Robert Bowling, the Infinity Ward community manager, tweeted that 1.05 fixed some matchmaking issues. Update 1.06 is "still coming down the pipeline," he says. It'll clean up the Javelin exploit, and also fix areas where players could get stuck in world geometry, such as on the rocks Afghanistan.

My guess is 1.06 will be delivered ASAP but there's no word on when that'll be, specifically.

Robert Bowling on Twitter

At the start menu, use the left and right triggers to input "left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right" which will unlock the aforementioned Fine Adjustment menu. The tools were originally going to be included in the game but were abandoned when they were thought to be too complicated. But, the public asked and Q has amply provided.

Stephen Totilo has an interesting story up on Factor 5's struggle with Lair and how the developers thought it was cursed from the beginning nearly two years ago.

The curse started with the Lair trailer getting bumped from the initial PS3 announcement reel because it was too dark to see and continued...

That was the start of one catastrophe after the other — deaths in the family at the worst time [and] sudden surgeries for key members, which bounced the technology off-track. And just in general, every single time there was a crucial delivery, something bizarre went wrong — all the way to power outages when writing the master disks."

And Totilo points out that the dev team even talks about this curse on the game's commentary track, sort of proving that this isn't just spin for all of the negative reviews the game has been getting. The story is a must read for anyone interested in the saga behind the poorly reviewed game and the developers' reactions to the reactions.

Totilo summarizes his story on his Multiplayer page, adding a little bonus, a cheat code for Lair that when entered gives you a little Hot Coffee... literally. Yes, that's it up above.

'Lair' Struggles To Overcome Curse; Plus 'Guitar Hero' For Wii, 'Halo 3' & More, In GameFile [GameFile]

Konami is bringing a fistful of classic titles to Xbox Live. Take the PlayStation 2 classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which will be making its appearance on Xbox Live next year. The game is regarded as the Castlevania game. According to Konami, this doesn't mean the title is an XBL exclusive. Other upcoming Live titles include Frogger, Contra, Super Contra and Track & Field. Think the Contra code will still fly? Damn better. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [1Up]

Earlier this week, Crecente posted how to get 99 lives in New Super Mario Bros. For the visual learners out there, here's a clip. Pretty cool, huh? —Brian Ashcraft

99 Lives Trick on NSMB [Slashing Games, thanks Sinner]

The Sega friendly UK Resistance found a childhood Sonic the Hedgehogde cheatbook that promotes drinking milking and cheating, because as we all know, that's what healthy bones are for.

More Cheating Here [UK Resistance]

Like the Sgt. Pepper's album, Guitar Hero has a hidden track. The tune's name is Trippolette, and was perhaps cut because it sounds like prog-rock. The song was still left on the disc. To unearth this treasure, players need a cheat device like Codebreaker or Gameshark. Rock on!

More Here [Trippolette Is Cool] Thanks, Michael!

Someone over on the Urban Anarchy Echeese forums (how very appropriate) stumbled upon a relatively convoluted glitch in Oblivion. The full walk-through is on the link, but essentially you have to complete a task and then instead of using the potion given, you go somewhere and sell it to someone. Once the guy pays you, you can keep asking for payment and they will, apparently, keep paying you... as in forever. Each payment is 7,500 gold, so it adds up pretty quickly.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure which version this is for, but I'll be checking it out tonight hopefully.

Oblivion Infinite 7500 gold glitch [echeese]

In Korea, not all online gamers sacrifice work and sleep for play. Most players Some cheat their way through MMOs using programs like Joy Mac reports The Korea Times. "People do not want to do such monotonous, routine things for hours," says a 28-year-old gamer. "But Joy Mac does it without complaining. It is an essential tool."

What is Joy Mac? It is a program that searchers for weak monsters, kills them, picks up dropped items and recovers strength all day long for games like RF Online. There are dozens more for MMORPGs like Lineage, Mu and Rohan.

Cheating programs come in two flavors: software macros and hardware types called "auto-mouse." The macros are cheap and easy, but are powerless against game upgrades designed to prevent their use. The hardware type looks like a portable USB drive. It can grab signals sent between the PC and the monitor and analyze them. However, neither are hacks as they do not infiltrate the game's main server and damage it in anyway. Instead, they run on the user's own PC.

What does the Korean government think? Not much apparently. It is not against the law to use a macro or an auto-mouse. "We only manufacture high-tech products within the boundary of the law, to meet the demands of the online gamers," says auto-mouse manufacturer iWarrior.com, whose products are certified by the Ministry of Information and Communication. Likewise, some game companies are overlooking the situation.

If everyone is cheating, guess that makes it fair. But really, what's the point?

Full Story Here [The Korea Times]

Nerd-chic sister site Lifehacker brings word of a Windows-only Freeware program that lets you cheat. Called "Poke," the freeware doesn't let gamers fudge at multiplayer titles, but is perfect for single-player titles like The Sims. How does it work?

If you are an avid gameplayer, you probably have a basic understanding on how computers and computer games work.

In a computer game, all numerical values are stored 'as is' in memory. We'll use a great game, The Sims, to show you how easy it is to take advantage of this fact using Poke.

Lifehacker explains that the program lets users go in and change all those numerical values to whatever you want. Rad.

Download of the Day [Lifehacker]

Slashdot has word of a newly discovered World of Warcraft explout that lets gamers duplicate their precious digital wares. The big S posts links to photographic evidence of the dupping and a neat little how-to guide for creating mounds of gold.

World of Warcraft Duping Bug Found [Slashdot]