Following this story from the beginning of March that the eponymous Call of Duty series is being extended with an ‘œaction adventure’ game, the LA Times has followed up with news that the mysterious title will ‘œfurther broaden the audience for Call of Duty‘. Considering the widespread success of the series, it’ll be interesting to see how exactly this will be achieved. It’s in the hands of Sledgehammer Games, a new studio set up by Activision in California, and run by the guys behind Dead Space. The interview also goes into details about recent events in and around Activision’s ‘œstaffing issues’.

In the interview, Thomas Tippl (Activision’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer) talks about the recent furor surrounding the dismissal of Jason West and Vince Zampella (catch up here and here). When asked whether he thought the legal complications might scare off new talent he replied with a suitably dickish ‘œthe ability to work on the biggest franchise in the industry [...] is an opportunity many would crave’. The sort of answer you’d expect from an aging rock star when questioned about their groupies, not a man who looks like Roald Dahl’s Matilda in desperate need of great developers, not great need of desperate ones.

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In a story that gets more dramatic as it progresses, Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella have filed a lawsuit against Activision. The suit cites “breach of contract” as the reason for legal action, after both Zampella and West were removed from senior positions at Infinity Ward on Monday.

The suit centres around Zampella and West not receiving “royalty payments” from Activision as well as “wrong termination in violation of public policy.”

The pair’s lawyer said that Activision was “intentionally flouting the fundamental public policy [...] that means employers must pay their employees what they have rightfully earned.” In the statement, there’s no mention as to what Activision’s allegations against the two were, only that the publisher “hired lawyers to conduct a pretextual ‘investigation’ into unstated and unsubstantiated charges of ‘insubordination’ and ‘breach of fiduciary duty’.”

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Here’s the update on the Activision/Infinity Ward situation, full of all the speculation and unconfirmed reports that you demand! Not much that can be confirmed has come out in the last 24 hours, but at least it doesn’t look like there are any security personnel around the Infinity Ward offices today.

According to G4‘s Patrick Klepek, Activision Publishing CTO Steve Pearce and head of production Steve Ackrich are temporarily in charge of Infinity Ward.

Infinity Ward will continue to work on map packs for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with the next Call of Duty game still being developed by Treyarch, developers of Call of Duty 3 and Call of Duty: World at War. Also of interest is the announcement that Sledgehammer Games will be developing an action-adventure Call of Duty game due for release in 2011.

In an alleged internal memo obtained by G4 it is also suggested that Infinity Ward will still be close to a Call of Duty game in the future. According to the memo, ‘œInfinity Ward remains central to Call of Duty’s future and we rely on the combined talent, expertise and leadership of the team there for its success.’

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Modern Warfare 2 has finally been dislodged from its comfortably nestled position at the head of UK games charts by the cursory demand of Ubisoft’s Just Dance. Somehow, in post-Christmas retail malaise, the dancing “instructor” clambered from relative obscurity to the top of the pile, past Infinity Ward’s money spinner and new releases Bayonetta and Darksiders. Wii Fit Plus followed closely in second place, working hard to resume Wii chart dominance temporarily lost over the holiday period.

While the entirety of gaming’s media can breathe a sigh of relief that something has finally culled Call of Duty’s lording reign and thus overbearing media saturation, it is the something gamers themselves should worry about. Assuming through trailer that Just Dance is little more than a distant, skill-less cousin of the rhythm genre, it’s perhaps worrying that a third party, undeniably casual entry can boogie its way to number one past a title compared in potential blockbuster earnings to cinema’s Avatar.

Exemplified perfectly in the juxtaposition of both GTA IV and the original Wii Fit launching in the same week, the landscape of gaming has indeed changed forever.

Via: Eurogamer

Okay, now this is just getting ridiculous. Looks like the community has outdone Infinity Ward yet again, because another glitch is being exploited as we speak. Update: IW have said there’s a patch coming that’ll stop you joining glitched matches and hopefully prevent the spread of the bug.

