BC2 Redux, MW2 Exodus, Sandy Ravage vid

    The job fair on the 14th was really crowded; according to the local news, 2000 of us showed up. We were apparently looking for the same job, since it was an hour wait in line for one of the local employers. A former colleague of mine saw that I (or at least the top of my head) made the news:

    In the post-coital haze of my tax refund, I went ahead and ordered a Hauppage PVR. With it, we should be able to record online gameplay. Probably only Reibo's FFA games are actually worth recording, but we'll see. Also bought the new primary PC for Reibo so he doesn't have to curse so much when doing artwork and such for me. He should be setting that up today. I don't envy him the headache of transferring software from one PC to another. Plus, it's a Windows 7 PC, so not all apps might be supported...
    After 21 years of working nights, I sometimes have trouble sleeping. Here's a nice website, RainyMood, which has a 30 minute loop of rainstorm sounds. White noise-type sounds like rain and surf are very effective for lulling yourself to sleep. Thanks to repi for tweeting the link!
    The Infinity Ward situation has gotten worse; every time I google the MW2 news, another couple of developers have taken to the life rafts. Does it mean that the Call of Duty brand is finished? No, but it's changing and it's not for the better, as noted in several links below.
    I tried Bad Company 2's single player one more time. During my seething, blazing annoyance at getting shot out of the sky 20 times, I hadn't noticed whether my chopper health was low when I started out the dogfight. As it happened, the vehicle health was 100%, and I just couldn't traverse the gun fast enough to down the 2nd chopper. I handed the controller to Reibo, and he shot down the other chopper with humiliating ease. After that, I breezed through the last couple of chapters in no time. I'm working on a single player review now...  Today's featured MW2 vid is an unbelievable Chopper Gunner killfeed (that's the string of who killed who with what messages on the lower left side of the HUD). On a Favela Ground War match, his buddy racks up the score and the Chopper icon seems permanently pasted to the killfeed. It's like a buffet of chopper gunner kills. The second vid is a factoid vid about the Pavelow killstreak with a bonus game with a Tactical Nuke finish with a sprinkling of Booster Hunting. Finally, tho Booster Justice 3 hasn't posted, we have a Sandy Ravage SPAS-12 rampage on a Domination match on Wasteland. On to the links:

• Kotaku: The Modern Warfare Fight: Your Guide to Activision Vs. Infinity Ward.
• New York Times (blog): Activision shaken by departures.
• 1Up: Vox Populi! 1Up asks its readers what they think about the Infinity Ward/Activision debacle.
• Joystiq: EA: Activision has shot its prize horse. FTA: "Upon the news that Activision was raising its Q1 fiscal outlook based on strong sales of Modern Warfare 2 DLC, EA spokesperson Jeff Brown told IndustryGamers, 'This is kind of like announcing: The race horse I shot last month has won the Triple Crown!' [emphasis his]." ROFL!
• VideoGamer: Modern Warfare 2 now the 2nd best-selling game in the US. 
• The Motley Fool: Fall of Duty at Activision Blizzard. Why the great first quarter results reported by Activision are really meh. Plus, as noted in The Times Online, Activision Blizzard stocks have fallen 7.5% in one week. From that article: "Evan Wilson, an industry analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, said: 'Investors are starting to think that Activision really ticked off the whole studio.' Industry observers said that Activision remained in a strong position. It also owns two other major games franchises, World of Warcraft and Guitar Hero. However, the company’s stock price has fallen more than 7.5 per cent this week."

• Aperture Games: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 review.
• Co-Optimus Battlefield Report (blog): The sniper in Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
• Escapist: Analyst Mike Hickey: Battlefield Could be Modern Warfare Killer.
• Softpedia: Analysts: BC2 will be March best-seller.

• Gamepro thru digg: 5 ways Halo influenced gaming.
• Kotaku: Microsoft bids Xbox Live 1.0 goodbye with cake. It's so delicious and moist.
• GamaSutra: NPD: Videogame sales rise 6% as God of War III shines.
• Kotaku: NPD Instant Analysis: Things You Should Note.
• IGN YouTube: Daily Fix for 15 April 2010 (not done by Jessica Chobot). Brief Jessica Chobot bikini footage at 1m42s.
• Business Week: Video games before bed may not hurt teens' sleep. Deinitely hurts if you're an old fart like me and the game pisses you off so bad you hurl your controller...

• CrunchGear via digg: Intel predicts Light Peak to replace USB 3.0.
• Bad Astronomy (blog): Obama lays out bold and visionary revised space policy.
• The Next Web: Twitter to launch URL shortener.
• The Atlantic: Yes, Baseball Games Are Way Too Long.
• CNN: What the dinosaurs saw 65 million years ago: Fireball meteor lights up US Mid-west skies.