Review: Bayonetta

A sexy witch kicking angel ass while attempting to save the world! Sounds great, but does it pan out, and more importantly, did I enjoy the game?  Let's find out.

First of all, what is Bayonetta? Wikipedia defines it as "a hack and slash action game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 developed by Platinum Games in cooperation with publisher Sega. Set in a fictional city in Europe, the game centers on its title character, Bayonetta, who uses pistols and magical attacks to defeat enemies"

To me, although accurate, this description does not do the game justice.  This game is a stunningly orgasmic ride through 14 chapters of hack and slash heaven.  The controls are responsive and fast; rarely did I feel Bayonetta was not doing what I wanted her to.  Combine this with a great combo system, and I'm in heaven.    

I'll be the first to admit, the story in Bayonetta is lacking.  There's plot holes you could drive a bus through, and it really doesn't make much sense as a whole.  However, the thing about this game is that the gameplay is so FUN you don't even care about the story (and this coming from someone who loves RPGs).  In fact, that is a great way to sum up this game.. FUN.

Show me another game where you have pole dancing to 1950s awesome music.. this game ROCKS!

The combat is definitely the most satisfying part of this game.  Not only are the controls fantastic, but the way combat works is just wonderful.  By hitting bosses, and not getting hit yourself, you gain magic, when you have enough magic, you are able to perform a torture attack, dealing massive damage.  Also, once you have completed a boss you get a "climax" attack, where Bayonetta summons a monster to eat the boss while you mash buttons for ultimate rewards!

There is also a really nice upgrade system in Bayonetta.  As you kill enemies they drop "halos" (they look like Sonic's rings), which you can use to upgrade techniques, weapons, items, accesories or (what I did) COSTUMES!!!!

With difficulty settings from "very easy" to "infinite climax" this game can appeal to both the casual gamer and the hardcore.  I did my first playthrough on normal, and it was a good difficulty to learn the game.  When I casted the game I did it on hard, and though it posed a challenge, I didn't hit a super hard "wall" (other than the prologue.. damn that triple torture attack level).  I do plan on going back and doing a playthrough on infinite climax, Bayonetta is just that fun.

Now I can already hear people saying "but Chatia, I thought you didn't like scantily clad female protagonists.. I thought that was sexist".  Bayonetta is the epitimy of the strong female.  She wears skimpy clothes and acts sexy because SHE wants to, not to impress males.  There is no need for Bayonetta to be saved by the male lead here, and the one time she does need a rescue, it's a female that does it.  To me, this game is a great portrayal of females, simply because the power rests with Bayonetta, not the male characters around her.  Bayonetta kicks ass, chews bubble gum AND looks good doing it, a great female character.

Overall I truly enjoyed this game, it is pure fun wrapped in a fun package and coated with more fun! Wanna know how much fun? This much!

Bayonetta has become one of my favourite games, and I can't wait to get back into it and 100% it!  Bayonetta gets 5 scantily clad witches out of 5! GO PICK IT UP NAO!

Chatia Learns Starcraft 2: Day One

Hi guys!
So for those who don't know, this is a new project I'm taking on.  Basically I started playing Starcraft 2 about a month ago, and I love it!  It's the first RTS I've ever gotten into, so I'm a complete nub.  I instantly fell in love with the Protoss race for a myriad of reasons, and so I play them exclusively.  I've been learning, and I wanted a way to track my progress as I dive farther and farther and (hopefully) get better at this really fun game.  The idea is, I'll cast my games, then provide highlights of certain games, along with some points on what I did well or not so well.  This helps me, as I get to analyze what I need to improve on.  I hope this might also provide some entertainment for you guys, and maybe some help (especially if you're a complete noob like me!)  Now, on to the first day.

Monday Oct. 17, 2011
Rank: 15 Bronze League

Today I'm going to post 2 games, one win, one loss.

First the loss:
 Early rush loss

Okay, so basically this is an early rush, there are a couple things I could have done to survive this rush.  I've listed these options in the order of best case--> worst case solutions as I see them

1) Sentries.  Sentries have the ability to make force fields.  If I had a couple sentries out, I could have completely blocked off my ramp, allowing me time to build more units, and destroy his little army.

