Keyrock

Maybe they replaced magical healing with

Weakling! I've grown soft in my old age.

This is the first multiplayer-focused shooter I've been legitimately excited for in probably a decade (this trailer focuses on the single player part of the game, but, to the best of my knowledge, multiplayer is still the meat of the game). Of course, the term "shooter" is applied a bit loosely to this game, since it seems completely different from traditional shooters (which is exactly why it appeals to me), but I think it still applies.

I've been meaning to jump back into that game. It's been a long time since I played and many things have changed. In the meantime, I'm up to chapter 12 in my Bayonetta 2 Rosa playthrough. The goal is to get at least gold on every chapter and so far I've managed to do that with 6 platinum chapters and 5 gold. I'm pretty sure there's an unlock for all gold chapters or better and I think there's an unlock for all platinum chapters or better too, so I may go back and see if I can better my score on the chapters I've gotten gold on. First things first, though, is to finish the last 5 chapters gold or better. I peeked at my Wii U stats and it reads at 38 hours played for Bayonetta 2, 41 if you count the 3 hours I put into the demo before the game came out. Add the 20 hours of Bayonetta I put in and that's 61 hours of Bayonetta 1 & 2 over the last month or so. Beyond that, I sneak in a couple hours of Tropico 5 here and there when I need to break up the action with something much more laid back. I think I'm about to reach the Cold War period in the main campaign. I kind of hope somebody tries to invade one of my islands, because I have both of them armed to the teeth and I'm just waiting to flex my muscles. My personal death squad could use some exercise. Just having them play badminton in the palace gardens all the time is entertaining and all, but I need some invaders to shoot up. I'm doing a good job keeping my population happy, so I barely ever get a change to gun down some rebels.

I grew up on Sierra On-Line, so I have lots of very fond memories of text parser driven games and even I don't think I'd want to play a text parser driven adventure game right now.

As much as nostalgia tugs at my heart and I love retro and all, I was not pleased when I saw the old skool verb interface. That is one aspect of old skool Lucas Games point & clicks I most definitely do not miss. Probably not a deal breaker, but it's a definite minus in my book. Still, I really don't want them to microwave that hamster.

Video games is a big business that employs millions of people worldwide. That said, I wouldn't put EA anywhere near on the same level of evil as Walmart or Bank of America. Then, depending on how you feel about GMOs, there's Monsanto, but that's another topic in of itself and I'm not looking to start a GMO debate here.

You can formulate a "this doesn't look good to me" opinion from watching a video, but, to me, a review is more than that. A review suggests hands-on experience with the product. A review suggests to me that the person physically tried the product, hopefully extensively, and is giving you their honest assessment based on actual experience. Edit: I'll make one exception. You can probably properly review a David Cage "game" from watching a video, since there isn't much in the way of actual gameplay anyway.

Joyous news. This weaponized charity plot was a masterstroke of the patriarchy think tank. To think, by donating money to help needy children get toys for the holidays, we are one step closer to ridding gaming of teh wimminz and those pesky ethnic types, except for the sock puppets and house n*****s, they're cool. Glory to the patriarchy! #NeckbeardStrong

I'm sorry, but posting a "review" of a game you haven't played is wrong. Always. As far as I'm concerned, it's flat out lying. All the people doing this on metacritic (or wherever) to "send a message", as well as people purposely inflating or deflating their scores to 10/10 or 0/10, to "balance out" the "erroneous" scores others gave, are not helping to solve any problem, THEY ARE THE PROBLEM.

They removed it from the poll? Cowards. I know, right? I'd call for freedom of speech and tell them to go F... themselves because I am not remoing any word. No its probably the right thing to do because it may create the wrong impression that feminism is a bad thing Ah, silencing the voice of the people, you know, for the "greater good". The crux of totalitarian rationalization. While we're at it, I'm sure there are quite a few books out there painting feminism, or what it has become, in a bad light. We should probably burn those, right?

Great news. I'm ready to extend the olive branch to some sites, provided they show ethical reforms, I already have in some cases, but not Gawker. Gawker is a lost cause and need to be burnt to the ground (figuratively speaking, of course), as far as I'm concerned.

So far so good for my Bayonetta 2 Rose playthrough. Through 5 chapters I've gone platinum, platinum, gold, platinum, platinum. Granted, that's only on 2nd Climax (Normal) difficulty and the chapters where **** gets real start around chapter 9. Still, I'm getting much more comfortable playing as Rosa. It's pretty fun being able to deal that much damage. I'm cutting my completion times down a lot on every chapter, by as much as a third in some cases. Good times.

Cosigned.

