October: The month that...
Xbox Live showed the gaming world how to do online properly
Widely acknowledged as a triumph of design and ease of use - especially when compared to PS2's dismal last-gen Central Station offering - Microsoft revealed that four million people were using its Xbox 360 Live service in some way or another and that 70% of connected users had downloaded content from the service.
Xbox died a silent death
Following our report in June that Xbox had ceased production as early as July 2005 - at least in part due to its inability to make a profit - the closure of The Official Xbox magazine after its October issue signified the end of a rather short era in videogames history. Meanwhile, Xbox World 360 magazine carried its final significant Xbox review, Vivendi's Scarface: The World is Yours, awarding it four 'wreaths' out of five. And with that, Xbox was but a distant memory.
The videogame BAFTAs went terribly wrong
The 2006 videogame BAFTAS will be forever remembered for two heinous crimes against games. First, when a bunged-up blonde presenter admitted live on TV that she didn't like games and was only there for the money. And secondly, the More Than Geeks? segment that pronounced games weren't just for geeks, before cutting to a room full of geeks at a LAN party. And we say geeks affectionately because, geeks or no geeks, we were clever enough to see through this car crash of an award ceremony.
The PS3 launch line-up was revealed
Well, for America and Japan anyway. For the UK launch we were able to add a few more games to the list that wouldn't be ready in time for November. Most notable in a fairly uninspiring sea of multiformat rehashes were the PS3 exclusive Resistance: Fall of Man and Ridge Racer 7, which unsurprisingly turned out to be the most critically acclaimed of the launch titles.
Above: Not all gamers are geeks, the BAFTA presenters stressed, introducing us to a room full of baggy-T-shirt wearing stereotypes
The videogame BAFTAs went terribly wrong
The 2006 videogame BAFTAS will be forever remembered for two heinous crimes against games. First, when a bunged-up blonde presenter admitted live on TV that she didn't like games and was only there for the money. And secondly, the More Than Geeks? segment that pronounced games weren't just for geeks, before cutting to a room full of geeks at a LAN party. And we say geeks affectionately because, geeks or no geeks, we were clever enough to see through this car crash of an award ceremony.
The PS3 launch line-up was revealed
Well, for America and Japan anyway. For the UK launch we were able to add a few more games to the list that wouldn't be ready in time for November. Most notable in a fairly uninspiring sea of multiformat rehashes were the PS3 exclusiveResistance: Fall of ManandRidge Racer 7, which unsurprisingly turned out to be the most critically acclaimed of the launch titles.
