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Weekly Poll: Which games have you the most excited for this week’s release extravaganza?

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Puzzle PollIt seems that the majority believes that strategy guides are great for games other than puzzle games. While I see some relevance to this argument, I have to say that I would have never gotten through half of the first Scribblenauts‘ action puzzles without the guide. Well, that’s a huge exaggeration because I didn’t make it through two worlds of action puzzles. After Maxwell went running off the edge into a pool of lava one too many times, I had to call it quits.

While last week’s game releases with Medal of Honor and  Super Scribblenauts was big, this week’s knocks it out of the park and is quite reminiscent of the stacked releases from January and February of this year. So of all the big name releases–I ignored all the Wii and DS shovelware–which has you the most excited?

For me, it’s Vanquish. I had an absolute blast with the demo, so I’m eager to get my hands on it. I’m also eager to get my hands of the guide, as it’s from Future Press, the same company who brought us the greatness that is the Bayonetta Strategy Guide. Since this game is also about beating levels quickly and stylishly, I expect the same bar that was raised with Bayonetta.

No pressure, guys!

Bayonetta Strategy Guide Review

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Bayonetta Strategy Guide by Future Press Strategy Guide Review Policy:

My goal for these strategy guide reviews is not to discuss whether one needs the guide to complete the game. Every gamer has different strengths and skills, and one may need every bit of a guide, another may need to look up information for quick assistance once, and another may laugh at the idea of ever using a guide, even the online freebies. My goal is to determine whether the guide is 1) helpful in the first place, 2) does it encompass gamers who need hand-holding as well as those who need a quick reference and 3) how much information does it really have.

Review:

The strategy guide for [amazon-product text=”Bayonetta” type=”text”]B001YI0Z2U[/amazon-product] was released quite a bit after the game’s release in January 2010, due to SEGA and Platinum Games’ high expectations for its content. My first thought when I heard this was, “Why?” but after seeing first hand all of the game’s collectibles, medals, abilities and unlockables, this game obviously required a great deal of playing time. Inside the front cover of the guide, the authors acknowledge that they spent over 6,000 playable hours perfecting this guide. That’s some serious dedication. But of course, I’m a skeptic, so I had to know how much that time really paid off.

The answer is indubitably. I honestly do not believe there is another way of discovering everything Bayonetta has to offer without this guide or without spending 6,000 hours playing it yourself.

Bayonetta Stategy Guide FuturePress movie codes

See the movie code? Thank you FuturePress!

The walkthroughs [amazon-product region=”uk” text=”Bayonetta Strategy Guide” type=”text”]3869930039[/amazon-product] are divided up into three sections: the Scenario Guide, the Pure Platinum Guide, and the Angels Guide. The first section is a general walkthrough of the game; it points out all collectibles in all difficulties and points the player in the general direction of what to do next. No real, in-depth strategies are offered here. For those, there is the Pure Platinum section, which provides the most efficient strategies throughout the game for the player to earn those coveted Pure Platinum medals for every verse. If you need extra help to see how these strategies can be done, FuturePress provides movie codes for each strategy (see image to the right) for FuturePress registrants to view. The last section, the Angels Guide, offers in-depth strategies for the various Angels Bayonetta will encounter, including all bosses. These last strategies are so in-depth that for the bosses there are two sections: a general overview section of the boss’s attacks (prep) and a strategy section (for actually attacking).

So as you can see, no stone is left unturned, and the guide is sectioned off to accommodate a variety of players and player styles. However, this asset is also a bit of a detriment. Since not everything is in one place, players who may need additional assistance or who want to use the Pure Platinum section and find all the collectibles will have to flip back and forth through the guide often. It becomes a hassle over time, especially switching between the walkthroughs and Angel strategies for the boss fights. But this is a minor annoyance, and in no way detracts from the usefulness of the guide.

As an extra bonus, the back of the guide is packed full of the game’s secret battles, costume unlockables, the Angel Slayer challenge tips, Speed Run challenge (defeat the game in 3 hours), Easter eggs, concept art, interviews with the developers, and a concordance of all the angelic and demonic references. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a guide with this much bonus information. I could easily spend a Sunday afternoon just reading the back section to learn all there is to know about Bayonetta and her world.