The glitch, this time, allows any and all players to run at five times the normal speed, giving the sensation of “skating on ice”. No patch has been confirmed in development as of yet, but it will probably get fixed just like the last ones.

Given the amount of amazingly terrible bugs this game has had, it makes you wonder if they even play tested the multi-player at all. Looks like the decision not to have a public beta wasn’t the best choice after all, eh Infinity Ward?

Via: Destructoid

In what is becoming sort of a regularity these days, another significant hack has come to rise in the Modern Warfare 2 online community.

The hack apparently allows any bullets shot from a regular weapon to have the effect of bullets shot from the chopper gunner kill-streak. The results usually being insane bullet penetration and explosive damage. The hack is infectious, just like the infinite ammo one a few weeks back.

With the stories of the other recent hacks being made in this game, it makes you wonder if Infinity Ward actually put any anti-mod capabilities into the game. While I have no problem with people playing modded games in offline games, or even in private unranked games, the fact that these hacks have found their way into publicly playable online games is an absolute travesty. And since the hack is infectious, you could end up being banned from the service for something entirely out of your control.

Via: ModernWarfare2forums.net

Speaking in a House of Commons debate earlier today, Labour MP Keith Vaz again called for cigarette packet-style warnings to be “splashed across the front” of all violent videogames, despite the lack of such warnings on equally violent films.

Members in the House were discussing the 1984 Video Recordings Act, discovered last year to be invalid due to legal technicalities. Until the law is reinstated, it is essentially legal to sell films and videogames to people of any age, regardless of their classification. Vaz claimed the interactive nature of videogames sets them apart from films, requiring special warnings for consumers and retailers:

A film with inappropriate content is not interactive. The point about video games, which is backed up by research from America, is that the player is part of the process. Players shoot and stab people in a videogame, and that is different. I accept that inappropriate content is wrong, wherever it is found, but videogames are different.

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I know, I know, and I do agree: it is far too easy to pick on Daily Mail writers like Ben Todd. They have a very specific demographic of uneducated, right wing morons to fear. To that degree, they do a mighty fine job. However, we feel it’s our job to point and laugh, then be slightly depressed at the tripe they publish.

If I may quote Mr. Todd’s fantastically fair article: “The brutal [Modern Warfare 2] lets players join in with terrorists rampaging through an airport as they murder unarmed civilians.” Adding that “critics have been deeply concerned that the release trivialises acts of terrorism and will fall into the hands of youngsters despite the 18 certificate”.

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It seems a pretty big mistake has emerged in the text written on walls and signs in the “Karachi” map in Modern Warfare 2: It’s all in the wrong language.

The in-game version of Karachi, which is a real city in Pakistan features text which is in fact Arabic, despite that not being the language spoken in Pakistan. The country features English as the official language and Urdu as its national language.

Saad, who tipped Kotaku and lives in the real city of Karachi said: ‘œI, being a Pakistani, was so excited at seeing a Karachi map and then immediately so disappointed when I played the map… Infinity Ward probably thought, ‘Oh hey its a Muslim country so Arabic is the language’”. Arabic uses the same characters as Urdu, similar to how French and English have the same Latin-based characters but obviously have hugely different meanings.

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Those following the news may have heard a lot about Modern Warfare 2 problems. Most of this news comes via a site called Modern Warfail 2 (do you see what they did there?). Recently, much to the dismay of myself, they’ve started using a Java Script snow effect on their website that I’ve not seen on the web since back when the marquee tag was cool.

In an exclusive email conversation with Negative Gamer, one of the people behind the site known as KOTI (or KingOfTheInternets) when asked; snow? Really? Replied with “ya, really”. Thankfully he also confirmed our suspicions that the snow wouldn’t be staying more than a month.

