Modern Warfare 2

It's been the talk of the internet ever since its presence was leaked online a few weeks before the game came out. But the now infamous "airport level" in Modern Warfare 2 has certainly generated a lot of debate both among gamers and the mainstream media over whether or not it is appropriate. Now the main scriptwriter for Infinity Ward's first person shooter claims the sequence was something they had to do.

GamePro.com's interview with Jesse Stern (who has a day job as a writer for the NCIS TV series) has him talking extensively about that airport level, where Russian terrorists mow down unarmed civilians. He states, "Every single person in testing opened fire on the crowd, which is human nature." He adds, "I hope that people don't just look at it as being this simplistic and brutal sequence. We've done our best to treat it with care and not to make it gratuitous."

Ultimately Stern feels that the sequence was worth putting into the final product, saying, "This is a triple-A game and the top grosser of all time with this huge budget behind it, yet we're still taking major chances wherever we can and the airport level was a risk we had to take. Sometimes you take huge risks and it really works. Sometimes it doesn't work at all. But if you don't take the chance, you're not going to make something new."

Even though the market share for the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 is only a small percentage of the total sales for the first person shooter, the sheer number of units sold for the Infinity Ward-developed game in its first days could still be in the six figure range for the PC port. We've already taken a stab at what those numbers might be like. Now comes word from Infinity Ward itself that the PC version is indeed selling well.

In a post on the company's official message boards, community manager Robert Bowling states that while the PC port does have the smallest market share of all three versions of the game, that doesn't mean the PC version is not a big seller. He writes, "The PC version of Modern Warfare 2 has actually outsold the PC version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in its first week. Making it the most successful PC version." Specific sales numbers were not mentioned. One wonders how many more copies would have been sold if Infinity Ward had opted to support dedicated servers.

The Call of Duty game franchise that began with Infinity Ward's first game in the shooter series in 2003 has established a pattern in its later releases. Infinity Ward works on the games that are released in the odd-numbered years (Call of Duty 2 in 2005, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 2009). Developer Treyarch has handled the games in even-numbered years (Call of Duty 3 in 2006 and Call of Duty: World at War in 2008).

Now comes word that publisher Activision is prepping a third development team to work on more Call of Duty titles. The rumor comes from the Los Angeles Times web site which does not identify which developer has been contracted to do these duties. The story also says that Activision is considering some kind of massively multiplayer Call of Duty game although it sounds like this is more of an idea than an actual project that's underway.

Yesterday reports hit the Internet that the infamous "airport scene" in Modern Warfare 2's PC version had been removed from the game via a patch for Russian audiences. Today the game's publisher Activision has confirmed that is indeed the case but said the decision was made on its own and not based on any reactions to the Russian government.

According to Eurogamer, Activision said that Russia does not have a formal ratings system for games. However they decided to pull the scene from the PC version of the first person shooter which depicts Russian terrorists mowing down civilians in a Moscow airport with the participation of the player character, "after seeking the advice of local counsel." The PC version is the only one that has been released in Russia. Previous reports that the console versions had been recalled were incorrect.

We suspected that the second that the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 was released somebody, somewhere, would try to create some kind of dedicated server hack for Infinity Ward's first person shooter. It looks like that someone has created some kind of way to get into the dev console and make such a hack possible.

Of course, they haven't created such a thing to prove the point that such servers are better than the peer-to-peer system that the game's IWNet uses. Rather they have done it to tweak with the game's settings for things like speed and jumping boosts, experience points increases and more. Oh, and they claim that their servers are listed as "ranked" on IWNet. As you can see from the above video, there's apparently lots of fun to be had in such a set up unless you are someone who's running the IWNet service trying to keep such a hack off their system.

[Via Destructoid]

So much for all the talk about boycotts against Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's PC port. The Infinity Ward-developed shooter is firmly on top of this week's latest top 10 best selling games (according to revenue) on the Steam download service. Steam is the only place (legally anyway) where one can download and purchase Modern Warfare 2. Other download services like Direct2Drive, Impulse and Gamersgate have decided not to make the game available because they have objected to the game's use of Steamworks's features that are required for the PC version.

Valve's zombie co-op shooter Left 4 Dead 2, due to be unlocked at midnight Eastern time tonight on Steam, took the number two sales spot this week. Dragon Age: Origins' regular edition and deluxe edition took the third and fourth spot while Borderlands continues to sell well in fifth position.

1. Modern Warfare 2 - Infinity Ward/Activision
2. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
3. Dragon Age Origins - BioWare/EA
4. Dragon Age Origins Digital Deluxe Edition - BioWare/EA
5. Borderlands - Gearbox Software/2K Games
6. Overlord Complete Pack - Triumph Studios/Codemasters
7. Torchlight - Runic Games
8. Crysis Maximum Edition - Crytek/EA
9. Football Manager 2010 - Sega
10. Mass Effect - BioWare/EA

The backlash against the controversial airport massacre level in Modern Warfare 2 continues. GameRiot reports via a Russian language web site that the PC and Steam versions of Infinity Ward's recent shooter have removed the scene from the game for Russians players via a patch

Just in case you have been living in a cave for the past few weeks, the scene in question has your player character portraying a CIA operative who has infiltrated a Russian terrorist organization. That organization goes into a Moscow airport and while you either watch or participate they go and mow down unarmed civilians in that level (you do have a choice to skip this level at the beginning of the game). The report also says the console versions of the game have been recalled and will ship to stores in a revised version later with that scene removed from the game.

