If you still haven’t succumbed to the peer pressure, now is the time. You can purchase Modern Warfare 2 via Steam for $40.19, 33% off of the original $59.99 price tag. Both pieces of DLC are still on sale as well for $7.49 each, 50% off the original price.

[Steam Page]

I gotta say, $15 is a little much for just a handful of new maps. Luckily, you won’t have to pay that much for the next week because Steam has both DLC packs for Modern Warfare 2 are 50% off. From now until October 11th, you can get the Resurgence Pack and the Stimulus Package for just $7.49 a piece.

Over the past two weeks, Valve’s anti-cheat (VAC) system interpreted around 12,000 gamers as having a hacked copy of Modern Warfare 2 when, in fact, their copies of the game were completely legitimate. Valve has acknowledged their error and more than made up for it by reactivating the banned Modern Warfare 2 games, as well as giving the affected gamers two free copies of Left 4 Dead 2 (one for them, and one guest pass for a friend) as an apology.

“The problem was that Steam would fail a signature check between the disk version of a DLL and a latent memory version. Steam allows us to manage and reverse these erroneous bans (about 12,000 erroneous bans over two weeks). This was our mistake, and I apologize for any frustration or angst it may have caused you.” — Gabe Newell, Valve’s President

via [Shack News & Steam Forums]

With the legendary launch of Modern Warfare 2 back in November, it’s no surprise that the award-winning game spawned many themed products, gaming related and otherwise. Recently, we reviewed the MW2-themed peripherals from Mad Catz, but now it’s time to go a bit more visual.

When we first stumbled across these Ghost-themed balaclavas, we decided it was time to retire our ninja masks and pirate eye-patches (yes, we wore them under our ninja masks, wanna fight about it?) for a more theme-appropriate, facially-obscuring item. A few emails later, we’ve got our faces in one of these awesome masks and we’re here to tell all.

**Because calling it a “mask” simply doesn’t do it justice, we will henceforth refer to it as the “Mask of Awesome Super Killers;” or “MASK” for short.

With the MASK’s superior insulating properties, you no longer need to worry about brain freeze from that strawberry milkshake while gaming. No more lost kills because you’re on the floor crying in pain.

The MASK didn’t come with any instructions pertaining to this, but whenever we donned the almighty MASK of Ghost, it came naturally to speak with our best impersonation of Christian Bale’s Batman voice. [Editor's note: Shop for new Batman mask.]

Unfortunately, at one point during the review process, one of our staff members made the mistake of wearing this MW2-themed MASK while playing Call of Duty 4. Needless to say, he’s been fired from the blog, shunned from the internet and deported from the country with a formal apology letter having been sent to his mother. He will not be missed.

It seems the biggest and, indeed, only issue that we ran into while testing the MASK was that it covers your awesome handlebar mustache and hobo beard. To remedy this, we found that the removal of one’s shirt is sufficient enough to retain one’s manliness during gaming, provided you have the minimum amount of chest hair to display. If not, then may God have mercy on your soul.

Assuming we’ve both been reading the same review, then it goes without saying that this product is far too awesome to be simply rated with our traditional Olive system. Look at the facts. Look into your heart. Now comb your beard and head over to the Ballys Merch Store to grab one for yourself.

Photos taken by Steve Hage – www.pointphotodesign.com

When Mad Catz shipped out their Modern Warfare 2 Xbox controller, they were nice enough to include the second piece of the set with their Modern Warfare 2 Throat Communicator. Now, we don’t focus on console gaming here at the Olive, so we’ll be testing this device from the perspective of a PC gamer.

The Throat Communicator consists of an around-the-neck piece with most of the electronics (mic included) built in with a wire leading up to a single ear bud. It’s a pretty cool design and makes for a very portable headset, perfect for any gamers that move around a lot. Of course, you’ll have to have your controller plugged in (or powered on if you’re using a wireless controller) and that makes it a little inconvenient, but it’s expected from a headset designed for use with consoles.

Unfortunately, the device is locked to a very low 8,000 Hz quality setting, but this is standard for Xbox headsets. For reference, 44,100 Hz is the standard quality setting for PC headsets, and this makes it almost painful to listen to through your VoIP program of choice. So, when it all comes down to it, console headsets don’t carry over to the PC nearly as well as controllers. While it’s a great looking headset and an impressive attempt to mimic real-life military technology, there’s just not enough to justify paying $20-30 for this if you’re looking for a new PC headset.

**Because of the borderline unfair testing ground for this review, we have decided to leave it more as a heads up to any PC gamers considering using a console headset on their PC. Because of this, there will be no rating for this review.

