I reckon it's the fact that all that bodily destruction has zero consequences and feels more like I'm stuck watching a long-winded movie with no ramifications than a depiction of what's going to gruesomely affect my/the opponent's character.

Glad to hear it.

Sadly, it seems I (and many others I know) have lucked out and managed to work in every studio with a failure culture. :/

Yeah. All of the troubles facing other industries seem to be amplified in the games industry (as well as in the film & VFX industries).

Yeah, maybe the added "injured" mechanics would ultimately detract from the experience? No idea. I just wish all that gore-porn had some effect over brief cut-scene fatalities that don't really do much beyond add window dressing to the gameplay.

As an engineer, you have more options at your disposal than something more industry-specific like "game designers."

As much as I like punishing opponents in Street Fighter, I've never snapped their spine, shattered limbs or ruptured internal organs in that game.

Why not make the art style reflect that then? It's a dark and gruesome game world and seeing inconsequential gore makes me laugh more than flinch and be affected by the visuals. Tom & Jerry the video game just seems a little campy for an M-rated game, IMO.

I know a few VFX artists and OH MY GOD! that is a horror-story in the making.

I tried Valve - their 12 hour interrogation ("interview") process and excessive, "build us a fully functioning mod/game" tests were a bit rough to accommodate when you're already employed (or lack 100% of free time in a day).

This sounds like EVERY studio I've ever worked for in this industry.

I love gore as much as the next sociopath but find the excessive, bone-shattering, organ-puncturing, muscle-tearing moves that allow gameplay to continue unfettered completely impotent in their presentation.

What service did you use in Tokyo? I'd be curious to see if we could get some hard data to compare and contrast between services across the globe.

This past E3 showing has actually got me excited for upcoming releases on the Wii-U.

This just sounds like a customer service nightmare in the making.

LOL! That comment about the crime rate was spot-on. I lived in Japan for a bit and found the streets of the city safe - even during my 3 mile strolls from the tube station to my place at 3am.

I didn't even realise there were 12 good games for this platform. I reckon including a bunch of afterthought, cross-platform ports can pad out the missing spots.

This is where your argument fails:

LOL. Exactly.

You've clearly never been outside of the academic environment. I've watched discrimination against white people (both men and women) from both Asian and black groups of people. To sit there and try to argue that there is some bizarre "institutional racism" in place against non-whites in this country really shows…