Infinity Ward is without a doubt one of Activision’s golden studios considering the success of both Call of Duty 4 and, more importantly, Modern Warfare 2. However, it seems that the two got into a huge fight over the direction of the Call of Duty series which has led both Vince Zampella and Jason West, Infinity Ward’s head honchos, to leave the studio. The cause of this was apparantly some “insubordination” and “breach of contract” by these two men.

Whatever the case, the future of Call of Duty and Modern Warfare 3 in particular remains to be decided. Lets just hope Activision doesn’t give the Modern Warfare series to Treyarch. Although, Taliban Zombies would be pretty cool…

via kotaku

Modern Warfare 2 has been out for a while now and yet it still doesn’t have dedicated servers even with the constant complaining of the community. Sure, Infinity Ward has a legit excuse for it, sort of, but what is a PC game without dedicated servers? Aliens vs. Predator developer Rebellion has taken the note of this and has announced today that the game now has dedicated servers. Of course, it’s included with a pretty hefty patch that throws in a bunch of other stuff which you can check out below.

General

• Stability improvements to address rare and infrequent hangs
• Implemented a workaround for missing audio issues with certain hardware (SoundBlaster X-Fi, Realtek onboard, etc.)
• Fixed save games being lost or corrupted if connection to Steam is lost or if user switches to offline play

Multiplayer

• Added client-side support for dedicated servers
• Ranked match lobbies will no longer end after every match
• Fixed XP being incorrectly affected by offline play (though only in the local stats; this will be corrected next time you connect to multiplayer)
• Fixed other players sometimes appearing to have the wrong weapon or continuing to fire indefinitely after dying
• Fixed rare issue where players would be temporarily invisible
• Fixed some selection of servers and players in menus sometimes being incorrect

via bigdownload

Despite getting terrible reviews from pretty much every corner of the gaming community, Robomodo has today deemed Tony Hawk: Ride a “retail success”. Wait, what? Yep, you read that right, Robomodo has said that the company has grown by 20% since the games release and is looking to expand an additional 17%.

President Josh Tsui had the following to say:

“Our culture is focused on enabling game designers and artists to innovate, while providing them with proper management oversight and technology support. As evidence from our recent game release, Robomodo supports out-of-the-box thinking and new creative ways to approach gameplay.”

Creative ways? Yes. Playable? Not so much. Robomodo better get their act together and get that Tony Hawk: Ride sequel up to tip top shape before releasing it to the public or they are going to fold as fast as they grew.

via thatvideogameblog

Not too long ago we told you about how Microsoft was planning not to sell any 250 GB Xbox 360 hard drives outside of console bundles. However, GameStop has just put up a listing for a standalone 250GB drive for the Xbox 360 priced at $129.99. What gives?

GameStop has been known to make some errors with their inventory in the past but how could they play such a cruel joke? Perhaps the guys over at Microsoft figured they could make a few extra bucks selling the hard drives or maybe Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg, who told us that only bundles would have the drives, was misinformed.

Who knows, we’ll have to wait a few days to see if GameStop pulls the listing.

Read (GameStop)

Ever since LittleBigPlanet first hit store shelves back in October of 2008 it has pretty much become the face of the PS3. Sack boy, the game’s main character, is often used in advertisements for the PS3 console because he’s just so damn cute. In fact, the developers, Media Molecule, were contracted exclusively by Sony to produce only for their consoles.

Well, that contract seems to be getting tightened just a bit as it was announced today that Sony has acquired Media Molecule. President of SCE Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, comments on the acquisition:

“SCE WWS is all about creating ambitious, innovative and ground breaking games, traits that Media Molecule clearly have. To bring them into our family proves our dedication to creating fantastic new experiences that we believe will cement our position as industry leaders.”

Now let’s hope we see some more kick ass titles come from Media Molecule.

via cvg

MLB 2k10 has just hit store shelves and to generate some hype, 2K Sports has announced that they will be holding a million dollar giveaway contest utilizing the game. To get in on this prize money all you have to do is be the first person to pitch an absolute perfect game and send it in to 2K Sports.

Sounds simple enough. Of course, there are some rules and regulations for the contest that 2K Sports has detailed for you here. Now get pitchin’!

Team 17, the studio behind the Worms series, has just let us know via their Facebook that Worms 2: Armageddon for the Xbox Live Arcade will be getting some DLC at some point. Said DLC will be called the Battle Pack and will feature things like new missions, weapons features, voices and game modes. Additionally, it will give the game 10 new Forts, new personalization items and “much more”.

Like I said before, this DLC is scheduled to hit at some point which could literally mean anytime. We’ll keep you posted.

via thatvideogameblog

Owners of Forza Motorsport 3 will be happy to hear that the developers have just released 4 new limited edition DLC packs through Xbox Live. No, they aren’t free but the bright side is that Turn 10 Studios will donate $10 from each pack sold up to $100,000 to Haiti relief efforts.

Anyways, below is a description of each of the 4 packs:

• Sidewinder Proving Grounds Track Pack (400 Microsoft Points) — This pack features 18 courses, including an updated version of the Sidewinder Proving Grounds from Forza Motorsport 2.
• Benchmark High Speed Ring Track Pack (400 Microsoft Points) — A four-mile stretch of road to test your car’s mettle, the Benchmark High Speed Ring Track Pack also features a large parking lot environment for online multiplayer games of “Tag” and “Keep It Clean.”
• Motorsports Legends Car Pack (400 Microsoft Points) — As suggested by the name, this pack features 10 of racing’s most classic cars: 1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA Stradale, 1964 Aston Martin DB5 Vantage, 1981 BMW Motorsport M1, 1960 Chevrolet Corvette, 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona Hemi, 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, 1980 Fiat 131 Abarth, 1967 Lamborghini Miura P400, 1971 Nissan Skyline 2000GT-R, and the 1965 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe.
• VIP Membership Car Pack (800 Microsoft Points) — This pack unlocks VIP status for your profile in Forza 3, giving you special recognition as a VIP on leaderboards, in multiplayer lobbies, on ForzaMotorsport.net, in the in-game storefront and places your auctions at the top of the Forza 3 auction house. It also unlocks five additional cards: 2008 Aston Martin DBS, 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, 2007 Ferrari F430 Scuderia, 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, and the 2007 Porsche 911 GT3 RS (997).

via josytiq

Microsoft has revealed a brand new Xbox 360 bundle, which includes a copy of Splinter Cell Conviction, a 250GB hard drive, and two controllers, all for $399 — a great deal, as you might expect.

Not too long ago we heard of an original NES that sold for tens of thousands of dollars on eBay because it came bundled with the title Stadium Events. Well, the game is in the press again this time being auctioned off for an amazing $41,300. The reason this game fetched such a high price is because it was in its original shrink wrap and is believed to be one of the only 2 unopened games in existence.

Too bad all of my retro gaming stuff is no where to be found. Perhaps you have a gold mine of old games laying around in your closet just waiting to fetch a hot buck. Better get lookin’!

via cvg