Hacking Enter The Matrix

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to Gamespy's new guide to the hacking section of Enter The Matrix. This extra section of the game brings up a DOS-style interface, even on Playstation 2/Xbox/Gamecube, and lets you 'hack' to get pictures, movies, and extras from the million-selling but still controversial Atari-published title. Reminds us a little of the low-profile but excellent PC/Mac hacking game, Uplink?

Comments

huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

controversial? huh?

I'm confused, because a patch is released for a game and there is very little press about the game, that makes it controversial? the game was released right during the heart of E3, most websites more than likely had their hands full with E3.

reviews are now plentiful now that E3 is over, you can find just a few of them here, here and here.

Mike

Re:huh?

[toddhunter]

There were a load of really critical bugs. Fair enough, a lot of games do that these days and are fixed with a quick patch. No big deal. Of course, if you bought a console version...

Uplink

[Apreche]

Uplink is an awesome awesome game. You have this awesome interface that makes you feel as if you are really hacking, movie style. It comes complete with the map that shows you relaying connections and getting traced. It even has plot! If you haven't played it, you should. I'm all for showing more realistic hacking in movies. Clean out some of the false impressions and stereotypes in peoples minds.

Re:Uplink

[Captain Nitpick]

What really bothered me about Uplink was the IRC client "upgrade".

Having a real IRC client in the game just blurred the boundary with reality just a little too much.

Re:Uplink

[Anonymous Coward]

it really isn't 'realistic hacking'. you buy software to allow you to bypass level one firewalls, and do a few missions. the you have more money, but the computers you are now supposed to hack have level 3 firewalls, so you buy a software upgrade, and so on

also, most of the things that make the game difficult are the poor interface (for example, to slow down traces, you route your connection. to add more hops, you have to click on the computers. this is really annoying when you want to add many, especially since you have to do it everytime you reload the game)

other than the interface, the game is pretty easy, and can get repetetive quickly. then again, its also cheap, and great fun at the beggining. and since were on /., it even has a linux version

try the demo

Uplink? No.

[ziggles]

A DOS-style interface? Uplink didn't have one of those. Uplink was more of a graphical hacking interface type thing than a command line hacking type thing.

And what was with the "even on Playstation 2" remark? Is it harder to believe that it would have the feature on the PS2 than the xbox or GC?

What, no GUI?

[Universal Nerd]

Great, if I had the game I'd use it but what about the 1337 k1dd135 ? All they can due os point-and-click.

I can see it now:
1337 kiddie: "What the F**K is an a-semicolon-backslash?!?!!?!?!?!!!!!1"

Re:What, no GUI?

[tha_mink]

Maybe one thing they can due? is spell. You should look into it here.

I bet you do really well in the text based world.

Re:What, no GUI?

[Universal Nerd]

ooops, sorry about that, I didn't mean any offense.

Re:What, no GUI?

[Blackwulf]

Looking at the screenshots, there still is a GUI. You don't have to type "DIR", you can just click on the word DIR and it appears on the screen.

Re:What, no GUI?

[bmnc]

You can't click on "dir", there is no mouse (just like theres no spoon or any other cutlery in the matrix). You can move a "cursor" with arrow keys over to dir but this is clunky and slow. On the xbox etc... its a time saver, on the PC its faster to type. And theh interface is worse thhan DOS because you can't change directory, and you have to type in the full path when using an .exe for the first time. They tried to make it realistic, and in doing so made it unfun, but they didnt make it realistic enough to be useable.

Who Hacked the Matrix?

[oni]

I just want to point at that at no time during the movie did anyone "hack" the Matrix. Sure, Trinity is shown breaking into an unsecure computer while inside the Matrix, but that's really not the same thing.

Re:Who Hacked the Matrix?

[tha_mink]

Doesn't the mere fact that they were manipulating the matrix to do what they wanted it to do qualify as a hack?

Re:Who Hacked the Matrix?

[Blackwulf]

Technically, the game happens alongside the movie. Just because Trinity/Neo/Morpheous didn't hack the Matrix in the movie, doesn't mean that Niobe or Ghost can't in the game.

Re:Who Hacked the Matrix?

[oni]

Doesn't the mere fact that they were manipulating the matrix to do what they wanted it to do qualify as a hack?

In the same sence that scaring the birds in the park qualifies as manipulation. It's not the same thing as breaking through the security of the matrix itself. If you could do that, turning off the power to a few city blocks would be small fries.

Re:Who Hacked the Matrix?

[Asgard]

My understanding was when Trinity entered the matrix near the end, Link said something like "This has to be the ugliest hack I've ever done."

Re:Who Hacked the Matrix?

[mellon]

In the same sense that scaring the birds in the park qualifies as manipulation. It's not the same thing as breaking through the security of the matrix itself. If you could do that, turning off the power to a few city blocks would be small fries.

Actually, that assumes that there's a control point in the matrix operating system where you can shut off the city blocks (or whatever). Getting in and inserting your own code isn't hard. What's hard is inserting code that does something useful. That's why Neo needed to get to the source code. (Or anyway that's my theory, and I'm sticking with it!)

Re:Who Hacked the Matrix?

