'Badass' bug kills off Borderlands 2 characters

[Asrokhel]

A bug that works like a disease in humans is permanently killing off characters in the Borderlands 2 video game.

The bug only strikes those playing the game via Microsoft's Xbox 360 console.

It revolves around a hidden feature that can only be activated by those that have modified their console.

Gamers who play alongside people who have modded their console "contract" the bug which deletes their character if they die during play.

The hidden option within the game, known as "badass" or "hardcore", is turned off by default but can be enabled by those that have modified or hacked their console. "Modding" involves altering the hardware or software in a console so it can run pirated games, development code or other non-official programs.

Power play

Modded consoles can enable the "badass mode" on Borderlands 2 which lets their characters gather special weapons and armour and become much more powerful than those created in "normal" mode.

When a player with an unmodded console joins a Borderlands 2 multiplayer game in which there is a character running in badass mode it too gets kicked into that mode.

"Hence the 'virus' explanation - as with a cold or the flu in real life you can spread it to other people before noticing the symptoms, and without any evil intent, and they in turn can spread it on to others," explained one gamer on the forums of Borderlands 2 maker Gearbox.

One consequence of the badass mode is that when characters die during gameplay they suffer permanent deletion rather than respawning.

Gearbox warned about the problem on 22 October saying some gamers were using it to "maliciously disrupt the experience and sabotage characters of legitimate Borderlands 2 players".

Since then the problem has become much more widespread with many posting complaints to the forum thread about long-running characters being deleted.

Gearbox said it had prepared a fix that closed the loophole being exploited but it would take time for this to be fed out to consoles.

In the meantime, Gearbox said, users players should only play with people they trust and avoid public games. To avoid characters being deleted, it said, players should use the "save and quit" option during play so they can reload that avatar later on.

No advice has been given about how to resurrect characters that have been lost as a result of the "badass" bug.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...nology-20136922

[Aergan]

Wow, that's a hell of a **** up.

[Nothing Here]

That's a bit overkill isn't it?

[Growled Member]

I guess the best thing is not cheat.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Hmmm, I do not remember which thread it was, but there was just a thread were people were defending the fact that modded consoles had zero effect on MP on Live. Looks like they were way off there.

[ozgeek]

So they are hurting legitimate players even more? No wonder I didn't buy the game yet...and perhaps will never.

[SharpGreen]

So they are hurting legitimate players even more? No wonder I didn't buy the game yet...and perhaps will never.

Well I don't know. On one hand, the folks who mod their consoles to cheat should have some drastic action like this taken against them. But on the other, it shouldn't affect legit players.

[UseLess]

"Drastic action like this" - i was under the impression this was similar to D2 'Hardcore', where dying and getting deleted was a 'working as intended', not a reprimand.

I think the issue is that people who weren't aware of this mode (ie. legit players, seeing as 'badass' isnt open to them yet) were dying and expecting to come back, but weren't.

[Jeston Veteran]

I believe this article is inaccurate. Modded consoles are not to blame. The problem is that people are using save editors on their PCs to alter their saves and enabling a hidden mode called "Badass Mode." This mode was meant to delete characters if they were to die and was cancelled late in development, but the rogue option was still kept in players' save files. So, people would transfer the save from their console to their PC, make the edit, then put it back on their Xbox.

Would have been fine if by playing with a person who has switched (purposely or not) the hidden option to "On" all the other players didn't automatically get their options switched as well, but it was just a rather nasty bug. Sucks for the people hit with the bug as there is really no chance of getting those characters back as, though the save file still exists, almost all information was deleted from it.

[Alladaskill17]

Having just purchased this for my brother on Black Friday, wondering if this has been fixed yet.

[Jeston Veteran]

Having just purchased this for my brother on Black Friday, wondering if this has been fixed yet.

Yep, it was fixed on November 6. If you or your brother are ever curious about what the patches include, you can find out here.