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So I’ve been playing Bayonetta for a few days now, as I mentioned in my review the game isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. One of the main reason why it is giving me such a hard time is how much damage the enemies can inflict apon you if you miss calculated a dodge. I had, in a few occasions, half my life taken from an enemy’s combo attacks. That is why healing is such an important factor, at least to me, in this game. But you either have to purchase them from Rodin in Gates of Hell or you have to concoct your own using green compounds. The problem with purchasing them from Rodin is you can only have 3 green lollipop and 1 mega green lollipop. If you have already reached the limit, you won’t be able to buy anymore but to concoct your own. Normally they won’t come as often as I wish but I have found a way to get Halos (money), Butterflies (that will replenish your magic) and the three compounds. I am not too concerned about the Halos and Butterflies since they come in quite often. This “exploit”, “cheat” or “hack” does not really help gain a lot of Halos anyway.

So what is it? Its probably been mentioned already somewhere but I thought I would mention it again. Basically the benches, flower pots or any breakable objects respawn everytime you go from one place and back. For example, going in and out of Gates of Hell will cause a respawn of all the breakable objects when you re-enter the area. If you keep going in and out, you will be able to collect TONS of compounds. I have tested this in and out for at least 5 times and the objects still respawn WITH Halos, Butterflies and the compounds randomly.

I’m sorry to say I do need this to stock up my healing, attack / defense increasing lollipops.

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Bayonetta, a pretty hyped up Devil May Cry style action game was released on Jan 5th. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to buy it on that day because I went to watch Avatar with my girlfriend, boy was that one of the best movies of 2009.

Anyway, I went to EB Games the next day but they were sold out, that was a bit surprising because I didn’t expect Bayonetta to be THAT demanding. I went to Best Buy and the PS3 version was sold out and no luck at EB Games again. I finally did get my copy at Futureshop the next day though, phew!

The game hasn’t let me down so far, I still haven’t got bored of the the ultra fast paced battles plus button mashing. I guess that was kind of expected from the beginning (button mashing). I’m not sure if its my lack of skills and patience or is the game hard at some of the sections. I am still having trouble with some of the quicktime events where you have to click the button at that particular moment, not earlier, not later, it has to be exact. I died a couple of times as a result. Some of the battles are pretty hard as well, maybe I need to get better with the dodge.

Boss battles are pretty epic, one of the reasons why I bought this game. I just love looking at oversized monsters that take up more than half the TV screen. I find them easier to deal with then those in Devil May Cry. Another reason, the Torture Attacks, never cease to entertain me with different violent and bloody damaging moves.

The graphics are very impressive though I have noticed a few areas with frame rate issues but they are not enough to put me off this game. Buildings give you the impression of their massiveness. The music is pretty good as well, instead of using rock and heavy metal from Devil May Cry, Bayonetta uses Jazz + piano which give this game a feeling of elegance and style.

Aside from the frame rate issue, one major problem with Bayonetta is the amount of loading and the length of each load. I think the developers could have done a better job at the loading aspect. Other than that, there is nothing really to pick on about this game.

For Devil May Cry fans, this should be a must buy. If you are into ultra fast paced action games, you should give this a try, at least rent it. This game isn’t for those who doesn’t enjoy some button mashing and/or controlling a stylish character. To me, Bayonetta was definitely a worthy game to buy.

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Don’t get me wrong about the Modern Warfare 2 image for the post. Its not related to Modern Warfare 2 but because I’ve experience this mostly in this game (MW2 is my only online game right now) so I thought I would tag MW2 with the post. Long story short, this is getting to the point where I have to vent. Have you ever got annoyed by those stupid annoying kids that would just make weird noises or talk non stop before the game launched in the lobby? Or worse, they kept on talking DURING the game until you couldn’t take it anymore and had to mute them?

Frankly I’ve had enough but then what could I do besides muting their stupid digital mouth? Are so many kids experiencing what I think is a form of ADD (Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder)? Maybe if they actually shut up they can get a positive kill / death ratio for once and instead of dragging the team down?

Kids like this one fits my description perhaps? Lucky this kid got an xBox 360 not PS3, so one less stupid kid for me to deal with on PSN. Thank God!

 

I hope I’m not the only one that find these kids annoying. OK I’m done venting and off to bed!

Good night!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of LG Chocolate Touch. All opinions are 100% mine.

I’ve always wanted a cell phone with various features like Internet, image/video/mp3 capabilities but I ended up unsatisified everytime. Some phones had mp3 playback but didn’t connect to the Internet, those that allowed me to get connected had mp3 playback with horrible quaility. So I thought in order to get all these features I would have to buy many models. That didn’t sound much of a smart idea because it didn’t make sense to purchase different phones for different purposes, there must be one that has everything I need.

I came across a new phone from LG, the Chocolate Touch. In addition to the features that I wanted, it also had some additional ones such as a built-in 3.2 mega-pixel camera, great display quality, voicemail service and video conference facility. What I found amazing was the visual effects with rhythmical beats which vibrated when I received calls. Last but not least, the Dolby Mobile sound technology is top-notch among the same class of cell phones. Finally, it also featured one-touch connectivities to social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

With this phone, I will never get bored easily and I will never have to carry a mp3 player, a digital camera and a phone. All I need now is the LG Chocolate Touch.

