So I bought No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle a few days ago, fully knowing that I had yet to finish the first game. A lot of reviewers have said that the second game is a big improvement over the first, so I feel somewhat justified in picking this one up. I may play the sequel concurrently with the original game, just to see how things have turned out between the two games. Most gamers don’t seem to like to do that now.
For all of the crazy over-the-top fun Bayonetta can be, the PlayStation 3 version came out the box with one big problem…loading screens that seemed to take forever. Thankfully, Sega released a patch today that adds the option to install game data to the PS3, which reduces loading times by at least half, meaning that we won’t get stuck waiting for the item screen or pause menus to appear. Now, aside from graphical differences, the PS3 Bayonetta experience should be roughly on par with that of the Xbox 360 version, which I’m told never went through this to begin with.
Playing Tatsunoko vs. Capcom for the first time today, and I think I may grow to like playing as Roll. Her attacks may have a short reach and not much power to them, but I find her level 3 Hyper Combo highly amusing. So far, she’s the only character I’ve discovered who has a special move that recovers her health, allowing her to stay in some tougher fights. I don’t think it saved her against Yami (the final boss of Okami), but it kept her in the fight long enough for Megaman (the Mega Man Legends version) to claim victory. FInishing the game only gives you the ending for the character who dealt the killing blow, so I’ll eventually have to go back and win the game with Roll delivering the finishing move in order to see her ending.
With all the personal troubles Tiger Woods has been going through lately, it’s not unexpected for him to want to take a break from it all. EA, of course, hasn’t let this controversy get in the way of publishing and developing his video games. However, the next Tiger Woods PGA Golf game isn’t due until this June, so those of us who want our pro golf fix will have to settle for Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online in the meantime.
It’s unusual for the first quarter of any given year to showcase some of its high-profile games. Much like the movie industry, January and February tend to be “dead months”, since that’s when the major award shows (the Golden Globe and Academy Awards) are broadcast, so the good ones would get lost in the shuffle if they were released around that time. Yet this year, we’ve already started with one high-profile release in Bayonetta, and tomorrow is the release day for four new games that have been getting quite a buzz: Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360 and PC), MAG (PlayStation 3), No More Heroes 2: The Desperate Struggle and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars (both exclusive to Wii). I’ll bet retailers are going to have a busy next two days sorting out all of the pre-orders for these games. I fully expect Mass Effect 2 and MAG to clean up big at the stores (the former based on name recognition, and the latter because of the potential for large-scale multiplayer games).
