In the final daily Speak-Up on Kotaku of 2010, commenter RascalkingTK wonders if cheap bastards tarnish other people's online multiplayer experience as much as they do his.

One of my favorite things about this generation of consoles is the multiplayer experiences. I own both an Xbox 360 and a PlayStation 3 and play them on a regular basis. I'm not one to brag, but I tend to do well in most games I play, ranking in the top 5 more often than not.

But I don't necessarily have to do well to have fun. Actually, I have a fun time as long as I have friends to laugh about it with. Then, there are the joy killers.

You've all met them. They employ tactics that cheapen the gaming experience for everyone that they are around. That world you were so immersed in just a moment ago? No longer, as you are now frustrated and slapping your leg at your now poor performance.

I never try to speak ill of my fellow players, but when someone uses a cheap tactic to come out on top I feel like I've been robbed of my fun time. Being repeatedly hit by grenade launchers in any Call of Duty can really make you feel like all the skill in the room just left the lobby. Same thing in Red Dead Redemption when - whoops - who needs another weapon when the high powered pistol can be spammed? And let's not forget the cheap hunting skills of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood when using a hidden gun, getting only 100 points for a kill instead of, say, 400 if you went up close for a stealthy kill.

Granted, this is a small minority of players but it still tends to make me want to leave the game session or go read a book or something else when it happens too often in a row. Anyone else have similar frustrations?

About Speak-Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot to say, and sometimes what they have to say has nothing to do with the stories we run. That's why we have that little box on the front page of Kotaku. You know, the one with "Got something to say?" written in it? That's the place to post anecdotes, photos, game tips and hints, and anything you want to share with Kotaku at large. Just make sure to include #speakup in your comment so we can find it. Every weekday we'll pull one of the best #speakup posts we can find and highlight it here.

Lending weight to CEO Bobby Kotick's claim that Call of Duty is as much a social networking phenomenon as it is a video gaming one, Activision released numbers boasting of online time that, per user, surpasses the Facebook average.

More than 20 million users on Call of Duty: Black Ops logged more than 600 million hours of playtime between the game's Nov. 9 release and Dec. 24, Activision said. That computes to an average of 87 minutes per day per player. Facebook's per-day/per-user average is around 55 minutes.

Gamasutra noted that the Xbox 360 exclusive Halo: Reach logged 50 million man-hours of play over its first week of availability - or a little over half of Black Ops' total if it was sustained over 45 days.

In an interview with CNN last week, Kotick boasted of Call of Duty's heft alongside Facebook, text messaging, and other social networking phenomena. "The audience of 'Call of Duty' is probably greater in terms of size than in any other interactive form of entertainment," Kotick said.

Activision: Over 20 Million Black Ops Players Log More Than 600 Million Hours [Gamasutra]

If you thought playing Call of Duty: Black Ops online was tough, imagine how hard it is for the wives and children of those constantly dying soldiers. Check out more letters from the Call of Duty front at Dorkly.

Not only is Call of Duty: Black Ops one of the fastest selling video games of all time, racking up more than a billion dollars in sales in 2010, it's also impressively enough one of the most illegally downloaded.

According to a report from BitTorrent news site TorrentFreak, the PC version of Black Ops has been pirated an impressive 4.2 million times. The newest Call of Duty bested Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (3.96 million downloads), Mafia II and Mass Effect 2 to take home the most-stolen crown.

Thieves who own an Xbox 360 did their share in Black Ops stealing, downloading that console version 930,000 times, according to TorrentFreak's numbers. Dante's Inferno wound up being the most downloaded Xbox 360 game, with Super Mario Galaxy 2 sitting atop the most pirated list on for Wii owners. Congratulations all around!

More impressive numbers at TorrentFreak.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Most Pirated Game of 2010 [TorrentFreak]

Speaking to CNN earlier this week, Activision's CEO noted that more people play Black Ops, daily, than watch the late night hosts Leno, Letterman and Fallon, combined. No offense, but that would seem to be an easy goal to beat.

