Left 4 Dead gets hacked on Xbox 360 [update]

by Justin McElroy on Dec 10th 2008 10:30AM

Most players like to think of their 360 and PS3 as safe havens from the scurrilous tricksters who like to mold PC games to their own will with all manner of hacks and mods. Apparently, though, their vile influence has seeped into the the 360 version of Left 4 Dead. Yes kids ... the console version. We don't know how they're doing it (witchcraft?) and frankly, we don't want to know.

The Ars Technica piece about the issues includes terrifying details like witches spawning in the safe room and giant player characters. (We're told there's also human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together and mass hysteria.) Witness the horror for yourself right after the jump.

Update: Valve just wrote us to say that the problem has apparently been fixed. "Valve has released a server-side fix to deny the recently reported cheats on all dedicated Left 4 Dead Xbox 360 servers. The fix is designed to halt the cheating behavior on the dedicated servers, which accounts for the majority of the co-op and Versus modes of play. A title update for those playing on user-hosted servers and/or via system link will be released in the coming days."

[Via Giant Bomb]

Source

Tags: hacks, left-4-dead, valve, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (66)

nice GB ref.

Interesting. The 360 version must have a command console like the PC version does. The host can do all sorts of dickary with the console, and it's always a pain in the arse when playing online games where the admin thinks he's funny/can't stand losing/is just a total knob.

Damn griefers being a PITA is bad enough, similar things happened in the PC beta of L4D. 12-year olds on servers spawning Tanks-n-Witches and thinking they are funny.

yea, there is a way to access to console commands in the Xbox version. I'm posting something about this further down in the thread.

Thats why I play on Hamachi.

valve is really dropping the ball with this game. Way too many bugs, not enough patches, not enough content, locking versus difficulty, etc etc etc. They shouldn't have released it when they did. A semi-public beta and another month would have done wonders!

it's still a fun game, but it's tapering off sooner than it should for the above reasons.

While I definitely agree their should have been a public beta, because this is just a great design philosophy overall, the game is in much better shape at release than anything from any other company but Valve. I will admit it is slightly behind the curve for a Valve game, but god knows they'll have all the kinks worked out and patched in less than a month.

And there is word of substantial additions coming in the future.

^ mmmmmmm Kool Aid. Delicious Kool Aid.

I prefer Crystal Lite because I'm a little bitch, but there comes a point when you have to stop being cynical and treat a company that has always been the closest thing to Jesus (Buddah, Luke Skywalker, etc) for PC gamers like they deserve. They've always provided great post-release support, and acting like they wont for Left 4 Dead is retarded.

Unless you have the console version-- cuz then its just sour grapes. But I'm guessing that Left 4 Dead will get much better support on console than TF2 did... mostly because new weapons/campaigns are easier to sell as DLC than slightly confusing and hard to explain unlockables for only a couple of characters.

huh?

Well...going by Valve's 'standards', it's an unfinished, buggy, broken and unbalanced piece of shit.Ironically it's still one of the best game this year, anyway!

L4D FTW!

the ps3 version of COD4 was hacked, there was infinate ammo and health and even a wall hack, its been patched now though

I thought those were accessible without hacking. I wouldn't know how to even approach hacking the ps3 or 360.

the 360 version of Orange Box was hacked. Basically no one plays it anymore because it's nothing but modders now.

I didn't know that. At first I was like, "Maybe video trickery with the achievements pop-up?" But if valve 360 games have been hacked before, the makes me sad for L4D players.

Yeah, it was sad what happened with the 360 version of Team Fortress 2... someone is spreading a "virus" on it: when you play in an infected match, the next time you host it (until the console is turned off) the match will have the mods too: infinite metal, low gravity, friendly fire.

Valve is really letting us down. I love TF2, but the game is not only full of bugs (skywalking, shooting thru walls, etc.) but now is all modded. I understand their priority is PC games, but c'mon, if you'll offer no support to the console version, it's better to not even publish it.

Justin you racist!!!

Giants are people too!

Joystiq with its snarky wit, giants, witches in safe rooms = ima daggumbed racist.

