Week In Review: 03/06

The old saying that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb may be referring to the weather, but this year it equally applies to the video game industry. This week marked the launch of Bad Company 2, the only FPS we thought had a shot at bringing down Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare franchise. But that was assuming Activision wouldn’t topple the franchise itself, first.

We’ll get to the Activision hoopla in a minute, but let’s start things off right. Monday’s Weekly Roundup revealed a couple of gems to get excited about, including MLB 2K10, which Reiner reviewed  (check out the MLB Showdown to see how it compared to this year’s The Show), and Mega Man 10, which Tim reviewed after playing it for days on end. Bad Company 2 stole the show however, and there are already more than a few editors here who are obsessed with it.

Bad Company 2 was discussed in The Game Informer Show as well, along with StarCraft II and the IW snafu, which I promise we’re getting to in a minute. Other cool exclusives this week include a Replay featuring Apocalypse, an interview with Vanquish director (and Resident Evil creator) Shinji Mikami, (which Annette previewed here), and a new episode of Respec Radio, covering The Lich King, and stat changes in the Cataclysm expansion.  Miller’s Impulse Weekly covers Toy Soldiers and Mega Man 10, while The[Crafty]Gamer features a Zelda-inspired track by Aquma.

Oh yeah, we also revealed our April cover yesterday, which is a 12-page feature on Portal 2. Sure, you can pretend not to be surprised by the announcement, but we guarantee you’re not expecting the details you’ll find out in the actual article, including info on the new 2-player co-op mode. In addition to the magazine coverage, you’ll find new Portal 2 details all month at our Portal 2 Hub.

If that’s not enough exclusive goodness for you, Meagan has been going all-out for our annual Indie Week. She posted five straight days of indie game coverage, which include features, interviews, and previews of over 15 indie games. The festivities will continue through the weekend too, so check out the hub page for more content.

Now let’s get to the big story of this week, the Infinity Ward/Activision mess. It all started with rumors that Infinity Ward president, Jason West, and CEO, Vince Zampella, had disappeared from the studio and couldn’t be located, while “a bunch of bouncer-types” showed up in the office. A Facebook posting suggested the two had been fired, which was corroborated by an SEC filing, then finally confirmed by Activision, which stated it will be taking the franchise in a new direction. Case closed? Not quite: West and Zampella announced they were suing Activision, claiming they were fired to avoid being paid the royalties they were due to receive for Modern Warfare 2. Phil Kollar talked to IP attorney, Eric Chad, to get a sense of what the lawsuit means and where it’s going. Meanwhile, a memo leaked from Activision suggests the company is looking for documents that tie the two ex-employees to EA,  which it hopes will support the claims that the men were fired for breach of contract. On Thursday, Andy McNamara weighed in on the whole situation with this somber opinion piece.

There was also less depressing news this weekend. An unconfirmed trailer for the Halo Reach Beta was leaked, which looks pretty sweet. We also saw new screens for a bunch of games, including: NCAA Football 11, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Test Drive Unlimited 2, Crysis 2, and Jonathon Blow’s new unnamed project.

It was announced that all the sweet Borderlands DLC coming out recently will be available on a retail disc (you can check out our preview of the latest offering here). Tropico 3 will be getting its own expansion, as will The Sims 3, and even Final Fantasy XI. We also learned some details of the first BioShock 2 DLC, and the price of Super Street Fighter IV. Plus, Tim gave his impressions on the new RE5 DLC, while Bryan offered up his opinion of the newly-launched Rock Band Network, which is kind of like an expansion when you think about it (work with me). Sadly, one game that won’t be getting any expansions is the fan-made King’s Quest sequel, which was killed by Activision (not a great week for Activision's image). Luckily that news story links to all the different ways you can let Activision know how you feel about the decision. Finally in DLC-related news, here’s the mother of all expansions: Media Molecule announced LittleBigPlanet now has more than 2 million user-created levels, which apparently was enough of a reason for Sony to buy the developer. Good call, Sony. Your idea for degradable game demos? Not as cool.

Here are a few more new announcements to brighten your day. The FFXIV closed beta is coming soon. There will also be an old school Tecmo Bowl for XBLA this spring (awesome!), and a new downloadable Lara Croft adventure (okay I guess!).  And although it’s nothing official, Suda51 announced he’s considering XBLA and PSN for future games. Considering how awesome the 8-bit mini-games are in No More Heroes 2, that could be pretty cool.

There was also plenty of sequel talk this week. Sony announced SOCOM 4. The creative director of Splinter Cell Conviction said a future sequel could end up on the PS3 again, and an Activision SEC Filing hinted that there could be more Diablo sequels on the way, besides Diablo III. Also, Warner Bros. announced there will be six more years of Lego games, while the director of God of War III said he doesn’t want to do a sequel anytime soon. And in our last bit of sequel news, Take Two announced that Max Payne 3, Civilization 5, and Mafia II will all be out by October, along with L.A. Noire. The company also announced Red Dead Redemption has been delayed – but only by two weeks!

And finally, time for our stories that have no segue. Sony was having some problems with its network earlier in the week, which ended up being referred to as the ApocalyPS3. It’s fixed now – the only reason I bring it up is because our story featured probably the most ridiculous header image we’ve ever had on the site. Other completely random stories: Sony might be making some kind of phone; some of our readers are incapable of identifying sarcasm; Kratos sexes it up in God of War III; and Microsoft will stop banning users for identifying their race, religion, or sexual orientation on their bio page. Welcome to the 21st century, Microsoft!

That concludes another edition of Week In Review. To check out what else our crazy editors were up to this week, be sure to check out the latest edition of Blog Herding.