Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Message Board older than one year ago

#modernwarfare And I don't mean in singleplayer. I mean multiplayer. Because Glen McCracken is doing just that, trying to reach the maximum level 70 in multiplayer without killing a soul. More »

#clips War has changed. Where once the stars of Modern Warfare and Metal Gear fought mercenaries and other bad men, today they are taking on...internet memes. More »

#britain Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training on the DS used to the biggest-selling video game of all time in the United Kingdom. It no longer holds that title. More »

#modernwarfare Infinity Ward founders and Modern Warfare creators Vince Zampella and Jason West may have formed a new games studio, but don't go expecting anything from them for a long time. They're too busy...buying furniture. More »

#clips Doom was released in 1993, so most guns in the game that didn't have the word *crag*ing in the middle of them are looking a little antiquated by now. More »

#bugs The Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has had a curious side effect on a handful of Live Arcade games. Infinity Ward's modern military shooter is unlocking the full versions of five SNK games for free. More »

In a stroke of exceptionally bad luck for SNK, a glitch has been discovered that unlocks free access to the full versions of five of the publisher's XBLA games for users who already have the demos on their hard drives. To make it worse, the glitch occurs within Modern Warfare 2 (a game that bajillons of Xbox 360 owners already have) -- or its recent demo (which is freely available).

Somehow, running Modern Warfare 2 coincidentally fools the system into thinking it's authorized to temporarily unlock full versions of Garou: Mark of the Wolves, The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match, Metal Slug 3, Metal Slug XX, and Samurai Shodown II. Joystiq tested the exploit with Garou and KOF '98, and can verify that it works. For now, at least.

We're certain this issue will be patched by one of the three affected parties -- SNK Playmore, Activision, or Microsoft -- in the near future, now that it's known. In the meantime, just because you can get these games for free doesn't mean you aren't a major jerk for doing so.

StarCraft 2 took a slide down the charts this week to fourth, as Toy Story 3 regained the top spot on the UK All Formats chart. There also appears to have been some promotion (the demo, perhaps?) in the region last week for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 because it surged up the charts from eighth to second. According to Chart-Track, Activision-Blizzard's Modern Warfare sequel could potentially overtake Dr Kawashima (aka Brain Age) as the UK's "biggest unit seller" next week.

Dance on Broadway, Ubisoft's pseudo-sequel to Just Dance (holding just fine at #6), knows that life is a cabaret and moves up another spot to third. The other chart-topping stalwart, Red Dead Redemption, drops to fifth -- its lowest position since launch. Check out the UK top ten after the break.

Activision has released its financial results for the second quarter of 2010, reporting revenues of $967 million. That's down from $1,038 reported during the same period last year. Net income is up, however, with the company reporting earnings of $219 million, a 12 percent increase over last year's $195 million. Before you get too confused, know that costs were down dramatically, dropping from $820 million in Q2 2009 to $667 million this year, which led to the increased income.

The driver behind Activision's results, according to CEO Bobby Kotick, was "strong consumer response" to the company's workhorse brands, World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. The report also mentions that Activision's digital sales "exceeded retail sales for the first time," having grown more than 20 percent year over year. Somehow, we're not terribly surprised.

Looking forward, Kotick pointed to StarCraft 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops and the World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm as potential bright spots for the rest of the year. Specifically, Kotick noted that Black Ops pre-orders are already outpacing the number of Modern Warfare 2 pre-orders at this time last year.

Single player Cliffhanger demo comes to PSN and XBL.

Doesn't matter if the game was originally released in fall 2009, the single player demo has finally hit both Xbox LIVE and the PlayStation Network. If you weren't one of the 20 million who bought the game, check it out. More »

Dear Mr. Murray Shalowitz,

As you are the sole Xbox 360 owner who has yet to play Modern Warfare 2, we would like to inform you that a demo is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace.

Cheers,


P.S. A reminder for little Rosie Erickson: A PS3 demo is available as well.


Xbox.com: Add Modern Warfare 2 Cliffhanger Demo to your Xbox 360 download queue

Headshots like it's 2009.

#demo In case you've been trying to decide whether or not to buy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the past nine months, Activision has released a single-player demo on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live to help you decide. More »

#pullquote Author Nicholson Baker never played a video game until he tried some violent Xbox ones with his 16-year-old son for an article in this week's New Yorker magazine. As heard on the magazine's podcast. More »

#callofduty Complain about the cost of Call of Duty map packs all you want; it doesn't stop Activision charging a ton for them, and it's certainly not stopping people from buying them. More »

Activision continues to cash in on DLC.

The anti-cheating software embedded in Valve's Steamworks platform recently took on a mind of its own, banning over 12,000 non-cheating Modern Warfare 2 players over the past two weeks. The cause for its insatiable ban lust? Valve president Gabe Newell explained in an email to those affected, "the problem was that Steam would fail a signature check between the disk version of a DLL and a latent memory version." See, we were just thinking that that had something to do with it.

Newell begged pardon for the erroneous bans, adding "this was our mistake, and I apologize for any frustration or angst it may have caused you." An apology and a swift reversal of the ban aren't all that these users will receive -- Newell promised a giftable copy of Left 4 Dead 2 to all those affected, as well as one copy for themselves, provided they don't already have it.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Over 12,000 accounts restored.

