January 2010 – The O/C Gamer

Bayonetta’s ShadowPortal

This week began as the previous couple did: with the glorious Bayonetta. I’m still utterly smitten with both the lady and her game, and managed to polish off not only a run through the Non-Stop Infinite Climax difficulty, but all the Alfheim Portals as well – leading to all the Achievements associated with the game being unlocked, and my overall GamerScore just sneaking above 92% (23,867 of a possible 25,940). Hurrah!

But that’s not the end of Bayonetta, oh no – there’s a small matter of unlocking the additional characters, and performing complete runs with those, too… and a little obstacle called Angel Slayer, a bonus level unlocked once all the Alfheim levels were completed. To say that Angel Slayer is tricky is an understatement; there’s fifty-one individual “rooms” in the level, and I’ve successfully managed to beat twelve of them.

So there’s a bit of work left to do there, then ;)

After a friend pointed out that Portal: Still Alive was the XBLA deal of the week, I decided to buy it and see what I’d been missing. You see, I’ve played precious little of this much-lauded game: a few quick levels when the demo was first released on XBLA had been my entire experience, even though I knew full well that the game didn’t really get going until the late-teen levels.

So – time to rectify this (supposed) gaping hole in my gaming experience.

…blimey, that last level is pretty special, isn’t it?

To be fair, my experience with Portal is probably a little compromised because of all the hype that preceded it; there was no way it could possibly have matched the frothing exaltations and Game-of-the-Year nominations. Yes, it’s a wonderfully unique experience, but it’s more of an amusé than a banquet, a fact that it seems to accept and revel in. And really, there’s only five levels of content there – but, as I alluded to before, that last level is certainly worth experiencing.

Finally this week was a return to Shadow Complex to complete a 100% items run. It was pretty easy on Hardcore and, when the going got tough in some select boss battles, I simply dropped the difficulty down momentarily – a feature which I hope many more games take advantage of. Dunno how I’m going to manage that ChAIRness internal Achievement, though.

Of course, it’s rapidly approaching that games-free time of year for me – there’s less than a fortnight before the start of the Adelaide Fringe. And I’ve only just finished writing up last year’s events!

Quicker and Dirtier…

A couple more Bayonetta notes is all you’re getting this week.

Firstly, finish the game to unlock the Couture options. Purchase the Witch Queen Couture Bullet, then change to that costume (RB at the Chapter Select screen). Now play the game again, watching all the cutscenes. It’s filthy… but in a totally good way.

Now do it all again, but with the P.E. Uniform. And then the Various – Type B costume.

Oh my.

Lest this blog become a teenage-ish outlet for physical lust, let’s mention the game again: it’s still bloody brilliant. My complaints last week about the difficult of Hard have been completely scotched after a bit of experimentation with the purchasable items; some nice combinations led to a Saturday-afternoon hammering of Hard mode, and an eventual completion time of a touch over three hours. Replay one botched level, and bang – 2:59:58, enough to unlock yet another item in The Gates of Hell. And now I’m coasting through the Non-Stop Infinite Climax skill level; that should be wrapped up by Australia Day.

Then there’s the simple matter (ho ho) of wrapping up some of the Alfheim Portals (little challenge levels within the game), and I’ll have nabbed all the GamerScore available to me from the game. But that doesn’t mean that Bayonetta will soon be off The List, oh no – there’s so many little unlockables within the game that I don’t even really consider myself a third of the way there yet. And that’s after nearly sixty hours!

I’ve got a few other games like that hanging over me on the 360; Rez HD really does require 100%-shot-down runs, and Ninety-Nine Nights has a whole lot of random drops to collect. But that’s the price I pay for being me, for letting my OCD have its way with my gaming hobby.

And I think about the sixty hours invested in Bayonetta so far, with the prospect of at least a hundred more, and I quiver with joyful anticipation :)

Quick and Dirty…

Not much to talk about this week, really…

Thanks again SEGA person :)
Oh wait, there really is a lot to talk about :)

I’m really, truly loving this. Three playthroughs (on the three easiest settings) have yielded a bunch of strategies that I know will be completely useless when I start playing on Hard – in fact, I started a Hard playthrough today and got summarily thumped by the more aggressively devious AI and additional enemies. Grace & Glory in the Prologue? You’ve got to be kidding me!

There’s just so much in Bayonetta; even tonight, after 45 hours of playtime, I discovered a new Torture Attack animation. I’m still getting to grips with Durga and Lt. Kilgore, and the Alfheim Levels? Crazy.

