Take a second out of your gaming filled day today to remember that many men and women died to give you the freedom to do so (that and all the other freedoms we have).

So to our armed forces, thank you and Happy Memorial Day!

If you’re not really into the whole cookout and parade thing this Memorial Day, you might want to take advantage of this long weekend’s double XP on MW2. So if you’ve been waiting for a good time to prestige, now would be a smart time to do it. Get those pesky early levels out of the way quickly.

Also don’t forget to do your part for the Vets this Memorial Day by checking out the Call Of Duty Endowment (CODE). Enjoy the long weekend (those of you that have one)!!

Via callofdutyendowment.org

The Call of Duty Endowment (CODE), a non-profit public benefit corporation, which helps soldiers transition to civilian careers after their military service. CODE focuses its resources on assisting organizations that provide job placement and training to veterans, as well as engaging the media and public forums to raise awareness about the issue. Activision Blizzard launched the organization in October 2009, with a commitment to donate and raise millions of dollars for the cause. To help guide the endowment, CEO Bobby Kotick has recruited an advisory board composed of respected veterans representing the various service branches. Just as our men and women in the armed forces fought to protect our nation and liberties, CODE will fight to ensure that they find a career they deserve on leaving the military.

Memorial Day is upon us gamers. It’s a time that should be spent honoring those who served and continue to serve our country. If you are looking for an easy way you can honor the Vets check out the CODE facebook page. Click on the “Like” button and Activision will increase their donation to HHUSA (Hire Heros USA) by $1.

So put down the controller for two seconds this long weekend and join in the effort.

Think it would make a freaking awesome movie? Well here’s something close.

Via Gameinformer.com

Today Rockstar launched the teaser trailer for A Short Film Made From Red Dead Redemption, a 30-minute special chronicling the story of John Marston that was created using in-game footage by The Propositiondirector John Hillcoat. The episode airs at midnight this Saturday, May 29 on FOX. Watch the clip after the jump.

So if you’re still up at that hour, check it out. From the looks of it, it’s just a bunch of cut scenes glued together from the game but still looks worth watching.

Sat down with a little Red Dead Redemption MP these past few days. Like the single player, I was totally hooked immediately. Spent some time in Free Roam just riding my mule (which i thought was hilarious the first time I whistled) finding other players to shoot down.

Being so used to FPS type MP it took some getting used to when I got into a real match. With like most MP you earn XP by killing other players or capturing objectives. XP will rank you up and get you off of that embarrassing mule you’ve been riding. Unlock new mounts, charaters, and titles by playing in matches and completing challenges.

A huge thing that win’s me over with this entire game in general is stat tracking!! Want to know how many people you’ve killed are how many animals you’ve skinned? Hit up the Social Club online to see your stats and MP leaderboards.

So peeps grab your posse and cowboy up in awesome RDR MP!

So we are about a week away from the release of the second map pack for MW2 entitled the Resurgence Package. Here’s what you’ll be getting…

Via modernwarfare2.com

“Carnival,” a large abandoned theme park that offers lots of unique vantage points that work well for all game modes. The once vibrant rides now sit idle and neglected as perfect cover points in one of the most original multiplayer locations for Modern Warfare 2.

“Fuel,” a massive oil refinery with extremely long sightlines great for medium- to long-range firefights. The spacious surroundings offer a great sniper advantage; offices, warehouses, and buildings house objectives and provide opportunity for close-range firefights.

“Trailer Park,” a medium-sized mobile estate with a maze of tight flank routes and lots of cover. Junk covered yards, deserted trailers, and debris-riddled surroundings offer intense firefights with a wide variety of vantage points and routes available.

“Strike,” a large urban desert town, excellent for medium-to-large team games. The large monument, connecting streets, and surrounding buildings offer great firefights in Team Deathmatch, and great vantage points for objective team games.

“Vacant,” a deserted Russian office complex offering a great mixture of interior and exterior combat. Long hallways with minimal cover points offer a fast escape route for potential runners, but high accuracy and fast aiming is required when advancing through this large complex.

You will notice that the last two maps are, again, COD4 maps. Oddly enough not word yet on a price  but I assume that it will hold the same 1200MP tag the Stimulus Package had.

I’ve taken a bit of a break from MW2 since becoming immersed in Red Dead Redemption but this map pack doesn’t look half bad. And as much as I will complain about the high price (assuming it’s 1200MP) I’m sure I will end up eating my words and hitting the download button.

Treyarch’s own Josh Olin (aka @JD_2020) released this tweet today…

Alright let’s hear all your MP feedback. What did you love, what did you hate about all previous CoD’s? #CODBlackOps

This is your chance people, to get your own word in. Tell JD_2020 what you want or don’t want from the next CoD.

Personally, I want to see a Bare Bones playlist. That is at the top of my wish list and has been since the release of MW2. A playlist that make players rely on REAL skills (if they have any) and not just stacked up killstreaks and lame perks.

I would also request no game ending killstreaks. You should all already know how i feel about nukes.

I love small maps like Dome from WaW. It would be nice to see more of that. Maps that make camping and sniping nearly impossible. It’s good for my run and gun style of play.

I could go on and on but I want to her what you peeps want/don’t want.

Now I’ve never been a huge fan of westerns which is probably why I overlooked this game initially. Even at PAX East when the line to try it was out to next week, I just kept walking. Figured it wasn’t my thing. Clearly I was wrong. After hearing only good things about the game from some of my buddies on Twitter (you know who you are) I decided to pick this game up.

First appealing thing to me was that this game is open world. Meaning you do what you want, when you want to. With the main character being a rough, tough cowboy I wouldn’t expect it any other way. It defiantly makes me feel like I’m playing a wild west version of Fallout 3.

Now I haven’t touched the MP yet but so far the single player is keeping me entertained. Sucking me in the same was Fallout 3 once did. Spending hours riding my trusty steed around the wild wilderness, playing poker in the saloon, and catching bad guys on the loose. What’s not to love?

So you skeptics out there, even if the wild west isn’t your type of game you might still find yourself enjoying Red Dead Redemption.

Now if you’ve been to Google lately you have defiantly seen this. And if you are like me, you ended up playing the working Pac Man game within the logo so long that you forgot why you went to Google in the first place.

30 years ago this game took the arcade game world by storm and became one of the most iconic and popular games [still] found in an arcade.

Celebrate this day with a round or two of the old classic. You might just remember how addicting this simple game really is.

So Happy Birthday Pac-Man! I see you being around for 30 more.

I mean besides the fact that we are in for a truly amazing game, not a ton. But that leaves plenty of room for speculation. Me likey.

Lets start with this…

Yep, it’s a scoped crossbow. What’s that? You want to know what kind of ammunition it packs? Explosive kind. Now I don’t know how practical it is but I have no doubt it will take out a decent group of enemies. I may just end up tossing it aside as I did with the flamethrower in World at War, but how cool does it look right now?!

How about this bad boy. By the looks of the last trailer, we get to fly one of these babies. Now as some people know, I’m not the greatest in-game vehicle driver (excellent and safe real life driver I assure you), but I am pumped to try my hand with this helicopter.

I can’t wait to see more from Treyarch in the coming months. As much as I am excited about MP (and Zombies!!!) I hope to see a single player campaign that blows me away. So far it’s looking good.