Features// SPOnG's Review of the Year 2010: March

The smack talking didn’t deter loyal CoD players from waiting for the Stimulus Pack, although there was some great confusion as to when it was actually going to be released. Originally, the plan was to hit Xbox Live after 12pm on the 30th March (Modern Warfare 2 Map Pack Hits After Noon Today - Saga of XP, ) but then when the time came and went, Microsoft had to clarify that it meant 12pm UTC - meaning 1pm in the UK and possibly even later (UPDATE - Modern Warfare 2 ‘Stimulus Package’ “as Late as 5pm”)! Of course, a few hours makes all the difference in Internet Land. The pack finally went online at 2pm.

Back to Sony, and the mystery of the older-model PS3 consoles messing up was proving to be problematic for the company for the entire day (1st March). As previously mentioned (and as you may remember), issues involved being unable to log into the PlayStation Network and updating trophies, with the added bonus of corrupted purchases and data files if you were particularly lucky (Sony Responds to Fat PS3’s Offline Kicking).

Later that day, Sony issued a statement noting the cause of the problem - the internal system clock. 2010 saw a Leap Year occur in February, and the PS3s couldn’t hack it. The company tried to have a fix sorted, but it turns out as the clock turned to the 2nd March the problem automatically disappeared. PS3: It only fixes itself.

But there were some angry voices from people who had lost crucial data. Guest columnist Jas Purewal of GamerLaw assessed the damage caused by the ruckus and concluded that Sony would have been in for a world of hurt had the problem remained.

Ubisoft didn’t have a lot of fun in March either - it had recently implemented a new form of DRM into its PC games and was getting a lot of negative feedback. The security measures meant that new releases such as Assassin’s Creed II would have to have constant internet access to even run properly.

Less than 24 hours after the technology dropped, hackers had claimed to have circumvented the code (Ubisoft DRM Under Attack; Publisher Denies Crack, 4th March). Ubisoft maintained that anyone using such hacks would find their copy “incomplete”.

Speaking of hacking, there was plenty of the kind in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle for the Wii. I sat down with creator SUDA51 to talk about inspirations and other mad Japanese things, especially about sexual innuendos and how Travis is not much of a gentleman. Violence continued in SPOnG’s Yakuza 3 review (hint: it was good), Sin & Punishment 2 preview and our Just Cause 2 review, which ended up having more quibbles than we realised.

Batman was back to beat up some mental asylum patients in the 3D edition of Arkham Asylum (classic 3D, mind) and actor Robert Knepper flew over to promote the Prison Break game (and to talk about T-Bagging). We also reviewed Pokemon HeartGold and Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, ran through the StarCraft II Beta and previewed 2010 FIFA World Cup, Metroid: Other M, F1 2010, Lost Planet 2 (twice) and Hunted: The Demon’s Forge (with a little chat with InXile to boot). Phew.

[u][b]Finally…[/b][/u]

Microsoft’s motion-detecting camera, Natal (what we now know as Kinect), was getting some interest from press and gamers alike for its potential. But according to the company’s own Research Asia department director Hsiao-Wuen Hon, work had already begun on a second-generation model (Microsoft: Researchers Already Working on Natal II, 22nd March).

“While we have a researcher working with the product group for the first version, we already have a researcher thinking about the second version down the road,” he said. We’re aware that companies always look to the future when working on a particular product, but to casually announce it publicly before Natal was even out yet… how very odd.