PS2 online hit by cheaters
It was only a matter of time
A report on News.com has exposed the early signs of cheating in games on Sony's PS2 online service. Unscrupulous players have already unearthed methods of holding up games of Madden and NFL2K3 indefinitely - forcing honest players to disconnect out of a desire to engage a genuine opponent and, get this, losing the match by default for doing so. As News.com remarks, this will be pretty gosh darn frustrating for those hoping to bolster their online rankings. Whilst I'm aware of my audience's distaste for the sport of American Football, the implications go way beyond bastardised Rugby outings. What's more, quite another problem is afflicting Tom Clancy meets Counter-Strike 'em'up SOCOM. SOCOM was made broadband-only because of its poor performance on a modem, and apparently various modem users have been sneaking into online games (although the article doesn't allude to how, thankfully), causing them to slow down and behave erratically. "Laggers", as they're affectionately and apparently known, zip around the screen uncontrollably and make difficult targets. Something keen Counter-Strike players will doubtless be familiar with. It's difficult to say if and how Sony will deal with the problem of cheaters and unfriendly PS2 online gamers, but it's doubtless a situation Microsoft will be watching like a hawk ahead of its Xbox Live launch date this November. Unfortunately for Sony, without the as-yet-unreleased hard disk, patches are almost totally out of the question. Without years of online gaming experience on their side, most developers will find to their cost over the next few years that cheating is an absolute certainty. And if enough of the code sits on the client side, using a device like an Action Replay to make one's self invincible and so on is more than a mere possibility.