When Battlefield: Bad Company 2 riffed on rival Modern Warfare 2's "Mapathy" promo last week, it could be seen as a playful poke. This, however - a comprehensive parody of October's infamous "F.A.G.S." video - is a straight-up nutshot.


For those not familiar with C.C. Sabathia or why he would be in this video, his team, the New York Yankees, triumphed in the World Series over the Philadelphia Phillies, whose ace Cole Hamels is a noted Modern Warfare enthusiast and appeared in the "Fight Against Grenade Spam" PSA about a week before his team was defeated.

Hamels, you may remember, pretended to raise awareness of the social ill of grenade spamming in last year's Internet-only viral video. But the obvious acronym made by the name of his cause got Infinity Ward in a bit of a mess, and the video was removed about 48 hours after Infinity Ward placed it on YouTube. Let's also note the contrived "F.R.A.G.S." acronym, with the R (for "Really") italicized in the title card. That is what many (including one of Kotaku's own commenters) said Infinity Ward should have done to both keep their trailer's edge flavor while avoiding the sour tinge of homophobia.


So, let's see: Make fun of a direct competitor's game. Make fun of an embarrassing situation for them. Punk their celebrity endorser. Check, check and check, mate.

If Electronic Arts is willing to go get a major league baseball all-star - and EA doesn't make a baseball game, so it's not like they had a relationship already - to clown Activision and Infinity Ward, what's next? Will they fire DICE's co-founders?

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[thanks to Jay for noticing and sending this along]