Halo 2 Used to Sniff Out Mods

TexasDex writes "C-Net tech news is reporting that users of Halo 2 who have installed mod chips are being banned from the X-box Live forums. It is unknown specifically how the Halo 2 game finds out the console is modded, Microsoft will only say in the X-box live Terms of Use that "Xbox Live may only be accessed with an unmodified [...] Xbox video game console.'" In related news, the New York Times (registration required) has a quickie interview with the folks behind Red Vs. Blue about changes Halo 2 bring to the series.

Comments

Illegal Actions

[Craigj0]

My guess is that Halo 2 attempts to do some action impossible with a normal xbox but works fine if it was modded, this has the benifit of no matter which method is used to unlock the xbox it will be discovered. It will at least raise the bar for unlocking xbox's from now on.

Re:Illegal Actions

[trompete]

I'm actually really surprised that more people didn't see this coming. Do X-Box games run in user space or as the kernel?

Re:Illegal Actions

[secolactico]

Do X-Box games run in user space or as the kernel?

I believe I read somewhere that xbox games execute in priviledged mode to gain performance, and since security is not really an issue when every game has to be digitally signed and will not run concurrently with anything else, it makes sense.

Why is anybody surprised? Microsoft has said from day one that modified xboxes were not going to be allowed to connect to xbl.

Confirmed

[tini1212]

http://alexalbrecht.typepad.com/alex/2004/11/xbox_ live_and_h.html

Poor Alex, first he gets fire, now he can't play on Xbox live.

Re:Confirmed

[Blakey Rat]

I read that blog entry, and I don't get it. He gets fire? Is fire a type of modchip for XBox?

Re:Confirmed

[McKinney83]

He got fired.
From his blog:

"Well I've officially been let go... along with a bunch of other people from TSS and three other shows. Kevin and Sarah are the only ones left on screen and I don't know what they are planning to do with them. The Screen Savers as you know it is GONE!"

So

[Mr.Dippy]

Deal with it pink boy. It's MS's propritary system and propritary network. If you don't like it then play games online with your 3000 dollar computer

Oh, still?

[H0NGK0NGPH00EY]

Oh, so they haven't stopped doing it since we were told about this four days ago on Slashdot?

Thanks. I'll look forward to the next update on Wednesday to see if they're still banning modded Xboxes or not.

Re:Oh, still?

[NanoGator]

"Thanks. I'll look forward to the next update on Wednesday to see if they're still banning modded Xboxes or not."

Sometimes I think the editors just want to watch us wave our pitchforks around. More ad clicks that way.

Re:Oh, still?

[complete loony]

While there was some speculation, I don't remember it being pinned down to HALO 2 specifically.

Re:Oh, still?

[justforaday]

They're just waiting for one of us to say something nasty about them, so they can sue for cyberlibel...

Re:Oh, still?

[Anonymous Coward]

That was a different story. It had nothing to do with Halo 2. People with mod chips were still able to play simply by flipping the switch. This story claims that Halo 2 is detecting mod chips and reporting them. Completely different.

Re:Oh, still?

[Anonymous Coward]

I made a post saying it was Halo 2 and I got modded down for "Troll"...

Re:Oh, still?

[CatsCradle]

"Since the release of Halo 2 (ed: and just before), Microsoft has been banning modified Xboxes from Xbox Live." Nothing to do with Halo 2 ...

the first wave are always the heavy casualties

[evilmousse]

ha-ha i saw it coming.

bungee, like em or not, is entirely ownz0r'd by ms, and i always am skeptikal of ms. they're not ones to balk at opportunity anyway, ethical or not, and this halohype is definetly opportunity. I'm always more than happy to sit back and let the lemmings be the first wave, then progress once I'm confident of what's going to happen. *COUGH*SP2*COUGH*

of course, this was reason #3 on my list not to play halo2... #2 being i can't jump, spin, and shoot behind me like i can with a mouse, and #1, NO GRAPPLING HOOK!! ALL 1ST-P SHOOTERS MUST HAVE GRAPPLING HOOKS FROM NOW ON DAMMIT!
of course, i'm not shying from enjoying the very-moddable hl2 and doom3.