I really hope these reports of physical attacks and swatting are untrue. If they are, however, they are sadly unsurprising. I'm guessing those on the radical far left were caught off guard by this level of resistance and they were ill prepared for a lengthy drawn out conflict. As this continues on into month 3 and beyond and it's become crystal clear that the regular tactics these people employ are simply ineffective and doing nothing to make GamerGaters back down, it's definitely not unexpected that they would start to resort to more and more extreme tactics. People resorting to more extreme tactics is scary, because extremists may well be capable of horrible atrocities, but it also tends to suggest that they are close to crumbling, as it's a clear indicator of desperation. Again, though, I'd much rather these claims of physical attacks and swatting were bogus.

There was a sale on the exact RAM I already had, so I scooped up 16 more GB to bring my total up to 32 GB of DDR3 2400 MHz RAM. Did I need 16 more GB? No. Will it make a difference? In most cases, no. Once in a while when I encode it will make a significant difference but that doesn't really justify the expense. I got it anyway, because reasons.

Backers must be a bit annoyed. Well, thank goodness I didn't back that.

I'd just like to point out that there are 2 teams tied for the NFC South lead right now... They both have a 4-6 record. 4-6. Yeah.

Holy ****, it's LadyC! Welcome back, we missed you! /eHugs LadyC

Can I ask you this? Which was worse, his tacky shirt or the scathing attacks launched at him for wearing said shirt? The reason we're not just letting these things go and moving on, the reason we're taking a stand against the SJWs and holding them accountable for their actions is because it needs to be done. The "just let it go, just some mad people rambling, it doesn't affect me, move on" attitude is what's allowed these evil people to get as much power and influence as they already have. Meanwhile, any time anyone does something that doesn't fit into their rigid ideals and they spot a potential opening, they launch an organized scathing attack, most often containing mistruths, wild conjecture, or just outright lies, and bully their way to victory. With a similar "just let it go" attitude people, particularly prominent individuals or professional organizations will make a concession to them because they have a lot to lose by having their name dragged through the mud by a media all to willing to run with sensationalized hit pieces without any research or fact checking, because those are what tend to draw the eyeballs of the masses, and who actually puts in real journalistic work these days? So it's much easier for these individuals and companies to make a small concession and move on with their lives. With shortsightedness and with a small scope, it's the logical move for said individuals or companies, as digging their heels in and fighting for what's right generally comes with many costs (money, reputation, etc.), plus people often tend to take the path of least resistance. Meanwhile, each little concession adds up as these far left-wing control freaks chip away at freedom and move us ever so slightly closer to a totalitarian police state. Well, some of us have decided to take a stand. We're ready to pay the cost of digging our heels in and fighting, and we will expose these people for the zealots they are and we will fight them for as long as it takes. Why? Because in our views, it's the right thing to do. Sure, a free society has its own evils. Freedom allows for all types ugliness to rear its head. In my view, those evils pale in comparison to the evils of totalitarianism.

I discovered I have a ton of relearning and practice ahead of me if I'm going to use Rosa in Bayonetta 2, and I intend to. Unlike Jeanne, who I unlocked the first time I ran through the story, Rosa plays very different to Bayonetta. Jeanne has a much smaller window of time to trigger witch time than Bayonetta, the trade-off being that she does more damage with witch weave attacks, but beyond that she plays very much like Bayonetta. She has pretty much all the same combos, her timing on combos is very similar, and she uses all the same weapons as Bayonetta (she has her own versions of said weapons, but from a mechanical perspective they're the same). Rose, on the other hand, does much more damage than Bayonetta (not just with witch weaves) and also takes much more damage when hit, but beyond that she also plays very differently than Bayonetta. First off, she can't use any of the unlocked weapons that Bayonetta and Jeanne can use, she has her own version of the basic 4 pistol weapon kit and you can't change that. I haven't used the basic 4 pistol kit in a very long time (since I got my first weapon unlock)and it requires very different strategies for combat. For one, I'm stuck with extremely short reach for melee attacks (Rosa's just punching and kicking). Of course, with guns I can just shoot my opponent from a distance, but I need to relearn to do that since I got used to using weapon kits that give me massive range on melee attacks (the whips are awesome for that), so I never bothered using ranged attacks since I could easily hit enemies with melee from all but the most extreme distances. More than that, though, Rosa has her own unique moveset. Her basic pistol kit combos are very different from Bayonetta's (or Jeanne's by extension) basic pistol kit combos. She has a lot of different button press patterns (for one, Rosa is the first playable character I've encountered that has any combo strings that start with kicks and end with punches) and the cadence to her combos is very different with a lot of pauses in spots very different from where Bayonetta's pauses generally come in. To that end, I've decided that for the time being, I'm going to back the difficulty down and run through the story with Rosa all the way through. This will achieve a couple of things. First, I'll get a lot of much needed practice with the character getting familiar and comfortable with her moveset and cadence. I could, theoretically do that on Infinite Climax difficulty also, but on that difficulty, given my relative unfamiliarity with the character, the amount of damage enemies do, and the fragile nature of Rosa, I'll be getting killed quickly and often, not giving me much time to practice. Second, there are still a few things I've missed along the way in my two playthroughs of the story so far. There are a couple verses I've missed (very few) and there is one particularly nasty Muspelheim verse that I have failed to complete during both playthroughs (not for lack of trying) that I think is tailor made for Rosa. The Muspelheim verse in question is a timed battle where you have a very short amount of time to kill all enemies and you gain (a very small amount of) time when you kill enemies. I've attempted that verse probably a combined 20 or 25 times between my 2 previous playthroughs and I just could not kill the enemies quick enough. Given Rosa's increased damage output, she seems like the perfect character with which to overcome this hurdle. There's also the matter of completing every story chapter with a gold or higher rating and, if I'm good enough, the matter of completing every story chapter with a platinum or higher rating and the unlocks that doing said feats grants. Lastly, it will be cool watching Rosa in the cutscenes, particularly the late game ones where there will be 2 Rosas in the cutscenes.

