Quick Thought - Bayonetta

Bayonetta is the best action game this year, Period. Yes I realize I'm saying this when God of War 3 is on the cusp of release. Yes, I realize the year just started.

But my definition of what makes a great action game, and an epic action game what they are are two different things.

While there isn't any doubt in my mind that God of War will be an epic spectacle, a graphical and aural marvel with some of the most cinematic and downright visceral moments in gaming coupled with a stellar storyline, these are all bullet points.

Genuinely?

On its merits as an infinitely playable action game, I don't think it'll top Bayonetta.

Bayonetta is fun, fast, gorgeous and has unprecedented depth. It's as much a celebration of action games as it is gaming in general, refuses to take itself too seriously, and in terms of creativity and completely off-the-wall game design, I've never played ANYTHING like it.

It has a very endearing, self-referential arcade game quality to it that makes it addictive, and the sheer number of weapons and combat situations, coupled with some of the most over the top setpieces I've ever seen, ensure there's a reason to play it over and over, discovering something new nearly every time. No really. When your character's potential moveset has enough depth to rival that of a Virtua Fighter character, something special is going on there.

God of War cannot claim this. As polished as its combat engine is, it's still an intensely cinematic game that's meant to be experienced, not replayed like a traditional game. When it's over, it's over, and there will be stories, but revisiting is just smoothing over familiar territory. A replay of God of War is nostalgic at best.

Replaying Bayonetta is peeling back layers. I've gone through the game twice, have replayed countless missions and boss fights, and I'm STILL finding out new things, still having as much fun as I had the first go-around.

Similar to what Rockstar did with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in reminding everyone in the industry exactly who the master of the open-world genre was, Hideki Kamiya and Platinum Games just stepped in and reminded everyone exactly who redefined the action genre in 2001 in the first place.


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Yes, I paid $99.99 for this.

If you ask me, it was worth every penny.

I mean...LOOK AT IT.

Kinda want that other one though...

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How did...but isn't that...huh? Awesome.

Among a bunch of amazing announcements from Capcom two days ago, Monster Hunter Frontier on the 360, Super Street Fighter 4 being released April 27th, They still had one in store, curiously about Lost Planet 2, and it was more than its May 18th release date.

There aren't words. Though YouTube's own embedding scheme already ruins my buildup, you're still going to watch. Because it truly has to be seen to be believed.



(I love how sure of themselves they are. Pff. Not that they're strangers to battling monsters that are several stories tall)

THIS is why I tell anyone who will listen that the 360 is the successor to the Dreamcast, and Capcom's open love/support for the system is similarly indicative of this.

Just look at the signs like this one.

I never would've guessed.

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Gameplay demo of...Bioshock 2?

While I realize this may make me seem like a huge hypocrite in retrospect, in the passing months, I've found much to be excited about.

Mind you, my opinion hasn't changed, but a revised direction in the story on the developers' side, plus a very recent playthrough of the original on mine has much to do with why February 9th seems so far away.

I don't expect the same impact as the original. That may be unreasonable. But if you can bring me back to Rapture in 1970 and have me feel it, well..

Then I can't wait.


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Innovative black sheep..of COURSE it'll continue!

Despite the naysayers (but really, wasn't it a bit much calling it out that early on it's October sales numbers when it was out for THREE days of the entire month?) and even somewhat underwhelming sales numbers, DJ Hero is apparently the highest grossing new IP of 2009, according to a press release from Activision themselves.

While the announcement in itself is a bit skewed given the right perspective (it's the highest grossing, not selling, and the entry fee for the game stands at $120), I for one think it's great that the game is getting the respect I feel it deserves instead of being written off as another soulless Activision-styled regurgitation of the music genre. The game rightfully earned a few 'Best of' awards last year despite its weak sales numbers, and this announcement among others just ensures that a bigger, better sequel is pretty much a given.

This is great news in my book, not just for the franchise, but in general. The IP not making any money should've been a death knell for the series, innovation be damned. Personally, I found it more entertaining than another game you might've heard of that released from Activision these past holidays, what was it...Modern Warfare 2?

Forget the profits, (even though they'll be MUCH more important this time around) here's hoping Freestyle Games can strike gold once again and come up with something even better this year that doesn't feel like a completely phoned-in, soulless add-on to what has been a fresh new start for the genre.

Yeah. I went there.

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Why....what's this?

To me, that looks like a screenshot of some crafty individual about to get himself some Sonic Adventure on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

This excites me. The first game was obviously the high point of Sonic Team's many attempts to translate Sonic in 3D, and with a pretty decent cast of characters aside from himself featuring gameplay types ranging from pursuit to fishing(?!) to round out Sonic's breakneck speed (and it DIDN'T interfere with Sonic's quest, they had stories of their own), it was actually...good. Imagine that.

I know I can't wait to play this. Even watching it makes me feel like I'm 13 all over again. I loved Sonic's gameplay. His was nothing but breakneck speed across a variety of stages filled with shortcuts, hidden paths, and ridiculous setpieces like running down the side of a skyscraper, or escaping the jaws of a killer whale on a bridge being reduced to splinters by the second.

As far as 1999 was concerned, they were the coolest things I'd ever seen in a game.




Sega, please announce this soon. You've already been caught with your pants down.

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Definition of Awesome - II

Awesome is when a game's visuals are so stunning, you take the subtleties and intricacies of its little details for granted because things look the way they are supposed to.

As humans, our eyes discern things to scale. It's easy to spot good graphics in a game and acknowledge it as simply a good looking game. It's even easier to spot flaws and inconsistencies when a game falls short of the realism it's attempting. But when a game simply looks so good, so realistic, so organic, so...right that the little details, like overturned chairs, debris strewn about, wallpaper textures that are so varied you never see them duplicate, even flags flapping in the breeze are taken for granted, that's something.

It's why, humorously, among your other stats, there's one counting the amount of playing time you've simply stood still. Awe is inevitable.

Even when you're inside a building while it's collapsing. Everything looks, and moves, and behaves the way it's supposed to, to such an insane degree that you stop questioning the nature of the game, forget you are playing a game at all, and just want to get out of the fucking building before it kills you.

That is something special.



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