The site, which has had its emails and messages ignored by Infinity Ward and Activision, serves as a very helpful chronicling of everything that breaks for the massively hyped game. If I was IW I’d be trying to work with the site to track the problems faster, or at least make contact, but then what do I know about PR?

Our very own Half Left spotted a very similar snow effect on the highly popular Lady Gaga portal fuckyeahladygaga. I only mention this to point out that he noticed.

But seriously, snow?

We recently reported on the latest Modern Warfare 2 glitch that gives every player that comes in contact with an ‘œinfected’ user unlimited ammunition. You may have also noticed getting chucked into private matches when selecting matchmaking, where you can catch this ‘œvirus’. Obviously this is a big error, but Infinity Ward has waded in claiming a fix is on the way.

A well known videogame blog has picked up on the story and has jumped firmly on the alarmist bandwagon like it’s nobody’s business. The headline boldly reads ‘œModern Warfare gets an AIDS-like virus on Xbox Live’, which I’m sure you’ll agree, is suitably subtle. It then features such grossly inappropriate statements as:

[The glitch will] “infect” your profile and turn you into the game equivalent of an HIV carrier.

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The Xbox 360 version of Modern Warfare 2 has been hit with not just one, but two, new glitches. It seems that when Infinity Ward released a patch for the javelin glitch, they introduced some more game-breaking bugs.

If you’ve been playing any MW2 online recently, you might have found yourself dumped into a different game mode to the one you picked. That’s because players using matchmaking are somehow being put in private games.

Unscrupulous players are taking advantage of the situation by creating private 18 player games on Rust, MW2‘s smallest level, which allow them to gain tons of kills and level up with ease when they get converted in to public games.

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Petition. Ha ha, what a joke. Let’s mock it. Those first three sentences were me being satirical.

A petition and Facebook group have been formed to help raise awareness of the troubles red/green colour blind people are having with MW2. The trouble comes with the fact enemies are shown as red and team mates are green on the radar and when named making it near impossible to tell them apart until it’s too late.

Whilst many take the assumption that people with special needs simply shouldn’t bother playing video games, this discrimination takes a slightly more annoying form as the series’ previous title, World at War, had options to allow the colours to be changed. The group also points out that Ghost Recon has options to change the colours between  red/green and red/blue.

It’s a very simple fix, and one that really should have been in the game to start with. Sadly with the interest IW have shown to people asking for help, and with the on-going troubles the multiplayer portion of the game seems to be having, I can’t see this being addressed any time soon.

Via: The Escapist

I miss a time when I could feel complete satisfaction simply from collecting a power crystal and destroying every box in a level. The reasons why boxes deserved the fate of genocide didn’t matter, only the fact that an empty slot in my inventory needed to be filled by a gem did. Perhaps that is a little facetious, I would still not find a deep connection through that masochistic box hunt that was basically a realistic Nazi simulation… except I found Anne Frank… box form Anne Frank. However in every modern story-based title this thought process will always arise. I don’t feel as a gamer I can take anything at face value anymore. Deeper meanings may not always be contextualised within a game or its world; however that doesn’t mean I won’t over analyse and stew on the finest details. The less explained, the more I get to think about… how lucky.

Something I’ve been wondering about a lot lately is how this has come about. I’m sure the fact meaningful stories have only recently become a facet of videogame canon is a primary reason; however a lot more has changed within myself than the actual medium.

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In a piece of hilariously poor translation work, Modern Warfare 2′s infamous “No Russian” stage this week met Japanese gamers with virtual terrorist Vladimir Makarov suggesting that the protagonist “kill them; they are Russians”. The awkwardly twisted quotation shifts much of the plot’s meaning and later repercussions, the original’s “Remember, no Russian” a pivotal moment in the game’s exposition.

While it’s unlikely that much of the colonised world have yet to hear correct details of the level’s actual content, swathes of Japanese gamers are apparently looking to boycott the release unless changed, instead purchasing English language versions of the title. As amusing as the polarised import frenzy may be for western players used to struggling their way through symbol-laden titles from Play Asia, it’s impossible to deny such a horrendous failure on the part of Modern Warfare 2′s eastern translators.

