It has leaked on the web that several GameStop locations in the North East (Brooklyn NY, Philadelphia PA, Bowling Green Ohio) have been selling Modern Warfare 2 before its November 10th release date — as in today.

According to Mike Fahey over at Kotaku, at least one location claimed that they received specific permission from Activision to do so based on other retailers (like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and even Mom n’ Pop shops) already breaking the release date in their district.

Another individual I spoke to said they purchased MW2 from a Brooklyn, NY GameStop and added that their uncle picked a copy up at a Philly location. Activision responded directly, releasing the following statement today:

“Activision has not given any retailer permission to sell Modern Warfare 2 prior to the Nov. 10 street date. The company fully supports the Nov.10 street date.”

I reached out to a hand full of managers at GameStop locations in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. All of them emphatically stated that they will be selling the game in accordance with Activision’s scheduled release date. In addition, I was told that employees working at locations caught breaking the release date are subject to immediate termination.

One GameStop manager added another layer to the convoluted “he said, she said” mess, accusing some individuals of flat out lying. His belief was that many of the leaked videos and images actually obtained from pirated copies of the game on torrent sites were being dishonestly attributed to GameStop broken release date sales a a means to garnish an envious reaction by those desperately seeking attention.

Update: Infinity Ward’s Creative Strategist, Robert Bowling, chimed in a few hours ago with the following tweet:

“ANY store selling #MW2 early is in violation of street date. There are no “special permissions”. That said, we won’t punish players for it.”

What do you think? Is this a case of GameStop greed or lying internet attention whores? Sound off in the comments section below.

After perusing the recently revealed Fable II achievement list, one of the many that really jumped out at me was The Swinger — 5 points if you “take part in a orgy, responsibly”. I’m assuming this means group sex while wearing a condom and remembering to feed your dog.

So is this better or worse than the casual sex you can partake in while playing GTA4, or does the fantasy setting make this more acceptable to watchgroups and legislative douchebags? Will we see any of the action or will it go all black-screeny like the original Fable?  It’s situations like this that make me wonder what exactly it is that people find offensive and where the arbitrary line they draw on the moral spectrum is located.  I’m sure we will find out shortly after a few parents catch their kids stealing condoms in Fable II when it releases this October.

You can check out the full list of Fable II Achievements at Xbox360Achievements.org.

Color me surprised.  According to women’s fitness magazine Oxygen (which I totally do not have a subscription to), playing videogames burns 50% more calories in a hour than “athletic” sex does.  And that’s not including the Wii or Dance Dance Revolution — I’m talking just regular ol’ sitting-on-your-ass-tapping-buttons videogames.

The September issue of Oxygen has a special feature entitled “100 Ways to Burn 100 Calories”.  Number 71 on the list says “Play some vids”.  First, as a slap in a face to girl gamers everywhere, it says “Go over to your boyfriend’s house and get on his PlayStation 3″.  That’s right, girls don’t play videogames.  So stereotypical, Oxygen…

Anyways, Oxygen claims that forty minutes of gaming will cut 100 calories, scientifically backed by the British Medical Journal.  According to number 55, “Wii the people”, Wii gamers burn an additional 40 percent more calories than other gamers.  With some advanced calculus skills, I’ve determined that regular gaming burns 150 calories per hour, and Wii-ing burns 210 calories per hour.

So, how does this compare to sex?  Oxygen’s number 81, “Get your freak on”, states that one full hour of “athletic” sex burns a mere 100 calories.  That just seems inaccurate somehow.  An hour on the Wii burns over twice as many calories per hour as having sex?

Just to put things into perspective, here’s a list of other things they claim burn 100 calories:

• Playing Frisbee for 30 minutes
• Drinking a gallon of water (in a day, not all at once)
• Laughing for 20-30 minutes
• Driving for 45 minutes
• Gardening for 15 minutes
• Walking a mile (which takes about 15 minutes)
• Grocery shopping for 45 minutes
• Playing Monopoly for an hour

Wait, what? What was that last one again? You burn the same number of calories banging for an hour as you do from playing freaking Monopoly!? Something is seriously wrong with these statistics. The only way this would make sense is if, since this is a women’s magazine, all of the test subjects in the sex study were just laying on their backs, holding their legs in the air and moaning “athletically”, and that was it.

Maybe I’m missing something here, but when I think of a woman having “athletic” sex, it seems like it would burn a lot more in a hour than playing Monopoly or Call of Duty 4.  At least now we can claim we spend all day getting in shape, so tell your girlfriend to shut up already.

Don’t get your hopes up just yet.  Turns out, Oxygen doesn’t know what the fuck it’s talking about.  Playing videogames doesn’t burn any more calories per hour than just sitting, at least according to number 38 “Road rage”, which lists sitting at 100 calories in 40 minutes.  But wait, driving takes 45 minutes to burn 100 calories, so why does it take an extra 5 minutes if you are actually doing slightly more than just sitting?  Also, it takes a full 90 minutes of “movie-watching” to burn 100 calories even though, again, you are just sitting.

As you can clearly see, Oxygen’s “100 Ways to Burn 100 Calories” is really just a bunch of bullshit.  This was even a collaboration by the Oxygen team, so it’s not like it’s just one writer that fucked up.  Thanks for putting out a worthless magazine and making women think that you will help them get fit, and making me think that playing videogames was actually some form of exercise.  Consider my subscription (that is totally not mine) canceled.

This is the video that marks the beginning of a new era in art:

Exotic, Erotic Spore Creatures.

Source: Gamevideos