THE UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN’S MAIN CAMPUS IS SITUATED ON TREATY 6 TERRITORY AND THE HOMELAND OF THE MÉTIS.
THE UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN’S MAIN CAMPUS IS SITUATED ON TREATY 6 TERRITORY AND THE HOMELAND OF THE MÉTIS.
JORDAN BOLT
Arts Writer
2010 was an outstanding year for video games across the board. From the Wii to PC and Playstation 3 to the iPad there was something to keep every kind of gamer entertained.
The year started off right in January with a massive hit in Mass Effect 2 from the Edmonton- based studio Bioware. Despite being released so early in the year with the potential of being overshadowed by games released later in the year, Mass Effect 2 won numerous game of the year awards.
In March Final Fantasy XIII was released to mediocre reviews, but its release was notable due to the fact that it was available for purchase both on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. A Final Fantasy game had not found a home on any other platform other than Playstation since the days of the Super Nintendo.
April saw a drama unfold fit for primetime television.
The co-founders of Infinity Ward, the studio behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare were fired by parent company Activision for conspiracy and insubordination. The co-founders, Jason West and Vince Zampella, partnered with Electronic Arts to form a new studio named Respawn and decide to sue Activision over lost wages.
Dozens of employees followed West and Zampella to their new studio prompting Activision to counter-sue. The lawsuit has since expanded to include Electronic Arts and will likely take many months before a verdict is decided upon.
Also in April, Microsoft decides to shut down the original Xbox’s servers, thus preventing diehard fans from logging countless hours online in games such as Halo 2.
May would have been a rather quiet month had it not been for the release of Red Dead Redemption, a game that flew under the radar nearly up until its launch. It can — in the simplest sense — be described as Grand Theft Auto set in the old west, but is so much more than that. Red Dead Redemption’s compelling story and vast open world landscapes earned it many game of the year awards.
June is the month of E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the year’s biggest showcase of up and coming gaming software and hardware.
Kinect became the official name of Microsoft’s controller-free gaming tool formerly known as Project Natal.
On the Sony front, the studio Valve announces Portal 2 for the PS3, a system that in the past Valve had publicly belittled, and had an amazing keynote speech by none other than VP of everything, Kevin Butler. The biggest news came from Nintendo with its reveal of a glasses-free 3D enabled handheld, known as the 3DS.
July saw Blizzard decide to force World of Warcraft players and Starcraft II to use their real names on the respective forums. Players revolted, and Blizzard quickly scrapped the idea before it was implemented.
The Xbox Live-enabled Windows Phone 7 was shown off at GamesCom in August, later released in November to compete with the iPhone.
In September Duke Nukem Forever is stealthily picked up by developer Gearbox. It was unexpectedly playable at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle and was without a doubt the talk of the show.
The U.S. military banned the sale of Electronic Arts’ Medal of Honor due to the option of playing as the Taliban online; EA reacted by changing the Taliban’s name to OpFor.
In mid-September, Sony released its own brand of motion gaming called the Playstation Move for the PS3, and as of late November has since shipped 4.1 million units to retail outlets.
November saw the release of Microsoft’s controller free motion gaming add-on, Kinect, for Xbox 360. By late November Microsoft revealed the 2.5 million Kinects have been sold to consumers.
The largest entertainment launch ever occurred when Call of Duty: Black Ops was released on Nov. 9. In 24 hours the game sold 5.6 million copies, snagging the largest entertainment launch title from the previous year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
Games such as Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Fallout: New Vegas, Halo: Reach, Rock Band 3, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 were also released in 2010 along with many other games that are too numerous to name. With 2010 past and the months of 2011 on the horizon, this upcoming year looks to meet if not surpass the previous year’s gaming accomplishments.