Hasta La Gadget!

Borderlands 2 players seem to be leading an uneasy existence. First, they had to deal with that nasty rank reset bug, which deleted badass rank and the perks associated with it across all characters, and now, those playing on Xbox 360 are having to deal with a few unsavory folks. Gearbox has warned Borderlands 2 players on the Gearbox forums of a few individuals who are sabotaging others’ characters through the use of an (obviously) malicious exploit.

“Recently a few users have begun violating the Xbox Live Code of Conduct by using an external application to maliciously disrupt the experience and sabotage characters of legitimate Borderlands 2 players on Xbox 360,” Gearbox community manager Chris Faylor wrote on the Gearbox forums. The studio has submitted a patch that will fix this unnamed exploit to Microsoft, but of course, the certification process for patches can take a couple of weeks. Therefore, there are few things that Gearbox recommends you do in the meantime to avoid having you characters tampered with.

Gearbox says that while we’re waiting for the patch to arrive, gamers should only play in private Xbox Live games with players they know. That way, you can avoid letting any of these malicious players into your game, which seems to be the trigger for the issue. Also remember to always leave your game by selecting the “Save and Quit” option from the menu, and if you happen to bite the dust during play and you’re booted back out to the menu instead of respawning in-game, select “Continue” from the main menu immediately to avoid any unwanted character loss. It’s worth pointing out that this exploit seems to only affect those playing on Xbox 360 and not those playing Borderlands 2 on PC or PS3.

At this point, we’re still not clear on what the issue it is or what it does exactly, but after reading through some of the complaints on the 24-page thread over at the Gearbox forums, we’re positive that you don’t want to find yourself on the wrong end of this exploit. Some players are reporting that their character saves have been wiped entirely, which would not be a pleasant experience for anyone. Have you fallen victim to this exploit, or are your characters still intact?

Borderlands 2 hackers “sabotaging characters” on Xbox 360 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Not too long ago, it seemed that gamers were getting a little tired of the Assassin’s Creed series. Complaints about Ubisoft‘s yearly release schedule started surfacing around the time Assassin’s Creed: Revelations came out, and for a little while, we thought the franchise was on the decline. Today, Ubisoft showed us that nothing could be further from the truth, announcing that Assassin’s Creed III is its most pre-ordered game ever.

Naturally, Ubisoft didn’t share any specific numbers (publishers never do), but the company did say that pre-orders for Assassin’s Creed III have already doubled pre-orders for Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. That’s saying quite a bit, considering that Revelations was Ubisoft’s pre-order record holder before Assassin’s Creed III came along. Even without exact numbers, we can all probably imagine that pre-orders for Assassin’s Creed III are off the charts.

To make things even better, Ubisoft said in its announcement today that the Assassin’s Creed franchise as a whole has topped 40 million sales to date. With that many sales on the books, don’t expect Ubisoft to slow down on the Assassin’s Creed releases anytime soon. Then again, that won’t be much of a problem if Ubisoft keeps giving us new adventures and settings like it’s doing with Assassin’s Creed III.

Indeed, we’re not surprised to see Assassin’s Creed III doing so well pre-release. It seems that Ubisoft actually listened to fans when they asked for something different, and now the company is reaping the benefits. Are you one of the many who has pre-ordered Assassin’s Creed III, or are you waiting until the reviews come in to make your decision?

Assassin’s Creed III becomes Ubisoft’s most pre-ordered game in history is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Halo 4 is on the horizon, and just like most of the Halo games before it, we can expect an offering of DLC map packs to keep us playing well into the next year. Today, Microsoft announced the Halo 4 War Games Map Pass, which is just the company’s fancy name for those DLC season passes that seem to be so popular these days. By purchasing the Halo 4 War Games Map Pass, you save 15% on the cost of buying each of Halo 4‘s three map packs separately, so this is a good idea for those who already know they’ll be buying all of the Halo 4 DLC 343 Industries and Microsoft put out.

The Halo 4 War Games Map Pass comes with a price tag of 2000 Microsoft Points ($25), which means that the individual map packs will cost $10 (800 MSP) each. Microsoft also gave us the names of these three maps packs today: Crimson, Majestic, and Castle. Crimson features the Wreckage, Harvest, and Shatter maps; Majestic includes the Landfall, Monolith, and Skyline maps; while Castle will be adding the Daybreak, Outcast, and Perdition maps to the game.

