Features// SPOnG's Review of the Year '09: October

From aggressive-defensive corpora-speak to something a little more human and honest, Neil Thompson from the same company said in an interview that Microsoft was not as agile as Sony (“Microsoft Wishes it was as Agile as Sony”, 1st Oct 2009). Of course, Thompson is referring to the ability to integrate and pool resources from different divisions. Microsoft has many fingers in the pies of software and hardware solutions, but in comparison Sony also has music divisions and film studios under its collective belt.

In a third popular news article on Microsoft, serious attitudes were taken against Xbox 360 users that were illegally playing any game before its official release date. It wasn’t without precedence, given that Gamertags of people playing torrented copies of Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST had been banhammered in the past (“Microsoft Will Ban Gamertags of Pre-Release Players”, 20th Oct 2009).

This news, however, caused some confusion as some people had been banned after playing legitimate copies of games that retailers had broken official street date for. Microsoft’s Stephen Toulouse went on record (well, on Twitter) to explain that “if you got a receipt, play away. These are illegit copies we’re hitting.” Hopefully the company has a sure-fire method of telling the difference.

Football’s in the forefront of most people’s minds in October, and for fans of the beautiful game there was a lot to be excited about. On EA’s side of things, FIFA 10 saw a huge patch released for both PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, which aimed to improve the online experience and other niggles in Manager Mode (“FIFA 10 - Huge Patch Described”, 19th Oct 2009). Elsewhere, SEGA released several demos of the sublime Football Manager 2010 for both PC and Mac platforms ("Football Manager 2010 Demo Launches", 15th Oct 2009), offering a ‘vanilla’ version with limited assets and UK leagues, and a ‘strawberry’ version containing a huge wodge of assets and international teams.

Rally fans were saddened this month by the news of Gavin Raeburn leaving Codemasters for pastures new (“DiRT Man Gavin Raeburn Leaves Codemasters”, 1st Oct 2009). Raeburn was the producer behind DiRT and Grid and vice president Gavin Cheshire gave a heartfelt salute; “He has my best wishes and our thanks for all the successes enjoyed during his time at Codemasters.”

It was a sporty month for reviews in the SPOnG Underwater Castle, with footy games FIFA 10, PES 2010 and Football Manager 2010 going head to head. Those who were keen on entertaining the kids could check out our Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games review, while driving nuts had Forza Motorsport 3 to ogle over. SPOnG attended a special Forza 3 launch party involving Murray Walker and Jodie Kidd, you can read all about that here. StokEd was also reviewed for the extreme sports fans out there (so Mark SPOnG, then).

Wet got reviewed, and... well, we didn’t enjoy it. We preferred the charms of yet another PS3 exclusive in Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time. GTA Chinatown Wars popped up on the PSP following a fantastic appearance on the Nintendo DS, but somehow it didn’t connect with us as much. For those that love their film, we also took a peek at Assassin’s Creed: Lineage. It was alright, yeah.

Completing our rather busy month was a preview of the retro PSN title Gravity Crash; an interview with Alex Neuse of Gaijin Games, who create the rather addictive BIT.TRIP games on WiiWare; as well as a preview of the stonkingly impressive Aliens vs Predator along with a chat with its developer, Rebellion.

Finally...

To round off October, here’s some news that intrigued both media and gamers alike. In its quest to be more competitive, it appeared that Sony’s open-source led corporate reshuffle could lead to a closer relationship with Google (“Sony’s Plans For Google Apps On PS3”, 9th Oct 2009). Google executives were reportedly invited to Tokyo to discuss with Sony of ways to collaborate further, and one such topic was creating applications for the PlayStation 3.

Interesting developments indeed, although since then nothing has been announced. Could we see something happen during 2010?