Earlier this week, retailer Best Buy sponsored a developer chat with Infinity Ward where players got the opportunity to ask a few designers present about Modern Warfare 2. Among the questions asked, many of them revolved around the IW.Net and the PC version of Modern Warfare 2. “PC has no common provider of matchmaking like on xbox360, so to have match making on the PC we had to create IW.Net, kind of similar to the match making networks created for RTS games on PC. This was not a trivial undertaking, although it’s understandable that these days consumers may take match match making for granted.” An Infinity Ward designer said, “I’ve been playing mainly with around 100ms ping and it was great.”

In the chat, the developer confirmed an abundance of changes to the version. The max player limit on the PC will be 9v9, a decrease from previous Call of Duty titles on the platform where the official max player limit was 32 but was sometimes exceeded due to the presence of dedicated servers. Leaning, a staple of the PC versions of the franchise that allowed players to peak around corners, has been removed with a IW designer citing, “The game is not balanced for lean.” Also removed is the developer console, a tool often utilized by players on the PC platform for several functions ranging from modifying in-game variables to smaller tasks such as displaying framerates. Near the end of the chat, when asked if the PC version was merely a port, Infinity Ward responded with, “No, PC has custom stuff like mouse control, text chat in game, and graphics settings.”

Everyone’s favorite Nintendo President, Reggie Fils-Aime, has emerged to once again crush all rumours of a forthcoming HD version of the Wii. On the latest ep of GTTV he was rather brief and to-the-point, “I don’t know how forcefully we can say there is no Wii HD.”

Of course, this simply triggered further rumors on gaming forums that Reggie was concealing a new high-definition Wii so that Christmas sales of the current model wouldn’t be affected. The real question is whether anyone actually wants or needs to play Wii games in HD. Do we really have to see every follicle on Mario’s tache or the Rabbids’ hairy behinds? One disappointed bunny will be producer Shigeru Miyamoto, who recently predicted a step-up in Nintendo’s graphical prowess. Gamers so far seem to be unfazed, but let us know what you think by dropping a comment below.

Benchmark maker Futuremark released their first game earlier this week, the zero gravity shooter Shattered Horizon, and along with the review code they were kind enough to send over two Steam codes which we’re now going to hand over to two of you, our esteemed readers.

We’ll keep it simple — everyone who’s already following us on Twitter is automatically entered into the giveaway and everyone who is not can enter by hitting ye big ol’ “Follow” button on our Twitter page. Simple, yes? Winners will be contacted Sunday eveningish so the game can be enjoyed with some Monday morning coffee.

If you’ve missed this space FPS and are looking to find out more then don’t miss our review here, check some videos here and here, and shuffle through some screenshots here. Next week we’re also expecting to go live with our interview with Futuremark where, among other things, we enquire about their future plans for Shattered Horizon, games in general, and of course, what their favorite moon movie is. So stay tuned for that.

“We had to find a martial art that fits the character and the situations he would find himself in. We needed something very quick, efficient and brutal - something without any rules,” says Animation Director Gilles Monteil in this latest developer diary for Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell: Conviction. “That’s why we chose Krav Maga.”

The official self defense system of the Israeli Defense Forces, Krav Maga has no sporting federation, no official uniforms and most importantly, no rules. It’s all about fast and fluid attacks, crippling your opponent with a blinding barrage of speed before they have a chance to even think threatening thoughts in your general direction. In other words, it’s the perfect martial art for Conviction’s renegade protagonist. Having parted ways with Third Echelon, the new Sam Fisher doesn’t have any laws to obey, any orders to follow. Oh, and he’s hella pissed. Combine that with some Kosher-approved close quarters combat training, and you’ve got 2010’s biggest badass.

“Krav Maga is not a big, flashy martial art,” explains Lead Game Designer Steve Masters. “He’s not going to be doing spinning back kicks or anything like that. What he is doing is he’s being extremely efficient in taking people down in a fast and effective manner.” Like I said, badass.

Robot ninjas. Robot. Ninjas. If the world was fair and just we could end this preview now confident in the knowledge that we’ve said all we need to say about Plain Sight. But convention dictates that we continue, so here we go.

Plain Sight is the debut title from UK-based indies Beatnik Games. It’s a competitive multiplayer game with a stonkingly awesome aesthetic and a wonderfully conceived central conceit. And robot freakin’ ninjas!

