Fodder

Hong Kong. Typically takes a week and a half ish to the UK. You wouldn't pay VAT/duty on that as it's below the limit. It is, yes. Switch to English and it's exactly the same as the US/UK version. Even the logo changes to the Phoenix Wright one. Alternatively, Gameseek have it for 35 quid, which is a bit better than Amazon's price.

It's getting quite hard to find for a decent price now. However, the Japanese version is fully English (once you pass the first screen with a language select on it), and is still available for a decent price. No region locking on DS games. Don't be tempted to skip the first game. It's one of the best, and the series really has to be played in order.

I like Kaiten Patissier. Sort of puzzle platform thing where you can rotate the world around, with the aim being to finish a level with the fewest rotations possible. Has some really nice level design in places.

Depends on the console to some extent too. The Wii is still getting rubbish 50Hz PAL conversions of some games in Europe. It's much better than the PS2 era, but still makes imports more attractive for that system. Just a warning about the PS3. Although it's region free, if you don't have HD, some NTSC games won't work on a PAL PS3 (or the other way round). EU PS3s don't support 60Hz SD resolutions, so can't display some games even though they're not region locked. You're fine with HD or if you're in the US and want to play Japanese games, though. Oh, and Boku no Natsuyasumi 3 is completely amazing even if you don't understand a word of it.

Or it could be about repeatedly freezing your parents in place with a guitar until a picture of your family fills in. Like this. I played that game far more than it deserved. I think it might well have the worst combat system ever. That 12 minute video is the entire game, by the way.

Oh, one other thing I meant to say: you can't make any mistakes in the game, so don't worry about messing anything up. Other than stuff you set when you create your character - name, gender and whatnot - nothing you do in the game is irreversible (with the exception of a couple of items that you can only get once, but you're not seeing them for a long time). So, although there're a lot of systems and things to learn in the game, you're free to experiment without feeling like you might mess something up make a choice that you regret later on. Really, the worst you can do is waste a bit of time by having to go get more of some items that you've used on something you decided you didn't want. Also, if you can, try to learn to use "The Claw". If you hold the PSP such that your thumb is on the analogue stick and your index finger lays over the dpad, you can control the camera and character at the same time. It takes some getting used to, and might not actually be possible on a PSP Go, but a fair few people seem to find it's worth it.

Lances are pretty tough at first. You can't roll with them, which is a major drawback against bigger creatures. The running dive is a lifesaver at times. Sword and Shield is probably an easier starting weapon if you want blocking. Yeah, that's definitely true. There are a load of videos on YouTube showing people doing major bosses with no armour on, for example. That's why you generally go with skills rather than defence when it comes to picking armour. Ideally, you get good enough at the game to not get hit in the first place. Learning the monsters is one of the best things about the game. When you first get to a new creature it seems completely impossible, but you can go back later on and wonder how you ever had trouble with it. By the way, if you have a PS3, you can play the PSP MH online. There's a fairly decent community of English speaking players.

Between this and the previous version, I've put several hundred hours into Monster Hunter. I was lucky enough to have three other people at work who also played it and, especially in multiplayer, it's absolutely fantastic. Downing one of the big monsters genuinely feels like a huge achievement, even now. The game really doesn't do itself any favours at the start, though. It just dumps you into the world without any clues as to what you're meant to be doing. When Unite came out in the UK, Capcom actually rented a building in central London for people to go and learn to play the game. Some suggestions for getting started: Don't go into the guild hall. These are missions that are really balanced for several people at once. Until you're better at the game, stick with the Elder's quests. Pick an easy weapon to start with. Sword and shield, dual blade or maybe long sword. Don't start with something like a hammer or great sword, as you'll just get frustrated. The strong weapons require you to really know what you're doing as they're so slow and the gaps in which you can attack are quite short. You don't need to know them all. Your weapon choice is essentially your character class in MH. You'll need to learn a few later in the game, but you can get by with just one for quite a long time. Figure out combining, and get everything you can from the farm between quests. You'll want as many potions as you can get and, early on, you might struggle to get the money to keep buying them. When you first get to a bigger monster, just watch him. Don't try to attack. Just look at how he moves and try to spot gaps. Although you do get better equipment as you go, it's far more important that you (the player) gets better at the game. It's not a game where you're ever really going to be hugely powerful compared to the monsters, so you have to learn to dodge and to figure out patterns. Also, when you have a choice between a risky attack and dodging, always dodge. Go here for all the weapon upgrade info you're ever going to need. Pick something to aim for, and figure out what you need to kill to get the parts. Something to note is that you'll get more stuff from trapping a monter than by killing it. To trap something, you drop a shock trap, lure the monster in then chuck at least two tranq bombs at it. If it's weak enough, it'll go down. Watch for the monsters starting to limp as a clue that they're trappable. Finally, armour is for skills first and defence second. The way the skill system works is really badly communicated by the game. There's a reasonable explanation here.

You can't actually fly around in your ship in Eve can you? At least not properly with a first person view and flight type controls. Jumpgate Evolution might be more like it, if it turns out okay.

Some of the technology in Infinity is pretty impressive. There's quite a nice video which ends with them pulling the camera away from the planet in up into the rings. It's not a game, and doesn't go all the way down to the planet surface, but Celestia is pretty neat too.

Yeah, I know Oli really well. It was a real shame Circle went under. It was one of those places which just felt like it had so much potential, with a load of really great people, but it never quite came together when it came to the actual games. To be honest though, in retrospect, much as I liked the place, spending my 30th birthday making an E3 demo of Without Warning was probably a bit of a waste of time.

I loved that game. I like how they have him spending most of his time collecting lanterns and avoiding touching spikes, just like in his movies. Anyway, hello. When I'm not posting on forums and listening to excellent podcasts, I make video games. Traditionally, quite poor ones, but recently much better ones.

AIUI, they didn't spoof the email address. They used the IGDA site's PM function to send the mails, and the site itself sets the return address to an igda.org one. They should probably ask their web tech guy about that, only that was Tim Langdell...

The PSP game that's linked to at the bottom of that page is also a really good variation on the same idea. Lovely art style too. It's a bit Japanese heavy in the menus, but NTSC-UK have a useful translation that got me through the confusing bits.