English speakers have long been shafted with translatory messes like Zero Wing’s classic “all your base are belong to us”, but it seems surprising that a storyline element as controversial and widely discussed would fall through a script editor’s net. However, Famitsu still scored the Activision money machine a respectable 39/40 so the retail effect of the language error seems negligible at best.

Via: Joystiq

Kotaku recently ran an article about the touchy issue of review days; where publishers pay for journalists to stay at a hotel, give them all the food they could want and let them play their game in time for publication. The writer mentions the fact that he was recently invited and attended a review day for Activison’s Modern Warfare 2.

These review events are designed to give reviewers a chance to play through the game as the ‘œdevelopers intended’, with huge TVs, 5.1 surround sound and a, err: ‘œswimming pool and hot tub’. It talks about how a increasingly large amount of writers attend these review days with game publishers not sending out review copies, in favour of using these events to show-off their games.

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Perhaps that title should read “Microsoft attempt to beat their chest at the populations of morons who they openly invite onto their system, because some found a glitch in a game the entire industry pretends is important.” Though that’s a bit too long.

There’s a glitch in Modern Warfare 2 that lets you explode when you die. Bit annoying yes, but no worse than every other game ever which has been released, or Martyrdom. The makers of the game are taking a break from rolling around in their money piles to say there’s a patch on the way.

In a bid to pretend like they have some level of control over their paid-for online service, Director of Policy and Enforcement for Xbox Live, Stephen Toulouse, has been tweeting tough words.

…people we catch using [the exploit] will recieve suspensions from LIVE. Play fair everyone.

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In an attempt to gain more information about Codemasters’ new game, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, and whether or not it lived up to Codemasters’ claims of being a truly realistic war game, Eurogamer interviewed a retired British Major. They ended up learning some of his more interesting views on videogames and recruiting as well.

‘œGamers are precisely the target audience the British Army wants’, says Former British Major Neil Powell. According to Powell, the British government would never dream of attempting something on the level of America’s Army, an army FPS created by the government as their way of saying ‘œKilling people is way rad! Join the army!’ However, Powell thinks that this is a valid way of boosting interest in the military and had this to say about it:

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Now that my thoughts on the Modern Warfare 2 campaign are out of the way, it’s time to focus on the multiplayer offering. The bulk of MW2‘s multiplayer is taken up with the various team based competitive modes. I’m sure we all know the drill by now, there’s objective modes based on capturing flags, holding areas or destroying objects alongside deathmatch and team deathmatch modes. Of course I’m not here to tell you in minute detail the feature set of the game, you can look on the back of the box or the game’s website for that information. I’m here to discuss how the game, with its distinctive system of unlocks, plays out.

The structure of the unlock system hasn’t changed since the first game, there’s just more content on offer. You’ll still gradually unlock an arsenal of weapons, attachments and abilities. It is this unlock system and its focus on individual achievement that defines the multiplayer experience of MW2. It is also the source of many of my problems with the game.

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Talking to the radio show National Interest, the Attorney-general of South-Australia, Michael Atkinson has stated that he will be appealing the Office of Film and Literature Classification’s (OFLC) decision to allow Modern Warfare 2 to be sold under the 15+ rating in Australia.

The game has caused controversy already due to a scene which enables players to take part in ‘œterrorist’ activities. These actions according to Atkinson ‘œallow players to be virtual terrorists and gain points by massacring civilians’.

If he succeeds in his appeal the game could be pulled from the shelves all together, something which has happened before. Atkinson also attacked the OFLC for letting games through the system which may be unsuitable for the 15+ rating, despite the numerous changes that are made to titles, including the recently launched Left 4 Dead 2 which was heavily edited for Australian release.

