The Week That Was… [ending 15/01/12]

Our first full week back at the helm threw up a number of interesting little tidbits for us all to get stuck into. In terms of news, the first reveal of XCOM: Enemy Unknown screenshots generated far more questions than they answered, while the UKIE provided us with some interesting trivia knowledge by releasing a list of the UK’s best-selling games of 2011 (shock: Modern Warfare 3 was top).
In terms of ‘proper’ features, the review season has still yet to kick in which meant Choplifter HD and Steel Armor: Blaze of War were our ‘headline’ critiques this week. Tim and Peter, respectively, took charge of their dissection – both coming away with a feeling of mediocrity. 
Expect a lot more review action come end of Januaury and throughout February. To make up for that delay we’ve provided an interview with Hitman: Absolution’s game director, who explains the how and why of the changes to Agent 47’s latest outing, as well as a sounding off by Peter about which settings/envronment he’d like to see used a future game.
Everything you need to know about the week of 9-15 January 2012 is below. Enjoy!
Image above taken from XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
Features

Getting shot down in Choplifter HD [Review]
Tactical tanking in Steel Armor: Blaze of War [Review]
Hitman’s gameplay is changing with Hitman: Absolution, here’s why [Interview]
Ten settings/environments deserving of a great game [Feature]

News

First X-Com: Enemy Unknown images released
Full list of 2011’s best-selling games
The week’s releases [09/01/12]
IAA Nominations fronted by Uncharted 3 and Portal 2
Call of Duty: Black Ops was most played game over Xbox Live in 2011
Star Wars: The Old Republic patch 1.1 adds new content and fixes bugs
Fifa 12 tops the first UK chart listing of 2012
Fallout MMO rights returned to Bethesda
Diablo 3 coming to consoles, confirmed
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is coming to the PC
EA hit target of $1 billion a year from digital revenue
Stalker 2 is still in development
First major Star Wars: The Old Republic update due next week
Arkham City, Skyrim and World of Goo were 2011’s best reviewed games