Simply put, Bayonetta is a game about finding everything and seeing what happens next, despite what the overall story and gameplay leads you to believe. If you want to chalk up your Pure Platinum medals and chapter awards, not to mention find out what happens when you collect all 101 of the Umbran Tears of Blood, this guide will get you there and it may be the only way to get there without pulling your hair out or overheating your console. This is exactly what every guide should be, and Future Press has raised the bar yet again when it comes to the standards of strategy guide quality.

The Bayonetta Strategy Guide by FuturePress rightfully earns its 5/5.

Strategy Guide Talk at E3

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Future Press strategy guides logoI finished Bayonetta this past Sunday, but my attendance at E3 has stalled me from writing up the review just yet. I know, I know, poor me. But this doesn’t mean I have forsaken strategy guides while I am here! Yesterday afternoon, I got the delightful opportunity to meet with Frank Glaser of FuturePress, Europe’s strategy guide publisher.

Frank and I discussed how I’m coming along with Bayonetta a little, but we mostly just geeked out about what he and I love most: gaming and strategy guides. I learned exactly how much pride FuturePress puts into their games, and I was even more pleased to learn that the company prides themselves on being gamers first and guide creators second. I think this whole-heartedly explains why their guides are so great and why I have very little difficulties with them. Take their guide for inFamous, for example. This is without a doubt the best guide I have come across thus far with the current generation of gaming, and Frank insists that it’s hardly one of their best guides.

We went over what we each like to see in guides, what games we like, and basically geeked out like the big guide and gaming nerds we are. I’m looking forward to their next guide immensely.

But I suppose in the meantime I need to get moving on writing up my review for Bayonetta.

My Bayonetta Strategy Guide is Here!

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Isn’t the cover just beautiful?

It’s taken quite some time crossing the Atlantic, but now that it’s here, it appears to be worth every minute of the wait. For starters, aside from the gorgeous game artwork inside, the guide is a massive 400 pages. None of my guides are that long, not even Final Fantasy XIII Strategy Guide. According to the welcome page, the guide is so humongous because it includes strategies for all of the difficulty settings and strategies for obtaining Pure Platinum medals in each Verse. While I would expect a guide to contain all of these things, the way this guide handles it is quite interesting. Instead of lumping everything together, it has separate sections for those who want to blaze through the game and those who NEED those Pure Platinum medals. It’s basically two guides rolled into one.

On top of that, the guide also has a separate section with more detailed strategies for defeating bosses, which is something Future Press employed with its inFamous Strategy Guide as well. If I recall correctly, it worked very well.

I only wish I actually had time to play the game right now. I could go on ahead and start, but since I’ll be getting NIER next week, I don’t see a point. It would be Darksiders all over again. Hopefully NIER won’t take me that long or I’ll flat out hate it so I won’t spend too much time with it. I’ve been waiting to play Bayonetta for quite some time now, and I’m very eager to sink my teeth into this beauty the first change I get.

Guest Review: Bionic Commando Strategy Guide Review

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by: Matt Green

Last year’s Bionic Commando from GRiN and Capcom isn’t really daunting enough to require a strategy guide, but that hasn’t stopped Future Press from putting together more information than you’d ever want to know about Nathan Spencer’s latest (and, possibly, final) adventure. While the game offers linear progression through a series of Point A to Point B stages, the guide recognizes that it’s largely unneeded and fills its pages with plenty of Bionic Commando backstory, character biographies & artwork, weapon profiles, enemy dossiers, amusing Capcom in-jokes, and even a guide to Bionic Commando Rearmed’s infamous challenge rooms. It’s a suitable companion to the best game that nobody else played of 2009, but on the whole it’s mostly unnecessary.

