4. Kings and Castles announced - Gas Powered Games loves the RTS genre, whether it's a more straightforward franchise like the Supreme Commander series or their different take on the RTS formula with 2009's Demigod. In February, Gas Powered announced their next such venture into RTS territory with Kings and Castles. Described by Gas Powered's founder Chris Taylor as "the ultimate fantasy RTS game". the company hasn't revealed too much info on the title although there are hints in the very first Kings and Castles interview which, by sheer coincidence, was posted right here on Big Download the day after the announcement.
3. Civilization V announced: It's one of the biggest PC game franchises of all time and after a brief turn in the console realm with Civilization: Revolution, game design legend Sid Meier and his team at Firaxis Games head back to the PC with February's announcement of Civilization V. The turn-based strategy series that takes gamers through most periods of recorded history is scheduled to be released via 2K Games in the fall of 2010. The biggest change that has been put into Civilization V is the use of hexagon-based tiles in the game world. How will it affect the game? Stay tuned. 2. Backlash against Ubisoft's new "Always On" PC DRM set-up: For a while it was looking like Ubisoft's new DRM set up for their future PC games, announced last January, wouldn't be all that bad. That was before the UK version of PC Gamer discovered in February that you could be kicked out of playing a single player game like the upcoming PC port of Assassin's Creed 2 if the "always on' connection to Ubisoft's DRM servers was severed in any way. In some games you could even lose your progress that you made beforehand. PC gamers, including the team at Big Download, were not happy to hear that at all.

The publisher has tried to defend its position, saying, "In the end it all comes back to one single truth: piracy is a big, huge, hairy problem. It's a market that suffered a lot because of piracy, and we're all just trying to figure out what we think is the best way to deal with it." While piracy of PC games is indeed a problem every publisher is dealing with, none of them are going to the extremes that Ubisoft is doing. In the process they are alienating many loyal consumers who might not purchase their PC games if they have to have a constant internet connection to play a single player game. Will the company stick to their guns or bend to the growing protests against their DRM set-up? Time will tell.
1. StarCraft II multiplayer beta finally begins: The long wait for one of the most anticipated PC games of all time just got closer to being over in February. After months of delays, Blizzard finally invited the first outsiders to try out the multiplayer portion of their sci-fi RTS sequel StarCraft II. The closed beta also was the first official chance players got to see the new and improved Battle.net 2.0 online matchmaking service. While the beta is still limited in scope compared to what the full version will offer, players are still getting a kick out of putting the sequel's versions of the Terrans, Zerg and Protoss through its paces.

So how long will the beta last? In a recent BlizzCast podcast team members said they are currently looking at a three month time period for the beta to last. If they stick to that (and that's a big if; this is Blizzard after all) we could see the full game being released as early as mid-to-late May. In the meantime, expect Blizzard to keep updating the beta with patch updates and, near the end, a large content update.

And that's it for February. What does March hold for news? We are guessing a lot as both GDC and the first PAX East will be the stages for major announcements. Stay tuned.