Review of the Year 2011: May

This May was, just like every year, full of E3 teasing and rumours. Before the end of the month, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Modern Warfare 3, Hitman: Absolution and Starhawk had all been officially announced, and the internet was abuzz with theories about the Wii 2, NGP, and the future of Xbox.

The biggest news of the month was probably the Modern Warfare 3 reveal – ruined slightly by a massive leak over at Kotaku – and of course the first thing the tabloids talked about was the “terrorist attack” scenes in London and elsewhere.

Behind the scenes, there had been plenty of disruption following MW2’s release, and that was reflected in the collaborative development of the third instalment – Sledgehammer Games collaborated with Infinity Ward on the game’s campaign, Raven Software assisted with multiplayer, and Beachhead Studios headed up the series’ subscription service debut, Call of Duty: Elite (also announced in April).

Elsewhere in games news, a soon-shuttered games blog revealed the NGP would be coming to retail as the ‘PlayStation Vita’, a name effectively confirmed by the discovery of Vita-titled pages on Sony’s developer site. On the 15th, someone noticed the power cable had fallen out the back of the PSN and started it back up, with the Store just missing the end of the month.

Sony also revealed the contents of the “Welcome Back” package – designed to soothe gamers fustrated by the lack of network access – including a couple of free PS3 and PSP games, and extensions on subscription services.

There was more good news at the tail end of the month when it was revealed David O’Russell was leaving the Uncharted movie project; his plans for the film, accompanied by a potential casting of “Marky” Mark Wahlberg in the lead role, hadn’t gone down particularly well with fans of the series.

In May, TSA posted 438 posts, including a personal favourite – Tuffcub’s Magical Sue-Sony-a-Tron. In terms of new releases, console gamers got their hands on the long-awaited L.A. Noire, as well as Brink, Lego Pirates of the Carribean, Dirt 3, and F3AR.

PC gamers could also pick up The Witcher 2, while the Xbox 360 version remains missing in action to this day. It was also a big month for cinemas, with the first of the summer blockbusters arriving in the form of Thor, The Hangover 2, and Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides.

Outside of gaming, there was big news on the global stage when Osama bin Laden was shot dead during a military operation, bringing to an end a ten-year search for the terrorist leader following the September 11th attacks.

Here in Britain, additional headlines were generated by the rejection of the alternative vote system in a referendum promised as part of the coalition agreement.

Join us tomorrow for more secrets of the past, this time from June.