Re:the first wave are always the heavy casualties

[seann]

yup.

Re:the first wave are always the heavy casualties

[Anonymous Coward]

#2 being i can't jump, spin, and shoot behind me like i can with a mouse

So what you're saying is that... you suck?!

Re:the first wave are always the heavy casualties

[tiptone]

** quote **

#2 being i can't jump, spin, and shoot behind me like i can with a mouse

** quote **

please quit blaming someone else for your inability to use the equipment. i jump, spin, and shoot behind me just fine with the analog controller.

Re:the first wave are always the heavy casualties

[evilmousse]

jeez, i didn't think i needed to phrase this so precisely, but since TWO people took time out of their busy day to slam my skills..

replace "can't jump, spin, and shoot behind me" (a veiled reference to a similar comment Tycho of P-A made to the same effect recently, except regarding the new nintendo handheld with a stylus) with the more accurate "don't have the means for precise and near-instantaneous rotation".

yes, you can jump, spin, and shoot behind you in halo, but an analog stick just does not even compare to a mouse for the needed balance of speed/precision/intuitiveness. an analog stick set too slow forces the rotation to take the entire length of the jump to complete. an analog stick set too fast is too inaccurate for precise shooting. The major factor being that an analog stick is bound in it's maximum rotation, whereas a mouse can always just be moved faster/more. a mouse (esp an optical one, unconfined by the width of a mousepad) is simply mechanically BETTER.

Re:the first wave are always the heavy casualties

[tiptone]

shit, nothing personal, where i'm from you can't just serve one up like that without it getting swatted down. it's just a knee-jerk reaction.

on the subject at hand: after playing Halo 2 for a good while now i think that game is really pushing the XBox to what it can do. there's some places where you can see the hardware struggling to keep up, it's clearly not a bug/mistake in the code. i'm not sure it could pull off the kind of super-quick-spins you're talking about.

i've been a gamer since the Atari 2600 but didn't get into computers until much later and have always used them for work(-ish) purposes, i've never gamed on a PC. well, aside from having my ass handed to me a couple of times when i stopped in on LAN parties on campus. but i've been using an analog controller of some kind for a looooong time now, Game Cube, XBox, PS2, Dreamcast, whatever, only takes me a couple of minutes to get comfortable with it. i look like a monkey screwing a football trying to game with a mouse + keyboard.

you are limited in that respect on the XBox, but everyone is limited equally so it all works out. but i do really enjoy playing on the XBox with someone who is used to PC gaming, watching them flounder for a while trying to cope, especially when your chosen platform has a really cool new game that the others won't have for a year or two :)

What Next?

[Anonymous Coward]

First the required Steam activation on HL2 and now this... It seems this latest generation of games is going to piss off more gamers than ever before.

At least the only thing wrong with Doom 3 is that it's boring.

Re:What Next?

[RogueyWon]

On the contrary, Doom 3 had that hideous, hideous form of copy-protection whereby the game refuses to run if it detects CD-emulation software (or indeed random other bits of software the publishers don't approve of) installed.

Personally, if there has to be copy protection, I'd rather see the HL2 model, or the Halo 2 model than that used on Doom 3. The reasoning behind this is simple; steam (Valve's DRM client thingy, through which you have to play HL2), for all its many flaws, actually functions and allows other things to function. Once the game gets "switched on" (and yes, I resent having to wait for this), I can at least play it while continuing to use my computer normally. It doesn't stop me doing anything unrelated to the game.

Halo 2's copy protection means that I can't do certain things with my X-Box. However, my X-Box is just a gaming machine. I use it to play games and I tend to buy my games in my local high-street retailer. I can play Halo 2 while doing anything I would reasonably expect to be able to do with my X-Box.

However, in the case of the system used by Doom 3 (and a number of other games), I can't actually play the game while I have a good number of other useful utilities installed on my home PC, which is *not* just a games machine. Sure, it gets gaming use, but I use my desktop for a lot of other things. Daemon Tools is an incredibly useful little program and I used it to speed up my use of a large number of programs which I legally owned. For a game to arbitrarily decide that it won't run if I have this installed is just not right. Fortunately, Doom 3's copy protection doesn't detect the excellent Alcohol 120%, which has similar functionality. However, it can only be so long before this loophole is closed.

