Quick! Thanks to the bank holiday weekend it’s practically June already. Let’s get this April Twitter & Facebook round-up ‘live’ on the ‘wire’.

So, last month’s key newsworthy events were our Creative Director hire and launch of the Kinect Sports: Season Two Basketball Challenge Pack, which also took up position at PAX East over the Easter weekend and as a GameStop incentive for Season Two toe-dippers. Elsewhere, the original Kinect Sports reared its head on The Apprentice here in the UK, Season Two manifested in bargainous forms across the ultrawebs and Lionhead’s Fable Heroes roped in musical shenanigans from Rare composers old and new.

It was a month of anniversaries, from SNES to Speccy, informing many of the traditional Rare list appearances (or Ultimate in the case of NowGamer’s Top 30 Spectrum Games). GamesRadar’s Week of Love stuck cartoon hearts on a whole range of systems, with some of our retro stars popping up in lists from N64 to NES. Perfect Dark took potshots at Game Informer’s Essential XBLA List and Guyism’s Video Games Ahead of Their Time, while CVG reserved several Rare-shaped slots in their 100 best videogame themes. Oh, and 1UP looked back at Jet Force Gemini while Achievement Hunter did a similar thing with Viva Piñata. The lists and features didn’t end there, but we’ll spare you further paragraph-distending distress – just a quick nod to Rareware Archives (now Rare Gamer) and their coverage of rabbits, reboots and games within games.

Amidst the rest of the social bustle, Kinect Sports: Season Two got a sport-by-sport YouTube playthrough with its predecessor appearing in the context of lectures, bets, grannies and headbutts; our own Mr. Beanland marked a service milestone while Skynet and phishers alike tried to get one over on us; and the bear and bird apparently opened a restaurant somewhere in the world even as we shared an unrequested Pie Day photo (to accompany a BAFTA/banana combo shot from the Rare hallways). To round off the month, some people got psyched up by the notion of a hypothetical all-star MS fighting game, and we probably didn’t help.

And that was the gist of April. May’s conversational wildflowers are already budding like good ‘uns; you can track the tomfoolery on Twitter or follow the flippancy on Facebook (at Rare or Kinect Sports). Catch you there or right back here in a month.

Q: Hello and thank you for taking the time to review my question.
     Last night I was playing Kinect Sports with a friend and his family. To be specific, we were bowling. During our game I started having a conversation with my friend’s dad about the difficulty of the game. My theory is that the difficulty levels are progressive within each character or “account” AND also within each individual game. I believe that if I start off playing very well and hit all strikes during the first 5-8 frames by the time I’m having to bowl the 10th frame the difficulty has increased. Is this accurate or not?
     Also, if this is true, could you provide me with some details about how it is that the difficulty increases? Does the game start measuring your movements more closely, are the margins for error reduced, etc…
     Thank you again for taking time to read this. I look forward to your reply.
     Rene Ruiz

A: Bowling designer Paul (that’s right, we went and got a proper response, calm your fluttering hearts) says: “Thanks for the question! It would make the game very hard for players to continually get better and know how to create a consistency in their play if we did something like that. I reckon it’s more the pressure coming through when trying to get the perfect game!”
      But by all means tell your friend’s dad something entirely different, e.g. 25 consecutive strikes and the Kinect sensor projects a hologram of Rare cleaners dressed as cheerleaders, or a dire downturn in performance on the tenth ball causes Sadako to crawl down the lane and out of the screen.

Q: Dear Rare,
     I know, I know, it’s COMPLETELY WEIRD that one of the fans for your older game series would write you, but where is the future headed for them? Banjo and Kazooie, Conker, even the generic characters from Diddy Kong Racing. Will they fade into obscurity? You can always throw them to Retro Studios. Just an idea.
     Swifty

A: SO WEIRD. Nothing’s ruled out, Taylor (assuming it is you and not 18th century author Jonathan Swift) – we’re not making a stand against 27 years of Rare heritage. We’ve devoted time to Kinect Sports as it’s been our greatest success in years, and several million people are playing the heck out of those games just as you did with Banjo and Conker. Doesn’t mean we’ll never do anything else ever again. There’s love for every franchise both within and beyond Rare, but it’s all about opportunities and when to jump on them. The games marketplace is a vast, gnashing beast and nothing’s ever guaranteed (apart from melodrama).

