Dragon Blood Armour on Steam

I just grabbed the Mass Effect 2 preorder on steam. I noticed that people who have bought Dragon Age Origins get some free armour, so I started to look into it.

What you need to do is log into (or create) a bioware account here:

http://social.bioware.com/signup.php

There are a few options for porting existing accounts (for example, an EA account).

Then, go here: http://social.bioware.com/redeem/ and enter the code that you can see in your steam console (the Standard Game CD Key).

DAO should then start downloading the armour. Simple!

I'll let you know if it works on Mass Effect 2.

Bayonetta, ∞ climax mode

Did the title work? It was supposed to be ∞ climax mode.

For whatever it's worth, here's what I did to beat it.

First. Red and Yellow (and green) lollipops for the win. Don't be afraid to use them, at least on your first playthrough.

Accessories:

Rosary beads almost the entire time - you can almost kill groups of trash mobs with a single evade.

Play around with the others and see what you like. I stuck with the moon for the most part, but played around with butterflies, the Star of Dineta (health when you taunt), and Eternal Testimony (2 free magic points). Eternal testimony is great for level 14, the Space harrier level.

Weapons:

Bazillions and Kilgore. Bazillions are awful for combo score, but great against harmony, and gracious/glorious. They also shoot through stuff, so they're good against armour like Ardors, and will target the red spot through beloveds and other mini-bosses, meaning you can take them down in a few hits.

Shuruga/Gunchuks and Onyx Roses. Gunchuks will stunlock most things for a bit, letting you set something up, and in small rooms, the shrapnel flying around can do some pretty impressive damage. They're most effective against large groups of weak people, doing lots of light damage to many.

Shuruga (and later, Pillow Talk) is essential against bosses.

I also accidentally found that for grace and glory, full charge kilgores on the arm work wonders. The timing seems just right. Start a PPP combo. Max out each hit, so you get 2 rockets from the first 2 hits and 4 from the third. Each time, they'll attack you, but they're just too slow and will get a rocket in the face. I need to finesse it somewhat, but it seems to work a treat. Obviously, if there are lots of them around, keep an eye out.

For bosses that are far away, Kilgore hand and feet is good, because the wicked weave will actually shoot towards them. For bosses that are close (jeanne, basically), Gunchucks are helpful, but really weak, so it's slow progress. Rosary beads are your friend. I find the moon with Jeanne to be pretty useless in Climax mode, because she's rarely close enough for the counter to hit, but the beads will often catch her and leave her open.

And also, I found the prologue the hardest non-boss level of all. I tried it at the start, and then left it to the end.

And, finally, for Father Balder, after grinding for an hour against him, I pretty much took him entirely in yellow lollipop mode. No shame there ; )

Bayonetta 1000

Update: I cracked this. My strategy is here: http://blog.lickmyear.org/2010/02/bayonetta-crow-77.html

So, umbran crow 77, in the hard Alfheim on chapter 6. You bugger. But let me backtrack.

I finished Bayonetta over the weekend. By finish, I mean, I got 1000 achievement points, so I've cleared all three stages. Of course, like all good games, there are plenty of challenges left which don't have achievements - for example, platinum award for an entire stage (normal, hard, etc). I'm about 70% of the way through normal. Apparently, it unlocks Jeanne. Which is nice. Although you have to start a new game.

I also got a new sword - "pillow talk", which is basically a lightsaber.

You can see all the "secret" weapons here:

Pillow talk starts at 15 seconds or so. Note the ridiculous charge mode!

I also got Sai-fun, or the nunchuks, or gunchuks.

They're, erm, interesting. They're really fast - you can stunlock pretty much anyone, even a Gracious and/or Glorious, although they'll break out after 5-6 hits. They're incredibly weak, although in an enclosed room, they kick ass, because they fire off shrapnel which ricochets around the room and causes quite a bit of collateral damage.

Also, the charge move sends out a load of hits, a bit like a shotgun, which then fly around the room if they don't immediately hit something. The timing for dodge offset is a bit strange, but I'm working on it.

I can't quite decide the perfect use, though.

In other news, the Bazillions (lazer guns in the first example above) are pretty fun. They don't give a good combo (in fact, they give an awful combo score) but they shoot through armour, and also do a fair bit of damage. For most trash mobs (regular angels, etc) you can kill them in a couple of hits. Which is nice. Plus, they're good against grace and glory (and friends) because they stun them. Also, they take down Harmonies in a couple of hits, which is good, because harmonies are without a doubt, my most hated enemy. I find them hard to predict, and tough to hit. So thank you, bazillions. woot.

Now, back to Umbran Crows. There are 101 umbran tears of blood to unlock in this game. The first 50 are just the 50 achievements. For 50, you get a magic regeneration bangle, which is incredibly useful on Isla del Sol (the space harrier level) because it effectively grants you unlimited missiles.

Now, the next 51 are crows hidden around the levels. For normal, I found them all myself. For hard, I found about 75%, and for ultimate climax, I just gave up looking, and used a guide, because I didn't want to have to spend more time in the levels than is necessary at that difficulty. I'm on 100, with only one left to go.

This last one requires you to complete an alfheim - 7 torture attacks and only be hit 3 times. And in addition, the enemies are on fire and enraged. Awesome. And what enemies? The first wave is 4 burning angels and a burning Ardor. The 2nd wave is another burning ardor and 2 x fairness. Those dogs. With electricity. God damn. And then, joy, 3 joys to finish it all up.

