Well, then i hope the Polish Post will take that to heart [yeah, i wouldn't trust them with wish cards, and nobody here really does]. I'm also wondering about the custom costs, as in, special costs for sending hardware, if any. Anyhow, we'll see tomorrow, thanks again.:)

LOL!! yeah that is pretty true ;D

That's cool. I guess that's what you get with a relatively small scale postal service. Ours doesn't do that, but it's primary purpose was to ensure that anybody anywhere could get mail for the same cost. Tracking tends to be pretty dodgy, the results are accurate as far as I know, but take a long time.

OTOH, I've yet to have a package go missing or have any significant damage so it's at least good for that and is usually fairly inexpensive.

Shipping internationally is crazy expensive, it seems.

With global trade and ability of some companies to have their own planes and shipping routes to mitigate costs by shipping multiple things per trip en masse, you'd think prices would be cheaper...but no. :\

I'd say the OP's image is accurate going back to probably 2000 or earlier. Take Unreal for example, My memories are pretty hazy but I seem to recall that most of the levels progressed in a fairly straight line, with one or two detour sections that where either optional or required to progress.

And I recall reading a article in PC Gamer around 2003-2004 that was critical of the "current trend" of "Medal of Honor/Call of Duty rip-offs that take place inside of a glass tube full of foliage, Nazis and magic health packs" or something like that.