February is another traditionally slow month in the world of video gaming. Usually we’re spending the month finishing up the games that Santa left us or playing the titles we picked up in the January sales. However, February 2010 saw the release of several stand out titles which had us all rushing back to game stores with the taste of mince pies still fresh in our memories.
Dante’s Inferno arrived in a flood of hype-building controversy and showed us just how weird a game could get with tentacles. Bioshock 2 was also released early in the month, dragging fans back to Rapture for more bio-/diesel-punk adventures.
Heavy Rain closed the month on a high with Quantic Dream’s narrative-driven masterpiece garnering praise for its imaginative approach and generally intuitive controls. Most of us tried really hard to ignore the facial animations and abysmal voice acting and instead chose to revel in the new meme of just shouting “Jaaaason” at each other every chance we got.
Other notable releases in February included Aliens Vs Predator and Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing. Demonstrating two separate ends of Sega’s publishing portfolio with licensed action horror giving way to cutesy cartoon karting a week later. We also saw another Sega-published game as perhaps the most significant release outside of the HD home consoles. Napoleon Total War from Creative Assembly was a big hit for fans of the strategy series. A healthy schedule throughout February, coupled with Bayonetta’s successes in the previous month made the start of 2010 look like a very Sega-themed period for gaming.
In the news, we saw Libya ban YouTube (as well as various news sites) just in time to miss the clips popping up from the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Although Libyans probably wouldn’t be too keen on winter sports anyway, to be honest.
The snowy sporting spectacle was dominated by the usual nations with the USA leading the medal table from Germany and Canada picking up the most Gold Medals. The team from Great Britain and Northern Ireland did manage to bag a single bit of swinging silverware though, scoring a Gold Medal in something called “Skeleton” which seemed to involve throwing yourself down an icy drainpipe on a tin tray.
February was also a month for sexual indiscretions, from both ends of the spectrum, to make the news. Tiger Woods made a heavily reported public apology for having extramarital relations with consenting adults and the Vatican didn’t apologise for the institutional cover-ups surrounding priests that raped children. Il Papa did refer to the act as a “heinous crime” though, following a meeting with twenty-four Irish clergy. This is seen as an important step for the ancient institution on the road to a more fitting act of contrition.
For our UK readers, the weather in February was slightly colder than usual with a mild second week and some periods of snowfall. There were a few milder spells hinting at an early spring time but the month closed with more heavy snow, mostly on higher ground.
DRCD1
JAAAASON!
(Sorry I really had to do that)
Dan Lee
Press ‘X’ to Jason.
DRCD1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_56257iS77A
Rocket_345
I wondered how long it would take for someone to say that. Turns out it’s the first comment.
Charmed_Fanatic
Jason, JAAson, JAAASONJAAAASON X100 … memories …
BIGAL-1992
Jason = Daft muppet.
gazzagb
The weather bit made me lol.
Napoleon Total War was fairly good, still prefer Rome Total War though, and Shogun Total War 2 looks amazing!
Stitch
Yeah, can’t beat a good weather section.
Peco
Quite right sir, Rome is the undisputed king of Total War. I am very much looking forward to Shogun 2, looks fantastic.
I bought Napoleon on release day and still haven’t touched it, oops.
Nauraph
March review tomorrow? ^^
Burgess_101
heavy rain is by far my faviroute game this year i loved but i agree with the facial expression but the voice acting i thought was rather hit and miss
Burgess_101
*favourite
R4U Eldave0
With the exception of a couple of smaller characters I thought the presentation values in HR were off the chart. Each to their own I suppose…