#activision That's according to Activision Publishing's CEO Eric Hirshberg. And yes, he's being serious. More »

The oft-surfacing rumor of Activision's intent to incorporate a pay-to-play plan for the multiplayer portions of its Call of Duty franchise sprung up once again yesterday, when a player reportedly captured video of a hidden Marketplace item titled "Modern Warfare 2 Membership." The buzz was quickly quieted by a Tweet from Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling, who stated, "nobody has to pay to play COD or MW2 multiplayer, nor will they."

A more thorough report on the subject of Modern Warfare subscriptions came from Activision's Dan Amrich, who explained, "This video shows just a glitch," further explaining, "since you can access a Live subscription renewal from within the MW2 game interface, it appears some data got jammed between two parts of Live." See, we always said some poor menu would fall into those cracks on the surface of Xbox Live Marketplace. Now we've gotta get it out. Denny! Denny, fire up the backhoe.

#callofduty The publisher of Call of Duty may want to explore "new digital business models" for its bestselling military shooter—perhaps as an MMO—but rumors of Modern Warfare 2 going pay-to-play appear to be premature. More »

Robert Bowling, Josh Olin calm the crowd.

#clips More »

The Resurgence Package is here! The second game add-on for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is now available on PSN, and brings with it five additional multiplayer maps, including some of the most unique and awesome places you’ll ever have a firefight.

As always, we’re focused on bringing a little something for everyone in the Resurgence Package. Take Carnival, a desolate and large amusement park that’s perfect for objective gametypes and offers some amazing vantage points atop the wooden roller coaster “Dragon’s Den” or the looming sniper spot positioned high above “The World Of Tomorrow.” This place is like nothing you’ve ever seen in multiplayer before, with distinct locations all around the map which are perfect for calling out enemy positions and working tactically with your team.

Fuel is a sniper’s haven in this massive desert oil refinery with wide-open areas and extremely long sightlines. If you’re running and gunning, stick to the buildings in the center or take the underground tunnel route to get out to the snipers in the surrounding rocks and oil pumps. Trailer Park is maze of thin sheet metal fencing, torn up trailer units, and cluttered recreation areas. Trailer Park is ideal for the FMJ mod, and offers some insane Headquarters matches due to the soft cover points and thin walls that surround the objectives. We’ve also brought back two more fan favorite and classic Call of Duty 4 maps; Vacant and Strike. We’ve made some key tactical changes to both maps that veteran Call of Duty 4 players will pick up and start taking advantage of immediately. Such as the opening of the back room by Objective point C in the marketplace on Strike, and the now more accessible top floor of the flower shop overlooking the main street. On Vacant, the back gate of the office complex that leads to the hallway will now be open on specific gametypes like Demolition to give the defending team a faster route to the objective.

That’s just a bit of the new details you’re about to discover when you jump online and start exploring the five new locations the Resurgence Package adds to Modern Warfare 2. You’ll also notice we’ve changed up the playlists to introduce some new game modes and accommodate the new maps. You can now choose to play exclusively on the new Resurgence maps by choosing one of the two Resurgence playlists at the bottom. Just like last time, Resurgence and Hardcore Resurgence offers a variety of game modes to play. We’ve also introduced two completely new mosh-pit style playlists called “Barebones Pro” and “Objective Barebones Pro” which both have Killstreak Rewards disabled. So set up a new create a class, strip off Cold Blooded because you won’t be needing that, and see what it’s like to go head-to-head with no air support to worry about.

Most importantly though, let us know what you think. We’ll continue to change up the playlists based on YOUR feedback. So if there is a gametype variant or cool combination you’d like to see in a future playlist update, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@fourzerotwo) to keep track of those changes and let us know your thoughts!

According to Kotaku, an amended version of the lawsuit filed by 38 former and current Infinity Ward developers against Activision was recently submitted to a California court. The suit uses a bit stronger language when describing the policies of the monolithic publisher, claiming its agents created a "police state" atmosphere while IW worked on Modern Warfare 2, and would regularly conduct "interrogations" of the studio's members. Despite the increased intensity of these claims, the group has reduced the amount of punitive damages and unpaid bonuses sought from half a billion dollars to $216 million.

A trial date for the Infinity Ward Employee Group's case against Activision (and possibly West and Zampella's case, should the judge decide to consolidate the suits) is currently set for May 23, 2011.

#legal Guarded doors, secret interrogations and broken promises are just the latest allegations laid out in the ongoing saga about the break-up between the world's largest game publisher and the people in charge of creating Modern Warfare 2. More »

Digital distributor Direct2Drive is offering a puzzling offer until August 6: purchase the Modern Warfare 2 bundle (which includes the game and both map packs) for $89.99, and get the original Modern Warfare for free.

Second Modern Warfare 2 map pack comes to PSN

A handful of big ol' games became even bigger this week with a few high-profile DLC releases, such as Modern Warfare 2's "Resurgence Pack," and Dragon Age: Origins' "Leiliana's Song." Also, LittleBigPlanet gets a booster shot in the form of a Marvel Level and Costume Kit, and the new and improved version of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge hits the storefront. Click past the jump for the full release list!

Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list:
(Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)