It seems only fitting we end our journey through the year with a conclusion to by far the biggest story that has gripped gamers throughout 2015. The Kojima/Konami breakup ended in spectacular fashion when a very chuffed Andrew House announced that Kojima Productions were back as an independent studio, and taht their first game would be PlayStation 4 exclusive. Konami quietly countered by advertising for new staff for the “next Metal Gear” game, but the day belonged to Sony and Kojima.
Can we just talk about just how much Andrew House is grinning here? Have you ever seen anyone look so happy? I’m pretty sure that if I isolated the audio and boosted it we could hear him muttering “Ha, screw you Microsoft” under his breath.
Sony continued to claim headlines with yet another event, the PlayStation Experience. New reveals included Bound, Home Improvisation, Jazzpunk, Ni No Kuni II, and the first look at gameplay from Final Fantasy VII Remake. Now I’m sure you are thinking “Where is the Xbox and Nintendo news TC? This is just a Sony sausagefest!”, and I would agree with you entirely. However, at the time of writing there is literally nothing interesting Microsoft related news in December, and the only remarkable thing Nintendo have done is start to roll out new accounts.
In the interests of balance, here is a Quantum Break trailer that was premièred during The Game Adverts Awards.
We had reviews for the last few big games to be released including Just Cause 3 (7/10), and Rainbow Six Siege (6/10), and a special treat, our first look at sculpting in Media Molecule’s next title, Dreams.
The UK government held a lengthy debate to discuss if we should bomb ISIS in Syria and within hours of the result the jets were in the air. FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA boss Michel Platini were suspended for eight years following an ethics investigation, and total tosspot Tyson Fury did not win Sports Personality of the Year. Thank goodness for that.
Tim Peake zipped off in to space, Jimmy Hill died, and an armed man held 17 employees and customers hostage for more than 16 hours in a cafe in Sydney, Australia. Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party won a huge number of seats in the Canadian election, oh, and a tiny little art house film called Star Wars: The Force Awakens opening in selected cinemas.
As I’m writing this on December 21st, I can’t tell you about the whole months weather, but up to this point it’s been very warm. Storm Desmond did bring torrential rain and floods to North West England [Ed: these communities and others in more parts of North England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland have since been battered by Storms Eva and now Frank], but people have been doing their Christmas shopping in shorts and t-shirts, so it’s not exactly cold. Tropical air from the Azores and beyond is blowing in from the south west and the unseasonably warm weather has dampened Christmas spirits in Lincoln, where an outdoor Christmas ice rink melted. Scotland has seen some snow, but that’s about it.
So that’s it. The story of 2015 has been told, assuming nothing major happens between today, December 21st, and the end of the year that is. I expect the PSN and Xbox Live went down at least a couple of times during the holiday period – even Mystic Meg could predict that – but let’s hope for peace on Earth and good will to all man, and indeed woman, kind.
I shall leave you with my personal highlight of 2015, the extended version of the Uncharted 4 E3 trailer. “Wow” doesn’t even come close. Tara!
JR.
2016 does seem to belong to Playstation as far as exclusive games are concerned. One of the biggest criticisms of the PS4 is that it has no games (which isnt even true). There will be very little to criticise next year except maybe that the PS4 shape isnt square enough.
I’ve just completed Just Cause 3 100% and it took me a little over a week. It took me five years to get to 75% completion on Just Cause 2. Cant believe how much smaller it is. Its a decent game despite the lengthy loading times but its not a patch on Just Cause 2.