Q: So, when are you guys going to finish Mire Mare?
     “Big” Johnson

A: Didn’t you play it, Dwayne? It was a secret level in Lunar Jetman after you jumped on the trailer.
     PS Happy 30th anniversary, Spectrum. We love you long time.

Blast from the Past: October 19, 2004

Q: Dear Scribes,
     First of all, I’m sorry to ask this stupid question, because I think it was asked like 10 zillion times before, but please at least try to read on:
     I was on xbox.com (USA) and it says Conker: Live & Reloaded will be released in March 2005, then I went to xbox.com (Australia) and there it says July 2004. So what’s the right date? I’m pretty sure it’s March 2005 because July would be just too f%$§ing cool, but please prove me wrong!
     Thanks for reading this far, btw. Do I get noticed if my email makes it onto the page?
     Guerrilla

A: Let’s see. It’s now October 2004, so unless the game was released, unfinished, three months ago without anyone here being told to stop working on it, I’d say the US site could be nearer the mark. Of course, you did send this in May, so the sarcasm is entirely unwarranted. Never stopped me before, though.
     Do you get ‘noticed’ by appearing in Scribes? I’m not sure. Possibly you’ll make your way onto some kind of Government blacklist, or maybe Steven Soderbergh will add your name to his dream casting sheet for the upcoming live-action Scribes movie.

Got a question for Scribes/Mini-Scribes? Send it here. We reserve the right to worship at its altar of witty ingenuity or spit out peanut fragments at its brazen foolishness (then maybe print it anyway). Get asking. But bear in mind that even the wittiest ingenuity cannot compel us to announce a sequel to your favourite game if we’re not working on the thing.

Kinect Sports: Season Two add-on satiates basketball jones (XboxKinectFans)

Dunk Some Baskets in Kinect Sports: Season 2 (TrueAchievements)

New Kinect Sports: Season 2 invents a new sport called ‘basketball’ (Joystiq)

Basketball DLC added to Kinect Sports Season 2 (Capsule Computers)

‘Kinect Sports: Season Two Basketball Challenge Pack’ Review (Game Rant)

Kinect Sports: Season Two Basketball Challenge Pack DLC Review (The Controller Online)

“Basketball now on Kinect Sports 2 #WINNING” (BoogalityCheck, Twitter)

“Love it, did the 3 point shot and the alley-oop so far. My arms thank you for the workout.” (Lori M. Legette, Facebook)

“Basketball on Kinect Sports: Season Two. Best DLC ever. Costs 400 microsoft points though. But I’m broke.” (Rowe3Rowe, Twitter)

“400 points for 250 is always welcomed! thx guys!” (Saft Und Kraft, TrueAchievements)

“It gives this game the boost it needs and a sport most thought they would have to wait until KS: S3 to play.” (Boozle061083, Xbox.com forums)

“playin kinect sports 2 basketball. off da chain.” (DzammDeVille, Twitter)

“I’ve had a ton of fun with this add on since I’ve downloaded it. A great majority of my play time has been single player as well…” (chuckyj1, MSXbox-World)

“That dinosaur looks familiar… General Scales, what happened to you…?” (Brian Curtis, Facebook)

Kinect Sports Season 2 Gets Second Challenge Pack DLC (Kinectronic)

Grab the Kinect Sports Season Two Challenge Pack #2 for free (123Kinect)

Kinect Sports: Season Two Challenge Pack 2 Arrives (TrueAchievements)

Kinect Sports Season Two Gets Some Free DLC (The Controller Online)

Free Kinect Sports: Season Two DLC Adds Darts Vs. Zombies, More (Game Informer)

Zombies invade Kinect Sports: Season 2 DLC (GameZone)

“It’s free and I love this game, so yes from me.” (deutschZuid, TrueAchievements)

“#blimey free challenge pack 2 DLC for Kinect Sports Season 2? Nice one!” (@Rob_Hicks, Twitter)

“Can’t beat free. Kinect Sports 1 and 2 are pretty fun I get a lot of enjoyment out of them when I’m over at my brothers.” (Morgacht, Game Informer)

“What is it with new games/add-ons and zombies?” (Wesley Edwards, Facebook)

“Just got the game in the mail a few days ago, and have all the DLC. Glad to see there’s even more!! And free at that!” (alklein92201, TrueAchievements)

“Applause for sponsored add-on content. This is a revenue source Xbox has dabbled with but really should explore more.” (Karl Cramer, majornelson.com)

“Yay, british voice overs. They sound funny.” (dcoke25, Game Informer)

“Great – Thank you so much – we love these new challenge packs – especially free!” (James Burkhart, Facebook)

“kinect sports darts vs zombies gotta be the free game of the year! kingtastic!” (@Dr_Carlos_Earth, Twitter)

Update: Basketball Challenge Pack released, adding 10 new cheevos for 25G each!

