GU Monthly: February 2010

Welcome to the first of many monthly re-caps at GU, starting with the month just past; February 2010. Here we'll get a chance to have another look over recent releases, industry happenings, and some of the award-worthy and sometimes stupid things we've said in comment and debate...

It has certainly been an unforgettable first quarter of 2010 for game releases, and it's not over yet. February saw big-brands return with BioShock 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, Aliens vs Predator and Napoleon: Total War. If that wasn't enough, Star Trek made it's MMO debut with Star Trek Online, and the highly anticipated Heavy Rain landed on the PlayStation 3.

I don't think I know anyone that wasn't expecting a AAA title that tickled their fancy early this year, and the industry has delivered in spades. Although, to be completely frank, I'm yet to move onto February having still not completed January's Mass Effect 2 - the cause being my 50-odd hours pumped into the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 beta.

Looking to community conversation, an interesting debate on the ramifications of newly introduced Digital Rights Management measures, which require you be connected to the internet to play, and proved a thoughtful read. It spawned from an Assassin's Creed 2 article, which is just one of many future Ubisoft games that will bolster the DRM method in question.

Originally Posted by Aegis

the less we speak up about stupid shit like this, the more game companies will try to get away with. look at what's happened around the traps since then - MW2 shipped with no dedi servers, AVP sure as shit had no intention to support them until the furor over MW2 happened

South Australia became one of the first states in the world to censor the internet, albeit briefly. The law was passed and then pulled, dictated that users must publish confidential identification details when posting political opinion. This was, of course, a Michael Atkinson movement.

Originally Posted by Wrathlon

So wait, any comment you make needs to be coupled by telling the whole internet who you are and where you live? Wow good work, that was clearly well thought through.

Michael Atkinson had even more ignorant, outlandish things to push in February - this time on the topic of R18+ classifications. I'm talking about none-other than his opinion that gamers are as threatening as biker gangs. Needless to say, the GU community did not agree.

Originally Posted by grandinferno

This is disgusting. What an absolute blood clot.

Lastly, this hot-topic picked up just short of a couple hundred replies, and was all about the iPad's announcement and release. It wasn't so much a discussion about whether it was a good gaming platform or not, rather a war of opinion between those who believe it is ill-featured - such as a lack of Flash - and those who don't.

Originally Posted by paladin

i can't think of a single thing i do on the web that relies on flash. not one. i can't be the only one.

That'll just about do it this time around. Expect more of the same come the start of April!