2) Better micro.  Stalkers outrun zealots, and zealots are melee units while stalkers are ranged.  If I could stutter step better I could have kept my stalkers out of the range of the zealots while pewpewing them down.

3) Better scouting.  If I had seen what he was doing, it's possible that I could have had better units waiting (this sort of flows into #1).

3) Engage with my probes.  This is something that I am TERRIBLE about.  I always have the tendency to try and save my probes and run them away.  Later in the game, when the units are tougher, this is the way to go, but in the beginning, against a couple zealots, the probes can actually be a huge help, and could have served as a way to block off the zealots from my stalkers, providing my stalkers time to pewpew the zealots down.  I would have lost a lot of probes, but I would have survived the attack.  Usually when people send units that early, they are pulling probes (not making as many probes as they could be), so it's quite possible that if I had survived the attack I could have been even or ahead economically.

Okay, now that we've gone over a loss, here's a win.

Win against terran part 1
Win against Terran part 2
(two parts cause twitch split the archive in the middle of the game)

To me, there were three key points in this game that led me to the win.

1) I outmacroed him.  I gathered more resources and created more units.  If you do this in most games, you will win!  It seems simple, but getting to a point where you have a decently macroed game is tough.  My macro wasn't actually that great this game (you will hear me constantly complaining about how many minerals I'm floating), but it was better than his.

2) Scouting.  I scout him early, and can see what he's up to.  Therefore, I stick with my favourite build against Terrans (heavy robo units).  If I had seen a starport with a tech lab for instance, I would have known banshees were coming, as it was I saw he was going marine/tank (a very common Terran build).  Immortals absolutely melt Terran tanks, combine that with upgrades and you can see his army basically disintegrates under mine.  (Again I could afford upgrades and those units due to better macroing).

3) Denial of a 2nd base.  Because of my scouting, I was able to see when the Terran was going to take a second and destroy it.  This is important as it keeps me economically ahead of him.  Now, he could have very easily countered this by simply taking a different location as his 2nd base, but more often that not (especially in bronze league) people are obsessed with taking their natural as their 2nd base, and this guy paid for it.

That's all for this edition of Chatia Learns SC2, I hope you'll join me next time!  If you have any comments, please feel free to post them below!

 

Some updated information!

Hi guys!

I know it's been forever since I've made a blog post, and I apologize for that, most of you know how hectic things have been for me lately, I just haven't had time to update!

There have been some major changes happening, with the major one being that Solidbeef and I will now both be casting at my channel.  We figured it's a great way to get both of us more views, and frankly use the channel more!  As I've said before if you really hate one of us, and don't want to watch, we will put the name of who is casting in the title, so you know what you're getting before you come in :P.  Beef will be casting mostly during the day, where my casts will be evenings/weekends.  Also, I really want to try and up the frequency of my casts, I know I haven't been casting much (again busy!) but I want to pick it up.

I want to take this time to remind you all of the Binding of Isaac race that is taking place shortly.  So far I have 7 people signed up, this means that ideally this coming weekend there would be two prelim races, with the top two in each race proceeding on to the final on Oct.29.  I have to confirm this with the racers yet, so this isn't a for sure thing.  Also, MANvsGAME has offered his skills as a commentator again, so I'm sure the finals will be a blast! Fingers crossed developers show up!

I've also been floating some ideas for the blog, some of which I'm sure you guys may not like so much.  One is following my journey as a newbie SC2 player.  (I would make it a different section of the blog so those of you that have a complete aversion to the game wouldn't have to see it).  I think it would be really cool for me to be able to track my progress as I (hopefully) get better at the game.  This would mean more SC2 casts, but they wouldn't replace the normal casts, they would just be extra, ninja casts.  I know a lot of you don't like SC2 purely on principle, but I find it really exciting to watch and play, and I want to start incorporating it more (I've kinda been hiding it for fear of backlash).  This would also give me a place to comment on stuff I find cool and exciting about the game without interfering with this section of the blog. (Such as Huk, a Canadian Protoss being the first Non-Korean to win MLG since Koreans started competing).

So let me know what you think!

Cheers 

Chatia