While we don’t focus on consoles here at the Olive, there are many PC games that we still use a controller for, and the Xbox 360 controller is always our weapon of choice. As any gamer that’s laid hands on it will know, the Xbox 360 controller is a true piece of art when it comes to comfort. So, when Mad Catz announced their plans for an upgraded version of the controller that would be themed towards Modern Warfare 2, we honestly couldn’t wait. We finally managed to get our hands on a review sample from Mad Catz and here’s what we think…

Mad Catz stayed close to the controller’s original design with the main changes being lit-up thumbsticks, rubber grips and redesigned trigger/bumper buttons. The bumper buttons are larger, making it easier to hit them in the heat of battle when needed. The triggers have a much more aggressive angle to them allowing better control without your fingers sliding off and the rubber palm grips make the controller not only feel great, but also stay firmly planted in your hand no matter how much perspiration might ensue. Mad Catz also promised an improvement on the original Xbox 360 controller’s clumsy D-pad, but there is only a slight improvement, nothing significant.

One of the most-hyped add-ons to the controller’s design was the addition of two buttons with switches on the backside of the controller. The switches allow you to choose a button to emulate, effectively making a second button for one that’s already located atop the controller. While this might be handy for some gamers, it seems almost completely needless for most. It also doesn’t help that awkward movement of your fingers to reach the buttons is required.

The biggest downfall of this controller are the new thumbsticks. They opted for a smooth concave top, but without the little nubs for maximum grip. It doesn’t take much sweat to build up before your fingers start sliding around. This results in accidentally pressing the thumbstick buttons down because you’re applying that extra pressure to keep control of the sticks. Mad Catz should have opted for a convex style, close to that of the PlayStation controller thumbsticks.

Another exciting addition to the controller’s design is LED lighting behind the thumbsticks. Yes, nearly useless, but a cool addition nonetheless. Unfortunately, this is a case of a great idea brought down by disappointing execution. At a glance, it seems like a nice touch, but you’ll quickly notice that the lighting is a little sloppy. Lighting that was better diffused and more evenly distributed would have gone a long way to improving the aesthetic quality. And I wouldn’t mind the addition of an on/off switch for the LEDs as well. I also noticed that the shade of green of the X button was a slightly different shade than the rest of the controller’s LEDs, which was very distracting.

As far as weight and size, the controller is nearly identical to the standard, wired Xbox 360 controller. However, it is slightly larger, so that does make it a better choice for large-handed gamers.

Scores

Price: 9
Priced around $40, it fits right between Microsoft’s wireless and wired offerings. Considering the features it offers, it’s actually priced very reasonably.

Setup/Install: N/A
With Windows’ effortless plug ‘n’ play, you won’t waste much time here.

Ease of Use: N/A
Assuming you still have at least one of your hands, you’re probably not too worried about this aspect.

Performance: 9
Mad Catz’s controller performs as impressively, if not better than Microsoft’s offering. If not for a few design issues, it would be undeniably superior to Microsoft’s controller but, as it stands, they remain very closely matched with Microsoft’s wireless functionality giving them the edge.

Features: 8
With a long braided cable, tasteful lighting, rubber grips, an improved D-pad and a “Combat Case” for portability, the controller comes packed with features. However, the controller also has its fair share of little annoyances.

Overall: 9 Olives

With the blinding success of MW2‘s first map pack, Activision has quickly announced their plans for map pack #2. The “Resurgence Pack” will bring five new maps to the MW2 online experience. The pack will be hitting Xbox Live on June 3rd and it’s safe to assume it will later hit PC, costing the same $14.99 as The Stimulus Package.

[Press Release]

In celebration of The Stimulus Package PC release, Modern Warfare 2 is hosting another free weekend, as well as offering gamers double XP. You can start pre-loading now for the free weekend and the double XP actually started last night, so get playing! Now, here’s hoping that Activision will do something about the massive community of hackers in the game.

[Press Release]

In a move that hardly surprises us, Activision has officially announced that PC gamers will have to pay for Modern Warfare 2 DLC, starting with the May 4th release of the Stimulus Package. The good news, however, is that by pre-ordering through Steam, you can save 10%.

The Stimulus Package DLC for Modern Warfare 2 on PC is 10% off on Steam if you pre-order before the May 4th release! — Robert Bowling on Twitter.

[Store Page]

Last month, Activision fired long-time Infinity Ward veterans of the CoD series Vince Zampella (CEO of Infinity Ward) and Ethan West (COO of Infinity Ward). The pair just recently announced the opening of their new studio, Respawn Entertainment, which will be backed by Electronic Arts, a fierce rival of Activision.

Now, it seems Activision is feeling the sting of this move as programmer Jon Shiring, senior animator Bruce Ferriz and MW2 lead designer Mackey McCandlish have announced their resignation and Todd Alderman and Francesco Gigliotti announced earlier this month that they had left the studio.

It’s hard to see a developer like Infinity Ward fall apart and it makes you wonder about the future of the Call of Duty series. Perhaps Treyarch will take a much larger role in the future.

via [IGN]