No, network television isn't the yardstick Bobby Kotick uses to measure Call of Duty as a social phenomenon. He likens the shooter to Facebook and text messaging, in terms of cultural relevance.

"The audience of 'Call of Duty' is probably greater in terms of size than in any other interactive form of entertainment," Kotick told CNN. "If you look at the 500 million people who are on Facebook and the way that people text each other and instant message and use video chat, there is now an evolution of media. Those are the characteristics and attributes that a generation and audiences feel are very important to their media and entertainment experiences."

CNN said Kotick believes the Call of Duty franchise delivers on that trend through its online multiplayer, which currently drives a majority of the Xbox Live traffic.

Kotick couldn't do the interview without getting in a shot at Infinity Ward which, though its founders were fired and are now embroiled in a lawsuit against Activision, is a studio the publisher still owns. "Multiplayer has been largely developed by Treyarch," Kotick asserted. "I don't think Treyarch got their due for how much they contributed in the production and polish to the multiplayer."

Activision CEO: 'Call of Duty' is Like Facebook, Texting [CNN]

Activision makes with the corporate gloating today with news that Call of Duty: Black Ops has surpassed $1 billion in worldwide sales since its release in November. That's faster than Modern Warfare 2, but James Cameron still has it beat.

Selling $650 million in the first five days after its November 9 worldwide release, Call of Duty: Black Ops was already well on the way to topping the sales of Modern Warfare 2, breaking the previous installment's record of $550 million soundly. Now Activision says the latest installment in the Call of Duty series has reached the $1 billion worldwide sales milestone far ahead of Modern Warfare 2, which didn't hit the mark until mid-January of last year.

"In all of entertainment, only Call of Duty and "Avatar" have ever achieved the billion dollar revenue milestone this quickly," said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. "This is a tribute to the global appeal of the Call of Duty franchise, the exceptional talent at Treyarch and the hundreds of extraordinary people across our many Call of Duty studios including Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer that work tirelessly on the franchise. Our ability to provide the most compelling, immersive entertainment experience, and enhance it with regular, recurring content that delivers hundreds of hours of audience value, has allowed Call of Duty to continue to set sales and usage records."

James Cameron's special effects-laden film Avatar reached the $1 billion sales mark 19 days after its worldwide release on December 18 of last year. The speed is even more impressive when factoring in the price difference between a video game and a movie ticket.

Black Ops players likely have Avatar fans beat in terms of entertainment hours at least, with more than 600 million hours logged playing the game, with Microsoft statistics showing the average player logging in more than once a day to play for longer than an hour at a time, with more than half that time spent playing online with friends.

Will a video game ever beat Avatar's $1 billion speed record?

Alright, maggots, here is how you inspect, assemble and clean your Move-compatible Assault Rifle Controller, from CTA Digital. It's $59.99 and Amazon says it's due early next year.

MAG, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Killzone 3 are specifically mentioned as games perfect for this peripheral, which also combines the Move Navigation controller's functions.

Amazon's preorder page says it'll be released Jan. 1. A news release from CTA says they'll be demoing it at CES. I've followed up just to specify what the release date or window is, but it sounds like this will be here in time for Killzone 3 at least.

If Kobe Bryant playing pretend soldier offended some, then this - said to be Call of Duty: Black Ops' next TV spot - would rile them further. Update: Treyarch says this video is not a Black Ops ad.

We've contacted Activision representatives to ask about the authenticity of this video, which is on YouTube under an unofficial account right now. If it's a mashup, someone went to a great deal of trouble.

Update: Someone went to a great deal of trouble. This video is not authentic. The remainder of the post follows, but the opinion it expresses is based upon a fake video.

But let's focus on that voiceover. Here it is, transcribed:

"Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. Our nation is badly weakened, a consequence of our collective failure to prepare the nation for a new age. Our nation is at war. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility. Let it be said that we refused to let this journey end. And with eyes fixed on the horizon and with God's grace upon us, we carried the great gift of freedom to future generations."

Sound familiar? Here are excerpts from President Obama's inaugural address, Jan. 21, 2009:

[Sixth paragraph] Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real.

