“To thank you for your loyalty to Xbox LIVE and for buying the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus package on day 1, we will extend your Gold membership for 7 more days of adrenaline-pumping action with your friends on LIVE. Your account will be updated by May 1.”

It looks like after all the problems that were encountered after the launch of the Stimulus Package on March 30th Xbox Live has decided to give everyone who bought the Stimulus Package on the 1st day 7 more days of their Xbox Live membership.

It may not be much but I guess it’s better than nothing. To be honest now that the hype has settled down a bit $15 does seem like quite a bit of money for only 5 maps, especially when 2 of them aren’t even new (Crash, Overgrown). But I guess 7 days of Xbox Live helps out a little bit? (Even though I think 7 days of Xbox Live, if you pay yearly, is only worth about $1…)

In response to a whole host of gamers saying that they wanted to have the new maps playable on all game type play lists (Ground War, Team Deathmatch, etc.) Infinity Ward has decided to expand the new maps to all playlists tomorrow (March 31st), as well as enable double XP for all playlists.

Here’s the tweet from fourzerotwo (AKA Robert Bowling):

Behold! The power of feedback. We’ll be integrating the new maps into all playlists as well as enabling Double XP for all playlists tomorrow.

[UPDATE]

The playlists are now updated. The new maps will now be playable in every game type and double XP has also been enabled in all playlists. Here’s the tweet:

Modern Warfare 2 playlists now updated. They should all have double XP and include the new maps in their rotation. May need to restart! #MW2

1. Ever pulled the trigger with a guy in your sights only to have him kill you after you miss 10 times?  Try not holding down the trigger button when you fire.  Just give it a quick squeeze.  This reduces recoil so your gun isn’t firing all over the place.  If you feel like you just get too excited when you see the enemy, try using an M16 or FAMAS which shoot in bursts.

2. If you are the beginner of all beginners you may want to save your ego and play the campaign.  This teaches you had to aim down the sights, switch between weapons, ect.  Don’t play recruit though or you’ll be in for a surprise when you play online.

3. Get used to looking at the map in the top corner.  Whenever an enemy fires their weapon, they will show up on the map as a red dot.   This will indicate where to find enemies.  Note:  people who use silencers don’t show up as a red dot.  You may want to consider this so people can’t find you as easily.

4. Isn’t it sweet when you get a headshot?  Well sorta… it may seem sweet but trying to do this will actually decrease your total kills.  This is because the headshot is fool’s gold.  It’s such a tiny area; it’s better to aim for the body where you have a higher chance of connecting due to its larger surface area.

5. It is smart to aim down the sights for most of your kill attempts.  But, when you are in close (i.e., in the same room) with an enemy it’s probably smarter to fire from the hip as it will save you valuable tenths of a second.

6. The red dot is a valuable attachment.  If you struggle to get those sights aimed on the enemy properly, I highly suggest it.

7. Get efficient with a few classes.  Find a few weapons for different situations that you are comfortable with and stick with them for a while.

8. Remember that guy that you failed to kill because he ran behind some crates or a wall?  Just shoot through the crates next time!  In MW2 bullets go through pretty much every surface so use that to your advantage when you know an enemy is behind something.

9. Don’t sprint around in the open.  You should always be hidden behind things, or against walls.  This just makes you a harder target to pick off.   If you’re new to FPS (First person shooter) than let me save you some deaths:  Don’t sprint around corners.

10. Learn the perks and match them to your playing style.  For example, if you just feel like knifing people (and really pissing them off) you may want to consider using marathon pro and commando pro.  Check out http://chicksare4fags.com/?p=176 to learn more about the perks in MW2.

11. Play, keep playing, play some more, eat, play, go to bed, wake up in the middle of the night and play, then skip school/work and play.  The only way to get good at pretty much anything is to put the time in.  Plus you will learn the ins and outs of all the maps this way.

I hope these tips help you as much as they helped me.  Now go pick up them sticks and play!

On March 30th, along with the release of the first map pack, there will be  a playlist update, Ranger maps will be added to HC Headquarters, a title update, and the double XP event that was scheduled for next weekend will start right when the Stimulus Package goes live.

Here’s the message from Infinity Ward’s fourzerotwo (AKA Robert Bowling)

If you’re an Xbox Live player on Modern Warfare 2, there are some big updates hitting tomorrow (March 30th) in the early morning. Included in those are:

The Stimulus Package (Downloadable Content)

The first dlc for Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer hits exclusively first on Xbox Live. It’ll be coming to other platforms at a later date as well, but tomorrow morning you’ll be able to download the 5 new maps including Bailout (seen above), Salvage, Storm, and my favorite classic maps Crash and Overgrown.

Double XP

Originally planned to do it this weekend, but we’ve decided to throw the Double XP switch early when the new maps hit. So jump online with the new DLC and check out the two new DLC specific playlists.

Stimulus and Hardcore Stimulus Playlists

These two playlists are 100% dedicated to the new maps, and are Double XP enabled. So jump on and experienced the new DLC you downloaded, get double XP, and experience all your favorite gametypes along with some hardcore variants of them.

Ranger maps added to HCHQ

We’re adding a few maps to the Hardcore Headquarters Pro playlist on Xbox Live, allowing you now play all the Ranger maps in this gametype, something I know a lot of users have been asking for! These maps include Highrise, Invasion, Skidrow, and Terminal.

Title Update

Along side the DLC, but something ALL of our users will get, is a title update for Modern Warfare 2. Included in this update is support for the DLC (if you choose to purchase it), as well as some tweaks to the One Man Army perk, some matchmaking updates that will help our international users find more locally hosted games thanks to how ping is now sorted, and various other code updates that will help improve the overall quality of multiplayer on Modern Warfare 2.

There is no exact time you can expect all this, I’d say early morning when traffic is at its lowest, but by the time you wake up and get online I’m sure it will be available to most of you on March 30th! See you online all this week!

The game play in this video is from a dude named Giibz and editing is done by ix FuZion and they sure do a nice job in this video. The entire montage is multikills/collateral’s/360 no scopes and it is amazing, just watch.