Re:What Next?

[FLAGGR]

It's only banning people that mod their xbox. There's notthing evil or mean about it, it states clearly in the ToS that they don't want modded xbox's on live. It STILL lets you do everything else. Why would they do this? To piss off gamers? Make more money? No. The great thing about Live is its a VERY closed system. If everyone and their grandma start running linux on their xbox's, and find out how to hack live, then they can ruin alot of other players experiences, which sucks. Also, I guess it keeps people from finding out how to steal xbox live, but if no one pays for live then it isn't going to exist any more. Normally I hate MS as much as any other self respecting person, but I have to applaud them for doing this.

Re:What Next?

[mobby_6kl]

> Personally, if there has to be copy protection, I'd rather see the HL2 model, or the Halo 2 model than that used on Doom 3

This is choosing the lesser of two evils again, so I'd again prefered the third option ;).

However, if these two types were the only things which would make the game run, I'd prefer the DOOM3 copy protection. The reasoning is also simple. I'd rather shut down one program than have some software ring home, download some crap, send my information and make me wait until the dev/pub thinks I can play it. Also it is much easier to take a CD/DVD with me than a good fast internet connection.

Re:What Next?

[jebiester]

However, the HL2 model permanently blocks your Xbox from Xbox Live. Thereby permanently reducing a good portion of the functionality that you paid good money for. How many people will either need to buy another Xbox or quite Xbox live for good?

The Doom 3 version can be circumvented by a patch, or un-installing some software. At worst you can't play the game but the Computer is still fine, it's functionality is not permanently inhibited (as in the HL case). I think this is worse.

Re:What Next?

[His Nastiness]

Oh dear god. I agree that MS is completely within their rights to do this and beyond that I have no real ethical, philosophical, logical or practical objection to their doing so. I have a modded box (and a thoroughly legit copy of Halo2 though I did rip it to my drive so levels would load faster). Your opinion however is based on some misguided and utterly retarded (read uninformed) notions. To the best of my knowledge no one has been able to connect to xbox live while running their mod chip. Which means linux can't be running while they are connected. Linux is irrelevant to this entire situation and your mere mention of it gives me an instant migraine. So dispensing with the linux argument (and your not-so-subtle implication that people with linux on their xbox are cheating-hacking-thieving gamers) no one has stolen xbox live. You would need an account to get in. Could it be hacked? Sure, anything can be given time, ability and knowledge. Are there a bunch of (or even 1?) rogue xbox users with hacked xboxen running Gentoo whilst merrily gaming on stolen (or invented) Live accounts while looking thru walls in Halo2 and sniping everyone? Show me one (1!) and I'll eat my own ass. Promise. This is about money pure and simple. Not greed. Just money. MS makes their money on software sales not hardware sales and they have very real (lets not kid ourselves) reasons to believe that people with modded boxes (or an extremely high percentage of them (100% of the people I know)) use their boxes to, among other things, rip or steal games that they have rented, borrowed, or downloaded. If you're really into Xbox Live and your box gets banned because it's modded, well, you take your lumps. But it could prevent those with unmodded boxes from deciding to mod theirs and (in MS's opinion) ultimately steal games. It is about money, there is just nothing particularly wrong or corrupt about it.

Re:What Next?

[Siniset]

I agree that it's about money, but this is one time where i think the consumers and MS's desires colide. I stopped playing online games on the computer because of hackers and cheaters. Live is an attempt to offer a service in which the hardware(and therefore, hopefully cheating and hacking) is controlled. If Microsoft does this, it will improve their bottom line, because more people will want to play on it. But it is also about controlling piracy. But for one of the first times, the company is actually offering the user something in return for not using pirated hardware or software, as apposed to the DOOM III type control which just screws regular users and encourages the use of cracks.

Re:What Next?

