January Wrap Up Page 2

29 Jan 2010 at 14:13:29 by Andy Alderson

Love on the Rocks

January also saw some juicy, controversial stories hit the headlines and, before we knew it, the Christmas good cheer had made way for some good old fashioned bitching. First up, a blog post claiming to have been written by the wives of Rockstar employees appeared on the net, decrying the “horrendous” working conditions at Rockstar San Diego. Lost holidays, overtime pay cuts and “vulgar” management were just a few of the complaints although what we found most amazing was that whoever wrote the blog post managed to force an entire fucking thesaurus down their gullet.  “Ameliorated” indeed.  A number of anonymous posts followed the blog in which the author took aim at Rockstar’s upcoming open-world Western, Red Dead Redemption, stating its development has been a “disaster.” Rockstar waved off the claims, urging gamers not to take the “opinions of a few anonymous posters on message boards as fact.” Having seen the game, we agree.

Speaking of controversy, the Tiger Woods sex juggernaut steamed into 2010 with the news that, despite a blog post from Peter Moore, EA was conducting a poll to discover whether the shamed golfer’s alleged nob-a-thon had harmed the EA Sports brand. We’re guessing the test came back negative as news of Tiger Woods Online and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 soon emerged.

I Want Security, Yeah

Sony must have been biting its nails at the end of January when a renowned iPhone hacker claimed to have defiled the PS3. The hacker in question, George Hotz, had apparently gained access to the PS3’s system memory and processor, stating “I've also dumped the NAND without removing it.” We can only hope he wiped afterwards. Sony quickly responded, confirming it is investigating the claim while Hotz then revealed he was bored of playing with the PS3 and released the hack on the net “in the spirit of openness.” Because, you know, he’s good like that.  Bad news for Sony, if the claim turns out to be true, with piracy possibly on the cards. If we believed in Karma, we might suggest that this is payback for signing a deal with Simon Cowell.

The Games

January didn’t start particularly well with Hasbro Family Game Night 2 on the Wii proving to be about as fun as a game night with the family, while Army of Two: The 40th Day managed to be better than its predecessor but still a wee bit tedious. Dark Void made us believe in parallel dimensions where things are quite a lot like Uncharted, but nowhere near as good while Darksiders offered up some good apocalyptic fun. The world's most leather-clad librarian, Bayonetta, got the blood pumping on the PS3 while the majestic Mass Effect 2 proved to be the first great 360 exclusive of the year.
     

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