Call of Duty and Gaming Links, 7 February 2010

    Last night, I had the displeasure to experience, for the first time, the care package glitch. We were a bit short-handed; I think we were only 4 guys at the time. Despite my prestigeness, we were managing to hold the high ground on Favela OK. Then, the care packages started up. There were care package birds in the air non-stop for the last 5 minutes of the game, courtesy of no less than three douchebags on the enemy team. Despite their rampant douchebaggery, they managed to win by only a couple of kills. They wouldn't have, but they lucked out with an AC-130 that made short work of two of us unprotected by Cold-blooded. Most hilarious of all, when I commented that they could only win the game by cheating, one of the douchebags said, "Well, you guys were camping at the top of the hill." We muted, avoided, and filed complaints on all three of them. As a parting riposte, one of the cheaters said, "Go ahead and report us, that doesn't work on us." Hmmm. Judging by the number of suspended cheating douchebags posting on the Xbox Live Suspension forums, reporting a cheating douchebag does seem to work, mostly. Mostly.
    We took a long break for pizza and some streaming South Park after that. We managed to have a good time in spite of the cheating. We won almost every game and eked out some tough matches by a few kills and lost a few close heartbreakers. Since I'm prestiged, I'm trying out a lot more weapons. The first time around, as soon as I found what I thought was my personal fave, I maxed out the class slots with it. This time, I'm spreading the wealth. I'm using the submachine guns a lot on medium-range maps. For the way we play as a group, an SMG is OK for Skidrow, Terminal, and Underpass. I'm even using the Vector, which actually, by real-life stats, should be the best SMG in the game, but suffers from having its balls cut off for balance reasons. On open maps like Wasteland, I'm using the default sniper class, which has Cold-blooded on it. I only got two sniper rifle kills with that, tho I did get some kills with the silenced USP at some impressive ranges. :) It was a good gaming night over all, and I managed to go from level 6 to level 14 in two short stints. On to the links:

Featured YouTube Video

FFA Quarry 23 killstreak by alexszym95.

• As this tweet from fourzerotwo and this GameInformer article show, the care package glitch fix is in Microsoft certification.

    More Gaming Links:

• MAG reviews: GamePro; GameTrailers.
• Escapist: 5 things you shouldn't do in Mass Effect 2. Related: GameTrailers: Mass Effect 2 user vid (Spoiler!): Shepherd learns about safe sex.
• Kotaku: Mass Effect 2 SDTV/small screen "tiny text" problem not being fixed. Ever.
• NeoSeeker: Free Mass Effect 2 DLC coming thru Cerberus network.
• GameTrailers Bioshock 2 vid extravaganza: "Red Carpet" trailer; Little Sister Gathering gameplay; Big Daddy combat gameplay teaser; Rumbler battle gameplay teaser.
• Bioshock 2 review round-up: IGN; IGN UK; LaughOutLoudGamers via 5min.com (video review);
• El33tOnline: Bayonetta sells 1.1 million worldwide.
• Joystick Division: Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1.

• A beaut from the Xbox Live Suspension Forum: Why was I banned? by The Pro Suks. (The Pro is one of the head Xbox Live CoC enforcement personnel.)
• GameInformer: F.E.A.R. 3 rumored.
• Kotaku: Aliens vs. Predator PC "Case-burster" case mod.
• Here's a conundrum: GameSpot has a link to a map pack with deformable skins for Kingpin: Life of Crime, an Id-engined game last seen before the turn of the century. On the GameSpot page for the map pack, there are no quick links for the game at all, since it dropped off the radar an eon ago. What we've got here is a) some editorial time warp; b) the world's most meticulous and dedicated mapper and the world's most idiotic editor;  or c) a joke. FWIW, I hated Kingpin. I stopped playing it before finishing the first level. I was put off by having to crowbar in the skull of some wife-beater wearing thug to steal his money.
• Destructoid: Project Natal prototype looks like an evil robot. I, for one, welcome our new Microsoft Robot Overlords.
• GamesRadar: Essential ingredients for sequel.
• Feeble signs of life as Crispy Gamer updates something: Heavy Rain trailer.

    Non-Gaming Links:

• Weekly Webcomic Wrap-up from Joystiq.
• ITWorld: Can you trust Chinese IT equipment?
• AfterDawn: Verizon service headed to iPad, says source. 
• Ars Technica: Sling: We didn't 'work' with AT&T for 3G streaming to iPhone.
• BadAstronomy via Slashdot: Give Space a chance says Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait.
• MaximumPC: 11 Best Greasemonkey Scripts that Actually Work with Chrome.
• Kotaku Photoshop Contest, iPad edition 
• GameDaily: iPad developer explains why it's so revolutionary.

PS.