Twelve months enter, one month leaves! If December had a catchphrase, that’s what it’d be, probably. No shortage of Season Two developments in December, or at least the three quarters of it that Rare HQ was manned in the run-up to the hols. With the Maple Lakes launch, Midnight Mountain tease and a title update on top, our ongoing six-month DLC plan ensured it was all systems go. A Darts contest was underway for our upstanding British countryfolk, while in Paris the future unfolded in ‘Skynet city break for two’ style with Kinect Sports doing its bit for Novotel’s futuristic hotel room experience.

December also rolled out the traditional festive gift guides, along with the chronologically weighty list features you always get at that time of year – like IGN’s Top 100 Video Game Moments and Best 100 Video Games of the 2000s from Complex. Rareware Archives covered British nods and holiday havens in Rare’s games, and at one point GAME started a ‘Xmas game memories’ Twitter thread that brought us misty-eyed comments on Star Fox Adventures, Banjo-Kazooie and DK64.

Festive atmosphere aside, the nuts and bolts of Rare’s social media strategy were comfortingly visible as discussion turned to the weather (multiple times, but at least it was dramatic) along with irregular cross-sections of the Rare inbox and, for some reason, googly eyes (at least twice) which people always associate with us. Couldn’t say why. It’s a mystery wrapped in an enigma. With googly eyes, called Enigmos. Who gives you a Jiggy.

As January now has its heavy cyborg hand in a vice-like grip on Rare’s shoulder, we’ll break off there. Until next month, you can always hustle wit’ us on Twitter or Facebook (Rare or Kinect Sports) – failing that, we’ll see you back here early next month as we emerge from the bunkers and survey the events of January that led to the robot uprising. Be strong, mankind.