You know, I'm not very impressed with Bayonetta, at all. I actually kind of have a headache for some reason after having played it for about two hours today, so I'm just gonna list a few things that I can't stand about this game in point form.

- The camera is TERRIBLE. There's honestly no excuse for the camera in Bayonetta to be this bad, it's insanely infuriating to the point where I seriously want to throw my controller into the wall.

- Trial & error game design. I don't dislike hard games. I dislike games that put heavy emphasis on trial & error gameplay. Bayonetta is one of these games. There's so many instances where the action is disrupted by unexpected quick time events that result in instant death when missed, and boss fights that appear borderline impossible but end up being ridiculously easy after you've figured out the "trick".

- Lame cutscenes. What's with the movie still cutscenes? Did Platinum games run out of funding or something? These are seriously totally lame and completely unintesting to watch.

- The story is non-existent/boring. I'm at the beginning of chapter 6 and I honestly have no idea what's going on; I don't care either. There's a bunch of tomes scattered about that you can read but they're totally uninteresting and the game actually defaults to the "close" option after you've picked one up, as if they already know that these are insanely dull and no one is going to want to read them anyway.

- The levels are insanely linear and not particularly interesting. Most of the levels so far simply involve you running around doing boring things until you are halted by a magical barrier that won't go away until you defeat a group of enemies. Hey Platinum, incase you didn't know, we're in 2010.

- The gameplay's depth is misleading. Bayonetta has a lot of weapons and a lot of moves. But the action always boils down to the same thing. Figure out an enemy's patterns, dodge his attacks to activate witch time, counter, repeat.

Ok, that's a lot of negativity, here's some things that I do like.

- The graphics are awesome. Bayonetta is a great looking game. Aside from the occasional screen-tearing the graphics are superb and the game is quite colourful.

- Beating up dudes is fun. (when you're not getting your ass handed to you).

- There's a lot of weapons with great customization.

Well, that's all I can really think of for now. Honestly, at this point I feel like playing Bayonetta is more of a chore than an entertaining way to spend my time. Currently my only motivation for finishing the game is so that I can write a review for it and slam it into the ground. Fortunately for Bayonetta it still has the other half of the game to change my mind, but as of now, I'm starting to regret buying this.

You may have noticed that I've changed a few of my game scores over the last while, and I've gone ahead and made the final changes that I've been mulling over for quite some time now.

Format is game / old score / new score

• Killzone 2 - 8.5 -> 9.0
• Soulcalibur (XBLA) - 6.0 -> 6.5
• Gears of War - 9.5 -> 10
• Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection - 7.0 -> 7.5
• Soulcalibur IV - 7.5 -> 8.0
• Street Fighter IV - 9.5 -> 10

I realize people will probably be curious as to why I changed these so I'll make a quick list of the reason for each game's change. Normally I wouldn't make a big public announcement about a change in rating but I feel that due to the fact that I've reviewed these games previously and posted these reviews + scores on my blog, that I should come forth with an explanation for the random changes.

Killzone 2: I still feel that the single-player is not as good as it could have been (mainly the story), but its final boss encounter, excellent multiplayer, and overall high polish and high-quality game design make it too good of a game for an 8.5 rating. Killzone 2 is the only console FPS that's managed to legitimately get me interested in its multiplayer component, and for that alone it's worthy of a 9.0. I plan to edit the review text to better clarify my feelings for this game.

Soulcalibur: I still think Soulcalibur is a disappointing and lacklustre port of an excellent game - but that's the thing, Soulcalibur is still an excellent fighting game despite its lack of modern day trimmings and removal of gameplay features. I feel that a 6.5 is slightly a better representation of this games overall quality.

Gears of War: When I played Gears of War for the first time my immediate reaction was that this game was worthy of a 10. After I had completed the game (I played this from beginning to end at my friends house when it first came out on co-op) I stood by my initial belief that this game was amazing and worthy of a 10 out of 10. Gears of War was nothing like anything I had ever played before. I played Gears of War twice during 2009. I realize now that the annoyances I experienced during my third playthrough were a direct cause of having recently played Gears of War 2 for the first during prior to my second playthrough. Minor things such as AI allies not being able to revive teammates is honestly a stupid reason for me to have lowered my initial score for this title. Thus I have re-initiated my initial reaction to this game and I think Gears of War is a landmark achievement in gaming that deserves to be fully recognized.

Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection: I don't really have much to say about this aside from the fact that I think a 7.5 is a better indication of the amount of fun I had while playing Dark Resurrection, in light of the complaints that I have about it.

Soulcalibur IV:

Fake reason: I'm not gonna lie - there's a lot of stuff about Soulcalibur IV that I find annoying. That being said, I played this game way too damn much and had way too much fun with it for me to justify it being a 7.5. I'm a huge Soulcalibur fan and while I still feel the exact same way about this game as my review indicates, an 8.0 feels like a more accurate representation of the amount of fun that I had while playing it. (sorry Neon)

Real reason: I love Hilde so I bumped up the game's score.

EDIT: Actually you know what, on that same note I'm going to re-upload my Hilde banner right now. SO MUCH FOR NEW YEARS CHANGES, HUH? Yeah I know this banner is plain and not particularly interesting but how can you say no to that face? C'mon, don't kid yourselves here. Plus, I think it's pretty damn good considering that I made it in MSPaint.

Street Fighter IV: This is the best fighting game that I've ever played. My hatred of Seth is not enough of a reason for me to hold back the 10/10 that I've always wanted to give it from the very beginning.

and now I will leave all of you with images that explain in full detail why Hilde is awesome.

(note: I didn't make these images)

2009 GOTY Awards: BEST GRAPHICS NOMINEES

• Crysis
• Gears of War 2
• Killzone 2
• Mirror's Edge
• Soulcalibur IV

2009 BEST GRAPHICS WINNER:

This should honestly come as no surprise to anyone who has seen Crysis in action. Not only does Crysis provide a buffet of visual yum-yum, it also uses its graphical prowess to enhance the gameplay experience in a way that is truly mind-blowing.

I think perhaps what finally sold me on this game going above and beyond anything that ever came before it was when I was standing still for a minute shortly after all hell had frozen over (literally) and my monitor began to freeze into ice. The effect used was amazing and made Crysis feel like the most immersive game I've ever played. Crysis does this everywhere though. A grenade blows up way too close? Dirt smeared all over your screen. Gone swimming in the water? Watch as water droplets drip off your screen.

But wait, what does this have to do with graphics? Well as I've stated, Crysis' graphics don't really need any explanation. If you've played Crysis from beginning to end then you'd understand, and I honestly can't really explain it any better than that. Sure, Crysis can be somewhat of a system hog depending on what kind of rig you're playing it on, but this is a game that truly brings graphics to another level.

RUNNER-UP: KILLZONE 2

Killzone 2 of course, was another front-runner for taking this award, and while everyone who plays Killzone 2 will have the same experience due to it being a PlayStation 3 game, it still can't quite hold a candle to Crysis. That being said, Killzone 2 is an absolutely fantastic looking game with an absolutely killer lighting engine. If Halo: Reach truly is using the same lighting engine as Killzone 2 then you guys definitely have some eye-candy in store.

What's notable about Killzone 2 aside from its technical proficiency is that the game world is exceptionally well-realized. A lot of first-person shooters look way too much alike and while Killzone 2 is not overflowing with a vibrant colour pallete, its world has a distinct dark, dusty, war-torn vibe to it that other shooter games simply haven't nailed in quite the same way. Everything about Killzone 2's world reaks of desolace and death, and Killzone 2 does it better than anyone else. In fact, this was one of the most standout features of the relatively sub-par original Killzone. Killzone's world definitely lives up to its name, that's for sure.

PREVIOUS AWARDS:

Best Music: Mirror's Edge

Aside: Yes, why yes I did change my avatar back to my old one. I also reinitiated my old banner that I haven't used in a long time. I think at this point me and my Squall avatar have pretty much become synonymous with one another in such a way that it just feels wrong without it