ESTATIC FANS of Activision's highly popular Call of Duty video game series are furious today as they discovered they will have to wait as late as 16 HOURS after the actual release date to play the game.

The game, Call of Duty Black Ops has been dubbed the best game of 2010 by all the popular gaming review websites - but PC gamers around the world discovered today that even though they possess a physical disc version of the game, the software included on the disc will force the hyped up gamers to wait as late as 4PM GMT AFTER THE RELEASE TIME to play the game, that's 16 HOURS later than they had originally thought, and 16 hours later than console gamers.

We spoke to one of the gamers; "It's awful. Yet again they are stabbing PC gamers in the back. Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers have bagged the game as early as Saturday due to early deliveries of pre-orders and are playing it as we speak, but here, PC gamers have to sit around and wait."

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/2539/bo2v.png
Outrage... message displayed to dismayed gamers

The launch date issue has caused carnage throughout the United Kingdom and the rest of the world today as thousands of workers today booked an unpaid holiday to play the game, and although there was no guarantee that the game would arrive one day early in the post, we can reveal that this was in fact the case across the country, only to be over shadowed by the error message on their computer screens stating that, as the game hadn't been officially released yet, they could not play the game.

This is not the first time PC gamers have been stabbed in the back by wealthy publisher ACTIVISION - last year the previous title Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 doomed PC gamers by revealing third party modifications that "opened up an entirely new world of gameplay" would be BANNED, along with dedicated servers, which allow gamers to take control of their own room within the game and kick out players that were being abusive. This was replaced by a system called IWNet that has been called "shambolic" and "broken" by some of the world's top PC gamers.

IWNet ran off Steam, a popular online gaming website that offers virtual downloads as opposed to physical discs, and has platforms for group discussions and in-game events. Steam is ultimately responsible for this public outcry as the game can only be played through its desktop application, and therefore the game can only be activated when the website decides.

We have reached out to publisher ACTIVISION, developer TREYARCH and retailer STEAM for a comment to clarify the situation however they have declined.

Meanwhile, the outcry continues.