Censorship on german versions of somewhat violent games are nothing new at all, but this time things have gone astray. Apparently german gamers are not allowed to activate an imported copy of the PC version of the game (from the UK or US) on their steam account. Since the game itself depends on Steamworks, gamers are forced to buy the censored (i.e. crippled) german version. Now at the moment this seems to be true for the PC version only. It remains to be seen if they come up with a similar concept for the console versions, although I am not sure if this would be technically possible on either XBox or PS3. Any thoughts about that?

This is madness. I wonder how they will manage to fit both game into the two hour timeslot. We'll see this thursday. Also, the main reason why I wrote this blog post, is because I want that damn Genesis quest. :)

The quick look of Bayonetta really wet my appetite for that game. A great visual style mixed with satisfying combat sounded and looked terrific. Yet, I hesitated buying the game right away, mainly because at that time I still had some other games that I wanted to finish first.
 
However, last week I finally picked up Bayonetta for my XBox360. After installing it to the hard drive I fired it up and was curious how the actual gameplay would turn out. So there I was, watching the introduction sequence and listening to how the story began. At some point I was wondering why the animations of the main character had suddenly stopped while the dialog was still going on. It took a few seconds more until I realised that I was actually already knee-deep in the game and that I had control over Bayonetta, who was already being attacked by weird creatures. Not knowing the controls I hecticly started to push buttons on my gamepad. After some brief and uncontrolled fighting the sequence was over. Man, what a start! Unfortunately I missed a good chunk of the background story because I was so occupied figuring out the controls, that I didn't pay that much attention to what was spoken. Bummer, but I thought I would catch up with what is going on. Well, I did, but it literally took me the whole game to figure out what this was all about and I am still not sure if I got everything right.
 
As stated in the quick look and review, the game is a little over-the-top. Well, that is clearly one giant understatement. The whole game is just so fucking nuts. The whole fictional world in which this game takes place, seems to come straight out of the twisted brain of a madman. The character designs, especially the boss fights, are totally nuts and insane. The level design is stunningly beautiful but at the same time absolutely weird. At some point in the game I figured out that there is actually some sort of parallel dimension which is why everybody is translucent and nobody can see me. The transitions from one dimension to the other wasn't always that clear to me. More than once I was asking myself what the fuck is going on, when in one moment I was just strolling through a nice and old city or hanging out at some airbase, and in the next moment I find myself running through outer space or sitting on top of a giant rocket. In short: for me personally a whole freaking lot of Bayonetta doesn't make any sense. The game often feels like "Oh hey, here is a nice open area. Why don't we just pop in an insanely giant boss monster with multiple heads and tentacles and rocket launchers for arms and teeth and other freaky stuff!? Why it is here? Well, I don't know but it looks cool and you can fight it with your guns, your sword, your torture instruments and whatever creepy-ass enormous animal happens to materialize out of your hairdo." Yeah, awesome! To be fair, the fighting actually DOES feel satisfying. But there are A LOT of different attacks and combos, far more than I was willing to memorize. So I ended up using the same three or four attacks throughout the entire game. Thus, as the game progressed, the fight became more and more repetitive.
 
I finished the game in about 15 hours and despite all criticism I really enjoyed it. During that time I've seen a whole lot of fucking ridicolous stuff, fought against insanely designed monsters and bosses and finally somehow managed to save the universe. Seeing the credits roll, I felt relieved. Then realizing it wasn't over yet, because I still had to fight the most badass boss ever, made me want to scream in agony. After some more button mashing I was once again victorious. Credits rolled again and I leaned back - only to find myself fighting again a couple of moments later. Then the screen went black. Then Bayonetta and all her friends and foes danced for me. Then the game said congratulations. Then it told me that I had unlocked some handguns. Finally it told me I had unlocked a new difficulty setting and that I could now play through the game again in "hard" mode. I decided I will never do that, because I am not nuts - but Bayonetta is.