AU Shippin' Out January 4-8: Bayonetta

The new year is off to a big start, with the first week of the new decade seeing two of the year's biggest releases: Bayonetta and Darksiders. Bayonetta is the latest game from Platinum Games, which is staffed by an impressive team of renowned Japanese developers. Players can be assured of plenty of sexual innuendo to go alongside the violence, as Bayonetta, a sassy witch who awakens after a 500-year slumber, finds herself in a fictional European city with no memory of who she is or how she got there. Bayonetta is slated for release on January 7, and on top of the regular release, it will be accompanied by the cheekily named Climax Edition, which comes with a replica pistol from the game and an art book.

THQ's Darksiders, on the other hand, is a bit bleaker and is set on Earth 100 years after the Apocalypse where the protagonist War, one of the Four Horsemen of said Apocalypse, sets off to find out why the destruction was brought forward. While the game was developed by Vigil Games, popular comic book artist Joe Madureira is responsible for the beautifully grotesque art direction. Keep an eye out for Darksiders when it is released this Thursday.

January 7, 2009
Bayonetta (PS3, 360)
Darksiders (PS3, 360)
The Biggest Loser (PS3)