Infamous? I thought that's the whole point in (most) Japanese games!

Talk about ridiculous... who doesn't love those awkward moments when in the middle of a conversation between dark and brooding characters revealing their troubled past and complicated psychological drama to the sound of spooky atmospheric music... suddenly camera centers on a pair of unnaturaly big breasts bouncing unnaturaly for unnaturaly long time.

Heh, just remembered playing (or "reading" actually) Saya No Uta... still confused as to what to make of the sex scenes in this intense drama.

Haha, no, i think the fan service is really noticeable only in "niche" games aimed towards male audience. But yeah, sometimes it can be quite uncanny ! :D

"Uncanny" hah!

Ok, maybe in games, but is it only me or does fan service eat up the contemporary anime?

Hmm... i guess the female character design can't be called fan service most of the time, still it's obvious what they had in mind when they designed that pieces of armor... definately not practical considerations. Anyway it's also a standard practice in the West, in the industry dominated by male leather/latex fetishists and cleavage voyeurs... becouse it's so common, it isn't noticable, unless you are a feminist that is.

Couldn't say, I don't like anime, in fact. ^_^

Believe it or not, but there are animes without panty shots / cleavage zooms.

It took forever and a few retries but I eventually got through GTA IV.

I didn't say there aren't :) but there's a big big pressure for that on Japanese producers I think.

Just DLC Quest. =L

Added to the list for 2012: Bastion. Just finished it last night. This game was better than I expected, and it already had rave reviews.

Dead Space
Tron Evolution
Dead Space 2
Venetica
Mega Man: Network Transmission
Duke Nukem Forever
BloodRayne
Hard Reset
LIMBO
BloodRayne 2
Bob Came in Pieces
Mega Man 10
Serious Sam 3: BFE
Resident Evil (GameCube remake)
Cave Story+ (normal ending only)
Transformers: War for Cybertron
Jade Empire: Special Edition
Alan Wake (+ both DLCs - The Signal & The Writer)
American McGee's Alice
Resident Evil 5
Project I.G.I.
Bulletstorm
Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven
Kingpin: Life of Crime
Risen
Red Faction Armageddon
Scarygirl

------------ since then

Red Dead Revolver (first time playing it - such a strange game. Fun, but I think I enjoyed GUN more)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (brutal, cinematic combat, but the game gets way too repetitive)

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
I left this one half way through the game for over a year. I'm not sure why because the game is awesome. The boss battles never disappoint although the fucking camera can fuck with you when you need it the most. This is one of the best games on the Wii in my opinion.

Saints Row: The Third
It is the most genuinely fun game I've played in a while. The action, story, and characters are way over the top but in a good way. I still have to finish some activities, find all the collectibles, buy every building in town, and finish the DLC so I'll still be playing it for a while.

Working on:
- Arcanum (first playthrough as a magick/sword wielding half-elf doge-melee master)
- Resonance
- Desperados - Wanted Dead of Alive
- Beneath a Steel Sky
- Red Faction: Guerrilla

Games finished this year:
- Sanitarium
- Gemini Rue
- Alan Wake (I highly recommend this game!)

Aaand whole series is over. I finished Star Wars - Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy today. It is superior game in whole series but somehow I usually look more forward to playing Jedi Outcast than this when I plan my playthrough. It's saber fight is superior (albeit bit unbalanced; oh how overpowered is strong style against lightsaber users), it has customizable character, dual-wielding (or staff), combos, customizable force powers (and mind trick is still useless; I ended up as usually with Absorb and Protect and I mixed it with Lightning (outstanding against troopers) and Drain. I added Mind Trick only to lean myself to light side but I never used it.), non-linear progress, variable missions, and choice between light side and dark side. And it has only few snipers (Yay!).
It still has it's problems, like some strange behaviour of enemies, strange effects of force powers (I was thrown across half of valley by fellow jedi when my character tried to finish cultist lying on floor and my friend used push. I wasn't even thrown in the right direction!), possibility of getting stuck somewhere inbetween items (applies for enemies as well), unbalanced force powers,unbalanced saber styles (strong style is much stronger than anything else) and sometimes strange collision detection (sometimes you get hit when enemy doesn't hit visibly. Applies for me to. Strong style benefits a lot from this as you don'T even hit target most time you damage them.). I also dislike how stronger enemies have undepletable amount of force.

Overall it's best action game with lightsabers I have played. It deserves 8.5/10.

Full list.

Super Metroid (Wii VC)

Couldn't be bothered to get 100% in an 18 year old game. Finicky controls, especially with a GCN controller. Nonetheless a great deal of fun, but not quite up to Fusion standards if you ask me. Fusion's controls were considerably more thought-through, and on a smaller controller, too.

I completed Alan Wake and its additional episodes, and I enjoyed it immensely. The setting is amazing, the feel and authenticity helps lend weight to the story.

The story is extremely immersive, and the way the game is paced really adds to the mystery of what is happening. I also enjoyed the mechanic of combat, although there were a few frustrating moments I liked the light vs dark combat elements. It was definitely a refreshing take on the genre. The score was wonderful, and heightened the (many) moments of tension. I hope GOG can get the score here on the site, it's really great.

I look forward to what Remedy does with the Alan Wake story in the future. I'll be playing American Nightmare shortly.

So far:
Just Cause 2
Cave Story+
Area 51
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
XIII
Star Wars: Jedi Academy
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
Metro 2033
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Mirror's Edge
Thief II: The Metal Age
Alan Wake