Face to face with hackers – best practices

January 23, 2011 in General | No comments

Like said, the hackers are now a big pain in the ass on the PS3 platform. Today I finally got altered by one of those a**holes; just a few seconds after the MW2 S&D round at Karachi started, I got a scrolling text on the screen, “Unlocking xx/xx”. I knew what was going on and immediately quit. The result? Half of my gun challenges turned into state DONE. No big harm done. Yet.

To avoid being altered is quite hard but at least worth a try. Here are the best practices what I have found out.

1) Play only with people you know. This is quite a lame tip but actually it’s the only way to keep hackers away from your local data files. This is what Infinity Ward suggests, too.

2) Quit if there’s a hacker in the match. If there are any impossible situations going on (no kills but AC-130s flying around) or you spot a hacker menu (you will know when you see it) on someone’s screen, quit.

3) Try to recognize hackers between the matches. Often these wannabe-hacker-kids create new PSN accounts for their sessions. If the account is for example xX-AC130-hack-Xx, it’s quite easy to guess what is going to happen anytime soon. Also pay attention to the voice discussions.

4) Pay attention to odd behavior. Every now and then I have had matches where no one is interested in winning. You may be the only one carrying the bomb, killing others etc. That is when your alarm bells should be ringing – from my experiences maybe half of those matches are “hacker sessions”. Pay attention what is going on with the other players.

5) Impossible aiming skills & extended health. There are many quick-scopers out there but not THAT good – if someone takes down several enemies without aiming and seemingly doesn’t get hurt itself, it’s an obvious hack. Have seen that. Just quit the match.

What are your best practices?