And remember, you can only be hit 3 times.

The problem is the magic. It's really hard to build up enough magic to toture them. So you have dodge and taunt and all sorts. Very annoying. The closest I made it (and the point at which I went to bed last night) was down to the last joy, at 25% health, when time ran out.

Very, VERY frustrating.

I can't help but think that the designers put the crow on the wrong side of the bridge. In all the other locations, you don't have to fight the alfheim to get the crow - just this one.

Gah!

I'll keep you posted if I crack it.

Bayonetta hidden references

I found this article, discussing hidden references in Bayonetta, which is pretty cool.

There are spoilers in there, though, so if you've not played it, and are planning to, don't read that page. It'll ruin it for you. Seriously.

Now, to my beef. The second one (about Eggman) is completely wrong. It claims you're burying Eggman, which is nonsense.

Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQLRBOmluNA#t=0m50s

So, what happens is that you're burying Rodin, to tempt angels over. Enzo is using what's called a simile (or maybe a metaphor, I confuse easily), to say that everyone dies in the end. So, yeah. That's annnoyig.

Also, on that article, the quicktime links didn't work in Chrome, Firefox or IE (shudder) under windows7 64 bit. They just rendered as black boxes.

So, what's left? Well, I nailed some of the achievements last night - cleaned up the Alfheims and the Witches tombs. Had to get help for the last 2 alfheims. I spent a couple of hours searching (at least you get an idea of which level they're in) but no bones. When I read the guide, I realised that I'd never have found them without it.

So thanks to renegade, who posted a guide over at gamefaqs.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox360/file/946346/58209

Otherwise, it's time to get back on that horse!

Sunday Gaming

Luc came 'round yesterday, and we played some Bayonetta, and some Modern Warfare - we did a couple of new levels on the co-op mode, which was cool. Split screen actually works out ok.

After that I fired up DJ Hero and cleared out the medium mode - all tracks completed, and most of them 5 star. I think I'm 45 or so stars short. But I'm going to move up to hard, I think.

Expert, right now, is just too much (except on the very easy songs).

This is still my favourite track

So unexpected. A lot of the tracks are really very good indeed.

More importantly, the immense fun and joy I got from playing through medium has pretty much dissipated. That is, the first 15 or so games I played, I had a big grin fixed on my face. Partly through the translation of my actions to stuff on the screen, and partly through the epic songs (MC Hammer/Vanilla Ice, that one above, Jazzy Jeff's stuff, etc). The more I play the songs, the less they're unexpected.

So, moving up to hard has actually made the game massively fun again. It's considerably harder than medium, and has a lot more things going on, and it feels more like you're actually working to generate the music, than just playing simon says.

I'm not sure if that actually makes sense, but hopefully you get the gist.

Anyway, today, late start (got up at 1, oof), so playing a bit of Bayonetta, and then an early night.

What else? DJ Hero

Scotty came round a couple of days ago, and we had a big day of gaming. It was pretty awesome.

We played some Bayonetta (he agrees it's bonkers), and then fired up DJ Hero. We didn't play much else.

For the record, the Scratch Perverts tracks are utterly bonkers.

This (and 'beats and pieces') are probably the ones that hurt my arm the least.

I think the thing I like about it is that the samples are telling you they know it's a game, and they're looking to test you, but still with the insanely cool music. Anyway.

In other news, I've bought everything I can in Bayonetta, and I've been playing with some of the accessories. All I can say is, I wish I'd bought the one that triggers witch time earlier.

Makes clearing the levels the first couple of runs a lot easier. I had misread the description, and thought it was something entirely different (it triggered witch time at the start of combat, not when you're hit. D'oh).

However, the Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa (spelling?) is even better! Sort of. It gives you a 'repel' on incoming enemy attacks. That is, they're just ignored. It also stuns your attacker, giving you a nice opening.

However, if you repel as you're hit (like bat within), it will repel, counter and start witch time. And the witch time lasts maybe a second or two longer than normal. So you can get in an extra wicked weave or string of hits.

It also lets you trigger witch time against people like Jeanne. Very cool accessory.

I'm currently chasing Nunchuks. Really really want them. I've platinumed the first 5 stages. Which isn't a lot, but I refuse to use the same tactics as others, who reload levels when a verse goes badly. Plus, I need all the practice I can get.

Also, the moon of M

Lego Batman

I went back to Lego Batman last night and finished it up, got all the red bricks and minikits and stuff.

It's a cool game, but there are way too many different things you need to do. That is, in Lego Star Wars, you have light force, dark force, high jump, grapple, small people holes, droids and shoot targets, and that's about it. And later on, you can give jedi the ability to grapple and so on. You never need too many people in one level.

Conversely, Lego Batman has bombs, gliding, diving, glass to smash, things for the joker, things for the penguin, mind control, tech outfit, magnet suit, vacuum cleaner, high jump, grapple, poison, ice blocks, strong-man items, women-only doors. It means you're always switching between lots of characters, which quickly becomes boring. Especially when they'll put redundancy into levels. Like, Batman has a glide suit, so why do I need to include Killer Moth to glide. And the penguin has bombs, so why include Batman's bomb suit? Poison Ivy can jump high, do poison and the women doors, so why do I need catwoman?

All the characters are very cool, but I still end up thinking 'guh, too many people' on every level.

Oh well.