Crispy Gamer News

Those of you that have not purchased the Call of Duty 4 Variety Map Pack, a multiplayer map pack for Infinity Ward’s popular modern-day shooter, we have some good news: you can get it for half the price and in time to play it all weekend long. The map pack will be available for 400 MS Points for a limited time. After Sunday September 14th at 11:59p PT it goes back to its full price of 800 MS Points. Get it while it’s hot, folks and save some virtual currency.

Source: Major Nelson

The next seven days look to be good times for gamers everywhere - beginning with Tiger Woods 09 and Disgaea 3 and ending with Mercenaries 2. Others highlights in the next seven days include Call of Duty 4 GOTY Edition for PC, Vampire Rain: Altered Species, Mario Super Sluggers and N+. More after the jump:

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Retail research firm, NPD Group has released its list of the top selling PC games for the week ending July 26, 2008, revealing that Her Interactive’s Nancy Drew: The Phantom Of Venice took the top spot for the week. While the teen sleuth game taking the top spot is interesting, the rest of the list is a combination of hype driven sales, hold-outs and extensions of ultra popular brands.

The Sims franchise continues to rake in cash for EA with add-ons The Sims 2 Double Deluxe and The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff; meanwhile Blizzard enjoys much success with continued sales of the World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest compilation pack, The Burning Crusade expansion and the original game. Several games on the charts are due to a large amount of buzz for upcoming games: Blizzard’s Diablo III announcement has helped drive sales of the Diablo Battle Chest compilation pack and hype for Will Wright’s Spore is driving consumers to pick up the Spore Creature Creator.

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Glu Mobile will extend its exclusive worldwide partnership with Activision to include Call of Duty: World at War for mobile phones. The Glu mobile version of Call of Duty: World at War will be released on major wireless carriers around the world, though a specific date was not revealed at press time. Details beyond the fact that Glu will develop and publish the game were not made available.

Glu’s previous Call of Duty game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is currently the fourth most popular game on their web site.

The recipients of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences” 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards were announced this week, with BioShock, Call of Duty 4 and The Orange Box picking up four awards each. The annual awards for developers by developers also inducted Blizzard’’s Mike Morhaime into the Hall of Fame and gave a Lifetime Achievement Award to former Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi.

Mike Morhaime, president, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, was inducted as the 11th member of the prestigious AIAS Hall of Fame for helping to create some of the world’s most popular franchises, including Diablo, Warcraft, StarCraft and World of Warcraft. Ken Kutaragi, former president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., received the Lifetime Achievement Award for this year.

As for the games, Call of Duty 4 won Overall Game of the Year, Console Game of the Year, Action Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play; BioShock won Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design, Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition and Outstanding Achievement in Story Development; and The Orange Box won Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, Computer Game of the Year, Outstanding Character Performance, and Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering. The big list of all of this year’’s winners can be found below:

Overall Game of the Year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Console Game of the Year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Computer Game of the Year: The Orange Box
Outstanding Innovation in Gaming: Rock Band
Handheld Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Multiplayer Game of the Year: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Cellular Game of the Year: skate
Role-Playing Game of the Year: Mass Effect
Racing Game of the Year: MotorStorm
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design: The Orange Box: Portal
Adventure Game of the Year: Super Mario Galaxy
Sports Game of the Year: skate
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year:Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Action Game of the Year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Family Game of the Year: Rock Band
Outstanding Achievement in Animation: Assassin’’s Creed
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction: BioShock
Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering: Crysis
Outstanding Character Performance: The Orange Box: Portal (Ellen McLaw’’s voice work as GLADos)
Outstanding Achievement in Story Development: BioShock
Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering: The Orange Box: Portal
Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play:Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Downloadable Game of the Year: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition: BioShock
Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack: Rock Band
Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design: BioShock

Congratulations to all of this year’s big winners.

Microsoft has released Xbox Live activity data for the week of Jan. 28, revealing that Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 continue to battle for the hearts and minds of gamers. This week Call of Duty 4 knocks Halo 3 off the perch to take the top spot, after being pushed from #1 by Bungie’’s action game last week — the week prior to that, Call of Duty was #1. Based on unique users (UUs) connected to Xbox Live, Call of Duty 4, Halo 3 and Guitar Hero III held the top slots.

The top arcade titles for the week were the freshly released Rez HD, Chessmaster Live and Metal Slug 3. This list is based on full versions purchased during the week.

Finally, Halo 2, Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and Counter-Strike were the most popular Xbox original titles played during the week — again based on unique users connected to Xbox Live. A full accounting can be found below:

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (based on UUs)
1 Call of Duty 4
2 Halo 3
3 Guitar Hero III
4 Gears of War
5 Rock Band
6 Devil May Cry 4 Demo
7 Madden NFL 08
8 Turok (Demo)
9 Assassin’s Creed
10 Rez HD

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions)
1 Rez HD
2 Chessmaster Live
3 Metal Slug 3
4 UNO
5 Bomberman LIVE
6 Sonic The Hedgehog 2
7 TMNT 1989 Arcade
8 Worms
9 Marble Blast Ultra
10 Arkadian Warriors
The above arcade list is based on full versions purchased.

Original Xbox Top Live Titles (based on UUs)
1 Halo 2
2 Star Wars: Battlefront 2
3 Counter-Strike
4 Battlefield 2: MC
5 Fable
6 Burnout 3
7 Madden NFL 08
8 Call of Duty 3
9 Doom 3
10 Conker: Live Reloaded

Activision announced today that new multiplayer maps for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare are coming soon. Coming to both Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store, the upcoming downloadable content promises to thrust gamers into a hot zone of added combat across a variety of multiplayer locales. No further intel was available on these maps, but www.charlieoscardelta.com is a good place to check regularly for the latest.