Gears Of War 2 Achievement Hacking: Banning Has Begun

Major Nelson Writes:

As you know, we are committed to keeping Xbox LIVE a safe and fair place to play for the more than 17 million active members. As part of our regular safety monitoring we have pinpointed a group of players who have unlocked specific Gears of War 2 Achievements through an unauthorized hack. Deliberate cheats like these are in direct violation of the Xbox LIVE Terms of Use and will not be tolerated. As I post this, we've begun taking steps to reset the Gamerscores of the offending players.

[Lord Shuhei Yoshida]

Thats great news especially since nobody gives a rats ass about Gears of War 2

[outlawlife]

considering its still hanging out in the top 5 games on xbox live, the map packs being top sellers on live i think maybe a few people still care

i don't, but your blanket statement is a bit outrageuos

[Microsoft_Spokesman]

Gears is actually great.

[Blaze929]

good for them

[cRaZyLeGs 93]

The exploits shouldn't be there in the first place.

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

Problem is, it is impossible to write bug free code even from the best programmers in the world. You will always get glitches, some more than others, but it will always be there.

I'm glad they are punishing cheaters, they deserve it!

[Tony999Montana]

@1.2
I'm guessing that the hacks which they are refferring to is save file hex editing, such files are shared on many sites. If that is the method which they have used then Microsoft/developers could easily stop such issues. PS3 save files are not open to hex editing due to various checks and that's why this type of cheating doesn't occur on PS3. 360 could do something similar.

[Close_Second]

No, what shouldn't be there in the first place is cheaters. Instant banning from Live and PSN should be enforced.

[lsujester]

Banning seems a little harsh for Achievement hacking though. It isn't like you get anything for having points, or even affect other players by doing it.

To me, it just sounds like MS saying, "We can't fix actual problems, so here is this to make it look like we're doing something."

[outlawlife]

actually MS periodically runs gamer score based contests so this does effect things

achievements are meant to be exactly that, if somebody is sad enough to cheat to acquire meaningless milestones they do in fact deserve punishment

[lsujester]

Wiping Gamerscore I don't have a problem with... but they were talking about all out banning. I think that might be a bit overboard, but that's me.

[cliffbo]

achievement now mean nothing at all. you can hack them, cheat and download them... pointless

[dragunrising]

Your comment is devoid of value and truth. Does that make you pointless?

If you said, "cheating and boosting achievements (and trophies) robs them of value," you would be correct. Despite your personal bias, most people don't abuse the system. Otherwise, millions of people would have an artificially high score and hence be noticed. At least offenders of this practice are being punished.

[cliffbo]

it's not biased. i also hate the fact that people can earn Trophies from user created LBP levels. but it's abused more on the 360

[dragunrising]

Its not limited to one console. Also, unless you have the stats, you haven't proven anything. People also pad stats in a similar way. It doesn't matter which console, it ruins the fun for other people. Overall, if you earn them the right way and don't compare to people that do, it shouldn't effect your sense of accomplishment.

[outlawlife]

hacked achievements are also detected pretty much immediately, and on the next ban/cheater tag wave the hacked accounts go bye bye

[BX81]

Nice!! Good to see them taking steps in the right direction. Now if they can do something about moded controllers before Modern Warfare 2 comes out!!!

[XxSpiiKeZxX]

i have a lot of friends who have modded controls and ofcourse they all own 360z
i actually saw the mod its so simple and easy

i hate cheaters like that they spoil all the fun
they are just Noobz who are afraid they cant kill anyone
i speak to all of u loserz who have a modded control
go ahead and disagree if you have a modded control and use it

and i hope they fix it before modern warfare 2 because as u know Cod is like the number one in terms of usage of modded control seriously wenever im at my cousins house and play on Live a majority at least one each game have a modded control

[iDystopia]

Why would you want to cheat getting achievements? Isn't the fun part accomplishing getting them?

[thebudgetgamer]

its the grind that keeps me coming back for more.
when i first got r2 people would play co-op set a car on fire, stand on it so the medic could keep healing them and level up.

off topic: me and a friend made a bet he said gears was the first shooter to have a shield in gameplay i thought there was others before but i am not sure. so if anyone knows i will pay with a bubble

[BX81]

I agree. There is nothing like grinding out a game just to hear that PLk sound and see that achievement score go up.

[Disccordia]

budgetgamer: Rainbow Six Vegas had shields.

[solidsnakus]

awesome, looks like i wont be seeing anymore lvl 100 glitchers in gears anymore :D

[Dacapn]

Why would anyone hack for achievements in the first place? They don't do anything.

[JeffGUNZ]

Now I won't have to get a message from every level 100 in Gears 2 after the match stating, "800 MS points and I will glitch you to a level 100". I am tired of doing the negative feedback and filing a complaint combo.