| 14/2/2010 Today I finished watching all 3 seasons of 'Beast Wars'. I had originally seen the first 2 seasons when they were first aired on Channel 3/ITV in the late 90s but for whatever reason the final season never aired. I don't remember it too clearly though, apart from certain key points and I'm really not sure why I put off watching it 'til now. All I can say about the show is...WOW. I loved it when I was a kid but all the complex and mature story elements went way over my head. It's a truly wonderful show and I wish there was a Region 2 DVD release. The ideas of influencing the timeline, freedom and importance of choice, treachery, RomeoxJuliet-style romance, growing up, fighting with honour, dying a hero, differences in perspectives...1 episode has an entire section devoted to a philosophical debate about the nature of war between Tigertron and Dinobot...in a kid's show. Now that's some balls. What I also love was the creators' attention to detail when including aspects of the original G1 'Transformers' universe. Although I did wince when they referred to the Autobot computer as 'Teletron' instead of 'Teletran', which is its real name. But the creators did notice so in the final episode Rattrap quips: "It's Teletran!" Oh that made me laugh. I also completed 'Bayonetta'...for the 2nd time. When the game reviewers said 'Bayonetta' encouraged you to always try the harder difficulty, they weren't kidding. The first time I completed the game, I was heaped with rewards and then the screen came up showing the next chapter being 'Prologue: Hard'. At first I dreaded the 2nd playthrough because towards the end I had found the game very stressful and trying and I was only playing on medium. Granted I could have just played it through on medium again but where's the fun in that? (Plus I get more trophies this way.) Even though my 2nd playthrough was on a harder difficulty, I found the game tons easier and quicker. There are 2 reasons: the first that I know how to beat the various levels and bosses, the second that I actually messed around with the extra weapons. Bayonetta's standard weapons are just a set of guns and when I played around with all the new weapons, I discovered that they were designed to be effective against certain enemies. So learning which weapon to use against what enemy made defeating them a hella lot easier. That and I have tons more health now, so I can hold out against them longer :P So now that I've beaten the game on hard the game expects me to happily play through on 'climax' (its version of extreme difficulty/ultra hard). I tried it out earlier, just to see how effective Bayonetta's laser pistols are (very effective, I discovered). Basically, all the levels are laid out like hard but you can't activate 'Witch Time' (which slows down time if you dodge an attack at the last minute) at all. I really can't be bothered to complete this mode, although I suspect doing so gets me a gold trophy. The other reason for my reluctance to do so is that 'Heavy Rain' comes out in just over a week and I don't want to be taxing myself playing an adrenaline-junkie's paradise/nightmare every afternoon and evening when I should be working on that essay due in about 2 weeks. Yep, tomorrow I have to sit myself in the library and start reading. Fun. |