Employees allegedly met with CEO Bobby Kotick who promised them their money on exiting the company – a promise which has not been met. Not only that, the suit also claims that if West and Zampella were never fired, if the bonus money had been paid out in full and if Activision had not created a “police state-like atmosphere,” the group of employees would have never resigned from Infinity Ward. Ouch.

Activision have yet to make a comment about this, but if they do we’ll be sure to post it here.

Originally Activision sacked the studio heads for insubordination, which prompted class-action lawsuits, counter-suits and the establishment of a new studio called “Respawn Entertainment” by the ex-Activision men, West & Zampella.

Now, stories have been coming of more employees leaving Infinity Ward. Two more people have announced their departure from Infinity Ward today. Messerly is an employee who had been with IW since day 1. The other employee, Grisby, was the inspiration and voice actor for the CoD 4 character, Staff Sergeant Griggs. This brings the total body count to 13 as of today.

This doesn’t look good for the Call of Duty developers, as there is nothing worse for a software company then to hemorrhage staff! Neither Respawn, Infinity Ward or Activision have made public statements as of yet.

Lead designers Zied Reike and Steve Fukuda, as well as programmer Rayme Vinson have left for the new studio, called Respawn Entertainment (the irony is delicious there), where the plan is currently to develop a new game and try to get the “Modern Warfare” monicker from the clutches of Activisions’ legal staff.

Take a look at the below.

What they don’t play up is the crazy price the maps are going to cost when released.

Video below.

1200 points…..are you kidding with me? Dice are giving away free maps for Battlefield at the end of March? A month after release! Infinity Wards game came out nearly six months ago and were expected to nearly €15 for 3 maps and two re makes? Am I the only one who finds this a little steep?

IW probably have very little to do with pricing but if they want to reach the peaks of fan appreciation the likes of Bungie have gotten too, they need to take care of their community. Especially given what they have had to put up with post release.

[source]

The opposite team in this video was no so lucky.

Here are the 2nd  MW2 Mythbuster video as an added bonus!

Infinity ward announced they will be releasing yet another patch to help quell the seemingly never ending amount of glitches that are cropping up in the online multiplayer.

Among the issues addressed in the latest pack is the revisiting of the 1887 shotgun. Anyone who has been playing since launch will have noticed the increased amount of players seen dual wielding the classical shotty. Unlocked at level 67 the weapon has ridicules range and power and when paired with Marathon makes players using it a blur of quick instant kills.

Thankfully IW have taken notice and are going to ”rebalance” the weapon.

Other fixes included will address the infinite ammo mod and also the custom match exploit that was running rampant this weekend, several matches I played turned out to be never ending level up orgies with players ranking up hundreds of kills.

Is this the worst case we have seen of an online console shooter being so badly hacked, modded and glitched so soon after release?

I’m probably going to just update this post with new fails I find throughout the day so keep clicking.

This one is truly epic (if its not staged)

Infinity ward may have come under some criticism for its reasonably short single player campaign but what can not be denied is that the multiplayer experience is refined to the point of insanity.

Visually the multplayer experience is on a par with the first games single player campaign. The sheer amount of debris and props on each level is stunning, there is nothing like defending a flag in an office building and seeing computer monitors and coffee cups wiz past you’re face as often as bullets. Character models in the past just looked like moving blurs but  are now detailed and even better; they react brilliantly to getting shot and blown up. The dramatic score is dropped from multiplayer apart from key moments of the battle but the sound affects of each level are top notch. Whether its the calm squelching of snow under you’re feet  on Derailed or the sound of rain beating off you’re blood soaked helmet on Underpass the sound does nothing but enhance you’re experience in every map. As for the weapons effects, well if you have heard the low boom of the Thumper or the scream of a predator missile you know that there spot on.

Why does snow make everything look cool

Gameplay wise the biggest change is the level of customization that you are afforded to you’re custom class. The most impressive of which is the Killstreaks , at certain points in you’re progression through the ranks you will receive points that you can use to unlock new KS rewards and you even decide in certain streaks what reward you use and at what time. For example after 5 kills in a row you can decide if you want to drop a sentry gun or if you want to piss death on someone face with a predator missile. This on top of the 7 or so challenges for every weapon and piece of equipment that return from the last game gives you a serious feeling of progression after every match you play. To add even more to that sense of achievement/progression is the new inclusion of Call signs. Depending on how you act in a match various badges and symbols get unlocked for you to customize you tag. It may seem like a novel idea that was ripped off from Street Fighter 4 but infact it really adds to that achievement feeling that brings gamers back for more.

The perks are much more balanced this time around and thankfully the Martyr perk is downgraded to a death streak and a difficult one to unlock at that. My favourite perks are by a mile Slight of hand and Bling. Slight of hand once maxed out is beyond useful when using light machine guns and Bling lets you  kit you’re selected weapon up to exactly the way you want it, heart monitor and Holographic site on any assault rifle or light machine gun is the shiznit.

Of the 16 Maps on offer I would put Afghan, Derailed and Karachi as the ones I look forward to the most. Karachi in particular is a mine field of tactical fighting. Each building has multiple view points of the streets and when playing Domination it’s just a Joy to behold. Afghan is the map we all remember from the trailer where FourTwoZero got knifed in the back and its open nature makes it a serious hazard for harrier and missile kills. While Derailed mixes indoor and outdoor combat with a horrible central placed B flag during domination that sees the snowy exteriors drenched in yummy human bean juice.

You Gota love that heartbeat sensor

I won’t go into the new game types except to mention that I’m not a big fan of the third person game types and that Domination is by far my favourite.

I was extremely cynical going into this game and maybe that’s why I’m so damn surprised by how excellent it is. Sure, I don’t feel like that when I get shot by a helicopter through no real fault of my own but the game is balanced enough to let me get sweet revenge on cheap bastard once I respawn with Missile Launcher in tow. So in other words its refined and balanced.

Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer is like Sexy time, often intense, rewarding fun that’s even better done with a team of strangers. That’s all you get, if you see me online you had better be staying frosty.