I still can’t believe this happened to a pretty well known electronics store but apparently I found this from one of my friends’ friends Facebook photo album about purchasing a fake iPod from one of the Best Buy stores in Canada. The story goes, as quoted directly from the person’s Facebook comment:

When I went back for exchange that was when that jerk told me that there is no IPOD logo at the back and the ipod itself is a bit thicker that was why the casing didn’t fit. Why couldn’t I just win the lottery???? They say it never happened before so they won’t exchange it. Ain’t that ridiculous?????

And has filed a complaint to the headquarter of Best Buy. I’m curious to see how that will turn out. Again directly quoted from the Facebook comment

I filed a complaint with bestbuy headoffice and the business bureau as well. But it’s gonna take time if we ever get a real one back. What disappoint me is that even the Manager didn’t even bother to investigate before they said ” no ” to us. Yes, even with a big store like Bestbuy.

So when any of you looking for an iPod, although its rare case. Unfortunately you cannot check the back of the iPod to see if the logo is there before you purchase.

Link to the Facebook photo album:

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I thought the intro was ok, I mean the graphics are certainly amazing but I was expecting something similiar to the previously shown trailers. Its missing the drama from the rest (its too calm and quiet for my taste, for an intro that is).

Anyway, March 9th 2010 people. Less than 3 months and counting! Or figure out a way to get the Japanese version, but then you won’t know what’s going on with the story.

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I have always posted game related posts most of the time, maybe its time for a change. Since it is almost Christmas time, I had to think of something to surprise my girlfriend, it was actually her request to “surpise” her. I also happened to be interested and curious about photography and I found out that you can build your very own DIY Photo Studio In A Box easily. So I thought why not build her a mini photo studio since making a gift yourself meants a lot more than buying something that’s already made (its the thought that counts right?) and also the fact that she sells bling cellphone cases for iPhones, BlackBerry, HTC, G1 etc so that her product pictures look more professional.

By using just the digital camera with default settings, you will always have pictures that are yellowish (see picture below), with uneven lighting and looking too sharp because the flash light is not soft enough. But with the combination of correcting white balace using Photoshop and this photo studio in a box you can turn your everyday ameture photos into better looking images. My coworker once told me, its not about your camera, be it an everyday digital camera like my Canon SD400 or one of those fancy DSLR, its all about white balance, light and the lense itself. The latter might be hard to change since not everyone can or willing to pay hundreds just for the lense. So this is where the photo studio in a box comes into play!

Items you need for building your very own photo studio in a box:

• A box that is at least 10 inches by 10 inches, otherwise you are limited to taking photos of very small items
• Wrapping paper (the ones that you use for stuffing gift bags
• Two (three if you cut out the top opening as well) very bright lights, I bought two outdoor flood lights from Canadian Tire. If you can find natural light/bright white light lamps that’s good too but not necessary since you will be doing the white balance correction in Photoshop anyway. Oh, make sure you buy the matching bulbs, chances are most of the lights are only the housing themselves, without the bulbs.
• Tape, duck tape, scissors, razor, pencil and ruler

 

Quick and dirty build guide (for more detailed steps please check the links below):

• Cut out square/rectangle openings, depending on the shape of your box, on the left and right sides of the box and make sure you have enough space around otherwise the box might not be strong enough to stand on its own anymore. You can also cut out the top as well if you wish to have more light coming in (where the third light comes in).
• Tape the openings with wrapping paper and try to stretch them, but without tearing them apart, to minimize the ripples
• Don’t pretty it up yet though, we still have to test it. Place one light on each side and start taking test shots of some small items (once that fit the assumed 10 by 10 box). My coworker suggested me to set everything to manual for your digital camera with lowest ISO, enable white balance if applicable and TURN OFF FLASH! since we will be utilizing the two flood lights’ lights.

 

Here is what mine looks like

And the result…..

Yellowish and unprocessed image:

Processed image:

Notice it looks much better? Though not enough reflection or “bling” from the crystals but that’s a different experiment for now. All you need to do is go to Photoshop -> Image -> Adjustments -> and pick either Auto Level/Auto Color/Level and play around. I personally and mostly pick Level -> Options -> Find Dark & Light Colors with the Snap Neutral Midtones checked because I like the dark greyish/bluish tone.

I hope I haven’t missed anything or mentioned something incorrectly as this is my first photo studio in a box as well! Let me know if I did though!

For those interested, here are a few that I checked out and found useful (they are more detailed too!):

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html
http://www.macworld.com/article/60804/2007/11/dec07digitalphoto.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/Do-It-Yourself-Photography-Light-Box-for-Under-40/
http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent

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So finally a new Medal of Honor, which looks promising, will be released second half of 2010. Can it compete against or even “pwn” the almighty Call of Duty series, mainly Call of Duty 4, 5 and Modern Warfare 2? Seriously we need more than just these cinematic teasers, we need some from actual game plays!