[FLAGGR]

I didn't say anyone has managed to get on Live with Linux, I'm saying that it could happen, and could possibly be a danger to the service, that is all. Of course it also is to prevent stealing, but you'll notice you can still play on your xbox, just not Live, so I wouldn't consider it that big a deal (everyone knows ahead of time when they mod their xbox, they basically give up playing on Live)

Re:What Next?

[iocat]

Dude, their TOS says "no modded Xboxes" so what's the big deal? There's no inalienable right to use Live if you've modded your Xbox.

Re:What Next?

[Mycroft_VIII]

Among other things that keep doom3 (and farcry) from running are ide drivers. In specific the optimized drivers that come with some nforce2 motherboards such as my brothers gigabyte board.
To be fair those divers have a prominent 'no guarantees these will actually do anything good and thier use is strictly at your own risk don't call us we don't support them' type blurb shoved in your face if want to install those drivers(you can cancell the install at that point, and xp's driver rollback worked just fine to get said games running).
If you are thinking of installing them or already have be warned Farcry and Doom3 will NOT play with them giving a 'cd not found' type error in both cases.

Mycroft

Re:What Next?

[jebiester]

Oh, I agree with you there dude. I was just saying it's worse (for the user). I wasn't saying it was wrong. You're right though - it's Microsoft's system, and they can do what they want.

Re:What Next?

[KDR_11k]

If your Daemon Tools trip D3's user alienation system maybe you should update them or something because mine don't. Both before and after the patch my Doom 3 runs without a problem with theDaemon Tools enabled.

Re:What Next?

[TheOnlyCoolTim]

That is why God invented NOCD cracks.

Tim

Re:What Next?

[Anonymous Coward]

I stopped playing on-line games on the computer because of hackers and cheaters.

I am not accusing you here, but I do notice something sometimes (not too often) when playing on-line games "on the computer". It happens to others also, they accuse you of cheating, while you are seriously and badly owning them. This ticks them off like little children. Now isn't that funny, they accuse you of being a cheater all because they actually suck legendary at a game or pretty much any game.

I wouldn't be surprised if a whole specie of gamers ex-hists which stopped playing "on-line games on the computer" because of "cheating".

Re:What Next?

[DerWulf]

the issue is not so much with ownage (sorry ;) as such but with not being sure where it came from. Stories of cheating clans in esports and otherwise are just too wide spread. Some of those entities caught cheating (solo players or clans) where legends in counter-strike for example. Before the 'public' became aware of the cheating issues, many would have felt elated by getting their asses handed to them royaly. In my firm believe in humanity, I just assume that the vast majority of gamers (humans) are actually 'good loosers' that get inspired when people that play very good defeat them. But, if the certainty about the other players superority actually diminishes, through the increased awareness of cheats for example, it is clear that many feel suspicios if a new guy comes on 'their' server and starts kicking ass. Add to this technical problems, like skipped animations and latency issues and it might actually appear to players watching you as if you were really cheating.

Re:What Next?

[Anonymous Coward]

you wasted your time ripping halo. There is one initial cache load every time you play and the major initial load to the system, that's it. There is no load between levels any more and if you're playing online(the only time I have noticed load)... you're not playing on your hard drive anyway.

Halo 2 is a perfect example of everything a great game can do (not that I'm saying halo 2 is great or not) on the xbox.

Re:What Next?

[pommiekiwifruit]

Because you can always trust a multimegabyte .exe file that claims to be a cracked copy of a commercial game, downloaded from some romanian web server.

Re:What Next?

[Warpedcow]

However, if these two types were the only things which would make the game run, I'd prefer the DOOM3 copy protection. The reasoning is also simple. I'd rather shut down one program than have some software ring home, download some crap, send my information and make me wait until the dev/pub thinks I can play it. Also it is much easier to take a CD/DVD with me than a good fast internet connection.

It is amazing how many people claim that Steam has flaws/annoyances that it does NOT have. Once you have logged into steam and "registered" your steam app, you can, in the future, run Steam without any type of internet connection and it will work in offline mode - you will have full access to single player! No need to drag a fast internet connection with you, as you say.

