A little over a month after being fired from Activision for “insubordination“, Jason West and Vince Zampella have resurfaced with Respawn Entertainment.

Today’s the company’s first day. They don’t even have an office to even conduct an interview from. As of right now, only the two former Infinity Ward leads are on the payroll.

Needless to say, they are hiring.

While the details of the deal with Electronic Arts are scarce, one thing is certain: Electronic Arts cannot buy Respawn Entertainment. Zampella and West are in complete control of their future intellectual properties and studio. The only thing Respawn Entertainment needs to do is develop an undisclosed number of games for the publisher.

It is amusing to see the two of them “return” to Electronic Arts. They left Medal of Honor and 2015 studios to form Infinity Ward discontent with how Electronic Arts were treating them at the time. Now they’re back with a different Electronic Arts of year’s passed and under their own terms.

I am excited to see what these guys come up with next. I may now have been Modern Warfare 2′s biggest fan (especially with how the multiplayer turned out), but there’s no denying that these two people have talent and attract talented people. Everything they touched for the past decade or so has turned into gold.

A four day weekend which includes some Formula 1 racing, a fair bit of gaming and Cadbury Mini Eggs — the most Easter-ly thing I do.

I missed out on the Australian Grand Prix which I heard was a blast. I caught the Malaysian Grand Prix a third of the way through and at the time of writing, it’s been a pretty good race. I was also scratching my motorsport itch by playing a bit of Forza Motorsport 3 this weekend as well. After a three month hiatus from the game, getting back into the thick of things was a cinch. I simply love how the cars handle in this game; it makes life so easy yet challenging.

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I will not buy any multiplayer map packs — it’s a matter of principle. So this “Stimulus Package” doesn’t really matter to me. Regardless, I still have an opinion on this.

Modern Warfare 2‘s map pack will cost 1200 MS Points (or $15 for us normal folks). It will debut on Xbox Live! on March 30^th, 2010 and remain exclusive for a whole 30 days before appearing on any other platform.

I paid $45.19 for Modern Warfare 2 which came with a single player campaign and a multiplayer component which consists of 16 maps. And for 33% of that cost, Activision and Infinity Ward are offering three brand new maps and two classic maps from Call of Duty 4, mp_overgrown and mp_crash.

That’s lunacy, but people will pay that. Until consumers learn to speak with their dollars, companies like Activision will continue to gouge us all. To Activision: “Bravo”. To anyone who buys this map pack: “You disgust me.”.

It’s the third month into the life of Modern Warfare 2‘s multiplayer and I think I’ve had enough of it.

You could say I’m in the trough of disillusionment or maybe there’s just so many issues (little or large) that I’ve just had enough.

I’ve played over two day’s worth. My Kill/Death ratio is hovering at around 2.40 and I’ve Prestiged once.  But as time passed, the thrills of acquiring a chopper gunner and mowing people down is no longer there. Instead, I see a borderline broken game.

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Games. I’ve been playing some. I haven’t finished anything since Modern Warfare 2 which is why I haven’t written a review for some time.

With that in mind, I decided to jot down some of my thoughts in this week’s Checkpoint post.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii – I’ve actually finished this game with my brother a few minutes ago. Went through over the past month or so via co-operative play. It was a unique and awesome experience overall. We’ve still got World 9 and Star Coins to collect which means there’s still quite a bit of game for us to complete.

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time – 12 hours in and I can see the finish line. Like NSMBWii, there’s quite a bit of collectibles to finish up and extend play time with. They’re easy and interesting enough to get into, so I’ll be investing time searching for these.

PixelJunk Shooter – I bought this last week and completed the first three levels. I’m liking it a lot more than PixelJunk Eden simply because of the art and music. Some of Eden’s tracks were grating to the ears after awhile.

Modern Warfare 2 - Still have yet to reach level 70, but I have been spending time trying to complete challenges. Even if it means sacrificing K/D ratio performance.

Playing both Mario and Ratchet reminds me of the Winter of 2007 with Super Mario Galaxy and Tools of Destruction. Both games were great, but Super Mario Galaxy was the clear superior. This year isn’t so clear cut. Both have their own strength and weaknesses which I’ll get into with  my reviews soon.

As for what’s coming up next? I hope to start Assassin’s Creed 2 which I just picked up for $30!

Hardware

1. Nintendo DS – 1, 700, 000
2. Wii – 1, 260, 000
3. Xbox 360 – 819, 500
4. PlayStation 3 – 710, 400
5. PSP – 293, 900
6. PlayStation 2 – 203, 100

Software

1. 360 – CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 – 4, 200, 000
2. PS3 – CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 – 1, 870, 000
3. Wii -NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII – 1, 390, 000
4. 360 – ASSASSIN’S CREED II – 794, 700
5. 360 – LEFT 4 DEAD 2 – 744, 000
6. WII SPORTS RESORT – 720, 200
7. WII FIT PLUS – 679, 000
8. PS3 – ASSASSIN’S CREED II – 448, 400
9. 360 – DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS – 362, 100
10. Wii – MARIO KART W/ WHEEL – 315, 000

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I’ve accumulated nearly a day’s worth of Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer and I thought I would share some of my thoughts with the game. It’ll be brief and segmented for easy digestion.

Here goes:

Perks

Commando – This perk reminds me of the Plasma sword found in Halo 2; the lock on and teleportation towards the target. I feel the range for this is a smidgen too much

Marathon – Is there a reason why this couldn’t be “Extreme Conditioning”? If there’s one thing which highlights how arcadey Modern Warfare 2 is, it’s this perk.

Weapons

Akimbo – It’s a fun ability in any other game, but it feels so out of place in Modern Warfare 2. Especially when you pair up Model 1887 shotguns.

M16 – The M16 was my ‘Long Range’ weapon of choice in Call of Duty 4, but it is (understandably) less effective in Modern Warfare 2. What irks me about this weapon is the inability to actually hit someone from a great distance. I see them, but I can’t hit them with the M16′s bullets.

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