Activision love to drag game franchises down into the ground if they are successful. Witness the three different "Hero" music game titles they have released this year. So it's not surprising to hear that Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare shooter series might be getting a spin-off of its own.

Thatvideogameblog.com reports that Craig Fairbrass, the UK voice actor who portrays the "Ghost" character in the game Modern Warfare 2, stated that "they're talking about another little game" that would be based around "Ghost' The current Wildstorm-published Modern Warfare comic is a prequel to the new game with "Ghost" as the central character. We just hope any spin-off game will actually have, you know, real character development rather than the one-dimensional people they have portrayed in the past.

All right. It's time to separate the men from the geeks. You may have read a bunch of reviews of how great Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is but we bet that most of them have concentrated on the console versions. After all of the hubbub about no dedicated servers, no mod tools and only 18 players allowed online, can Infinity Ward's latest first-person shooter be any good on the PC?

Actually, there's quite a bit to like about the game as it turns out... but many of our concerns regarding the PC port of Modern Warfare 2 also proved to be true.

Check out all Modern Warfare 2 downloads

With Modern Warfare 2 now out in stores and available to download and play via Steam for the PC version, Activision is now bragging about how many copies and how much money the first person shooter generated in its first 24 hours on sale. A new press release from the publisher states that according to their own internal estimates the game generated $310 million in revenue and sold 4.7 million copies in North America and the UK in its first 24 hours.

So how many PC versions were sold? We can actually make an educated guess based on the percentage chart that Amazon.com has for the game. According to their chart, 8 percent of Modern Warfare 2's sales come from the PC version. That's an admittedly small number. However if the game sold 4.7 million total copies that means the retail PC version might have sold as many as 376,000 copies in its first 24 hours. The actual number is likely to be higher since Activision's estimates don't take into account sales from countries other than the US, Canada and the UK. We also have no idea how many copies were purchased via Steam. In any event, the PC port of Modern Warfare 2 is likely to be one of highest selling PC games of 2009.

It looks like Steam users who paid for their copy of Modern Warfare 2 via the download service can finally play the game itself. A few hours earlier than planned, the multiplayer shooter from developer Infinity Ward and publisher Activision is now live and unlocked for those users.

Modern Warfare 2 via Steam is split in two parts; the regular single player campaign is in one section while the game's multiplayer modes are listed as a separate game title. As we have reported on before, the folks who bought the game in retail stores got to play the PC version on Tuesday, even though it also uses Steam for authentication, updates and the Steameworks suite of tools for leaderboards, achievements and more.

Infinity Ward's release of Modern Warfare 2 has apparently been a big success in terms of professional reviews and sales.However, the PC version of the first person shooter is still generating talk among the Internets. First, people who pre-ordered and pre-loaded the game via Steam should be able to play the full game at midnight Eastern time tonight.

In other news, the folks who are upset about a lack of dedicated servers are taking it out in user reviews on sites like IGN, Amazon.com and Metacritic. The user review scores are extremely low compared to the professional critics reviews of the game. It's basically a repeat of what happened last year when user reviews for Spore went down because of the controversy over the game's DRM set-up.

Finally, MTV Multplayer reports that hackers have apparently been able to break into the developer's IWNet matchmaking service for the PC and set up cheats like aim bots and seeing through walls during matches. We will have to see if Infinity Ward's claims of better multiplayer matches hold up now that the game is out in the wild.

Update: Good news: The Modern Warfare 2 Steam pre-orders can now unlock and play the game now.

Tomorrow publisher Activision is supposed to officially launch Modern Warfare 2 (although as we have reported some stores have gone ahead and broken the street date for the game). This Wednesday, the US also celebrates the Veteran's Day holiday. Today the Washington Post reports that Activision is using both occasions to launch the Call of Duty Endowment, a foundation designed to help US veterans find work after their military service is over

According to the article, US veterans have a much higher rate of unemployment than civilians. The money from the foundation will be used to help fund programs that are in place to help veterans find jobs. The first $125,000 will be used to help fund a vocational rehabilitation center via the Paralyzed Veterans of America.

This week's new PC game release includes the PC version of one of the most anticipated game titles of 2009. We also get a downloadable movie tie-in game and an RTS title that finally shows up in the US after its 2008 release in Europe:

Modern Warfare 2: Developer Infinity Ward releases the next game in their first person shooter series as they de-emphasize the "Call of Duty" in the title. The global hopping single player game deals once again with high stakes terrorists and is complimented by the Special Ops co-op levels and their multiplayer modes. Many PC players have expressed their dismay over Infinity Ward's decision to do away with dedicated servers for the game.

It looks like a few game retailers, mostly in the Northeastern section of the US, have gone ahead and broken the November 10 street date to sell copies of Modern Warfare 2. In fact one retailer claimed that they had gotten special permission from publisher Activision to sell their copies of the Infinity Ward first person shooter now because others had already done so.

Activision sent Big Download an official statement on the matter saying, "Activision has not given any retailer permission to sell Modern Warfare 2 prior to the Nov. 10 street date. The company fully supports the Nov.10 street date." In addition, Infinity Ward's community manager Robert Bowling has also "tweeted" that if you have already bought the PC version of the game from a retailer, "you can play it on 11.10.09." That means the game, which uses Steam, won't unlock for those players until the street date, unlike the PS3 and Xbox 360 version which can be played right away. People who pre-ordered the game via Steam won't be able to play the game until November 13.

Gallery: Modern Warfare 2