Quitting games on Call of Duty: Black Ops can get you penalized, but forcing other people to quit games can get you locked up. A UK teen is now well aware of this as he sits behind bars for using a program called "Phenom Booter" to kick players from Call of Duty servers in September. 

The Phenom Booter program attacks servers, denying specific users - or all users on the server - to be booted off the server. This hack was floating around on forums earlier in the year, and can be seen in demonstration with a quick YouTube search. E-cops eventually traced the attacks from the teen to the Greater Manchester area, charging the 17 year old with violating the U.K.'s Computer Misuse Act of 1990.

"Programs marketed in order to disrupt the online infrastructure not only affect individual players but have commercial and reputational consequences for the companies concerned," stated Detective Inspector Paul Hoare to BBC. "These games attract both children and young people to the online environment and this type of crime can often be the precursor to further offending in more traditional areas of online crime."

Read More | Gamasutra

Gallery: UK teen facing charges for hacking Black Ops servers

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Once in awhile there comes along an experience that shapes the way that we look at things. A video game experience that makes something in your brain tingle. A game where simply a mere melody from its title screen sends nostalgia crawling up your spine. There are a few video games with these kinds of experience that stick out in our minds; not just for being great games, but for their “wow” factors. Sometimes these experiences are shaped by our personal interpretations; i.e. revolving around what was going on in our lives at the time. Therefore, you may have a different top five list, but we can all agree that the following five games helped to shape the way video games are made even to this day.

Click to continue reading The 5 Most Memorable Video Game Experiences

Gallery: The 5 Most Memorable Video Game Experiences

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Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC gamers will be able to get a touch of the three dimensional come November 9. Deciding to try something a bit new, and trendy, the Call of Duty series is going 3D, “day one, out of the box”, according to Mark Lamia, the head of the Treyarch Studio. All you need to make this work is one of those ridiculously expensive 3D HDTVs or an NVIDIA 3D Vision-ready PC, along with those ridiculously cheesy active shutter glasses. The stereoscopic 3D will work in all of Black Ops’ modes, including multiplayer. How this will work out in accordance with the subtleties of the game that require precision and concentration is unknown as this point. Though, one can’t help but wonder if 3D visuals are just a gimmick, not fit for competitive play. If so, there’s going to be a whole lot of noobs that are getting pwned, all for them to play in glorious 3D.

Click to continue reading Call of Duty: Black Ops in Stereoscopic 3D

Read More | Kotaku

Gallery: Call of Duty: Black Ops in Stereoscopic 3D

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There comes a time every now and then when a game completely blows your mind. Today is one of those times. This ten minute video showcasing Bioshock: Infinite is only a taste of what's to come in 2012. Try to keep your jaw off the floor, I dare you.

Gallery: Ten amazing minutes of Bioshock: Infinite gameplay

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The guys over at Machinima have already found a frightening glitch in the armor lock mod. But beware, learning this ability is something that you can never take back from your memory!

Gallery: Halo: Reach armor lock glitch

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A look at the majority of vegetation growing in the Halo: Reach world will look like any other tree. That is, until you get up close and examine it for yourself. It seems that something else was going on on planet Reach…Something the Covenant might deem worthy enough to invade for? Hmm….

 

Gallery: Halo: Reach easter egg for the stoners

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With the release of Halo: Reach one thing is certain - the death of Halo 3 multiplayer. In order to pay respects, a person going by the gamertag of AJspartan has issued a proper final farewell video montage to the 3 year run that was Halo 3 online. It’s snipetastic to say the least.

Gallery: Saying goodbye to Halo 3 (video)

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Though the temptation may be great to jump online early, perpetrators of downloading early copies of Halo: Reach better think twice before firing up their illegally attained games online. Microsoft is no stranger to banning as many users as they see fit suspected of playing pirated copies of their games. A representative for Microsoft had this to say:

“We are aware that an unauthorized copy of “Halo: Reach” has leaked. We are aggressively investigating the matter. We have no further details to share at this time.”

Sounds like Microsoft is pretty pissed at the whole situation, and we all know what happens when Microsoft feels slighted. Last fall, gamers playing pirated copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 prompted Microsoft to ban up to a million players to get their message across. And that message is that pirating will not be tolerated.

“We are aggressively pursuing the violators. Microsoft’s commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the 25 million members of the Xbox LIVE community remains a top priority. All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and modifying their Xbox 360 console violates the Xbox LIVE terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox LIVE.”

Read More | Kotaku

Gallery: Microsoft prepares ban hammer for Halo: Reach pirates

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Keeping in tradition with Halo 3 and Halo 2 before it, the Halo series has managed to fall into unsavory pirate hands yet again with Halo: Reach. How did the leak occur, you ask? Directly from Microsoft’s own servers on Xbox Live. This is because Bungie provided authorized reviewers with the codes to download the game which is currently on display in the Xbox Live Marketplace. However, having Reach hiding in plain site wasn’t clever enough to keep the modders from getting their greedy little hands on Reach a full month early.

With Reach already floating around on some torrents out there and in the hard drives of a climbing number of peoples computers, you can expect details from the games story to begin surfacing online. Futhermore, I can safely predict that there will be another epidemic of eager gamers playing Reach online and subsequently being caught and banned from Xbox Live. Microsoft claims that they are “aggressively investigating” the leak, as I’m sure they are furious, but expecting, of the incident. While Halo has been plagued with early downloads, video games don’t suffer from the same stigma of illegal Internet downloads as music, and the sales don’t seem to decline any. Anticipate Halo: Reach to do big numbers on its release date regardless of the incident.

Gallery: Halo: Reach leaks out…via Xbox Live

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Doom was one of the original first person shooters to drive gamers wild, but it hasn’t held up well over the years. Specifically, the weapons became outdated as games like Halo and Modern Warfare changed the face of first person shooters forever. However, thanks to a recent mod, Doom now sports Modern Warfare 2 weapons, sound effects, and even the ability to quickly strike with your trusty combat knife. If you want to relive your Doom days, but can’t give up the guns of MW2, then download this mod.

Read More | Doom Modern Warfare mod

Gallery: Doom Gets a Modern Warfare Makeover

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