So lets be clear on this, you think its impossible that he felt he had offended women he works with and he wanted to set the record straight? You say this cannot be the case? Lets be clear indeed. He's not sexist for any reason you list. He was likely asked to issue an apology so men like you wouldn't get your panties in a twist. When did I ever say he was sexist? I believe I have said several times that I don't believe he meant to offend anyone. But that doesn't change the fact he did offend people You guys really need to stop putting words in peoples mouths and stop making assumptions around what people say Irony Level: Plaid Sure, where did I make assumptions about what people are saying? I have said I disagree that pressure from feminists and SJW made Dr Taylor apologize, this is exactly what you guys are saying is the reason he apologized I have said Dr Taylor made the apology because he felt he offended people, that's exactly what he said in the interview. Where am I making assumptions? I don't know about that Volo, lets be honest the shirt was an eye-sore and I have to say probably inappropriate for him to wear in an interview. Your are defined in society rightly or wrongly by your appearance. But its just a shirt and this man is a highly intelligent and respected person, I would have just said " I'm sorry for wearing that shirt " and then moved the conversation onto the real topical event ....the comet But resorting to crying in an interview, isn't that a bit dramatic? I'm not going to pour over all 200 or so pages of this to find all instances, but here's a fun one that not only makes and assumption but also contradicts your own assertion of the sincerity of his apology. Here you make the assumption that he's resorting to theatrics in his apology. This looks like a shirt that a gay man would wear and yes it also sends a certain message. Whether men would feel it objectifies them I can't say ? Here you make an assumption about what kind of person would wear that clothing. In fairness, those examples are fairly petty, and, like I wrote, I'm too lazy to pour over 200 or so pages of this discussion to look for better, more meaningful examples and reading back through what came before it for proper context. More importantly, my comment was more aimed at SJWs in general and less at you specifically. I certainly didn't make that clear, which is my mistake, apologies for that. I found that funny, hence the snark and the joke, since putting words into people's mouths is the modus operandi of SJWs. To borrow one of anti-GGs terms (it's only fitting), SJWs have weaponized putting words into people's mouths and making assumptions about their intent.

So lets be clear on this, you think its impossible that he felt he had offended women he works with and he wanted to set the record straight? You say this cannot be the case? Lets be clear indeed. He's not sexist for any reason you list. He was likely asked to issue an apology so men like you wouldn't get your panties in a twist. When did I ever say he was sexist? I believe I have said several times that I don't believe he meant to offend anyone. But that doesn't change the fact he did offend people You guys really need to stop putting words in peoples mouths and stop making assumptions around what people say Irony Level: Plaid

I can now confirm that Infinite Climax (Insane) difficulty in Bayonetta 2 is indeed insane. I never played on 1st Climax (Easy), so I don't know what the jump from 1st Climax to 2nd Climax (Normal) is like. The jump in difficulty from 2nd Climax to 3rd Climax (Hard) was definitely noticeable, but my own increase in skill level was actually greater than the increase in difficulty, so I actually has an easier time going through the game on 3rd Climax difficulty by virtue of how much better at the game I had become. The jump in difficulty from 3rd Climax to Infinite Climax is brutal. Not only do enemies do more damage, they add in mini-boss and boss level enemies into regular battles. I thought I got pretty darn good at the game, but I'm going to have to be the mother****ing master to beat the game on Infinite Climax difficulty. It's freakin' nuts and I love it!