Re:What Next?

[svallarian]

But you can't just shut it down. You have to uninstall it. And as a laptop user, that's annoying, especially since I use daemon tools to keep my battery life up.

Re:What Next?

[PhilHibbs]

Huh? I installed Doom 3 on a system that had Virtual Drive installed, and it worked just fine. id have a long and glorious history of not using copy-protection systems.

Re:What Next?

[Mycroft_VIII]

err, shure it wasn't that 7H3_g0d?

Mycroft

It's not Halo 2

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not Halo2 that's banning the xboxes. It's just xbox live. People *without* halo2 are getting banned as well. And it's not everyone. They record the hard drive serial # and the eprom serial when you first sign onto live. If one changes and not the other you are banned. If you modded your xbox before you ever signed onto live then you'll be fine.

Re:It's not Halo 2

[HeliosTrick]

I don't believe so, I think they currently look at HD contents, to make sure there are no programs on there that shouldn't be on there. Even people with switchable mod chips that are new XBL customers are getting banned...

Re:It's not Halo 2

[MMaestro]

Halo 2 simply carries some 'extra' software which checks your Xbox if its modded/hacked. If it finds some it sends the data through Xbox Live. They only did it to Halo 2 because it was such a big game. Watch, the next Xbox Live update will probably send the 'extra' software to all Xbox Live users then we'll hear about this AGAIN.

halo2 updated my dash

[bmnc]

F*CK!

I have a hacked (unmodded!) xbox, with linux installed. After playing Halo2 I found out that if my mouse and keyboard are plugged in, the xbox accepts *no* input from any of the joypads. They all appear defunct. This is true whether Halo2, any other game, or nothing is in the xbox now.

This is easily remedied by unplugging the mouse and keyboard, unplugging the controller, and replugging the controller back in, but this is annoying and a waste of my time.

Beware all who even have a hacked xbox!

Flamebait

[Anonymous Coward]

How hard can this job be man? The same "editor" posts the same story within 5 days of each other. And we know there's been ones posted within hours (even mins?) of each other.

I wish I could screw up as badly at my job and still have one.

This is new now why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod-chip bans have been common from day zero. In fact the whole silly "we'll ban you if you run the leaked copy" thing should've made this clear;

1. Mod-chipped/modded XBox will be banned from Live. You can't use Live and a hacked 'Box.
2. You couldn't play the leak UNLESS you had a chipped/modded XBox.
3. Logically if you have an XBox that is chipped/modded and thus could play the leak, see step 1.
*coufused why this is being reported*

Re:Really?

[FLAGGR]

I wouldn't say screwed, you hacked your xbox, its your own damn fault.

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

What?! HELLO! YOU OWN IT!! You are not leasing the XBox, you OWN it. You should be able to do what ever the hell you want to do to it. The only thing that mods *should* do are to void the warranty. If I want to remove the governor on my car, or add some rims to it, does the car manufacturer come down on me? No. Now, if I am leasing my car then they have every right in the world to, but that is not the case here. This is why I buy a Civic (so I can mod it) and lease a BMW (cause I don't need to mod it), and do not own an XBox. It's people that think like you that are going to make it so that no one has any freedoms to do anything with whatever they BUY.

Re:Really?

[FLAGGR]

They didn't touch your xbox, they stopped you from using LIVE. You don't own LIVE, which is a service. Think before you post.

Re:Business plan

[black mariah]

Correction to the parent:

1) Libel, threaten, harrass, and ban people not adhering to the Terms of Service they agreed to.
2) Keep all other subscribers happy.
3) Profit!!!?

Like me to phone the wah-mbulance?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh noes! If only someone could have warned you that radical changes to XBox hardware could result in unpredictable performance!

Re:Like me to phone the wah-mbulance?

[Mycroft_VIII]

He says he didn't MOD the xbox, thus no change to hardware. There was a loophole (a buffer exploit or some such) that allowed unsigned software to be run wich in turn let all sorts of things such as linux installs without ever opening anything but the cd-tray and putting in nothing but a disc.

Mycroft

Re:Like me to phone the wah-mbulance?

