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As every gamer patiently waits for the chance to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as we rapidly approach its release date next Tuesday, I'll actually be taking the time to catch up on some games that have slipped through the cracks so far. After wrapping up Brutal Legend last night (thought I do want to dive back in and find all the guitar solos eventually), I'm moving on to Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony. With any luck, I'll manage to see that adventure to the end on Sunday.

That's just me, though. What are you playing this weekend?

When I met with OneBigGame charity co-founder Martin de Ronde, formerly of Guerrilla Games, the last project I expected him to announce was an adventure game based on Minesweeper.

Yes, Minesweeper, the point 'n click freeware game bundled with your copy of Windows.

Minesweeper is currently in development at Revolution Software by adventure mastermind Charles Cecil, who previously developed the Broken Sword series and collaborated with Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons on Beneath A Steel Sky (recently released on iPhone).

"He's [Cecil] come up with a back story for as to why the mines are there, he's come up with characters," laughed de Ronde. "It's turning out to be a really, really cool game in terms of mechanics and also in terms of the setting and the universe..."

Who knows how this will turn out, but the concept alone is insane enough for me to sign up.

You won't be able to purchase Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on Direct2Drive, GamersGate or Impulse when it's released next week because of the game's integration of Steam. Infinity Ward integrated the Steam client into Modern Warfare 2 to support Steamworks, prompting all three digital distribution chains to decide the game will not be available in their stores.

"At Direct2Drive, we believe strongly that when you buy a game from us, you shouldn't be forced to install and run a 3rd party software client to be able to play the game you purchased," reads a statement on Direct2Drive's website. "Because COD MW 2 requires you, the consumer, to do that, we aren't able to offer the game via Direct2Drive at this time."

Direct2Drive is also offering a $5 coupon off any other Activision title in its marketplace.

"Impulse will not be selling Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 either," said and Impulse spokesperson in a statement to Voodoo Extreme. "We share some of the same concerns as Direct2Drive over the bundling of the Steam client with the game. The most obvious issue is the forced inclusion of a competitor's store that blocks us from carrying the game."

I've contacted Activision about these developments. If they comment, I'll let you know.

Were you planning to buy Modern Warfare 2 through any of these services?

Soon, Nintendo will drop its biggest game of the year, New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It's being released in the days after Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 comes out, widely expected to be one of, if not the, biggest releases of the year (Activision's CEO said it could be the most impressive launch in any entertainment medium -- ever). Nintendo disputed that point in little bit a Gametrailers TV interview with Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.

Files-Aime believes once the holiday dust has settled, New Super Mario Bros. Wii will outsell Modern Warfare 2, if you look at a single platform's sales (i.e. Modern Warfare 2's sales on Xbox 360).

"I'll take that bet," he joked.

In the same interview, Fils-Aime also addressed other rumors regarding Nintendo. It's been long rumored Nintendo will release an updated version of the Wii with support for high-definition visuals. Despite the head of Nintendo's R&D division recently telling investors that "moving to HD appears to me a natural flow," Fils-Aime outright denied the existence of the theorized "Wii HD."

"I don't know how forcefully we can say there is no Wii HD," said Fils-Aime.

Lastly, the Nintendo head honcho briefly discussed the next Zelda game. Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed the game's existence at E3 this year, but Fils-Aime wasn't willing to commit to a 2010 release date for Link's next adventure, but he didn't rule it out, either.

“We haven’t committed to Zelda for 2010," he said. "That’s what he [Miyamoto] said. So we’ll see how that continues to develop.”

[image credit: flickr / Brian Clary Photography]

Source: Gametrailers TV

Polyphony Digital will finally deliver Gran Turismo 5 for the PlayStation 3 in 2010. The 1,000 cars on the disc should keep racing fans happy for some time, but even when they've exhausted everything Gran Turismo 5 has to offer, series creator Kazunori Yamauchi told Autoweek that next entry, presumably titled Gran Turismo 6, shouldn't take as long to arrive.

"You won't have to wait as long as you did for GT5," said Yamauchi. "GT5 represents a whole new operating system. GT6 is just new apps that run on the GT5 system."

It seems a little premature to already start requesting features for Gran Turismo 6...

Source: Autoweek

Sometime in 2015, 26-year-old Xbox Live user Stallion83, otherwise known as Robert, expects he'll achieve the goal he set out for in 2006: earning an Xbox Live gamerscore of 1,000,000.

According to achievement tracking website TrueAchievements, it's currently possible to unlock 733,835 achievement points across every Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Arcade game. Microsoft was unable to verify this statistic or provide their own achievement numbers for me. It sounds about right.

Robert, who declined to reveal his last name to me due to legitimate fears of someone hacking his account, has currently accumulated a monstrous gamerscore totaling 384,155 points.

(Note: It's very likely that number will change by the time you read this story.)

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Can you guess what everyone on Feedback was talking about this week? Hint, hint: we're one week away from the highly anticipated launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. However you feel about Infinity Ward's latest entry in its shooter franchise, it's shaping up to be a monumental day for games. Chances are everyone could have talked about Modern Warfare 2 for an entire show, but as it turns out, there's a bajillion other games being released right now. So, we talked about those, too.

 Here's what else Adam, Abbie, Sterling and I cover on this edition of Feedback:

• That controversial Modern Warfare 2 viral video that showed up last weekend (and has since disappeared) sparks some heated discussion...and harsh words for Infinity Ward.
• Even Nintendo's not sure what to do with the Wii these days. We look at where the Wii's come in the past few years and some up with some easy ways Nintendo can patch things up.
• Game of the week? How about games of the week? DJ Hero, Tekken 6 and Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony -- batter up!
• As more casuals join the ranks of our fellow gamers and achievements encourage players to venture into harder difficulty settings, a reader probes us about difficulty settings in games.