So much to do. So little time.

BayonettaComplex

Post-blogging last week, I started a run-through of Shadow Complex on Insane… blimey! That’s a tricky bugger. Consulting online guides indicated that the usual plan of attack on that difficulty level involves the early acquisition of one of the Golden Guns… which, in turn, are only unlocked after a 100% run-through of the game. Which, of course, I had buggered up by not acquiring a particular item before a certain game event. Which is a bit annoying, I must say. I soldiered on as much as I could, before dropping the difficulty down a notch… or two. Efforts will be ongoing with Shadow Complex, I think; even more so, given the extra internal achievements – including the implausible 100%-ing Insane in less than 3 hours.

But enough about that; this week was really all about Bayonetta. Waaaaay back in May last year, I wrote the following:

To be honest, though, my mind has been more focussed on a game that’s still some months off: Bayonetta. Ever since I first laid eyes on the initial teaser trailer, I’ve been gagging for more goodies from Platinum – and they’ve delivered some delicious tidbits on the complexities of modelling Bayonetta’s arse. Now, I’m a bit of a fan of a bit of female protagonist posterior, and Bayonetta backs that up with some nutball looking action – I can’t wait.

And, ever since then, anticipation fuelled expectation and led to a game that I had hyped to the max in my own head.

But you know what?

My expectations – and hence, the hype – have been absolutely met.

Bayonetta is lush. There is so much spit-and-polish on the entire package that it gleams. It oozes style and class – and, most overtly, sexuality. Hideki Kamiya has most certainly succeeded in his desire to create a sexy witch, and the engine-driven cinematics (as well as the demon-invoking incantation scenettes) really flaunt Bayonetta’s gorgeous form – sometimes embarrassingly so. Certainly, this is targeted at a more adolescent market than the one I’m supposed to be in, but believe me – I’m not complaining.

The action is fast and furious, and every chapter managed to elicit a genuine exclamation of “what the fuck??!?” There’s plenty of fan-service – not only for those eager to view the female form, but also more senior game players, with cheeky and good-natured homage paid to previous Sega properties. Sure, there’s a few sticking points – the final boss battle had be a bit exasperated and backtracking for goodies, leading to a fair amount of item whoring in my Normal playthrough of 31 hours (Kamiya reckons the first playthrough should be about ten-to-twelve hours) but I admit to having a big sloppy grin on my face for the vast majority of it. The second playthrough (on the very aptly named Very Easy difficulty) was a spot over six hours; item and skill acquisitions are preserved, which should be the break I need to be able to get through the Hard and Non-Stop Infinite Climax (yes, that really is the name) difficulties. However, some of the tasks required to unlock goodies in-game verge on the silly; finish Normal in less than three hours? Get Platinum medals for every chapter? Dreaming.

It’s by no means a perfect game – for some inexplicable reason, the camera speed defaults to mogadon mode, which frustrated me immensely until I poked around the menus a bit. The narrative aspect of the game is also lacking; the opening exposition takes place during an inconsequential battle (yes, I know I raved about how No More Heroes does almost the same thing, but this just didn’t seem to work), and the story itself is a little… ermmm… odd. But there’s so much Good Stuff in Bayonetta that drowns those criticisms out; cheeky laughs and flirty winks, humour a-plenty, and some of the most bizarre battles I’ve ever seen.

And much more besides, but I’ll not mention that for the moment – it’s still too soon. I’ve been blessed by folks who got me one of my copies a couple of days early, so I accept that there are many who’ve yet to experience the glory of Bayonetta. But I implore you – play through on Normal. Watch all of the credit sequences. There’s some fantastic stuff in there :D

PhantomMawComplex

Hot on the heels of my 2010 Gaming Resolutions, I’ve managed to knock a couple of games off The List already. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass was conquered in little more than a week, starting on Christmas Day and being wrapped up on the second day of the New Year. All ship parts were obtained (using massive whoring of the Temple of the Ocean King), and I also learned to love the archery mini-game. I even managed to catch a stowfish!

Late December saw Microsoft offer some discounts on Xbox Live goodies, so I bought Shadow Complex sight-unseen. Initially impressive, I’m now suffering some buyer’s remorse – the first hour is thrilling stuff, but thereafter it manages to feel like a bit of a grind. There’s something about the presentation of the game that also triggers memories of Undertow – fair enough, I guess, with Chair Entertainment responsible for both titles – but that also reminded me at how underappreciated that game was. Chair needs to work on their character models, too – some of the cutscenes were terrifying. I’ve since had nightmares about Claire’s teeth.

