GTA IV Multiplayer cheats - How to use and avoid?

Question

I play GTA IV on XBox Live and recently, and I have seen several people somehow using cheats in the game. Some cars are extremely fast, there's no way that it's possible in game (sometimes it's a bus and they wreck havoc on other players)

Sometimes they spawn new colourful helicopters, or become god so no matter how many bullets I put in their heads, from 2 inches away, they just stand there looking at me and then walk away.

At other times, they appear to be in a building (or, they ARE that building?) and I can never kill them, yet they can kill me.

How is it done? I have tried to search for this forever and cannot find one single clue to this. Also, how do I avoid getting into those kind of games?

Answer

I believe they use hacked XBox DVD firmware and a pre-hacked copy of GTA IV.

You're paying for online multiplayer on the xBox, unlike the PC, so get them reported to the relevant people in XBox Live and make Microsoft do some work.

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Battlefield: Bad Company 2 online disconnecting

Question

I got Battlefield Bad Company 2 last night on Steam and I was trying to play online, but I get disconnected within 5 minutes of joining and usually get an error saying: "You have lost connection to the EA server".

I have read that BFBC2 uses port forwarding so I went to www.portforward.com and there was a guide to set it up for my DLink router, however I still get disconnected. I don't believe its an issue with my internet because I have played other online games fine on it, and can download things such as movies with sufficient speed.

I am going to give it another try this evening, but I was wondering if anyone else who came across this problem possibly had other suggestion on what I could do to possibly fix this?

Edit: I tried updated my punkbuster as well as playing server without punkbuster along with other troubleshooting steps but the disconnection continued, I then contacted ea and they got me to run a program that traces packets, and they told me the problem is with my internet service provider and that I am losing packets.

Answer

I contacted ea and they got me to run a program that traces packets, and they told me the problem is with my internet service provider and that I am losing packets. If anyone else comes across this problem I first recommend the punkbuster solution, then doing the port forwarding and if all else fails contact ea, and it may be the same as my issue. Its rogers internet but its through techsavy

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Are there any countermeasures to turbo-controller users?

Question

I've been playing quite a few online matches of Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 and have come across quite a few people who use a turbo controller to gain an unfair advantage.

Seeing how blocking just before an attack hits allows you to perform a substitution jutsu, negating all damage and placing you behind your attacker, people that use a turbo controller to spam the guard button are nigh-impossible to attack, as any attack in the game can be avoided in this manner.

This also allows them to land rather potent attacks while their opponent is still recovering from the sudden reversal, which in turn gives them breathing room to recharge their chakra (which is necessary to perform substitution jutsu).

Ranged characters may be a good counter to this technique, as substitution jutsu does not place you behind the attacker if he is not within melee range, but it is impossible to spot a turbo-controller user at the character selection stage.

Is there any tactic I can use to punish people who rely on turbo blocking?

Answer

There are really only two things you can do. First, file a bug report with the developers, (who ought to be able to write some code to detect and respond to turbo controller usage if they decide it shouldn't be done,) and second, don't play with people who use turbo controllers.

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What is the City of Heroes Party Size?

Question

What are the party/group sizes in the City of Heroes MMORPG?

I can find all kinds of resources online that say these X games are multiplayer but no where can I find a listing of "this many people can play together in this game."
(If someone has a listing like that for MMO-type games, that would be AWESOME, and save me from basically asking this same question for Champions Online and whatever other MMO's I come across while trying to find one that plays with a larger group right away...)

Answer

The maximum team size in City of Heroes is 8 players for normal teaming. You can also set up Leagues, which can have a max of 48 players (6 full teams).

The Incarnate Trials, Rikti Mothership raids, and Hamidon Raids are the only times you're really required to have a League of players. Even then, the Incarnate Trials don't require a full 48. The Rikti Mothership and Hamidon Raids are zone events which require pretty much a full zone of people to complete.

Otherwise, the majority of the content, including normal missions, non-Incarnate Trials, and Task/Strike Forces can be completed with 8 players.

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What is the objective in Minecraft Classic?

Question

I heard a lot of voices about MineCraft so I decided to visit its site. I found two versions there, MineCraft Alpha and MineCraft Classic.

I tried to play MineCraft Classic, but I didn't really understand what the purpose/objective of the game is, and I haven't found very much information on the site.

Could you please explain it to me?

Answer

None. Dig around, build around, enjoy the work that has gone into the map generator, make awesome stuff and share it on YouTube.

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World in Conflict--are there still servers out there?

Question

I recently played World in Conflict at a friend's house (single player), and I liked it a lot. It's not very expensive (complete edition is 19.99 now), but I don't want to buy it if there's nobody to play with online.

Are there still servers out there?

Answer

Yes, there are still servers out there with players on them. Right now about 15 servers that are full and countless others which are empty.

The game is really fun when playing (especially multiplayer). I would say a definite buy :)

Screenshot from same day:

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What happens to your statistics when you join a Modern Warfare 2 game in the middle?

