Bayonetta

[BitWarrior]

I searched and researched for "Bayonetta" and was highly surprised that no such thread already existed. If I am in error, feel free to Den this and minus 50 DKP.

The PS3 port for Bayonetta has been widely labeled a poor, ugly, apocrypha skull-fucking stepchild,  compared to the 360 version. Famitsu famously gave the 360 version a 40/40, but the PS3 version a 38/40. The game was known to have been developed "for the 360", and the assets simply handed over to Sega for the port, and it left many starring a critical eye at the developer for their lack of cross platform attention for a supposively cross platform game. The wake of screenshots left many people questioning the quality they were about to see, and if this might be another Ghost Busters.

However, it looks like Sony might be stepping in directly to amend the situation. Lucky for PS3 owners hoping to get a good Bayonetta experience on their systems. Is this a first for a company to step in so heavily for a port?

[schild]

Heh. If Sony is fixing it, well, shit. That's... something.

This is a service Sony should offer since it seems 99% of the third parties out there are terribly stupid when it comes to multiprocessor computing.

[Hoax]

Oh good deal, totally wanted to buy this for ps3.

[Velorath]

If I'm not mistaken, the demo is supposed to be up today.

[Kageh]

Considering the rave reviews this is getting for the 360, I seriously hope the PS3 port is not screwed up. Sounds like the bastard child of God of War and DMC, and it seems to be better than both of them. I've been waiting for it since I first saw the movies on PSN.

[Velorath]

I wouldn't really call it a bastard child since Hideki Kamiya created Devil May Cry (in addition to being director on games like Okami, Viewtiful Joe, and Resident Evil 2.  I don't think he had any involvement in any of the other DMC games, so in some ways this is the true follow-up to DMC 1.

[Kageh]

You are right, I totally forgot that. The protagonist is quite an evolution from Dante 

[LK]

I keep looking at this game and thinking Ninja Gaiden with even more ridiculous T&A.

[Trippy]

"Non-stop climax action"

[Trippy]

If I'm not mistaken, the demo is supposed to be up today.

Demo isn't up yet on PSN here in the US.

[BitWarrior]

If I'm not mistaken, the demo is supposed to be up today.

Demo isn't up yet on PSN here in the US.

PSN updates occur Thursday and have been arriving progressively later in the day. From what I recall, the updates have been occurring between 3pm and 6pm PST as of late - look for it then.

[Murgos]

The PS3 port for Bayonetta has been widely labeled a poor, ugly stepchild compared to the 360 version. Famitsu famously gave the 360 version a 40/40, but the PS3 version a 38/40.

Heh, a 95% vs a 100% and suddenly it's an "ugly stepchild".

[BitWarrior]

Heh, a 95% vs a 100% and suddenly it's an "ugly stepchild".

I'm not sure how familiar you are with recent media, so I've included some reference images below.

Wall Running:
360 | PS3

Boss Fight:
360 | PS3

Evil Girl:
360 | PS3

Heart Circle:
360 | PS3

(Edited to remove links from sites which don't approve deep-linking)

[Kageh]

Those are good comparison screenshots, PS3 textures look a lot blurrier.

(Last 3 images probably not allowed to be hotlinked, returning a HTTP 403)

[Ingmar]

All I've learned is that Famitsu's rating system is apparently retarded.

[Velorath]

All I've learned is that Famitsu's rating system is apparently retarded.

Their rating system is just to have 4 reviewers rate the game on a 1-10 scale.

[Murgos]

All I've learned is that Famitsu's rating system is apparently retarded.

Their rating system is just to have 4 reviewers rate the game on a 1-10 scale.

So two of them gave it a 10 of 10 and two others gave it a 9/10 and yet, somehow I am supposed to be outraged, I say OUTRAGED over this?

Really?

[Velorath]

All I've learned is that Famitsu's rating system is apparently retarded.

Their rating system is just to have 4 reviewers rate the game on a 1-10 scale.

So two of them gave it a 10 of 10 and two others gave it a 9/10 and yet, somehow I am supposed to be outraged, I say OUTRAGED over this?

Really?

Review scores don't really tell the whole story.  From 1Up's comparison article for instance:

Given the first-hand reports, Famitsu review scores, and general impressions coming out of this year's Tokyo Game Show, it's not exactly news that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Platinum Games' Bayonetta differ. But when our import copies of the game (which just released in Japan, and will be available in the U.S. on January 5th) arrived yesterday, I was determined to sort out the extent of that difference.

Over the past two days, I've spent about 12 hours split between the two versions, and I've ended up very disappointed with the PS3 game. All the complaints you may have heard -- that it looks faded and blurry, and struggles through its framerate -- are true, and more significant than I've seen in any PS3/360 game in recent memory. The 360 version runs into occasional light framerate issues, but nothing that really affects the game. The PS3 version feels sluggish for the majority of the game -- at least, when put side-by-side with the 360 one.

[Ingmar]

My point was more along the lines of, if it is really that bad, how the hell did it get a 38/40?

[BitWarrior]

Had a chance to play the demo this evening - I didn't notice any point where I felt the textures were poor, but if "they" can do more to improve the look, even better. I did, however, notice a bit of a framerate problem, ironically during cut scenes though not throughout normal gameplay (perhaps because during gameplay I was focusing on the task at hand). It wasn't a deal breaker, however.