BASKETBALL CHALLENGE PACK

Party Animal: Score 75 points when playing Shot Party (25G)
Disc-Throw Fever: Clear two sets of music discs in 25 seconds when playing Shot Party (25G)
Disco Diva: Get a score multiplier x10 when playing Shot Party (25G)
Double Nickel: Score over 55 points when playing 3-Point Hero (25G)
Super Streak: Score 15 consecutive baskets when playing 3-Point Hero (25G)
3-Point Perfection: Score with four bonus balls within one single game of 3-Point Hero (25G)
Funky Dunkin’: Score 50 points when playing Alley-Oop Dreams (25G)
Dunky King: Pass to the green Dino 5 times in one game of Alley-Oop Dreams (25G)
Pass Master: Complete 15 passes in a row when playing Alley-Oop Dreams (25G)
Super Hooper: Score 200 baskets when playing the new Basketball Challenge Pack (25G)

MIDNIGHT MOUNTAIN SKI PACK

Blast Course: Blast-off time – Beat 01:50:00 on Midnight Mountain’s Backwoods Blast course (Champion difficulty) (25G)
Midnight Express: Out of the darkness – Beat 01:55:00 on Midnight Mountain’s Pitch Black course (Champion difficulty) (25G)
Opened All Hours: Clock is ticking – Beat 02:15:00 on Midnight Mountain’s After Hours course (Champion difficulty) (25G)
Gate Expectations: This is a classic – Pass a total of 500 gates on Midnight Mountain (cumulative) (25G)
Mountain Pressure: Pressure is on – You need a perfect run on each course of Midnight Mountain (25G)

MAPLE LAKES GOLF PACK

Crater Expectations: Hit a hole-in-one on Crater Springs – the lay of the land may be helpful (All difficulties) (20G)
Trident Tested: Hit an albatross on Trident Harbour – a wide tee off could help here? (All difficulties) (20G)
Bluffin’ Brilliant: Hit a hole-in-one on Whistling Bluff. A good tee-off will beat the rock (Pro & Champion difficulty) (20G)
Roller Coaster: Hit a condor on Hopscotch Coast – having wind on your side will help you with this (Pro difficulty) (20G)
Out for the Day: Play the full 18 holes of Golf on Kinect Sports: Season Two in one session (45G)

KINECT SPORTS: SEASON TWO

Rickrolled: Have your first motivational song play when playing Kinect Sports: Season Two (10G)
Crowd Control: Avateer to work the crowd up into a frenzy in any sport (5G)
Let the Games Commence: Play any sport on Kinect Sports: Season Two for the first time (5G)
Victory!: Win at any sport on Kinect Sports: Season Two for the first time (5G)
Kinect Sports-a-thon: Play Kinect Sports: Season Two for more than 2 hours (cumulative time) (25G)
Challenge Squashed: Beat your first challenge in Kinect Sports: Season Two (25G)
Challenge Challenger: Send out your first challenge in Kinect Sports: Season Two (25G)
You Did It for the Fans!: Earn your first group of fans by playing Kinect Sports: Season Two (5G)

Bird’s-Eye View: View a Golf hole using the “hole preview” gesture when playing Golf (20G)
Tee and In: Hit the ball in the hole from the tee off for a hole in one when playing Golf (20G)
Spin and In: Make the ball roll around the rim of the hole and in when playing Golf (20G)
Bunker Beater: Hit the ball into the hole straight out of a sand bunker when playing Golf (20G)
Putting Perfection: Putt the ball in from over 40 yards on Lighthouse Bay when playing Golf (20G)
Pitching for Points: Score more than 50 points in Ocean Driver (25G)
Below Par Star!: Play the full nine holes of Maple Lakes and finish under par (25G)