Another impromptu purchase was The Maw, which utterly charmed me in its demo form. A beautiful, concise game, it only took a handful of hours to 100% the game… but it was perfectly weighted.

So there you have it. Two games done. Short and sweet, since I’m not really in a writing mood. Next week, however… Bayonetta. I’ve been waiting for this game since the very first trailer, I’m going to be completely crap at it… but I’ll love every second :)

My 2010 Gaming Resolutions

Last year was purportedly a great gaming year for me; it felt like I made massive inroads into The List, knocking off tricky games left and right, and generally reducing the psychological weight of The List.

The problem is, that’s not really how the numbers played out.

Sixteen on, sixteen off. And that’s sixteen new games that got added to The List, as well as a whole bunch of Forgotten Games.

And that leaves The List at a bulging 71 at the turn of the decade. And, when I made a list of Gaming Resolutions for 2009, they were geared around containing the sprawl; let’s review how I did, shall we?

…to Complete at least two Zelda games. I want to play through them all in release chronological order, and (as I indicated last week) I’m getting close to wrapping up a 100% run on Ocarina of Time. But then what – do I go on to Majora’s Mask (which I’ve never played) or follow-up with the Ocarina Master Quest? Decisions, decisions.

Verdict: Success! Not only did I knock off both Ocarinas (three 100% playthroughs for the year!), but I managed a 100% run through Majora’s and two 100% runs through Wind Waker. And I’m also currently waiting on Lady Luck to deliver me a 100% complete Phantom Hourglass; so consider this Resolution resolved!

…to Complete at least two PS2 games. This scares me a little, really – of the eight games there, three are rhythm action games (which I’m notoriously bad at), the Katamaris are O/C collection nightmares, and Bujingai is as hard as nails on the higher skill levels.

Verdict: Oooooh… not so successful, this one. I started a pair of games with every intention of Completing them… but Katamari Damacy is reluctant to let me roll up all the countries of the world, and N2O proved to be a right bastard; I didn’t even attack the easy-ish Super Galdelic Hour. Fail.

…to Complete at least four(!) from the PC, Nuon, Dreamcast, and Jaguar groups. Holy shit!

Verdict: This started so well, with Full Throttle succumbing early, but GridRunner Revolution and Tempest 2000 both proved to be roadblocks. ChuChu Rocket! tempted but was sadly forgotten. Target of four, total of one? Fail.

…to keep on top of stuff obtained through the year. In 2008, I managed to Complete 11 of 18 new purchases – let’s aim for a similar target of 60%

Sixteen new additions; six of those were completed. 37.5% sounds like another Fail to me. I even toyed with the idea of including my handful of iPhone game purchases to help out with the target (four bought, four completed), but that seemed too much like cheating ;)

That all totals up to a pretty grim ledger, I reckon. So why not make up another set of Resolutions that are equally unrealistic, and have something to work with during the year?

And so, in 2010, I resolve…

…to leave 2010 with The List pared back to… oooh, let’s say 64. Because it’s a nice number :)
…to keep on top of stuff obtained through the year. Last year’s goal of 60% seemed reasonable at the time, but was hurt by a flurry of purchases late in the year; let’s aim for 50% in 2010.
…to not go overboard in the purchasing stakes. In retrospect, there’s a couple of titles that were picked up this year that… you know… were probably a little too retail therapy-ish. This year, I’ll just buy a cake instead. Or maybe put the money towards the mortgage ;)
…to make an impact on every platform. Sure, that leaves the Nuon looking a little dicey (Tempest 3000 is bound to be at least one thousand harder than Tempest 2000, and Ballistic is a Zuma-like – ie, shit – game), and the GameCube lineup is in the ninja-zone, but let’s give it a bash anyway.
…to not give up so soon. Ten games were started in anger (that’s what the spreadsheet column is called) and not Completed this year; blimey that’s soft. Time to cut that shit out.

Ooof. I don’t like the look of that lot already, and with a flurry of must-haves incoming (I’ve been looking forward to Bayonetta for eighteen months, and there’s at least two Suda51 releases in the first half of the year… not to mention Zelda: Spirit Tracks!), that means I’m going to have to really start cleaning up some of these older games. But the goal should be to push The List into modernity, thinning out older platforms, and I reckon these are pretty reasonable steps in that direction.

And finally, cut’n’pasting a line from last year’s post… What are your Gaming Resolutions for 2010?