Mass Effect isn't a 9.5 game. Not even close. In fact, Mass Effect isn't an 8.5 game either. It's probably more like an 8. Great writing, great voice acting, good graphics. Now the bad... broken inventory system, extremely average combat system, fundamentally broken planet exploration (driving the Mako is absolute crap... it's nearly outclassed by Big Rigs), unstable framerate, serious graphical artifacting issues (improper shadows, texture pop-in, etc)... It's worth it to play this for the story. But pretty much all of the *gameplay* elements in Mass Effect are garbage. It's an utter failure as a *game*.
I'm not quite understanding what you mean by "lived"?
In other words how have they lasted without getting ***** by hacks and cracks
There are all sorts of game-level hacks for these including things like wallhacks, teleport hacks, and weapon hacks. These are things that MS is attempting to prevent. Limitations on how user content is integrated into games is part of that. PC games are hacked frequently and severely on a regular basis. The reason you don't see them used as exploit vectors for botnet farmers is largely due to their lack of target richness. There are much greener pastures out there at the moment.
You do know with the PSN, PS3 Exclusives Cough*Warhawk*Cough are having dedicated servers for free ? gg
Your paying for a servies which lets games only use P2P and while we pay nothing for dedicated servers for games ;)
naughtydog360
I'm not really sure what your "you" and "us" rhetoric is for, given that I own both a PS3 and a 360. Beyond that, I don't recall ever mentioning PSN in the first place. Regardless of whether or not Sony is willing to throw away money making PSN free does not impact whether or not there is operational cost in XBox Live's operating method. Perhaps in the future you should consider actually reading things before making unrelated fanboy remarks.
Xbox Live has its limitations... It has some good games, but the service itself is archaic and does not warrent any monthly fee. There is absolutely NO reason that you should pay for XBL, when the only thing you're paying for is PLAYING games, and all playing is done P2P, meaning that there is no expense to Microsoft.
Big_Red_Button
This is a common misconception. It really isn't true though. The service that actually registers games and does all of the tracking and abritration is entirely on Microsoft servers. Once the game starts, it's P2P until the game ends. Before and after, there is still a significant amount of server work that happens in MS's house.
[QUOTE="ReverieDLM"]Actually, there is currently no way to execute unsigned code on the 360. At one point, a security researcher figured out a way to do it, but it was patched before it was ever made public. There are hardware failsafes in place on the console that make using the unpatched version impossible. There are firmware hacks for the DVD-ROM drive which allow running copied (note, still signed) discs, but they are non-trivial to execute. A gamesave hack would be far superior if someone could figure out how to do it.Velocitas8
Ah, so the console-modding scene still isn't that far along yet? Haven't really been keeping up lately (I kept up alot back when the first Xbox homebrew scene was active.) I'd be surprised if they ever get there. The 360's architecture design provides *very* strong protection against running unsigned code (all memory is encrypted at the hypervisor level, so only a hypervisor hack will make it work). Regardless, they still want to protect things at the application level. Even without cracking the hypervisor, there are things that an attacker can do to, for example, attempt to compromise Live. This is especially a problem when you're talking about things like Marketplace. MS has an obligation to their publishers to keep the service secure, and keeping it closed off ends up being a pretty efficient way of doing that.
[QUOTE="ReverieDLM"]I don't think you get the point. The issue isn't viruses, the issue is exploiting vulnerabilities in the game code responsible for parsing the user-created data to smash the execution stack and from there make an attempt to inline patch the firmware so that the console can be used from then on out to play pirated games or unsigned code.Velocitas8
Pfft. That's already being done through other means. Not only is the incentive for hackers not there, but an implementation of user-created content doesn't even have to allow for such vulnerabilities.
Actually, there is currently no way to execute unsigned code on the 360. At one point, a security researcher figured out a way to do it, but it was patched before it was ever made public. There are hardware failsafes in place on the console that make using the unpatched version impossible. There are firmware hacks for the DVD-ROM drive which allow running copied (note, still signed) discs, but they are non-trivial to execute. A gamesave hack would be far superior if someone could figure out how to do it.
it if easy to make user generated content whats to stop virusesVelocitas8
How do you people come up with this stuff?...So friggin' paranoid.
I've NEVER encountered a virus embedded in user-created content. What motive would drive a mod creator to package malware with user-created content they've spent tons of time on?
And how exactly is someone going to write a virus for a CONSOLE? When you aren't even allowed access to executable code?
I don't think you get the point. The issue isn't viruses, the issue is exploiting vulnerabilities in the game code responsible for parsing the user-created data to smash the execution stack and from there make an attempt to inline patch the firmware so that the console can be used from then on out to play pirated games or unsigned code. That said, the possibility of creating a worm over consoles would be pretty attractive to attackers. For starters, it's never been done, so the press would go ballistic. That's incentive enough. Beyond that, there are plenty of interesting things that you could do to a compromised system (force purchase of points, for example). You don't see this much in the PC community because PC modding is not a target-rich environment. If you're going to take over someone's PC, there are much more target-rich vectors to exploit, so games have been largely ignored. I assure you that if you spent any amount of time fuzzing against the save games for a PC game, you would be shocked at what you would find.
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