Sunderland stars have been getting tips on their shooting – thanks to computer game Call of Duty. Striker Darren Bent and up to 20 members of the squad regularly go online after training to play the hit game.
Bent also revealed the game is a huge hit with other top clubs in the Premiership.
According to the centre-forward, Kieran Richardson is the best when it comes to shooting down the opposition. While Kenwyne Jones puts in the least practice.
Bent's Sunderland army is now planning clashes with other teams including Chelsea.
He said: "I've heard they have a little team so we're hoping to go against them next."
Batman: Arkham Asylum won Best Game but the people's Bafta voted for by Gadgits readers in a public poll went to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
The Game Award sponsored by top retailer GAME was selected by 70,000 fans from a shortlist compiled by Gadgits Games Editor Owen Anslow and other top tech journalists.
BAFTAS: Ant, Dec and Miyamoto-san It was the only award picked up by the biggest-selling game of last year as Uncharted 2: Among Thieves dominated the night by picking up four Baftas.
Activision and Infinity Ward just released details and pricing for Modern Warfare 2’s first ever downloadable maps, and it’s fair to say they’re taking the piss somewhat when it comes to cost.
The “Stimulus Package” contains five new maps for the popular military shooter, and will cost – HAHAHA – 1200 Microsoft Points when it launches on March 30. In real money, that’s £10.20, or $15.30, or €14.40. Or, if you prefer, a shameless fecking rip-off.
1200 Microsoft Points would be steep for five new maps, but two of the five here are going to be maps from the first Modern Warfare: “Crash” and the sniper-friendly “Overgrown”. They’ll have a tiny visual upgrade, but otherwise they’re geographically identical. Great!
The new maps, for what it’s worth, are called Bailout, Storm and Salvage:
- Bailout – An overrun apartment complex - Storm – An industrial park in the middle of a tense thunderstorm - Salvage – An abandoned junkyard, with a snowy terrain
So yeah, 1200 Microsoft Points, and don’t expect these to get any cheaper when they hit PS3 and PC in late-April (Xbox 360 has a 30-day exclusive on this map pack). Activision knows people are happy to be gouged, and as long as customers keep coming back for more, they’ll keep charging ludicrous prices.
If, like me, you’re sick to the molars of over-paying for Activision’s content, save your 1200 Points and go buy Geometry Wars and Mega Man 9 instead: two high quality FULL games for the same price.
Double XP weekends have always been successful in the Call of Duty series, and Modern Warfare 2 is finally getting one. Robert Bowling has made a tweet regarding Modern Warfare 2's first double XP weekend.
In the tweet, he reveals that from April 2nd to April 5th, is the weekend of the double XP strictly for Xbox 360. And of course, the stimulus map pack comes out just 2 days before the double xp weekend, which means that 360 gamers that purchase the map pack will probably be having a lot of fun with fresh maps and double XP
ConsoleTech received a video from an anonymous Youtube user "skitzophreak" who posted a Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package Video. Watch the Stimulus Package video below.
Details about Infinity Ward's upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 map pack, titled the Stimulus Package, have been posted on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace website. This download contains five maps in total, two of which appeared in the first Modern Warfare title.
This pack will be available to download on Xbox LIVE starting on March 30. PS3 and PC owners will have to wait a bit longer. No price for the content was listed.
Here are the map descriptions:
Bailout - a multi-level apartment complex
Storm - an open industrial park littered with heavy machinery
Salvage - a snowy junkyard fortified by stacked debris and crushed cars
Crash - a war-torn urban environment (CoD4)
Overgrown - features a massive dry creek bed (CoD4)
Update: Activision has confirmed the pack will cost 1200 Microsoft points ($14.99)
he conflict between Jason West and Vince Zampella, the two Infinity Ward leaders, and Activision Blizzard is far from being over and its continuation and fallout could actually have a clear negative impact on the future success of the Call of Duty franchise. This is the main conclusion that Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter draws after taking a close look at last week’s events.
Bluntly, Michael Pachter says that “West’s and Zampella’s departures may impact future success of Call of Duty games. It is difficult to assess the contribution of the two men, but their track record suggests that their oversight of the creative process has contributed greatly to the brand’s success.”
The analyst also believes that while the pair might receive money as part of a court decision or settle with Activision Blizzard outside of court, the two have little chance to actually get their hands on the Call of Duty or Modern Warfare brands, which carry a huge commercial power and are among the main revenue streams for the publisher, likely to become even more important as the Guitar Hero line-up sees smaller and smaller annual sales.
Zampella and West have filed a suit with Activision Blizzard claiming that the company abused its power and tried to oust them from Infinity Ward before they were set to receive significant royalties linked with the huge success of Modern Warfare 2, the biggest selling title of 2009. Meanwhile, the publisher is saying that the pair was aiming to take a significant group of developers and jump the Activision ship and that they were actually in talks with another company, probably Electronic Arts.
In 2010, Treyarch should launch a new Call of Duty title, probably set in Vietnam, which will probably be little impacted by the public fight. In 2011, when another Modern Warfare title might be expected by fans, the fallout from the Infinity Ward-Activision Blizzard conflict will be more visible.