[XipX]

So what you're saying is that the machines allow anyone to broadcast themselves into the Matrix whenever they want? I doubt it. I see a bit of hacking going on there.

Re:Who Hacked the Matrix?

[brkello]

Actually, she does hack in to it...I think someone noticed they were using some ssh 1 exploit...I forget the details though.

Re:Who Hacked the Matrix?

[phoenixTMW]

Actually, no. She just hacks into the power control computers. Not the matrix.

Re:Who Hacked the Matrix?

[tha_mink]

In the same sence that scaring the birds in the park qualifies as manipulation. It's not the same thing as breaking through the security of the matrix itself.


Wouldn't that be _cracking_?

Re:Who Hacked the Matrix?

[brkello]

If we are talking about hacking the matrix, that's what they are doing the whole time by entering it.

Re:Who Hacked the Matrix?

[phoenixTMW]

No. The parent said: "Actually, she does hack in to it [the Matrix]...I think someone noticed they were using some ssh 1 exploit...I forget the details though."

What I said was that this was Trinity hacking into the power control computers, NOT the Matrix. They are not using some ssh1 exploit to hack into the Matrix.

Re:Who Hacked the Matrix?

[alcharn]

I agree. Just because something didn't happen in the movie doesn't mean you can't make it happen. You play the game, you set the rules!

Re:Uplink? No.

[ceejayoz]

And what was with the "even on Playstation 2" remark? Is it harder to believe that it would have the feature on the PS2 than the xbox or GC?

Apparently not, since Xbox and Gamecube were mentioned in the next two words... "even on Playstation 2/Xbox/Gamecube."

Re:Uplink? No.

[simoniker]

I can see how you might be confused by the 'even on Playstation 2' comment, so I've changed the post to add Gamecube and Xbox, just in case :)

And, yes, I know Uplink was mainly using a graphical interface, but figured it was still worth mentioning, because there aren't really that many hacking games out there, the themes are similar, and a lot of people have missed Uplink because it doesn't have a major publisher behind it, sadly.

Re:Uplink? No.

[Ryan Stortz]

Uplink did have a cli. You needed to use it to execute the virus and retro-virus. It's been awhile since I've played the game so I can't quite remember how to get to it though.

Uplink port for Mac

[Anonymous Coward]

In a coincidence that can only be described as striking, Ambrosia released their port of Uplink for the Mac today.

No, I ain't gonna include a link. I ain't cher momma.

Re:Uplink port for Mac

[8tim8]

Thanks for posting the info, though. I just went to the posted Uplink link and saw nothing about a Mac version there. Heh, now I get to do some pseudo-hacking on my iBook...

Tact

[cgenman]

"Controversial" was a nice term for universally panned.

Re:Uplink? No.

[SeaEye420]

Instead of typing out "even on Playstation 2/XBox/Gamecube" you could have just said "even on consoles" I think that would still get your idea across. :-D

Other than that, keep up the good work! I love the games section!

Too bad it's probably the best part of the game...

[nekoes]

I guess the only thing controversial about it is just the whole liscensing issue. I'm quite shocked that it's sold over a million or whatever I've heard. I just don't think the game merits that kind of attention, as it is just a mediocre action fighter/shooter at best. Just goes to show you how some liscenses will push units. The only merit besides the hacking console is the extra footage, that actually does give you a little back story into what's going on in reloaded, but it's hardly worth the trouble of playing through such a poorly designed game. That said, if they just extended the hacking console portion a bit (or a lot), I probably could of lived through the mediocrity that is enter the matrix. Too bad the PC's hacking console is crippled, it has horrible key response, the features that help you navigate without typing so much are busted, and the features that you 'unlock' have yet to work on my computer (the pictures, videos, and training level)... It was fun though... oh ya, what I was originally thinking, does this really warrent a post on games/.? And does anyone know of any other games that are of the same breed (hacking with a CLI)?

help the oppressed!

[Anonymous Coward]

can someone please plagerize the article and post text? gamespy has been made offlimits by our web nazi (opps meant proxy) haven't had any luck with google chache for it yet either.

Re:Too bad it's probably the best part of the game

[zonker]

we have a theatre room in our house and this past weekend had a bunch of people over for a gaming party. a friend of mine brought over the new matrix game, and we were pretty excited to see it, even though we all thought the movie pretty much sucked. so he pops it in and starts showing us how the game works.

well my first impression was that the game was very dark and lacked detail in the levels. the details of the levels looked about like a really good quake 1 3rd party map. next he shows us the bullet time effects and superslow (or fast depending on your perspective i suppose) fighting moves. the bullet time stuff looked better in max payne, and the slowmo stuff looked really craptacular as your punches and kicks rarely land squarely on (or even close to) your enemy. then look at your players body animation. going back to quake 1, hell even doom animation seemed better. your player runs like he has a board attached to his back and his arms don't look right. the whole feeling to the animation is entirely off and isn't lifelike whatsoever.

just about everyone in the room was laughing at how silly it looked. i couldn't help feeling like i played this game about 5 years ago when it felt state-of-the-art instead of tired and generic.

i dunno, i have more to say, but meh... overall it seemed bland and not very exciting for a game that cost a supposed $20m to make and $60m to secure the license for.

don't believe the hype, rent first and see what i mean.