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You know what we want for Christmas? A more interesting Xbox Live Activity top ten to write about. Just as it did the week of Nov. 9, the Call of Duty franchise has held up three of the top five slots this week, with Halo 3 in second place and Grand Theft Auto IV taking the spot formerly held by the Left 4 Dead 2 demo.

As hard as we might wish for a shakeup in the new year, we're not sure what title's going to be the one to do it. Surely we won't see four CoD games in the top five in 2010. Surely.

Here, on the eve of the eve of Video Game Gift Giving and Receiving Day (known in some cultures as "Christmas" or "Festivus") comes a heartfelt plea by the fine men and women of the Christian Civic League of Maine, who join us under a common banner of misusing semicolons to bring us this message; "All decent people should denounce the video game 'Modern Warfare 2;' and join in opposing the sale and use of such games."

Yes, Modern Warfare 2's controversial "No Russian" mission -- erroneously titled the "Massacre Level" here -- has once again brought the full weight of the nation's outrage (represented here by the Christian Civic League of Maine). The group reminds us of the "well-established cause and effect relationship between video games and school shootings" and cautions that "the ready availability of drugs, violent video games, and outrageous rock music is a witch's brew which will eventually lead to tragedy here in Maine." Speaking of witches, GamePolitics points out that the group has outed the owner of a local book store as a witch (and a Democrat!) and claims she "cast a spell" on the Administrator of the League.

Merry Christmas!

[Via GamePolitics]

For the last week or so, the Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer experience has been plagued by a number of issues, across all platforms. Those issues have been targeted by a new patch, which Robert "fourzerotwo" Bowling states has gone live on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Among the issues addressed are those nasty infinity ammo and Public "private" match issues on the Xbox 360 version, the Prestige hack on PS3 and the texture hack on PC. Also, the 1887 has been balanced on all platforms -- now, you might actually stand a chance against an opponent wielding two of those.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

So what do you all think about Medal of Honor going Modern Warfare?

Vince Zampella: Eh, good for them!

You're not saying, "Hey, this is our territory."

Vince: Nah.

Since the game shipped a month ago, Infinity Ward has been squashing bugs and reading feedback.

Vince: Absolutely. The benefit of making a game that all of our guys love to play is that all of our guys are playing it, and they're running into the same problems that any other player is, so we want to get that stuff fixed as soon as possible.

Jason West: Yeah, the studio has been shut down for all of December, but these guys are playing the game and they want to come in on their own time to fix it and patch it. Considering that they're all on vacation, the responsiveness of the team has been pretty awesome. [Note: based on the new unlimited ammo glitch, they still have some work to do. Unless there's a Christmas miracle]

Has anything really surprised you with multiplayer?

Vince: Well, yeah .. the Javelin thing, obviously [laughs]. Just the fact that somebody picked that out.

Jason: And the infinite Care Package one is pretty impressive, I mean you have to do this, do that and ...

Vince: I could see you accidentally doing it, but then how do you figure out how to go back and replicate it? That's crazy.

So if there's a Modern Warfare 3, what can you possibly pack in to top the Night Vision Goggles?

Vince: This time we'll have a version that comes with a complete tank.

Jason: Yeah, or a full-sized Ghillie suit would be awesome, too.

It's no secret that the Xbox 360 received the lion's share of Modern Warfare 2 purchases during last month's retail blitz and Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg certainly knows it, telling us not too long ago that it was the "best November ever" for the console. So when G4TV recently asked Greenberg how a theoretical November 2009 without Modern Warfare 2 launching would have looked for the company in terms of console sales, we weren't shocked to see the Xbox exec say, "November without Modern Warfare 2 would have looked very different."

Besides the MW2-branded Xbox 360's effect on overall console sales ("hundreds of thousands," he claims), Greenberg guesses "we would have probably sold less consoles ... to be honest." In his eyes, MW2's launch was "an event" that convinced consumers to purchase the game over not just other games, but also over "buying an iPod or instead of going to a movie." Considering the game got its own branded drink -- though not the branded drink -- we think it's clear that the game has nearly reached Independence Day status.