Feedback: doing a poor job of hanging signs with scotch tape since mid-2009. Sing our ballad and subscribe:

Video: iTunes | XML   |   Audio: iTunes | XML

(And yes, we are aware that Sterling's microphone is underperforming this week. Top men are on the case. Top. Men.)

The response to Infinity Ward's decision to remove support for player-run dedicated servers from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and embrace console-style matchmaking has been near-universally negative from hardcore PC users. Activision has allowed Infinity Ward to respond directly to players since the news broke, but on an Activision quarterly results call, an analyst asked the publisher if the reaction would have a notable impact on the sales of the PC version of Modern Warfare 2.

In short: Activision's not worried.

"We're of course watching this very carefully and paying attention it it, but we're not overly concerned about it," said Activision Publishing head Michael Griffith. "One of the problems of our PC [versions] on this title in the past is that it has not been as friendly a consumer experience in terms of matchmaking and online play as the consoles have allowed it to be. Our solution here improves that consumer experience overall by a significant margin, so we we think the benefits that we will see are gonna far outweigh any negatives that seem to be surfacing."

Of course, we won't know the real-world impact until Modern Warfare 2 goes on sale next week, where gamers will be forced to put their money where their mouth is. Just a few days now...

Have something to share? Have a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.

Analysts, like gamers, are always interested in what's next. When Blizzard Entertainment president and co-founder Mike Morhaime outlined the plan for Blizzard in 2010 during Activision's quarterly financial results call today, he didn't mention the company's next MMO. Blizzard has publicly said it's working on an MMO not related to World of Warcraft, but has detailed little else.

Even when pressed by an analyst, Morhaime remained tight lipped on the next MMO.

"With respect to the product that we have in development," said Morahime, "which is an new massively multiplayer online game, we have not announced any details with respect to that game or the intellectual property associated with it other than to confirm that there is an unannounced MMO currently in development at Blizzard and that it is not a direct sequel to World of Warcraft."

Blizzard has reiterated several times this is not a replacement for World of Warcraft. Thoughts?

Have something to share? Have a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.

Gamers are still patiently waiting for Blizzard Entertainment to deliver the long-in-the-making StarCraft II for the PC and Mac, which was originally planned for a late 2009 release. Blizzard Entertainment president and co-founder Mike Morhaime reiterated on an Activision quarterly results call that StarCraft II is targeting a release within the "first half of 2010."

The company is still planning a StarCraft II beta test, but Morhaime didn't disclose any details on when the beta itself would launch. "[We are] driving hard towards [a] beta test," said Morhaime. "All of us are very excited to get started."

One game Morhaime barely discussed was Diablo III. The latest hack 'n slash sequel was not said to be part of Blizzard's 2010 pipeline, while StarCraft II and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm are. Morhaime mentioned Diablo III as part of Blizzard's "pipeline," but that's all he would say.

Have something to share? Have a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.

None of this should come as a surprise given Activision's love for sequels, but during the publisher's quarterly financial results conference call, the company confirmed new installments in Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk, Spider-Man and Shrek throughout 2010.

The company has not revealed specifics about any of these follow-ups.

Stay tuned.

Have something to share? Have a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.

There are big expectations for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The game's pre-order numbers are setting up for a massive launch for the latest Call of Duty. During an investor call discussing Activision's quarterly financial results, however, CEO Bobby Kotick set expectations even higher.

Kotick expects Modern Warfare 2 to produce the "largest video game launch of all time" and just moments later, Kotick even went one step further, predicting Infinity Ward's latest could be "one of the largest entertainment launches of any media of all time."

The last time we heard this kind of rhetoric was Halo 3. Can Modern Warfare 2 live up to the hype?

Hey, I don't have anything against old people. Decades from now, when every game is motion controlled, youngsters will be laughing at me, too. But for the time being, it's the other way around. The Faster Times recently ran a series of photos collected from Flickr chronicling a series of older men and women trying their hand at ye ol' Guitar Hero. As one might expect, the lulz ensue.

You have to give it to them, though -- at least they tried! Bravo.

Source: The Faster Times

Retro reboots are finding enormous success through digital distribution. Old school publisher Hudson Soft is well aware of this. The nature of video game development and marketing these days makes charging $59.99 for a new Bonk game a difficult proposition, but asking a fraction of that asking price on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and WiiWare becomes much more appealing. Hudson Soft is one of growing faction of companies fully embracing the advantages of digital distribution.

The Bonk idea isn't fake, either. Bonk: Brink of Destruction is coming to all three platforms in 2010.

"For digital download, we are very aggressive," said Hudson VP of development Sabine Duvall in a recent e-mail interview with me. "Our intent is to deliver solid products for this market. The goal is to support the casual gamer as well as the hardcore gamer. The only thing that changes [versus retail] is the method of distribution. It is a natural process of this industry to move on to new technologies. Digital download is definitely next generation and it is here to stay. Hudson is always checking for new trends in the industry, it was a natural step for us."

Not everything needs to be digitally distributed, however.

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If you signed up for a copy of the Blu-ray disc that will enable Netflix's streaming on-demand service on your PlayStation 3, the discs could start showing up as early as tomorrow. A number of Netflix users, including myself, have received e-mail notifications from the company that the streaming-capable discs are en route for Friday.

I'd load more movies and television shows into my streaming queue, but it's already a couple hundred long. Hopefully, PlayStation 3's Netflix interface comes packaged with more sorting options.