Even better is that we were given release windows for all three packs today. Crimson will be out in December, Majestic in February, and Castle in April, so we’ll begin getting DLC shortly after Halo 4‘s release. There aren’t any specific release dates for these map packs available at the moment, probably due to the fact that none of them have been finished yet.

If you pick up the Halo 4 War Games Map Pass, Microsoft will also toss in a few extras on the side. Purchasers will get the Scanner and Strider helmets to use in-game, along with a new Falcon emblem that would otherwise be unobtainable. Microsoft’s announcement originally said that the Map Pass is included as part of the Halo 4 Limited Edition console bundle, but in the time since, 343′s David Ellis has clarified that it will be bonus with the Limited Edition game only, not the console. Will you be buying a Halo 4 War Games Map Pass?

Halo 4 War Games Map Pass detailed and priced is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Welcome to Tuesday evening folks. We had a whopper of a day, what with Apple announcing a ton of new products and all. You can find all of our coverage of today’s Apple news in our event round-up or by checking out our Apple Portal. Don’t forget about our hands-on with the bite-sized iPad Mini, the ridiculously thin iMac, and the long-awaited 13″ MacBook Pro with Retina Display. You can even watch a video of the entire event if you missed it earlier, so be sure to have a look at that.

Of course, the rest of the world keeps going when Apple holds an event, so there was plenty of non-Apple news to report today. Earlier in the day we heard that Zynga had laid off a significant number of employees, only to have the company confirms the layoffs later on. We found out today that Xbox Smartglass will arrive on October 26 – the same day as Windows 8 – and that Amazon will soon begin phasing out the Kindle Touch.

Oh hey there awesome Iron Man 3 trailer, when did you arrive? Dropbox for iOS has been updated to add full-resolution image downloads and support for iPhone 5, while Samsung and LG were tipped to release the first 1080p smartphones next year. ASUS gave us a ton of information on its upcoming Windows 8 machines today, and shortly afterward announced that it will be expanding its ZenBook series with two new models. Watch out for those, because ASUS is going to be a big Windows 8 name once the OS hits.

Facebook gave us its earnings report for Q3 today, as did Netflix, and Gearbox confirmed that Borderlands Legends is in fact a real iOS game. Microsoft has added the 250GB Xbox to its $99 subscription offering, and Digital Storm unveiled its new super-slim Bolt gaming PC. Dell has delivered prices for a lot of its Windows 8 machines, and today Sony started teasing its 4K CineAlta camcorder, which will be shown off at an event on October 30. Finally tonight, we get an up-close look at the iPad Mini’s thumb rejection technology and have a review of Microsoft Surface, so be sure to give that a read. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, enjoy the rest of your night everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: October 23, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft has broadened its subsidized Xbox 360 deal, offering a 2506GB version of the console for $99 or with a Kinect for $149, for those signing up to its new Xbox 360 Entertainment for All plan. Initially launched earlier this year, following phone-style deals where upfront cost is offset by a monthly payment – in this case, a two year contract for Xbox LIVE Gold membership – the extended offer is “coming soon” Microsoft says.

That Xbox LIVE Gold Membership comes in at $14.99 per month, which means it’s another $360 to factor into the cost of the console itself. The original deal – a 4GB Xbox 360 with Kinect – is still available, at $99, while those not interested in motion gaming can swap that for more storage.

When we ran the figures initially, back in May, Microsoft’s deal worked out reasonably competitively, with the company making $55 on the promotion. It was still, unsurprisingly, cheaper for consumers to pick up a regular console and then opt for a couple of years of prepaid Xbox LIVE membership – $49.99 for 12 months.

Since then, street prices for Xbox 360 have fallen even more. The 4GB/Kinect bundle had been coming in at around $284; it’s now down to $246 from online retailers, as is the 250GB Xbox 360. Microsoft hasn’t reduced its initial, subsidized price, however, so it’s making more on the scheme: a 250GB model on the Entertainment for All Plan is $459, or $509 if you want Kinect too.

In contrast, shop around for the best deal and you can get the same bundles for $346 or  $490 (though the latter gets you the 250GB 360 with Kinect “Holiday Value Bundle” with several games thrown in too). Overall, then, those cash-strapped gamers who simply must have a new console might find something here for them, but everyone else is probably better off saving up and paying upfront.

[Thanks Carl!]

Xbox 360 “Entertainment for All” adds 250GB console to $99 deal is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.