Glitches: A Multiplayer Gamer Re-Visits The Patched 'Gear of War 2'

Our intern Sal Basile is back with the first of several pieces about cheaters, glitches and the highs and lows of multiplayer gaming. First, he's checking back in on the recently-patched "Gears of War 2" to see how things are going.

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by Sal Basile

Most competitive Xbox 360 gamers today spend their time on "Gears of War 2", while others stick to "Halo 3" or "Call of Duty: World at War". "Gears of War 2", however, was chock full of glitchers before Epic Games released its patch on January 21.

Did it work?

I spoke to "Gears of War 2" gamer and friend, PJ Borreggine before the game was patched, when no intervention from Epic was in sight. Borreggine, who goes by the gamer tag "Infamous Peej", is currently a Grade 2 rank in "Gears of War 2" and has been playing since the release of the game. "After the game came out it only took less than a month for people to find out all these glitches," Borreggine told me. "Of course, once you come across them, it's cool to try them out. But after the first couple days I stopped doing them, because it only destroys the game for the people who love it."

Infamous Peej went in detail about two of the more popular "GOW2" glitches that were usable before the patch. "The shield glitch is when a player picks up the shield and quickly inputs a button combination, allowing him to use a heavier weapon which is not supposed to be usable, while holding a shield. This glitch also makes the shield invisible to other players, making it very hard to see who is glitching and who is just playing normally.

"A lag switch is when a player has a switch that connects to the Ethernet cable to turn it on and off quickly. This allows the player to lag in place on everyone’s screen but on the screen of the exploiter, he is walking around normally. Meaning he can walk around killing everyone while just standing in a secure area."

Infamous Peej didn't like the glitches: "It really kills the game for me when I’m trying to play -- and I’m doing very well -- but someone has to do things like this, because they can’t compete with everyone else’s skill level. It also impairs my ability to play, because instead of worrying about protecting my teammates or going for the objective of the game, I now worry about avoiding the glitcher or, say, getting to the shield before he can pick it up."

Although "GOW2" had its fair share of glitches, Epic Games decided to breathe new life into its most recent game by patching every glitch players brought to light. The patch "addresses a large number of multiplayer exploits and issues as well as makes some balancing tweaks, includes a couple of new features and even adds 7 new DLC-based achievements" according to an online statement by Rod Fergusson, senior producer of the game.

I asked Infamous Peej how the game felt after the patch. "The game is great again," he said. "It's just like when the game was first released ... I really wish more developers cared enough about the games to listen to the fans like Epic has."

Have you ever stopped playing a game because glitches were not being addressed by the publisher? Have you ever picked up a game again after hearing everything has been patched?

Tomorrow, I take a look at my Top 5 Most Notorious Multiplayer Glitches.