Though the Modern Warfare 2 community is uncovering some unsavory hidden aspects of the game for their own benefit, the kind folks from Defend The House have labored to uncover some of the game's harmless (but awesome) unadvertised features. For instance, did you know throwing knives are still lethal after bouncing? Also, you can survive a forty-foot fall with the help of a few well-placed mattresses. That's news to us!

Check out all these revelations in the first episode of Modern Warfare 2 Mythbusters, which we've posted after the jump. Oh, one last thing -- we will not rest until we kill someone by blowing up a nearby fire hydrant. Do you hear us? It is our life's new purpose.

After a string of disappointments, fans of Modern Warfare 2 on PC may be down, but a ray of hope has emerged on the horizon. Responding to a fan asking about mod tools for the game via his Twitter account, Infinity Ward spokesman Robert Bowling said, "there may be some Mod Tools news coming in the future, I'll pass it along once I have it."

We suppose this news could be something like, "We're never ever going to release mod tools ever, so please stop sending us hate mail smeared with Cheeto dust fingerprints," but that would be mean -- even for a company that lets us blow away civilians.

[Via Escapist]

Now that the exploding men and unrelenting rain of crates have been taken care of, it would seem a new issue has arisen in Modern Warfare 2. Specifically, a bug in the Xbox Live matchmaking assignments is reportedly dumping playlist searchers into private matches. (Nothing's worse than being teamed with the lowest ranking players, after all.)

Penny Arcade's Gabe tweeted (warning: foul language through link) that he had encountered the issue several times. Meanwhile, Infinity Ward's man in the trenches, Robert "fourzerotwo" Bowling, confirmed the issue is known and that a fix is currently in the works.

[Via Gaming Union]

Source - cwgabriel [Twitter] (NSFW)
Source - Robert "fourzerotwo" Bowling [Twitter]

Huzzah! No more of your intense Headquarters Pro matches will be interrupted by gargantuan, killer shockwaves expelled by morally dubious combatants. That is to say, Modern Warfare 2's Javelin glitch, which enabled a dirty, cheating player to instantly detonate upon death, was fixed earlier this morning by a patch for the Xbox 360 version of the game. According to a recent tweet from Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling, the PS3 version of the game has already received the patch.

In addition to removing the Javelin's unadvertised self-immolation feature, the patch also fixes the equally insidious "unlimited care packages" glitch, and fixes a few areas where players could exploit gaps in the game's geography. In a perfect world, Infinity Ward would have also sent parcels to the houses of anyone who leveraged these exploits -- parcels full of bees. The bad kind. The kind you see on the Discovery Channel. The ones that can kill a full-grown elephant with a surprisingly small swarm.

Opening its rationalization with the arguable statement that Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 has "something intelligent to say about contemporary military conflicts," Time Magazine's "Top 10 Games" of 2009 list recently declared the title its "Game of the Year." MW2 was closely followed by Batman: Arkham Asylum and DJ Hero, while the recent Uncharted 2 and Assassin's Creed 2 landed on the bottom of the list.

The seemingly annual Flash/iPhone game choice this year turned out to be Geo Defense Swarm, while Link's latest adventure sat out the ubiquitous DS spot -- a spot filled by Scribblenauts, it would seem. As always, Joystiq will have our own Game of the Year awards going live just after the new year, so be sure to keep it locked!

Using GamerDNA results as a guideline, DFC Intelligence charted the popularity of 360 games last month, and there are some interesting revelations. For one: Every person alive or dead, including the author of this post, is playing Modern Warfare 2 as we speak. Okay, so that's a slight exaggeration but it was very popular, with somewhere between 22 and 17 percent of GamerDNA's Xbox 360-playing subjects playing the game throughout all of November.

