So Everythings Plastic Then

[Lebowski]

It is though, it's awful!

I wish western devs would stop pretending to be Japanese.

That could be a thread in its own right there have been some auful atempts by western devs to try and be japanese, ONI on the ps2 springs to mind and reminds me quite a bit of Perfect Dark zero's art style.

[Dogg Thang]

Hmmm...personally I'm going to call 'arse' on that whole idea. What about all of the jp games set in the US and based on americans? Are cultural influences off-limits? Because, if they are, many japanese devs are in a pickle.

[saif]

cultural refs are there for all to play with. Some people can use them well, others cannot. Metal Gear, as an example is a great blending imo.Its usually easier for anyone trying to ape americana due to it being everywhere wwhether you want to escape it or not.but japanese style does not travel well (for a reason) so when it is copied, but still trying to appeal to western palates, it often looks wrong.

[TheHoodedClaw]

Normal Mapping is the new Black.

[forpey]

I wonder how the Japanese view PDZ?

As westerners we (on the whole) like japanese takes on western culture if we are talking about games like MGS, as previously mentioned.

But I wonder how the Japanese view Rare's take on Japanese media culture?

[Darwock]

That's cos Japanese games like MGS are free to be truthful about western culture (see the halliburton thing I mentioned on the MGA thread) without feeling any need to make it all gung-ho, war on terror-tastic.

MGS confuses me though, in the first one Snake was referred to as a warrior from the east. Now he's most definitely american.

[vertigo]

Europeans and UK devs are miles better at doing Japanese game design and art styles than the Americans.

I think this whole plastic thing is definitely down to everyone using the same standard graphics libraries though and it'll be much less prevalent in the second generation of games.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Europeans and UK devs are miles better at doing Japanese game design and art styles than the Americans.

Did you see Sudeki? That was about as bad an example as I've seen, and it was developed in the UK.

[EvilBoris]

I wouldn't of said PDZ was at all anim? stlyed, or was even trying to be.
You could argue that the main character has vaguely larger eyes than your normal person, but not one other character in the game has any similar stylings.

[vertigo]

Did you see Sudeki? That was about as bad an example as I've seen, and it was developed in the UK.

Generally, of course. I'm not saying every single game ever developed in the UK ushers in a new paradigm.

[angelx]

Did you see Sudeki? That was about as bad an example as I've seen, and it was developed in the UK.

In some peverse way I did kind of enjoy playing, but the story and style was pretty embarrassing. I think theres one good line in the whole game and thats right at the end battle.

Generally though Us or European takes on anime style are nasty.Then again in some games supposedly set in western cultures the characters exibit very eastern traits.

[Wools]

Did you see Sudeki? That was about as bad an example as I've seen, and it was developed in the UK.

So no Japanese Developer has ever got the style of the West wrong?

Wow.

[Mr Pump]

I wouldn't of said PDZ was at all anim? stlyed, or was even trying to be.
You could argue that the main character has vaguely larger eyes than your normal person, but not one other character in the game has any similar stylings.

I really can't see it either, I always took it to be a more generic western look a lot like those god awful CGI actionman adverts and cheap saturday morning cartoons.

Anyway back on topic, this isn't supposed to be a PDZ or difference between Eastern and Western design thread.

I was more concerned about the fact that these effects seem to have been way overused and at no point do the developers seem to have taken a step back to see what sort of look they are trying to achieve.

[iloveannie]

I enjoyed the 'flare' in Turok. Which is amazing really as you could see the sun but not more than twenty five feet at ground level

I don't have a 360 yet (still waiting for the killer app (and mods!)) so can't comment on those titles. I can comment on other areas though. Water for instance? How come water looks so wonderful compared to rock/grass/people etc? Look at Quantum Shift(?). Fantastic water that looks so out of place with the rest of the environment. Would it not have been better to reduce its' quality?

Skies often look really good too. Far Cry on XBox? Lovely water and sky. Shame about those trees

[Brats]

This idea that Western dev's are trying to imitate the Japanese is rubbish. I've seen such comments on both the Kameo and PDZ threads. It is true that animation of all types influence and affect each other, but there's nothing in either of those two games that hasn't been a staple of Western animation for years. PDZ has more incommon with Lilo & Stitch than anything being produced from Japan.