Features// SPOnG's Videogames Review of 2013: February

Posted 26 Dec 2013 11:00 by Adam Cooper

Just like January, this month was full of speculation and rumours about the soon to be revealed next-gen consoles from Microsoft and Sony.

The PlayStation 4 in particular was starting to see a lot of positive information being thrown around before Sony got the jump on everyone by officially revealing the console, tech specs and launch titles included, in a press conference which you can watch here if you’re feeling nostalgic already.

Rumours broke out that Microsoft had been caught off-guard by the early move and were expected to counter Sony’s actions in the following month.

Things on Nintendo’s end were a lot less positive, continuing to draw criticism over their handling of the struggling Wii U from both retailers andpublishers.

A particularly troubling sign for the console was Ubisoft’s U-turn over Rayman Legends, which was set to be a rare Wii U-exclusive title until the dismal sales gave them cold feet. Delaying the game’s release while a 360 and PS3 port was finished didn’t go down too well with the fans however.

Bethesda finally managed to overcome their difficulties with the PS3 to bring the long-awaited Skyrim DLC to the console. While X-Box 360 and PC gamers had been enjoying the Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn expansions for some time, PS3 owners had been left out in the cold until now.

For a few days this month the hot topic became Borderlands 2, specifically whether or not the character Tiny Tina was racist. Yes, this was really a thing that kicked off a pretty fierce debate among a lot of people. Seemed to blow over fairly harmlessly in the end, they even based the fourth pack of Borderlands 2 DLC around her later in the year.

February saw a pretty drastic increase over January when it came to big-name titles being released. By far my favourite of these has to be Sega and Gearbox’s long-awaited Aliens: Colonial Marines finally escaping from development hell.

It’s not my favourite because of the quality of the game – it was, in fact, quite terrible – but rather thanks to the ensuing drama upon its release. Most of the blame was quietly pushed towards smaller development studio TimeGate who were apparently responsible for most of the work on the game.

SEGA and Gearbox would later be hit with accusations of false advertising and later were even sued over the debacle.

SEGA ultimately came out smiling however as despite the storm of negative critical response the game launched to the top of the charts on release and proved that the Aliens franchise still has some clout despite the films hitting their peak almost twenty years ago.

Any damage to Gearbox’s reputation remains to be seen, but chances are the next Borderlands game will wash away any hard feelings.

Considerably better-received was Dead Space 3, which received some positive reviews but also took a lot of flak for moving away from its survival horror roots and becoming more of a generic shooter. Ultimately its sales disappointed EA and it remains to be seen whether or not we’ll see the series return in the future.

The latter half of the month saw the simultaneous release of both Crysis 3 and the ludicrously-titled Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which enjoyed a fairly close duel atop the charts. While Crysis 3 would take the win in their opening weeks, both games enjoyed fairly even levels of critical acclaim and sales so can’t we just call them both winners?

Big Name Releases Due this Month
- Aliens: Colonial Marines - SEGA
- Crysis 3 - Electronic Arts
- Dead Space 3 - Electronic Arts
- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Konami