Actually I'd argue that characterisation among female characters is about right now in western games. Bioware games are a prime example of western games creation of good female characters and Final Fantasy does it well in Japan but the majority of Japanese games at least appear to be hugely stereotypical although androgynous characters are mainstream so.... Swings and roundabouts.
I was just noticing a coincidence more than anything else, I don't think there is causation either
@Othko, All journalists get money, freebies, promotion etc from big companies and little companies. And they should. They get paid like armadillo and have really long hours. The problem is in my opinion when the lies are told. Not much of that has happened recently, but it is deceiving when journalists say something about a game that isn't true. This is not because of the journalists however, but because of the games companies. They give out demo copies that are polished to shine for the 30 mins of gameplay they display and are not representative of the actual game, so if a journalist says 'I didn't encounter any bugs as I was playing' it is a true statement even if the final product ctds every 10 sec. Examples of this: New Lara Croft game, Rome 2, Aliens Colonial Marines, Zombie open world thing (indie).
On another, related, note: Journalism has gone terrible. We used to get actual reviews of things instead of: This is what I did, I liked this and this and this. If I was an active and socially responsible person I would petition to bring back Charlie Brooker, Will Porter, Jon 'Log' Blyth, Steve Hill and Jamie Sefton. Who were writers/editors/journalists for PC Zone and were amazing.
EDIT: TB put a vid up, in case you don't know, he's kinda pretty influential in gaming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e78JRIHRjC0