Question

I guess that you get a win if you win (especially in free-for-all mode).

But if you join a game, any kind of game, and your team loses, does that count as a loss?

If your team wins, does that count as a win?

Answer

Yup, if you join a game at the last second (or any time up to then) and the team wins you win, if they lose you lose.

It's happened to me a bunch of times where I'll load in, and go right to the scoreboard with a loss.

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Borderlands Xbox360: can I go online directly after buying the game - or do i need to pay more?

Question

Noob question but I've bought Borderlands and playing it single player (loving it!) on my own. I'm starting to get interested in playing co-op online, but never done it before so not sure how I go about it.

• Do I need to do anything else other than the game & an Interet connection?

• Do i ust click on the Xbox live link in the game load screen to take me to the correct online location/screen etc?

• Or do I need to buy an Xbox live card to be able to go online?

A real newbie question but I've never played online, not sure how it works, and not sure if I'll prefer it to the single player I'm going through now - so don't want to pay loads of additional cash for Xbox live access and then not use it.

Grateful for any words of wisdom. Mike.

Answer

All you need is the game,internet and Xbox live gold membership.

To start it, click "Xbox live" in the main menu.
- Click custom games or quick match to join someone else's game. Pick the match you want to join and then it will ask you to choose your character. Everyones matches to choose from will be labeled by what level character they are and what quest they are working on.
- Click Create game to start a game with your character.

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Why doesn't ESRB rate online games?

Question

Take a game like GTA IV. Why don't they give the same rating for playing on-line?

The online play is as violent as the offline play. I could understand a lower rating if you can't visit prostitutes and nude dancers in online mode. (I don't know if these "features" are accessible online.)

Take a game like Modern Warfare 2. There's no difference between playing online and playing offline. In my opinion, this game should be rated offline and online with the same rating.

Not that I'm not criticizing the violence in the game. I just want to understand why online gaming is not rated.

Answer

The ESRB doesn't rate online play because there is no way to predict what you'll hear and see online: theoretically, they'd have to rate every game with online play as AO because every game could potentially have content they'd rate that way. (Conversations about "graphic" sex, for example, or people exposing themselves on their webcams.)

The ESRB site explains it this way:

Online Rating Notice

Online-enabled games carry the notice "Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB." This notice warns those who intend to play the game online about possible exposure to chat (text, audio, video) or other types of user-generated content (e.g., maps, skins) that have not been considered in the ESRB rating assignment.

It isn't very helpful, but it's probably a precaution against legal action (for not warning people that gamers might say bad words online - there have been lawsuits filed for similarly frivolous reasons before).

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Can I play Call of Duty on the Xbox with someone on the PC?

Question

Can I play Call of Duty Black Ops with someone on the PC if I am playing on an XBox?

Or do they keep them separate? I could see why they would. A Keyboard and Mouse seems to give more control (at least to me). That may be considered an unfair advantage.

Answer

No, PC and XBox cannot play CoD: Black Ops together. PC version uses dedicated servers whereas XBox version uses XBox Live.

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How can I give my opponent a win in Madden 11 online franchise mode?

Question

(I'm not just randomly throwing games - there's a story to this.)

In the online franchise league I'm in, we have a rule that games that disconnect in the fourth quarter or overtime are wins for the team with the lead at the time. (This is on the 360, but I would think the solution would be platform-agnostic. If it isn't, I'd like a 360-only solution.)

I was playing this week's opponent, and down 31-13 with less than a minute left in the third, I lost a fumble. I paused the game to challenge and the game decided not to resume - neither of us could get back to the game, so we both quit without a result.

Given the score and situation, I felt it was only fair to give him the win, but we couldn't find a quick way of doing it: if I quit right after we started the game, he only had options to quit with a loss or quit with no result. There is a thread on EA's forums that suggests this may be due to a recent patch of the game.

We ended up playing the game through in such a way as to ensure a win for him, but I'd prefer something that wouldn't take up as much of his time. Is there a way to do that?

Answer

As a last resort, I contacted EA support ... I hardly expected to get anything back, given that Madden 12 is just around the corner, and as I thought, I got a form letter reply from first-level support:

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Electronic Arts customer support.

...

We are extremely sorry for the issue. We would like to inform you that we are here forwarding this issue to the game development team and they would look in to this issue and provide you the best solution. If needed a patch may also get released. Please give some time to the game developers as it would be taking some time to make these changes. Your time and patience is deeply appreciated and requested.

If there is anything else we can help you with please let us know.

Obviously this is a form letter, because EA isn't going to patch 11 again. (The auto-response to let me know they received my message was even worse: Thank you, First name and Customer By Web Form (First name Last name). EA quality: less important than meeting deadlines.)

I'll update this answer if I find out anything else, but for the time being, it looks like my choices are to try to pause and quit with a loss, and if that's not available, to simply "play" out the game.

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