Taking control of one of these beautifully designed little fellas, you are charged with taking out as many enemies as possible, deathmatch-style. You’ll do this by leaping around the sleek minimalist environments, leaving a neon Tron-esque trail and a string of vanquished foes in your wake.

The ‘map’ we played - although it seems odd calling them maps as they are fully-formed little worlds - was a giant, dizzying, unraveled tape loop. As the action takes place in space (and because it’s fun), you can leap onto and off of any surface, with a gravity system in effect that is most easily described as similar to Mario Galaxy.

The shooter aspect of Mass Effect was lacking a little and was perhaps too rooted in RPG mechanics. Fortunately for us BioWare is making sure to make the shooter part more shooter-like and keeping the RPG elements very RPG-like. “The advantages of starting with all the technology is we can focus on just making the shooting fun. There’s always a delicate balance of the RPG elements,” explained Dr. Greg Zeschuk of BioWare.

Dr. Ray Muzyka, another BioWare solider, further explains that the new and improved Mass Effect 2 “really feels like a new genre: a shooter/RPG. There are not too many examples of games that would put in that kind of choice that would have the same depth of exploration. The progression system, the story and the narrative, and all the choices, but also have a shooter combat experience that feels very precise.” We’re happy to hear that, oh yes we are.

In our minds there was very little wrong with the first ME and the shooting mechanics was one of those things. It’s really good to hear once more how confident they are of the reworked shooting aspects. Now, what of that space rover crap?

Good news for the Modern Warfare 2 fans in the United Kingdom. Those who ordered the game from The Hut and, by proxy, LoveFilm have been getting an early delivery on their doorsteps lately, but not by design.

“We are dedicated to getting products to customers on release. We use Royal Mail as our preferred courier and were advised to dispatch on Thursday for delivery on Tuesday due to the impending strike action. This was called off on Thursday evening and we have contacted Royal Mail to hold the product until Tuesday,” said The Hut when talking with GamesIndustry.biz.

That being said, High Street retailers have been found out to be selling copies early from within their retail stores. While the game is not set to be sold until next week, which HMV, GAME, and Gamestation say they will adhere to, it does not seem too hard to get your hands on an early copy if you really want.

Microsoft has announced that Sky Player, the TV and movie streaming service, is now available to “100 per cent” of Xbox 360 owners across the UK and Ireland.

The service was pulled shortly after launch 10 days ago after consumer demand overloaded the system. A revised rollout plan was promptly devised, getting under way last week. Now that process is complete.

“As you may know we have been implementing a gradual rollout of the Sky Player on Xbox 360 service since our initial launch,” said the Microsoft announcement. “As of today, 100 per cent of the Xbox base can access Sky Player, and tens of thousands of new users are accessing the service daily. The quality of the service remains of the utmost importance to both Sky and Xbox, and as such we will run further testing over the weekend and continue to monitor the service closely.”

Sony Cambridge artist Laura Dilloway told us plenty of great things about LittleBigPlanet PSP and the system itself at Eurogamer Expo 2009 last week, but we recently interviewed her again and were curious if she thought fitting a mammoth game like LBP onto the PSP was the closest the system would get to a home console experience. Her reply gave an interesting new perspective on the handheld.

“Actually I think that the PSP can offer much more than a home console,” she began, ”After all, it is designed to be something portable, that you can carry with you at all times, and so you can play it wherever you are whether you are in or out of the house.”

Sure, you can enjoy the graphical delights of Gears of War 2 or Uncharted 2 on your huge screen at home, but that’s obviously useless on the bus. “The PSP also has such variety of games that you can have anything from a quick five minute blast at something, to an epic five hour epic session – creating an awesome LBP level for example!”

“With the latest developments in PSP-PS3 connectivity, allowing you to access your PS3 system from anywhere in the world; coupled with the extra features that the PSP offers such as Skype and a portable internet connection, I already find the PSP ideal in many ways – and it’s still evolving.”

This is just a taster on what she had to say on the PSP, so make sure you check back Monday for the full interview.

This might come as a surprise to some, but 2010 will bring a new wave of Call of Duty and Guitar Hero games. Those shocking revelations come straight from Activision during an earnings call, which also mentioned a new Spider-Man game due out next year. Who would have thought?

No details were given, just a list of things due out that we could have guessed without the conference call. We can only wonder what number Guitar Hero will hit before next year’s end, or what band will soak up the royalties from their own rhythm game.

It does not really matter, we just cannot wait to see where the next Call of Duty is set so we can smile smugly and say we told you so.