Return Master: Score a point using the ‘power’ shot technique when playing Tennis (20G)
Ace-Tastic: Hit your first ‘Ace’ serve when playing Tennis (20G)
Not So Ace!: Score a return point from an incoming perfect serve when playing Tennis (20G)
You Cannot Be Serious: Win your first “objection” scenario when playing Tennis (20G)
You’re the Judge, I’m the Jury: Hit a line judge with the tennis ball when playing Tennis (20G)
Smashing Service: Score more than 90 points in Smash Alley (25G)
Smash Shot Star!: Win five points on smash shots when playing Tennis (cumulative) (25G)

Maximum Checkout: Score 170 (triple-20, triple-20, bull’s eye) to end a game of Darts (20G)
Nine Darter: Complete a game of Darts with a nine-dart checkout (20G)
Bull’s Eye Bonanza: Hit the bull’s eye three times in one turn (three darts) when playing Darts (20G)
Ton 80: Score 180 (3 triple-20s) in one turn when playing Darts (20G)
Shanghai: Hit a single, double and triple of the same number when playing Darts (20G)
Balloon Buster: Score more than 25 points in Pop Darts (25G)
180 Star!: Hit ten 180s when playing Darts (cumulative) (25G)

Grand Slam: Hit a home run with the bases loaded when playing Baseball (20G)
Ace Pitcher: Use all pitching techniques and speeds when playing Baseball (20G)
Home Runs for Fun: Score 5 home runs in a single game when playing Baseball (20G)
Bobble and Out: Catch a bobbled ball when playing Baseball (20G)
Read the Signs: Match the catcher’s signal when pitching a ball when playing Baseball (20G)
Out of the Park: Score more than 2500 points in Home Run Hero (25G)
Slugger Star!: Hit the ball 5000 feet when playing Baseball (cumulative score) (25G)

All… The… Way: Score a touchdown on a kick return when playing Football (20G)
Long Bomb: Score a touchdown with a 60+ yard passing play when playing Football (20G)
Game Winning Field Goal: Win a game of Football on a field goal (20G)
Calling the Shot: Complete a pass after calling an audible when playing Football (20G)
Far Out Field Goal: Score a field goal with at least 40 yards to go when playing Football (20G)
One and Done: Score a touchdown on your 1st down when playing Football (20G)
Running Star!: Run 1000 yards when playing Football (cumulative score) (25G)

Perfect Race: Race a perfect race (don’t miss any gates) on both ski runs when playing Skiing (20G)
Go! Go! Go!: Perform a perfect start out of the starting gate when playing Skiing (20G)
Big Air: Perform a perfect jump on any ski run when playing Skiing (20G)
Maximum Velocity: Go fast by holding the tuck position for at least 10 seconds when playing Skiing (20G)
Peak Perfection: Race a perfect race on all three hills at Sunny Peaks (20G)
What Obstacles?: Score more than 50 points in Downhill Dodge (25G)
Perfect Race Star!: Complete six perfect races when playing Skiing (cumulative score) (25G)

March, you crazy eccentric fool. What did you have in store for us this year? Never mind the BAFTA and Challenge Pack #2 and Basketball, we covered those in the News rundown. Although we didn’t specifically call out things like designer Shaun flaunting himself in front of the cameras at the Xbox Showcase where Basketball was unveiled, or the Season Two team photoshoot in the Rare grounds when the BAFTA trophies came home. So there’s that.

Other news and events falling into March’s psionic mesh of social media included word of our music team having a hand in the soundtrack to Fable Heroes, Stuff Magazine finding room for Rare in their Best of British issue, an alleged cameo for Kinect Sports in Home and Away, our very own Twycross Sport Relief mile, and licensing issues causing old gold GoldenEye to miss its moment at the Smithsonian. Bah. And two more words for luck: Cat Daddy.

A trio of slots in IGN’s Top 100 Video Game Weapons marked one of our bigger offsite old-school showings in March. Cubed3 also shared the love in its celebratory N64 Month: top soundtracks and best games in general got a shout out. GameTrailers went back further still to celebrate the ambient monkey sounds of DKC in their BackTrack video feature. Meanwhile, after last month’s provocation, Rareware Archives went mental for lists and ended up covering Sinners, Remixes, Schwarzenegger, Reveals and even a three-in-one-day list splurge.