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If you wanted to play Modern Warfare 2 early you were in trouble. You had to accept a free flight to Santa Barbara, be put up in a nice hotel for a couple of days and play the game with your journalist buddies. It’s hard sometimes.

Ars Technica have an interesting article up about the review day and some of the wider issues it brings up. The article is all about the review event and although stops short of passing judgement, acts as a nice eye-opener. Essentially Activison know their game is big enough that they can make some journalists bend their code of ethics to fit. To me that’s very worrying, if a little expected.

The fact some reviewers and publications went to this press day and didn’t acknowledge it in the review makes me lose my already waning faith in most gaming press. I know I’m in the minority of people who read these reviews, but to me it really matters where the game was played. I don’t so much care what’s in the game -I can usually guess that- I want to know how it makes you feel, how good it is.

Image: Flikr/tkksummers

A Christian, a Muslim and a Jew walk into a TV station. It’s not a joke, but what they said about Modern Warfare 2‘s “No Russian” level sounds like one. On the BBC program (or programme, if you’re into that thing) The Big Questions (UK only iPlayer link here), three wise men were asked the big question of, “Are violent videogames damaging to society?”  They took it as an excuse to sound off about the recently popular topic of  virtually killing virtual people in a virtual airport.

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Hey did you hear? Gamespot (who are evil sell-outs) gave Modern Warfare 2 an 8.5 then were paid to give it a 9.0! Quick, let’s tell everybody! Or better: report the fact this is fictional nonsense, but bask in the drama and add sentences like “but is this the truth!?”, “it’s obvious this is not even remotely dodgy, but is it?” or even “now, I’m not saying Gamespot did 9/11, but why is nobody else?”.

The truth is that Gamespot gave the PC version an 8.5 and the console versions a 9.0. Their reviews came out a day later than most, which will be explained in a bit. Morons on the internet can’t comprehend this much complexity so started posting (in a variety of forums I’ll not link to) that the review score was ZOMG-bias changed. It wasn’t. I have no idea how much pressure Gamespot were under to give the game a positive review, if any. Considering they weren’t even given a free copy of the game (see the quote below), I’m going to assume not much. Thankfully this story has yet to be copied up into the larger publications, and hopefully it never will.

GamerLimit, using the powers of asking questions, spoke to Gamespot who explained the situation in no uncertain terms, and actually garnered some respect from me with their explanation of why their review was “late”.

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The radio program Debate is Free this week put its focus on videogames. To address the hotness that is Modern Warfare 2‘s controversy the show invited Activision to send forward a spokesperson to defend their game, but as they don’t really care they declined. Instead we got an interview with Tom Watson, chairman of TIGA, and Keith Vaz, a strongly anti-games UK MP once described by Jack Thompson as “deceptive [and] unreliable” and a “political opportunist”.

Watson does a grand job of defending gaming by simply pointing out everything that we, as players of videogames, already know. Where we get to hear something less sensible is with the interview with Vaz. Though, to his credit he starts with a similar argument as Thompson and one I agree with: we should be concerned with under-age kids getting games unsuitable for them.

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Brief disclaimer: This review will be covering only the single player portion of the game. It is my opinion and a number of other writers for the site agree that reviewing the multiplayer portion of Modern Warfare 2 after only a few days of its general release would be disingenuous. We’ll be talking about this in greater detail soon but for now you’ll just have to bear with us.

The Modern Warfare 2 campaign, just like previous Call Of Duty games, jumps between multiple characters in different locations across the world. In this instalment of the franchise you’ll move between members of the US Army Rangers and the fictional Task Force 141. The TF141 missions tend to be the more interesting ones, sometimes featuring vehicle sections or a stealth element. Conversely the Ranger missions are more about all out warfare and straight up infantry combat. The plot covers the usual military themes of betrayal, obedience, sacrifice and political intrigue. On paper it’s all pretty boilerplate material, wrapped up in the linear FPS experience we’ve come to expect from the franchise.

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