[Fifth paragraph, third sentence] Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.

[Fifth paragraph, second sentence] Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred.

[30th paragraph, second sentence] What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility.

[concluding paragraph] Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Not verbatim, of course, but an extremely close match.

Whatever you feel about Call of Duty: Black Ops, this might be pushing it a bit too far. A flaming minivan is certainly the most provocative image here, especially as our homeland is not under siege. For me, though, the biggest shame is in the fact the United States committed to - and is still prosecuting - two wars under leaders who never asked Americans to make any sacrifice in return. And here, in borderline satire, is a speech that dresses the fictitious conflicts of a war video game in the urgent language of national priority. That's why some might have a problem with this ad.

Will we ever get a Call of Duty game for the kids? Not if it's as bloody and gory as LEGO Black Ops, the stop motion animated elimination bloodbath from YouTube movie maker Keshen8.

You won't find much in the way of killstreaks, perks or outrageous tomahawk kills, but LEGO Black Ops, via FourZeroTwo's Twitter, is the best LEGO "what if?" imagining we've seen in a long while. For more of Keshen8's LEGO creations, including the amusing Cardboard Gear Solid, hit up the brick enthusiast's YouTube channel.

Today in Speak-Up on Kotaku, commenter Culebra takes a look at the biggest games of the year that he never got around to playing. Which have you missed?

Well, we're almost at the end of the year, and as we know, we'll all see the same 'Best Of Year' lists that'll have the same four or so games on it. You'll also see those lists that try to be different, but probably aren't.

This is one of those.

My focus: Big releases that for some reason or other, you just didn't play.

For me, six big names pop to mind.

1: Halo: Reach

That one you could blame on Halo 3 and ODST. As much as I loved Halo 1 and 2, there was somehing I just didn't like about Halo 3, and it grew worse with time. And ODST didn't help much either, as I sent it back to Gamefly without even beating it. So I guess falling out of love with the series is what held me back.

2: Fallout: New Vegas

I loved Fallout 3. It was a post apocalyptic Oblivion, two things I adored. I sank so many hours into that game, and did damn near everything in it. Every quest, every dlc. But by the time Zeta dropped, I was getting sick of it. It felt like I was eating the same meal day in day out. No matter how tasty, you get sick of it. So Vegas is a victim of 'Too Soon' for me.

3: Call Of Duty: Black Ops

Did every game have a :Subtitle this year? Sheesh. Mostly the ones I didn't play, it seems. This one suffers from the same 'Too Soon' syndrome Fallout did, with the major difference being that I'm a casual COD player at best, so I've always been bi-annual with the series.

4: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Not sure if that ':' officially belongs there...but I think the theme must not be broken. This one could be chucked up to me not being a fan of the series in general. Which was odd, as people everywhere were harping on about how 2 was the greatest thing since toilets, and I'm there wondering if we're playing the same game. So, Brotherhood just held no appeal.

5: Gran Turismo 5: Epilogue

I know it doesn't belong there. Shut up. I also know that GT fans can be quite cultish, and I totally expect to wake up strapped to my floor surrounded by hooded figures. But that doesn't change the fact that I haven't loved a GT since 2, for whatever reason. I don't dislike them, and GT5 sits on my 'I'll get to it' list, but that won't be happening in 2010.

6: Civilization 5

To keep it nice and simple, I've never played a Civ game, so the draw isn't there. I think I'm reserving this one as an emergency game, for a period of time where there aren't any immediate releases, and I need something long and engrossing.

So there you have it, my 'Big Games Everyone Has Apparently Played But Me' list.

About Speak-Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot to say, and sometimes what they have to say has nothing to do with the stories we run. That's why we have that little box on the front page of Kotaku. You know, the one with "Got something to say?" written in it? That's the place to post anecdotes, photos, game tips and hints, and anything you want to share with Kotaku at large. Just make sure to include #speakup in your comment so we can find it. Every weekday we'll pull one of the best #speakup posts we can find and highlight it here.