*if this makes no sense, it is because i miss Phoenix already, and im just a little confused with life at the moment...*

Hrm, maybe you can superimpose a little pic of Soulja boy as a zombie in there somewhere. Maybe he'll comeback? Yes/no?

ROFL all the way to the coffee machine!

Besides my horrible morning humor the infinite molotovs/ pipe bombs are bananas.

Infinite molos were awesome. Prolly made Expert mode easy as pie to beat lol.

What is the song on this video?

i'm curious as well, i dont wanna spend the stupid .99 cents on music id on my phone.

Haha, I had to track it down too. It's by some group called Uma Floresta, the tracks are "Almost Everything" and "Three Thousand Years". If you just sign up for an account you can get them for free. :D

http://www.thesixtyone.com/umafloresta/

http://podsafeaudio.com/jamroom/bands/7/audio.php?p=2

All their songs and no sign up needed.

Even better.

Really awful.

When will boring indie music end, and can it end quicker than that?

while some of them would probably be a pain in the ass in matchmaking, I think it would be beyond awesome to play with giant survivors. Imagine if you were on the zombie team and you killed a giant bill by eating his shin

I'm probably the only one that was impressed by what it took to cause a drop in performance.

They know you can turn off annotations right?

Exactly what I was thinking.

Maybe it's just a disclaimer or something, seeing as it's see-thru anyway.

Wow. Watching the infectious plague this releases is kinda reminds me of M$'s business ethics...

Me needs to lern spelln' grummer

Some 'valid point' might help too.

Actually I didn't get to finish my thought before interrupted by work. I feel for the people who bought the game and like it, now being ruined by a few bastards

So any chance of this guy in the video getting banned?
http://live.xbox.com/en-US/profile/profile.aspx?GamerTag=III%20Bran%20III

And loosing all of cheated achievements seeing as how he has all 50 for L4D

*LOSING achievements is likely, and/or ban.

Who knows...

xD

The big people are in every Source engine game. If you noclip to the skybox your model will be magnified with it and you will appear massive.

This game is OK. I dont see what all the fuss is about with this one on the 360. the graphic are just ok and the gameplay is twitchy at best. pc is the way to go with this one. just dont feel like much skill is needed for this game. its just shoot in every direction. not near as good as the orangebox IMO.

i love the 360 but lately the game have really let me down.

I read something about this a day or two ago, everything done is a result of the fact that console commands can be accessed in the xbox version of the game.

Without getting to technical, The giant people come from how the source engine operates, and draws large background objects. Basically there are spots that are created in the map that are not accessible. These spots contain small objects that are transposed onto the normal level, and made larger. Thats why you see a giant human inthe video, and later a guy standing in the middle of nowhere.

Almost everything else in the vid is a result of playing with the spawners.

The state that the Source engine exists in now is pretty interesting. Its able to produce some pretty high fidelity graphics, but its old enough to have been optimized to work smoothly across a variety of hardware setups.

If you want to see more fun with the Source engine, clicky the linky:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn9970dxQ2g

oops, forgot to add a sentence or two.

The source engine can produce a large number of detailed objects quickly, and still deliver a smooth frame rate. Thats why I think the source engine is interesting.

oh and the console commands are accessed by modifying files on the 360's hard drive.

Anything ELSE you want to add to your comment? Makes you wish Joystiq had an edit button, huh?

uhh... I'm eating cherry pie for breakfast?

Its good

WHAT?! CANDY FOR BREAKFAST?!?!

Glad you publicized it. Great work.

to clarify, suck my fucking balls.

Anybody who cares enough about this game and also cares enough about cheating to do this, probably found out about it long before Joystiq published this. Get over yourself.

Give me a break.

Suggesting that no one will try this after reading about it? Ha. You're a fucking moron.

People find out about exploits one way or another, you're right. But without the majority of potential exploiters finding out about them, they wouldn't be as big of a problem. Publicizing exploits it counterproductive.

If you actually believe what you posted, you're a god damned fool.

RE: the Valve update.

Ok, I am simmered.

This kind of worries me. While it's really cool as a proof of concept, I'd hate to get into a Quick Match on Live and have this shit happen. It'd ruin the game for me. But kudos for figuring it out.

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Left 4 Dead gets hacked on Xbox 360 [update]

Reader Comments (66)

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