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Not to make it sound like we fizzled out like a wet sparkler in the twilight days of 2012 – we prefer to think of it as winding elegantly down for the holidays. Fortunately there was plenty going on in the first three weeks of the month to balance out the final week, when we were all at home ignoring anything work-related in favour of tearing open presents and eating all the Ferrero Rocher in the world.
Of course, perversely, the main Rare event of the month went and happened on the 25th anyway with the second wave of Kinect Sports Gems rattling through the system and spilling out onto Xbox LIVE Arcade. Prior to that, we’d published the long-in-gestation Kinect Sports Tepid Seat, said farewell to the exhausted KS1 Facebook app and witnessed the gamerscore huntsmen at TrueAchievements get cracking on guides for the first wave of Gems. In terms of Rare’s Minecraft contribution, December held only a single piece of news, but as a round-up of the Halloween Skin Pack charity haul it was a good one. Heartwarming developer solidarity ensued.
The month in Exciting Lists and Features started with a bang as GoldenEye was bigged up in TIME Magazine’s All-TIME 100 Video Games and crowned king of GameTrailers’ Top 10 First-Person Shooters, although Game Informer’s nod to DK64 in a rundown of the Freshest Raps was an honour on pretty much the same level. Perfect Dark gave us 10 minutes of rowdy LAN Party action, Freezeezy Peak got a Synthetic Orchestra makeover and Rare Gamer delivered a Top 5 of Rare Doomsday Scenarios. Very festive! One thing in that paragraph, at least.
The 12th month of 2012 was also laced with interesting dates, references to Schwarzenegger and Don King, attempts to do justice to the #XmasGames hashtag, totally legal fights, fire alarms, freebies and seasonal photos of frosty windows and the Rare Xmas tree (the latter instantly subverted by scandalmongers). And the Games on Demand version of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts went briefly on sale on December 29th, but we couldn’t post a reminder on that day due to Ferrero Rocher immobilisation.
Right, 2012, we’re done with you. You couldn’t even deliver an apocalypse, just so much rain that even the Rare ducks and geese looked sick of it by June. We’ve already set sail in the 2013 social media fun boat, so if you’re interested in seeing what kind of stuff it throws overboard, doggy-paddle after it on Twitter (at RareLtd) or Facebook (at RareLtd or KinectSportsOfficial). Failing that, catch you back here in early February for our next monthly stopover.