Jason West and Vince Zampella became free agents earlier this month after Activision decided to remove them from Infinity Ward. In turn, the pair of "Call of Duty" franchise-makers announced plans to file a lawsuit against Activision. Now, it appears they've locked wagons with some big-time talent representation to help them find their next gig, thanks to the Creative Artists Agency.
The Hollywood agency beat out at least one competitor to rep West and Zampella, according to the Los Angeles Times. CAA may be best known for their film and TV industry work, which includes deal-making for names like Will Smith, Steven Spielberg and Nicole Kidman, so if the ex-chiefs of Infinity Ward feel like making a movie deal, they're probably in a good position to do that now, but the move may represent a bigger power play by CAA.
In addition to becoming the most pirated game of 2009, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" arguably became the most successful entertainment launch ever. If CAA believes that these two guys can replicate what they did building the "Call of Duty" franchise with another property, they would be foolish not to establish a relationship.
Does signing up with CAA sound like a good call to you for West and Zampella? Do you think they can make another "Call of Duty"-sized game series? Share your reactions in the comment section below.
Infinity Ward has announced that its upcoming downloadable content, known as the Stimulus Package, will now cost 1200 MS Points on Xbox Live - making it one of the most expensive content packs released to date. The news was released by Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling on Larry Hryb's Xbox Live Podcase this morning.
The pack will include 5 multiplayer maps, two of which were already released but have been revamped for the mapathy pack. The pack will hit Xbox Live first on March 30th.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 "Stimulus Package" isn't available till March 30 for Xbox 360 and for PS3 and PC date is TBA (To Be Announced). But its listed on Xbox Live website. The Stimulus Package brings 5 new multiplayer maps, two of them old favorites from the first Modern Warfare. The Stimulus Package price is not announced and the size is 329 MB. You can't download this package right now. It asks you for a redeem code. Read the description below.
"The best-selling Xbox 360 game of all-time just got bigger, with more epic multiplayer content, first on Xbox LIVE! The Stimulus Package delivers 5 additional action-packed multiplayer maps featuring a variety of locations: "Bailout," a multi-level apartment complex; "Storm," an open industrial park littered with heavy machinery; "Salvage," a snowy junkyard fortified by stacked debris and crushed cars. Two legendary fan-favorites from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare return, including "Crash," a war-torn urban environment; and "Overgrown," which features a massive dry creek bed. There are no refunds for this item."
Recently, Infinity Ward promised to bring new Downloadable Content pack for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 through a viral campaign - 'mapathy'. In response, its "so-called" rival DICE Studios mocked this promotional campaign and disclosed details about two downloadable map packs for Battlefields: Bad Company 2.
Infinity Ward's mapathy campaign for Modern Warfare 2's DLC named "Stimulus Package" is said to contain 10 new maps. However, there's no official confirmation on it. This DLC would be available first for Xbox 360 on March 30 while PC and PS3 owners will receive the same later. Recently, Activision announced that the dedicated MW2 for PC servers would be pulled out and used for Infinity Ward Net infrastructure. This will be done mainly to support multiplayer matches. This has disappointed many MW2 players and hence, quite a few of them have moved to play the recently released Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
At the official Battlefield: BC2 blog, DICE has slammed Activision's 'Mapathy' campaign and announced that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 DLC pack would be available for free. This new DLC unlocks Arica Harbor Conquest Mode and Laguna Presa Rush Mode as two separate maps with respective game modes. Both maps would be available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game copy holders who downloaded the VIP codes.
After yesterday's Tweet by Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling confirmed that new Modern Warfare 2 downloadable content was on the way, the question on everyone's mind was "Ok, so when!?". Well now with the clever launch of the "Mapathy Website", it has been confirmed that the long awaited downloadable content will hit Xbox Live on March 30th.
A March 30th launch date also means an April release for PlayStation 3 and PC since Microsoft acquired a full month of exclusivity for the add-on. While no details have been released about what maps will be featured in the DLC, you can expect to hear plenty more details on it in the coming weeks. We will keep you posted.
Women have been serving admirably in combat in the US military for about a decade. But they are absent from the ranks of modern video game armies. A game developer offered Kotaku a justification of why we virtually fight as men.
The answer, offered by Gordon Van Dyke, producer of the new Electronic Arts modern warfare game Battlefield: Bad Company 2, has to do with technology. Or, more specifically, it has to do with technology needs trumping any sense of consumer demand for representation of both genders.
Programming women soldiers into a virtual war just might not be worth the costs to the game and the servers that connect the people playing it.
The topic came up last week when I asked Van Dyke if there were women in Bad Company 2. I had noticed that the games I have played set in modern or near-future settings were almost always fought by men and men only.
"There is no girls in our game,"
he stated.
"It is an interesting thing, though because … It is fun that you bring that up because I can kind of give some insight into development and how games are made. When you actually put in female characters, typically you have to put in an entire new skeleton model and that entire new skeleton model adds an entire new level of animation and an entire new level of rigging. You basically double the amount of data and memory for soldiers that would need to go into your game."