The demo has thankfully solidified for me that the game is adequate enough on the PS3 to pick up.

[Trippy]

The hair attacks are

[LK]

I thought every attack was hair. Her whole outfit is hair.

[apocrypha]

I'm not sure how familiar you are with recent media, so I've included some reference images below.

The main differences I see between those pictures are that the 360 ones have higher local contrast, more sharpening and are more saturated. The PS3 ones seem to be more heavily anti-aliased, haven't got vast amounts of sharpening applied and are somewhat desaturated. The texture resolutions look identical, just processed differently.

[Trippy]

I thought every attack was hair. Her whole outfit is hair.

She has 4 guns (2 strapped to her legs), can punch and kick as well as shoot, and swing whatever weapon she's picked up (axe, sword, etc.). Her hair attacks are her "magic"/"torture" attacks so those are separate from her regular ones.

[Trippy]

The 360 version is doing an extra lighting pass. It also has higher resolution textures in some places. The PS3 version looks like it's doing some anti-aliasing, though, which the 360 version isn't.

[apocrypha]

Is that because the 360 is more able to do that or just a bad port?

Either way, I think referring to it (based on those pics anyway) as "a poor, ugly stepchild compared to the 360 version" is a bit extreme. But I supposed it depends on your personal preference. Personally it wouldn't bother me that much, but I'm a PS3 owner so I would say that 

[Trippy]

Is that because the 360 is more able to do that or just a bad port?

The lighting difference I'm pretty sure is just because it's a bad port. If you've seen something like Uncharted 2 it's clear the PS3 is capable of stunning visual effects but that often requires the developer to use the SPEs (there's an Uncharted 2 behind the scenes video on PSN that explains some of this stuff).

Lower-res textures may or may not be related to the difference in memory "segmentation" between the two platforms. On the PS3 the graphics RAM and system RAM are separate and are 256 MB each. On the Xbox 360 there's just a single "pool" of 512 MB RAM that's shared by the CPU and the GPU and the developer can vary how much is used by each as needed. So in theory in scenes that don't require, say, 256 MB (or more) of RAM on the Xbox 360 can use that "extra" RAM for higher resolution textures. Or it just could be those developers aren't as good at streaming textures from disc on the PS3 as they are on the Xbox 360.

[Jerrith]

I imported the PS3 version when it came out in Japan, have played through twice, and still play a level now and then for fun.  This game is *really* good.  Gameplay on the PS3 is fine, the only thing that really bothered me was the load time for in game menus.  Seriously, you're doing something wrong if it takes 3+ seconds to pull up the pause menu...  However, even with that problem, I still love this game.  There are lots of fun, different and entertaining fights and sequences, and the ending was impressive.  (My only concern - no room for a sequel!) 

Unless you don't like this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ2QgcRrWlc.  You should buy this game. :)

[apocrypha]

Unless you don't like this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ2QgcRrWlc.  You should buy this game. :)

Argh. Argh argh argh argh! That's almost as bad as the Disgaea 3 music (a game I played with the sound off after 1 day)!

[Murgos]

My point was more along the lines of, if it is really that bad, how the hell did it get a 38/40?

This.  It really sounds to me like the video game equivalent of the 'she's got bony knees' comment.

[Velorath]

My point was more along the lines of, if it is really that bad, how the hell did it get a 38/40?

This.  It really sounds to me like the video game equivalent of the 'she's got bony knees' comment.

Not really.  Obviously, the Famitsu guys still really liked the game on the PS3 despite its flaws, but the PS3 port does have issues which have been acknowledged by Platinum Games and Sega.  It's got some graphical, load time, and framerate issues, and it's not unreasonable for people to want those issues fixed before the game gets released in the U.S..

[Murgos]

No, if the 360 version didn't exist no one would be saying anything about those issues.  They literally would not be recognized as issues.

[Velorath]

No, if the 360 version didn't exist no one would be saying anything about those issues.  They literally would not be recognized as issues.

The reason why these issues exist on the PS3 and not on the 360 is because Sega and not Platinum Games did the port.  And if you've never seen framerate issues brought up in reviews for games outside of multiplatform comparisons, I have to assume you just read the scores and not the text.

[Azazel]

My point was more along the lines of, if it is really that bad, how the hell did it get a 38/40?

This.  It really sounds to me like the video game equivalent of the 'she's got bony knees' comment.

Square nails   

[Jerrith]

Argh. Argh argh argh argh! That's almost as bad as the Disgaea 3 music (a game I played with the sound off after 1 day)!

That's the music that plays just about every time Bayonetta is about to do something really "awesome".  I'd guess like once or twice per level? You will be hearing it lots.  I've come to like it, personally.

No, if the 360 version didn't exist no one would be saying anything about those issues.  They literally would not be recognized as issues.

I wish this was the case, but honestly, it's not.  3 to 5 seconds of loading to display the PAUSE screen.  What the heck are they doing?  It's hard to imagine code so unoptimized that it does this, but Bayonetta (PS3) has it...  It still gets the 38/40 though because it's such a great game, and honestly, in the end, you're not going to be pausing the game all that often, and most of the times you do, the load time won't matter.