Start flipping through the guide and you’ll find that the first chunk of the book isn’t maps or gameplay tactics, but a retelling of the complete history of Bionic Commando’s backstory. A recap of the Rearmed mission leads into filling the gap between the remake of the Nintendo Entertainment System classic and this new modern adventure. Here you’ll learn about a botched mission that led Spencer to disobey orders and allow two rogue bionic soldiers to escape a terminator order and his subsequent imprisonment and sentence to death row. BioReign’s rise to prominence is also explored, as are dossiers on lead and supporting characters such as Spencer, his missing wife, “Super” Joe Gibson, Secretary Armstrong, nemesis Gottfried Groeder, antagonistic counterpart Jayne “Mag” Magdalene, the mysterious sniper, and other side characters. Knowing all of Bionic Commando’s complete story beats isn’t required to enjoy or understand the game, but they do show just how fleshed out this reworked fictional world became over the course of development.

Moving onward, the maps make up the bulk of the book as one would expect. Each area is given the 2D overhead plan view treatment which keeps the maps from being too useful. It’s difficult to indicate exactly where items are located in a 3D space on a 2D map, so when the map indicates that a new weapon is hidden at a certain point, it’s worth remembering that the outlined point could be above or below what the image on the map describes. The one thing at which the guide excels involves pointing out where to find the secret collectible items required to unlock all of the game’s concept art. Anyone looking to collect every last secret pick-up on a single playthrough of the adventure will want to have this book at his or her side while swinging through the city. Each map page also includes step by step directions on where to proceed, which enemies to target, and where not to go because of deadly radiation. It’s all useful information, but I found it much more fun to play the game “without a net”, as it were. Still, if you’re going to explore Ascension City page by page, this guide will get you where you’re going with minimal fuss. Each and every point along the journey is given detailed, easy to understand coverage. Of course, actually being able to perform the strategies outlined in the book is different from simply reading your way through the game, so be prepared to develop your skills before plowing through the action. The great thing about playing Bionic Commando unassisted is that players are forced to develop their own strategies for dealing with each variety of foe. Just doing what the book tells one to do for every challenge and situation really sucks most of the fun out of the experience. Don’t be afraid to put the book aside unless it’s really needed.

A full weapons profile follows the map section of the guide in which complete specs and data are provided for each of the game’s guns and explosives. I found it unnecessary to know a gun’s weight, manufacturer, and other useless details, but obsessive types may get a kick out of knowing these little bits of worldbuilding. Combat tactics are also outlined, although there’s little to learn here that the game will not explain or coach players to figure out for themselves. Blasting BioReign soliders and robots is key in Bionic Commando, so it’s only fair for the guide to dig deep into data and strategies related to the endless array of grunts. Factoids such as damage modifiers and optimum rates are explained in handy chart form, but it’s really too much information to handle. There’s also a full chapter devoted to the game’s online multiplayer mode which would be really useful if anyone actually played the online multiplayer mode. Those who can find an active game session will be prepared with key methods are shooting and swinging through the multiplayer environments.

Bionic Commando is loaded with fun little Capcom-related jokes and Easter eggs, and a few pages at the back of the guide list them all. Grin at in-game posters for Capcom’s Dark Void, signs featuring MegaMan Legends characters, logos from other Capcom games, and more. Other in-game secrets are divulged here for those who don’t want to translate the game’s Morse code German text ending themselves. Bringing the guide to a close are several pages detailing each of Bionic Commando Rearmed’s challenge rooms. Each room is mapped and outlined with a completion strategy, although it’s much easier to describe how to reach the goal in each room than it is to actually do it. Still, it’s interesting information and adds a little extra value to the book.

As I said earlier, it’s really not necessary to refer to a strategy guide to enjoy and complete Bionic Commando, and I actually got more of a kick out of the character and weapon profiles than I did the maps and progress directions. It’s recommended for die-hard Bionic Commando fans, but having said that, I question why Future Press went out of its way to create a book that seems to be targeted at just me. Thanks, Future Press!

Thanks so much Matt, and thank you, Future Press for providing a review copy!

We did receive a review copy courtesy of Future Press, but it in no way affected our review.

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