[Anonymous Coward]

So modifying the OS brings unpredictable results. BFD. Try running SuSE Config on a Debian system.

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

You should be able to do what ever the hell you want to do to it.

You can. You can also accept the consequences of those actions.

Grow up.

Oh, and your "rims" analogy makes no sense, by the way.

terrible news

[krel]

Oh Bungie...
can you sink any lower?

Re:terrible news

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not Bungie, it's Microsoft. And don't you forget it.

Re:terrible news

[Anonymous Coward]

Sadly, there is no difference anymore.

Re:terrible news

[cassidyc]

oooohh poor people who hack their xbox knowing full well it wont work on Live.

Well shit

see . that,

That's the world smallest violin playing for all you fuckers

Yeah the xbox is your, you can do whatever you damn well please. Guess what xbox Live is Microsofts service, and they can do whatever they damn well please.

Now if you don`t mind I have a halo game to get back to.

CJC

Re:terrible news

[Anonymous Coward]

Oddly, no one really cares. Without MS, Bungie wouldn't even exist anymore.

Good.

[Anonymous Coward]

Now when I play Halo 2 online, I won't have to deal with cheaters like in CS, or people bitching about cheaters when there aren't any either. The best thing about console gaming is that it just works - unlike with a PC, there are no compatibility issues, you don't worry about your specs, and there aren't random strangers trying to fuck your shit up. You just put the disc in and play, and don't worry about all those other issues. So, I'm pleased to see that these advantages extend themselves to online play, too.

How it is found out

[Anonymous Coward]

X-BOX

THe MOD chip has the ability to run the MAIN program-file under a different name (not always)

that is ONE of the major funktionalities of a MOD chip. others are ignoring harware identification of harddrive and CDROM. needless to say that such major things/changes kann be easily detected.

Oh, gee...

[TJ_Phazerhacki]

I guess I'll just have to use my X-Box to play GAMES!!!

Probabally not the right group to hear this, but when you purchase a piece of hardware, most of the time, It does in fact belong to you. Feel free to buzz it in half with a chainsaw - it is yours.

But If MS wants to require that you use unmodded systems on Live, it is their perrogative - you are faced with two rather simple solutions:

1. Play the system the way it was intended.

2. Dont Use XBox live.

I have played CS tooo long to know that the primary reason people use altered systems online is for cheating. Power to the XBox.

All I can say is:

[KDR_11k]

See? It works.

Wrong car.

[KDR_11k]

You could modify a Formula 1 car but don't complain if you are no longer allowed to participate in races with that car. You can modify your system all you want but MS will not offer their XBox Live service to those who altered their system and they made that clear before any money changed hands. If you set up your own online network for modded XBoxes to connect to I'm sure you could modify it to hell and back (okay, bnetd case, yes...).

Dashupdate.xbe

[Jarlsberg]

The Halo2 DVD contains a file called dashupdate.xbe. If you have a modded XBox and a storebought copy of Halo2, you can rip the game to a PC, remove the file and burn a new copy to use with the box. However, you have to do this before you start playing it for the first time...

Re:Dashupdate.xbe

[LaundroMat]

Yes, but the update will also be downloaded from Live when you connect...

Re:Dashupdate.xbe

[Jarlsberg]

Aha, didn't know that, but then I don't go live either. Maybe one of these days I'll get a new, unmodded xbox to go live with. It's not like they're expensive anymore. :)

Re:Business plan

[KDR_11k]

What's that got to do with anything? MS isn't threatening anyone here they're merely unwilling to offer their service to people who don't use the proper hardware (prostitute analogy coming up in 3...2...1...).

You know, it's funny

[rsilvergun]

this will have the added benefit of thousands of modders going out and buying new Xboxes, w/o buying new games. Meaning MS loses money :). Yeah, I know, by making a strong stance against piracy they make devs happy and will make more in the long run. Still, it's nice to see MS not getting out of this scott free.

Re:You know, it's funny

[WarForge]

Retarded mods! How can this be modded interesting!? How many times does it need to be pointed out that although they are sold below cost, MS does not lose any more money than they already have. The loss is a sunk cost and you are still adding $150 to their current bank account.

