Banned

A member of the French forum Legueux has found a way around the recent Xbox Live bans that may have affected yourself or someone close to you. His method involves simply inserting a keyvault from an unbanned machine into a banned one and updating to the latest kernel. The lengthy video above shows the process successfully taking place with the Infectus mod.
This thread in the Xboxhacker forums discusses the pros and cons of this little maneuver, which may or may not get you banned again.

via MaxConsole

News is that Microsoft have been banning consoles using pirated games from Xbox Live. The reason for the judicious banning was at first thought to be DVD drives with modified firmware, but is now known to be imperfect copies of game discs. By this we mean that in order for copied games to remain undetected they must be completely indistinguishable from the original disc. A small consolation for those recently banned is that this is a console ban - not a Live account ban.

via Xbox-Scene

Electronic Arts have gone on a banning spree in Command and Conquer 3, targeting over 400 accounts for breaches. The punishments were handed out for suspiciously high levels of disconnection, other forms of cheating, and poor behavior in and outside the game. The bans ranged from suspension, being kicked from the 1v1 ladder, or permanent bans from playing online. Electronic Arts’ community manager, Aaron “APOC” Kaufman, had this to say about the bans which he enforced:

“We’re proud of our online gaming community population and are working hard to create as fair an online environment as possible. Cheating and disconnecting is nearly impossible to stop without having multiple processes involved. I wanted to show the community that we take it very seriously, and can also be light-hearted in the same, as a way to make people understand how serious we are.”

The disconnection issue is one of the most rampant forms of cheating around today. Here’s hoping that other publishers take note and do the same thing.

via 1Up

The controversial lesbian sex scene in Mass Effect has led to the game being banned in Singapore. Not really surprising in a country which criminalizes “carnal intercourse against the order of nature.” While those living in Singapore can simply import the game, it would be nice if archaic views didn’t get in the way in the first place. For those wishing to see what the big deal is about (or not about) you can head over to Kotaku and see for yourselves.

via Kotaku

Last Friday, Bungie posted an interesting message on their website:

There are those of you doing things you shouldn’t be in Halo 3. Some of you have gotten a little too famous for your own good. This ain’t a church and there is no redemption or salvation once you have been judged. Apologies are now officially too late to save you.

The storm approaches.

Love, Bungie

Needless to say, if you’ve been cheating in Halo 3 matches on Xbox Live, I’d enjoy what little time you have left with the multiplayer game.

Once again the Office of Film and Literature Classification in Australia has banned a game because of a lack of sufficient ratings. The game in question is Activision’s Soldier of Fortune: Payback, and although reasons weren’t given we presume it’s for excessive gore.

In related news the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia has stepped up their campaign to have an R18+ rating for videogames in response to the looming federal election. The IEAA says Australia is the only developed democracy in the world without a R18+ classification for games, the result is that if a game exceeds the MA15+ rating it is banned.

via The Age

Japanese airliners have banned all gaming systems with Wi-Fi capabilities from being played on board. The move comes after Japan’s transport ministry decided “electromagnetic waves emitted by the consoles have the ability to interfere with aircraft navigation systems and other devices.”

What I find interesting is that while other wireless devices like mice and headphones have also been banned, laptops seem to have avoided the ban. Any guesses why?

via Joystiq

No doubt about it, there’s plenty of cashed-up gamers out there these days. One in particular, a World of Warcraft player by the name of Shaks, has the strange ability to make the people who spend tens of thousands of dollars on collections of shrink-wrapped video games look like savvy investors by comparison.

When a player by the name of Zeuzo decided to sell a Level 70 Rogue armed with what is arguably the best set of gear in the entire game, Shaks was first in line with the 7,000 Euro (USD $9,700) asking price.

Shaks either didn’t know, or didn’t care, that Blizzard doesn’t like people selling their WoW characters, and that it was absolutely certain that a purchase of this magnitude would get covered by every video game forum/blog on the internet - meaning it was only a matter of time before it came to the attention of Blizzard.

Nevertheless, after a brief, and reportedly rather shameless display of suckage in a PvP area, Shaks was banned from World of Warcraft. We suggest anyone planning a similar purchase find a better way to spend the money, such as hiring someone to slap you around the head each time you plan a similar purchase.

Ever wanted to get your Xbox 360 banned from Xbox Live? Just do something it’s painfully obvious you’re not supposed to. For example, when a friend offers to use a glitch to send you a copy of Halo 3 Epsilon, take them up on the offer - you’ll get about six hours of play, then a window will pop up informing you of your ban from Xbox Live which lasts until the year 9999.

Those of you who actually want to play Halo 3 online later this month? Quite simple really - just don’t be a dick and try pulling something like this between now and then.