Remember back a couple months? The biggest news on Earth was the Infinity Ward and Activision Blizzard screwed up MW2 and the game was going to fall into a bucket of fail. There were boycotts, petitions, and general chaos concerning the shooter. Then it launched. Then people started playing it in droves. Then people shut-up and within two months the title surpassed $1,000,000,000 in retail sales.

Spore was the most pirated game of 2008, but that needs to be viewed through the lens of EA wrapping the legitimate, retail copy of the game with all sorts of DRM nonsense that made it unplayable under certain situations. You know, like putting the disc in your drive and expecting it to work. It was easier to pirate it than play the copy you bought at the store. Insane, yes. Modern Warfare 2 was the most pirated game of 2009, also known as “this year,” primarily because it was backed by a zillion dollar marketing campaign. That, and people like shooting at each other, virtually.

You would have been foolish to assume that Modern Warfare 2 would treat foreign cultures with any sort of reverence. First there was the rubbish accents in the Rio de Janeiro level(s). Then there was “No Russian,” which, well you know what happened there. Now there’s this: there’s Arabic all over the Karachi multi-player level. Why is this an issue? Oh, only that Arabic isn’t spoken in Pakistan (Karachi is Pakistan’s largest city).

Good news, people who play Modern Warfare 2 online multi-player. It seems Infinity Ward has fixed the dreaded “javelin exploit” that has plagued multi-player matches since the game’s launch.

Modern Warfare 2, now censored in Japan. The game, which Square Enix publishes tomorrow, changes the way the level “No Russian” works. Here, killing civilians is a no-no.

What is the allure of cheating in video games online? Who takes team deathmatches so seriously that he needs unlimited ammo, no clipping, infinite life, and other assorted nonsense? It’s stupid, and if you try to cheat online you deserve to be banned. So forgive me for not giving a damn about the 2,500 people that were just banned from non-dedicated servers for cheating in Modern Warfare 2.

Is saying “I play Modern Warfare 2 for the single-player” the new “I read Playboy for the articles”? It might as well be. But get this: I play Modern Warfare 2 for the single-player. I stink at multi-player, so why even bother? That said, I know that many of you bought the game merely to play the multi-player, and thus have no idea what the single-player’s story is about. Thank God for this video, then.

Note: This post contains Modern Warfare 2 spoilers. If you’re not cool with reading spoilers, well, then move along, nothing to see here (but you’re missing out!).

All around the world, virgins and baby seals are weeping in joy as dedicated servers have finally been enabled in Modern Warfare 2. It all has to do with that development console hack that surfaced over the weekend. Now, modders and cheaters alike can tune the game to their liking as the video after the jump clearly shows. Awesome!

Now, it’s not this blog’s intention to post every little bit of gaming news (or is it?), but this is a more signal event than all the PR out there. Modern Warfare 2 for the PC, which infamously lacks dedicated servers, a console, the ability to kick players, and other things integral to a good PC game. Infinity Ward, maddeningly apathetic to the needs and requests of their users, has said that no changes to the stated areas are forthcoming.

Well, you can’t keep a good PC gamer down. They’ve cracked it wide open.

Activision’s Modern Warfare 2 racked up $310 million in sales across the U.S. and UK during the first 24 hours of availability. That makes it the biggest video game launch ever. Hooray for war simulators!

So by now you probably already have Modern Warfare 2, have beaten the single-player mode (cheap shot!), and have been killed within three seconds of re-spawning in multi-player mode more times than you’d care to admit. Great, good for you. Something that has been taken for granted, though, is that the game will be one of the best-selling games of the year, if not the best-selling. Hold your horses, partner, because an Electronic Entertainment Design and Research analyst has said that New Super Mario Bros. Wii will well outsell Modern Warfare 2 when it’s all said and done.

I know that there’s a certain of percentage of people who want nothing to do with Modern Warfare 2. It’s all meatheads and explosions, right? I’m inclined to agree to a degree—Opie and Anthony were talking about the game this morning, and a real life member of the military called in and complained, “If you want to play war, why not join the Army?”—but no matter. There’s plenty of things to do today that have nothing to do with the game. Let’s take a look!

You know what day it is! Herein lies my usual review round-up (see yesterday’s preview), starring Modern Warfare 2. Right now I’ll highlight the good in the game, and later today I’ll highlight the bad. Very exciting, yes.

So to recap: nobody has been given permission to sell Modern Warfare 2 early. It’s a crazy Internet rumor that has no basis in reality. But it’s happening like whoa. What is based in reality is that the first reviews of the game have started appearing online, and they’re all from UK newspapers. A strange place to see the first reviews of what’s probably going to end up being the biggest game of the year (with all due respect to Assassin’s Creed II).