Elsewhere amidst the miscellaneous chatter we dissed the bad habits of wildlife from wasps to rooks, made off with junkfood from strange alien realms (or at least Iceland), kept an eye on NeoGAF’s search for spiritual stablemates to Nuts & Bolts, and even noted down a few more of the standout reactions to Kinect Sports: Season Two on Amazon.

And then the cleaners started hoovering the corridors and we realised we were pretty much done for the month. If you’d care to join us before the next summary, April’s action is underway on Twitter and Facebook (under Rare or Kinect Sports). See you there. Check out how clean our carpets are.

Simon: The night started with the ten of us meeting outside our hotel, donning pretty much the same black tie attire, ready to set off to the Hilton on Park Lane. We were handed our golden tickets for the event before jumping into black cabs for the short ride.

Once we arrived, we made our way into the front entrance and then found out there was a red carpet around the back! As we realised this may be a once in a lifetime chance, we walked back outside, around the hotel and down the red carpet. No-one asked for our autographs for some reason, but it was worth it all the same…

We made our way upstairs for the champagne reception. The room was packed with invitees all dressed to the max, and we enjoyed catching up with some ex-Rareites whilst sipping the enormous amounts of champagne on offer. The room was quite large but you could hardly move, and after a couple of glasses of champagne it really started to heat up.

Just as everyone was starting to glisten with sweat we were thankfully called to take our seats. Table 43 was the Rare table, each of us were given a programme for the night and some BAFTA hotel chocolates, all very exciting! Sitting at the next table were Jonathan Ross and his wife and young lad. I decided I’d get a cheeky paparazzi-style photo by pretending to take one of Paul and Adam… cunning.

The main course was a rack of lamb which, much to my disappointment, was finished off by everyone else on the table. The chocolates which came with the coffee came sat on an actual tray made of chocolate. Amazing. It was then that we were ‘treated’ to a performance from The Saturdays. They ‘sang’ three songs for us (sadly I can’t remember the names) before the real proceedings began. Host Dara O Briain was fantastic and kept the night running well with his stand-up comedy, most of which was actually gaming-related.

I think there were around 16 awards in total and we had to wait a very long time for the Sports/Fitness category to come by. When it did I began to feel nervous – not really sure why because I honestly didn’t believe we’d win with some of the games we were up against. When our name was read out it was such an amazing moment, and despite the shock we still managed to cheer rather loudly (mostly with the help of Studio Manager Scott). Scott, Craig and Lee all went up to accept the award, and I began to film it with my camera before realising our table was being filmed by the camera crew; it was us who won, I shouldn’t be filming, I thought as I slowly lowered my camera back down to the table…

A long while later, and after LittleBigPlanet 2 was awarded best Family game in the other category where we were nominated, Scott, Craig and Lee all came back into the room with not one but three BAFTA trophies! Awesome, I thought, we don’t have to fight over them all night. Within about two minutes we had all updated our Facebook profiles.

The ceremony pretty much ended at this point, and we all made our way outside with the trophies to take some photos with the official backdrop and to start drinking more of the free bar on offer. I was buzzing from what had happened. Trophy in one hand, champagne in the other, I felt incredibly proud to be part of the Rare team that had won this award, and very privileged to have been given the opportunity to represent the company on the night!

BAFTA had set up the after party room with arcade machines and retro consoles, but we couldn’t take our attention away from the trophies which we passed around all night. They’re incredibly heavy, so it was pretty hard work to hold on to one for more than five minutes. Probably a good thing as we wouldn’t have let go otherwise.

There were a few photo opportunities – some of us grabbed Jonathan Ross on his way out, we managed a group photo with Dara O Briain and even tried to play ‘how many Rare developers can we fit into one photo booth?’ (not that many as it turned out, but fun all the same).

The night ended at around 1:30am, and heading back to the hotel it started to seem like a real possibility that I could do a Steven Gerrard and sleep with the trophy. So with a big grin on my face, I did just that…

We see people on social media all the time claiming to be BEASTING at Season Two. Are you one of them? Think you could topple these scores? Fire up the game and go for it.

Note that as a general rule these performances have been logged in online games, as most offline results can’t be tracked by the servers. In some cases, if they looked impossible or we were short of data, our testers’ finest moments were substituted instead. If you’ve got proof (photographic, uploaded to Facebook or otherwise) that you’ve trumped one of these scores or times, send it to us and we’ll see if it climbs to the top of the heap! Challenge Pack #2 activities to be roped into the fun next time.