Xbox mod spreads KILLER Borderlands 2 GERM
Innocent gamers face permanent character death
A bug in Borderlands 2 has spread like virtual flu, permanently killing off characters if they die during a game. Worse, some players are deliberately spreading the infection to gamers they don't like, it has been claimed.
The issue only affects Xbox 360 players - the sound you can hear is our very own PS3-loving 'Anonymous Coward' sniggering - and is being passed around by those with modded consoles. Tweaked boxes allow gamers the ability to access a "badass" mode which gives their characters an unfair advantage through super weaponry and armour.
However, when a player with an unmodded console joins a multiplayer game in which someone is running badass, they too are booted onto the mode. Unfortunately, this means they're then susceptible to a bug which deletes characters rather than respawns them should they die during play.
Bye bye
Developer Gearbox warned customers of the issue last week, alleging that some players were using the bug to deliberately sabotage the characters of legitimate gamers.
While a fix is being knocked up, Gearbox advises to only play with people you trust and to avoid public games. Alternatively, use the "save and quit" option during affected games in order to reload the character later on. There has been no word on whether any characters lost as a result will ever be reinstated. Players beware.
You can read what we thought about Borderlands 2 here on Reg Hardware.®
COMMENTS
permanently killing off characters
Finally , realism at last.
The bugbear hits! The bugbear hits! The bugbear hits! You die . . .
Back in my day, permanent character death was the *only* kind of death. Kids today . . .
Re: Why?
Why?
Because the Devs are all PS3 users
*snicker*snicker*snicker*
Some facts and corrections...
This doesn't rely on modded consoles. A save game modifier program was made available on forums, to anybody able to get their save onto a USB stick and onto a PC. A flag could be switched on, enabling the uncompleted 'Badass mode', and then the save put back onto USB and onto any console. So basically anyone could do it.
If you're infected you'll be booted back to the menu screen, and if you don't go to continue, and then save and quit, your save gets renamed Graveyard.sav and your character is gone.
Also it spreads from any player with the infection, no need for a modded console, and only triggers when you die - so if you play with 3 others in a session, they get it, pass it on etc etc.
There's a fix with Microsoft now, so should be patched soon. Anyone with Graveyard.sav is done for, but an infected save which hasn't gone that far can be fixed - unfortunately this uses the same modding tool that caused the problem in the first place...