Also somewhat surprising is just how well Borderlands – which, let's be honest, didn't have the biggest marketing push – did, handily holding on to second place until the release of Left 4 Dead 2 and Assassin's Creed 2. Admittedly this list doesn't reflect the time spent by those who aren't online, but do you seriously care about those commoners anyway?

In one day, the NPD Group will release its game sales report for the month of November, which should reveal the (near) exact number of units Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has sold in the US thus far. In the meantime, Gamespot reported on two analysts who have predicted the portion of November software sales that were made up of Warfare purchases. Industry analyst superstar Michael Pachter says the game accounts for 23 percent of total game sales. However, Pacific Crest analyst Evan Wilson has it pegged at 25 percent of total November sales.

Wilson added that this feat is made especially impressive due to his firm's prediction that "this November's sales will match the month's highest historical total on record." In related news, news stories dealing with Modern Warfare 2 composed 67.2 percent of all news stories over the past month. Oh, wait -- now it's 67.5 percent!

If amazingly fast and explosive men have been the bane of your existence in Modern Warfare 2 as of late, then know that Activision's go-to guy, Robert "fourzerotwo" Bowling, has got the hot scoops on a patch in the works to address the despised Javelin glitch. Version 1.06 of the game will not only do away with that awful bit of frustration, but will also address two other notable exploits in the multiplayer experience:

• Fixes the Javelin glitch (thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster!)
• Fixes unlimited care packages glitch
• Fixes areas where players could exploit geography (e.g. hide inside rocks in Afghan)

Bowling says the patch is currently in the hands of Microsoft for certification on Xbox 360 and presumably in Sony's for PS3 certification. We've contacted Bowling for more info and will update the post when we hear back.

Source - 1.06 in Microsoft cert
Source - 1.06 patch notes

When Square Enix enlisted to localize Modern Warfare 2 for Japan, the publisher went above and beyond the call of duty. The game would be issued a complete Japanese-dialog makeover -- whereas the first Modern Warfare localization was simply subtitled -- in response to a "strong desire from Activision to widen the entrance for beginning FPS players," as Square Enix told Famitsu. However, some gamers are reporting that the extra effort has fallen short, citing numerous translation errors in the localized game. [Insert your Bill Murray joke here.]

Additionally, Japanese site My Game Flash has rounded up other complaints about the localization, most notably an alteration to the sensationalized "No Russian" mission. Rather than delete the mission (as in the censored Russian version), Square Enix had the Japanese version of the mission adjusted to restrict the player from participating in a terrorist assault on an airport. If the player does engage civilian targets, it's game over.

Square Enix has posted an update on the Modern Warfare 2 Japanese site describing the full Japanese language and subtitle tracks and warning of the "No Russian" edits, but has not announced plans to patch the translation errors or change the limitations on the censored mission. The publisher has cited technical limitations, which prevent selectable English and Japanese language tracks. Head past the break to see some footage of the Japanese version of MW2, courtesy of andriasang.

[Via andriasang]

Source - My Game Flash [machine translation]
Source - Famitsu [machine translation]
Source - Modern Warfare 2 Japanese site

Oh, you think it's funny, making your virtual soldier explode with the force of a small supernova every time he gets killed? Yeah, we suppose it is. Know what else is funny? Getting banned from Xbox Live. Oh, wait, did we say funny? We meant really unpleasant. However, according to Xbox Live's Director of Policy and Enforcement, Stephen Toulouse, using Modern Warfare 2's Javelin glitch (an unsavory practice demoed in this video) is cheating, as defined by the service's Terms of Use. According to Toulouse, anyone caught self-detonating will be banned for 24 hours, or if caught repeatedly, two weeks.

For us honest folk, it seems the wait for a patch, which will cull the kamikaze epidemic, will be short. Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling tweeted yesterday that a fix is currently being tested, and, "once it's cleared, we'll be urging it through Microsoft & Sony certification as fast as possible." Keep the fire, troops. We can make it through this thing together.