I know it does not need to be pointed out to most of the crowd here, but it is really bothersome how low the bar of stupidity can be lowered.

Re:Business plan

[Anonymous Coward]

1) Libel, threaten, harrass, and ban paying customers.

Are modding 'customers' paying customers?

Latest theories on the subject

[LaundroMat]

It is now generally thought that xbox live is able to detect modchips, even when switched off. The EEPROM - HD marriage theory doesn't seem to be correct. So either you rip out the chip, or you try and install a switch that physically disconnects the chip from the motherboard. Sift through the xbox-scene.com forums for more...

Do not buy from Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

How much do you wan't to get fucked until you realize the truth?

Re:Really?

[igrp]

A service for which it is clearly stated that you need an unmodified XBox, if I may add that.

This is nothing new. They have been banning people for signing on to Live with modified hardware or software since the very beginning. The only difference is that they're now actively and aggressively pushing their agenda (which has been 'allow only stock hardware on Live' since the very beginning to discourage cheating and piracy).

And Live is not without competition. If your game has a system-link option, you can play it online, period. There's XBC, there's XLink and a few others. Yes, it's not XBox Live. But it works.
This is not such a big deal.

online only

[RasendeRutje]

Why would they be banning online play only? If they van detect a mod, they can also ban offline...

Re:online only

[KDR_11k]

It's called "law" and even Microsoft has to adhere to it.

Re:Business plan

[DrSkwid]

xboxes aren't free

xbox live isn't free

halo2 to play on xbox live isn't free

and, while we're here, mod-chips aren't free

Free online gaming??

[sknja]

Where is the love for the free online gaming?

Why even bother with xbox live anymore with or w/o a modded xbox?

I perosnally have played xbox live quite a few times, as well as the free online supporters (xlink Kai, xbconnect). I have found the free ones to be quite nice, and on par with xbox live. If more people switched to free the experience would only get better.

I just dont see why pepople will pay for microsoft to screw them.

-------
Bring on the fyre

Re:Free online gaming??

[Osty]

I perosnally have played xbox live quite a few times, as well as the free online supporters (xlink Kai, xbconnect). I have found the free ones to be quite nice, and on par with xbox live. If more people switched to free the experience would only get better.

Let's see, how about:

• Single-sign on. Your gamertag is the same across all games. Of course, that could be done by these other services (presuming that one service does everything you want, so you don't have to jump across multiple services), so let's move on.
• Cross-game friends list. Again, this can be done by tunnelling services, but with Live I can access the list in-game, rather than having to jump over to my computer (which is upstairs and across the house from my XBox).
• Ubiquitous voice support. The game itself has to support voice, and few games support voice in system link mode (no point when you can yell across the room). I suppose you could use a different voice server like with PC games, and since you have to have a PC acting as a tunnel already it's not another hardware addition. Pain in the ass, though.
• Performance optimizations. Here's where things get interesting. These tunnelling services work via System Link (ie, the XBox thinks it's playing on a LAN). Games don't need to worry about network latency for System Link games, because there effectively is none (okay, I'm sure you could find a way to saturate a 100Mbps network and cause lag, but in general that's not going to happen with today's games). Live! expects to work over the internet, and thus good games will optimize for that (some games behave poorly, like Star Wars: Battelfront, but most work well). Nine times out of ten, you're going to have a more enjoyable experience on Live than on a tunnelling service, unless you have an uber-fast broadband connection (both upstream and down) and you only play with other folk with the same.
• Support. As I mentioned, these tunnelling services rely on System Link support. What do you do with a game that supports Live but not System Link? Oops, you're screwed.
• Matchmaking. Sure, tunnelling services can implement matchmaking, but they have to do it outside of the game. By using Live!, you get to use the game-specific matchmaking code (means it can take into account variables such as a player's skill level).
• Stat keeping. Again, this is something that tunnelling services can do, but not to the extent as Live nor as easily. For example, please tell me how you can record stats like this without having intimate knowledge of the game internals (and access to them)? There was a hack a while ago on Slashdot that used video capture to examine Soul Calibur 2 games and track stats, but you're not going to be able to do that in scale. Perhaps you could do it by examining the network traffic (assuming that data is even transmitted), but that's a huge reverse engineering process that you would need to do for each and every game. It would take time to get stats up and running for a new game while people reverse engineer the network data. In the meantime, I've been tracking my Halo 2 stats since the day it shipped.
• Cheater protection. Live isn't immune to cheaters, but by and large they're limited to exploiting existing bugs and not hacking their own clients. More importantly, Live allows developers to push bug fixes down to players, and can keep people off of Live if they don't want to patch. Let's see you do that with a tunnelling service!

