I think they do, sadly. I simply cannot think of any Western developer who makes characters as cool as Capcom, Namco, Sega or Square. Or Konami.

There's a difference between cool character design and good characters though. Charles Foster Kane and Travis Bickle remain some of the most interesting characters of cinema and yet I'd never call them 'cool'.

There is certainly an attempt from Western developers to bring more complexity to their characters, which is a good thing.

And HK-47 from KOTOR is the coolest, best and funniest character ever. So nur .

[PeteJ]

I'll ignore the "west vs east design" debate, because quite frankly I do not understand why one has to be worse than the other.

My only problem with current design in the UK, is that our developers try to recreate styles from other regions. Over the last few years it has become harder to tell the difference between American and Japanese, but 99.9% of the time you can still work out which was designed where. English game design, however, doesn't really have a 'look' or 'feel', it just tries to replicate trends from the entire industry. Perhaps it isn't a bad thing, but AAA franchises such as Project Gotham or Burnout do not feel British, more American. I feel it is a shame that Climax felt the need to attempt something so alien to them with Sudeki.

I'd argue that only Free Radical Design, Lionhead and Rare are very British these days, which is a shame. We obviously have a lot of telent in the country, but it is difficult to see where it is going too; difficult to see 'the British influence'.

[Brats]

Not sure I agree. PGR2 and Burnout 2 are clearly US in look, but in terms of game design there are many things in each one that scream Britishness (is that a word?!?).

[evilmatt]

Canada is quite clearly where its at - you can keep your japanese or american developers

Bioware and Relic

[Brats]

And half of Ubisoft.

[PeteJ]

And EA Sports.

[Chadruharazzeb]

Yeah, I can see Capcom running off in sheer terror now!!