Imagine it, Christmas day and many American teens were furiously un-wrapping gifts found under their trees.  What would any young, red-blooded American want more than the latest from Infinity Ward; Modern Warfare 2?  What did they really get though?  Could it be possible that, instead of the wondrous game they were expecting, they were given a glitch riddled game?

Through the first month of Modern Warfare 2 being release, I had seen nothing but stories about glitches.  Both the Xbox 360 version and the PC version seemed to have their own problems.  At first, players found ways to escape the maps giving them an advantage over other players.  This is to be expected as many games I have played have encountered this problem before.  Some have alleviated this problem by having a pre-release beta which allows them to catch the map exits before release date.  Players used to be able to perform a glitch with the Javelin that caused them to drop a grenade when dying, which of course exploded immediately.  Lastly, a glitch had also allowed players to have unlimited care package drops as well.  Both of the last two glitches required precise and intricate combos of buttons that seemingly perform the effect.  Whether discovered accidentally or by reverse engineering the code, I think both glitches were unexpected by anyone.

Infinity Ward quickly patched the holes in their game, yet it seemed that the patch created for the console had opened up even more, new glitches.  Preceding the patch, reports were streaming that a glitch was giving everyone in the game unlimited ammo.  What seemed even worse to me were the reports that the only way to remove the glitch from your system was to reboot your 360.  Even if you were to disconnect, unless you rebooted completely you would carry this glitch on to every game you played, spreading to others like a plague.  The last glitch I heard of was one were players had been able to create a private game in which they received double XP, even from killing their own teammates.   Players reported even being sucked into these games against their own will, so perhaps some of the glitches are performed through Microsoft’s servers, not just Infinity Ward’s.

“Oh”, but you say, “My kid won’t have these problems because I got him the PC version for Christmas.”  I didn’t forget about you, PC version.  Oh PC, Steam possibly gave you the best advantage of all.  Unknown to me, players are allowed to create custom skins for the game and Steam’s anti-cheating software allows it.  Why, somebody could have simply created some unusual skins that gave themselves an unfair advantage.  Oh wait, somebody did!

It included:

Red Player Models – All players appeared as red, enhancing visibility.
Reduced Foliage – Many of the bushes that obstructed viewing were now invisible.
No HUD Blood – The blood splatter that appears in the Heads Up Display after taking damage was now invisible giving the player a clear view.

Now I am fairly sure that most of these issues have been taken care of by now.  Still the fact remains that the first month of online play was disorderly.  Questions remain in my head concerning the steps that Infinity Ward could have taken to prevent these aberrations from occurring.  Performing an open beta is something that immediately comes to mind. Whether or not it would have solved the problem is simply another question.  So when teens ripped open their package, what was really there?  Was it a work of art or a work incomplete?  One thing is for sure, the glitch stole Christmas this time around.