I just dont see why pepople will pay for microsoft to screw them.

I don't. I pay less than $5/mo (oh nos! I have to skip a venti triple no-fat soy mocha latte-ccino with whip and a cherry for one day this month to afford that! whatever will I do?), and in return I get everything listed above. And I don't have to monkey about with setting up software on a PC, screwing around with my home network, setting up tunnels, and otherwise having a poor experience. I turn on the XBox, put in the game, login to Live, and play. Simple, and totally worth the monthly fee.

Re:Business plan

[Anonymous Coward]

xboxes aren't free
Microsoft makes very little money on the main hardware, if at all.

xbox live isn't free
No idea what it costs, but I doubt it can support the whole Xbox platform.

halo2 to play on xbox live isn't free
It is most likely being free on modded boxes

mod-chips aren't free
Microsoft is not selling mod-chips

Hell, I am no Microsoft or xbox fan at all, but when it comes to mod-chips and their gaming network, you can't blame them for setting rules, wether you like those rules or not.

Re:Business plan

[SuiteSisterMary]

And isn't it interesting that they could very easily also disable modded Xboxes that aren't on Live, yet choose not to do so?

They're not interfering with anything you might want to do, they're just not letting you (potentially) interfere with what other people (on Live) are doing.

Re:Business plan

[DrSkwid]

xboxes aren't free
Microsoft makes very little money on the main hardware, if at all.

xbox live isn't free
No idea what it costs, but I doubt it can support the whole Xbox platform.

halo2 to play on xbox live isn't free
It is most likely being free on modded boxes

i paid for my xbox, I paid for xbox live, I paid for Halo2, that makes me a paying customer modchip or not, you might recall that was the question :

" Are modding 'customers' paying customers? "

workaround?

[tr33limbz]

I seem to remember my friend being able to still get on to Live with his modchip running by first routing the xbox through his computer (and firewall), then out through the cable modem. Does anyone know if this still works?

Hampering Cheaters

[Tenzen01]

One of the things that attracted me to Xbox live was that it had greater ability to prevent cheating than PunkBuster or any of the PC mechanisms. I can't tell you how annoying it was to play Halo 1 via the internet using the proxy application (XboxConnect?). It was cheater central. No fun whatsoever.

I can see why they would want to prevent the use of modders running on Xbox live as a way of hampering cheaters. And frankly, I don't blame them.

Re:Business plan

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, yes you pay, that's pretty obvious and rather usual on this planet. I mean paying as in paying off. Perhaps I should have said: "customers you can make a profit from". Profit as in, it pays off to keep the system going at all.

Just because you paid for Halo2 does not mean everyone with a modded box will.

Anyway, I read there's now an xbox gaming network not from Microsoft, I guess you can use your modded box there.

Looking for overview of Mulitplayer Maps

[rowanxmas]

If anyone has a link to some nice overview images of the multiplayer maps, I would love to see it.

Legal

[Mooga]

Can they legaly do that?

Don't you have the legal right to mod your Xbox if you want to?

Re:Legal

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but you don't have the legal right to get on Xbox Live with it. You can still use your Xbox - in fact, MS said that they won't persue the people. They're just gonna ban 'em.

Re:Legal

[Loonacy]

You have the legal right to do whatever you want with your Xbox. They have the legal right to stipulate what kind of hardware they allow on their service.

MOD PARENT UP

[AlexMax2742]

Thank you for actually having a clue. *tips hat*