When extracting the MW2 multiplayer .exe file with a Hex Editor, weird stuff comes out. The extracted text file, which has several thousand lines, reveals many instances of refernces to Xbox and Xbox live. It would seem that Infinity Ward did indeed just directly port the Xbox version to PC, and made some changes in the last minute.
This comes as a huge punch in the face to PC users who MADE the CoD Series famous, mostly due to its online multiplayer parts. IW was adamant that the PC version isn't just a port from Xbox, and they even claimed "they worked hard on it", yet the code lines here tell another story. So, we find in the file stuff like this:
006DBBE4: 'menu_xboxlive_barracks',0
006E3FE4: 'XBOXLIVE_TOTALUSERCOUNT',0
006EB06C: 'User is logged into xbox live',0
006ED354: 'XBOXLIVE_PLAYLISTISNEW',0
006EEC90: 'XBOXLIVE_LOGGEDOFF',0
006F4540: 'XBOXLIVE_MUSTLOGIN',0
006F5674: 'XBOXLIVE_PLAYLISTUSERCOUNT',0
006F6268: 'Script_ShowGamerCard called on non Xbox platform',0Ah,0
And there dozens of code lines like this.
What is even more insulting is the fact that it would seem the Dedicated Server Support and features like leaning were indeed in the engine, but got removed in the last minute:
00702558: 'ui_browserShowDedicated',0
00708968: 'server_hardware_win_dedicated',0
00787A50: 'Set to false to disable dx allocations (for dedicated server mode)',0
006DD854: 'player_lean_shift_left',0
006E0008: 'player_lean_shift_crouch_left',0
006E354C: 'player_lean_rotate_left',0
006E44CC: 'player_lean_shift_right',0
And, as the cherry on the top, check this out:
006D9298: 'We suck as host - ending the game',0Ah,0
Yeah, we know ...
