An ongoing list of the game's technical shortcomings, ones that may reduce you to crying or controller throwing, is being regularly updated at Gearbox Software's forums. Many of them appear to be tied to the game's multiplayer cooperative mode, with incidents of players losing skills, weapon proficiencies and loot, but it's the "Save file is corrupted" issue that you should watch out for.

Gearbox has also listed a few performance hiccups that can be corrected using workarounds, should you be experiencing issues. For everyone else who has yet to jump into Borderlands and is planning on doing so, keep an eye on this thread, and tread carefully.

Known Issues Status Update [Gearbox Forums]

Reader Nathan was on the unfortunate receiving end of that glitch, resulting in a user created WWE "diva" whose outfit is clearly not fit for primetime. Nathan's experience with WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010's create a wrestler mode is more unfortunate, in that this particular instance of wrestler nakedness was borne of a game ending lock up.

As you can probably expect, this sort of bare bottom polygonal action is probably not safe for watching while in a cubicle. It's also potentially offensive to anyone disturbed by the sight of a pantsless Barbie doll. You have been warned!

We've reached out to THQ to see just how widespread this shocking digital nudity really is...

"This could be the most embarrassing fail of all," posits enigmax at Freakbits.

When navigating menus today while connected to Xbox Live the game suddenly crashed again. When my rage had subsided and I got a better look at the screen, I was pretty shocked at what I saw.

Was my Xbox 360 version of Need for Speed Shift really trying to access the Playstation Store? Microsoft are not going to be happy about this.

Is the console really trying to get to the PlayStation Store? Or is it just stray code left over? Either are plenty embarrassing, of course, as that's a Sony logo in a Microsoft game version.

I don't have Need for Speed: Shift, so I can't replicate what he's talking about. If any reader comes across anything that confirms this bug or indicates it's fixed, please do email me or comment below and I'll update up here.

Meantime I've emailed the EA contact for NFS to ask WTF. If I hear anything, it too will be updated here.

Xbox 360 Crashes Accessing PlayStation Store? [Freakbits]

Cheshirec_the_cat posted a thread on September 4th in the official Eidos forums for Batman: Arkham Asylum, requesting help with a peculiar problem with the PC version of the game.

I've got a problem when it's time to use Batman's glide in the game. When I hold , like it's said to jump from one platform to another, Batman tries to open his wings again and again instead of gliding. So he fels down in a poisoning gas. If somebody could tel me, what should I do there.

As another forum poster points out, the game isn't out until the 15th, so the question is a bit suspect right off the bat, no pun intended.

Eidos admin Keir responded to the thread before closing it, explaining that the glitch wasn't so much of a glitch.

The problem you have encountered is a hook in the copy protection, to catch out people who try and download cracked versions of the game for free.

It's not a bug in the game's code, it's a bug in your moral code.

Ouch. Brilliantly done, Rocksteady! Applause all 'round!

Eidos plays trick on Batman: Arkham Asylum pirates [Afterdawn.com]

Developer NinjaBee delivered one of the earliest avatar-supporting Xbox Live Arcade titles in A Kingdom for Keflings, and now they're putting your digital representation in the line of fire in Band of Bugs. Starting July 8th players will have the ability to replace the single-player story mode's main character with themselves, gaining Maal's powers and abilities in the process. Instead of fighting for the pride of your colony, you'll instead by the great human liberator, making the garden safe for innocent bugs everywhere.

Players can also bring their avatar online in the eight-player Spider Hunter mode, fighting with or against other avatars in order to survive waves of insect attackers.

Along with the free avatar support patch comes the Tales of Kaloki DLC. Based on NinjaBee's first Xbox Live Arcade game, Outpost Kaloki, Tales takes the strategy game play from Band of Bugs and moves it into space, replacing bugs with spaceships and magical powers with lasers and rocket launchers.

"We're giving you an entirely new game," said Steve Taylor, president of NinjaBee. "The Tales of Kaloki DLC is Band of Bugs but with long-range combat using lasers, rocket launchers, OO rays and a ton of other sweet weapons to blow attacking space ships to smithereens. It's all the wackiness from Outpost Kaloki X and tactics from Band of Bugs rolled into one, and we're stoked to be releasing it."

A brand new game within a game, and only priced at 240 Microsoft points. It's heartwarming to see a downloadable title released more than two years ago see this level of continuing support, isn't it?

Microsoft flipped Xbox Live's on switch late last night, and while the snazzy new look of the Xbox.com website distracted many of us for a spell, various technical issues have been becoming more and more apparent as the day drags on. For starters, last week's Sega Vintage Collection 2 seems to have disappeared from the Xbox Live Marketplace altogether, and those games that are still available, including the three new releases, seem to be available for purchase but unavailable for download. I tried to download Magic: The Gathering myself, and was greeted by the screen you see here.

Another rampant issue seems to be the failure of pre-order codes for the Xbox 360 version of Ghostbusters. While owners of the PlayStation 3 version are reporting successful redemption, 360 owners aren't able to get their hands on their early-adapter bonus swag.

We've reached out to Microsoft for a status update on the issues, and are eagerly awaiting some sort of response. In the meantime, the Xbox.com support page has been updated with the following message:

Users may experience difficulties when attempting to use Marketplace and/or making purchases. We are aware of the problem and working to resolve the technical issues. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience.

At least we know they are aware of the problem. I'm just hoping they fix things soon, as I am starting to feel the shakes of pre-emptive Magic withdrawal.

That's been fixed in lightning-fast time, according to Microsoft. "Thanks for your patience, a new update is avaible that addresses the stuttering issue with GTA IV. Just log in and apply the new update."

Grand Theft Auto PC Fix [Blue's News]

Note: Folks, I broke the headline and it's taking a while to flush out of our system cache; the correction's been made. This refers to original Gears of War only. My error.

Rein said online cheat detection features in Gears of War for Windows are based on digital signatures. "We made an embarassing mistake," he said. "We signed the executable with a certificate that expired in a way that broke the game."

Rein said Epic is working with Microsoft to re-sign the binaries properly, and they "hope to have this fixed very soon.

"We know how much this situation sucks, and we apologize for the inconvenience," he said.

I just like hearing an executive speaking in my language, for once. This isn't merely inconvenient — leaving the remote control in the kitchen is inconvenient. This sucks. Woo-hoo for calling it like it is, although he still calls it inconvenient, I guess because it's not a matter of personal safety.

Meantime, Rein suggests backdating your computer's clock to a date before today in order to play Gears of War.

Again, before you go apeshit in the comments: I put in an erroneous headline and immediately corrected it. If your front page says Gears 2, it's in error. This concerns original Gears of War only.

Epic Explains Gears of War Error [IGN]

The update is available for the English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish versions. The patch will also be required to play the downloadable content, Operation: Anchorage, coming to the Xbox 360 and Games for Windows on Jan. 27. Now for those fixes. Here's the short list:

Bug Fixes
Friends notification no longer causes the game to pause. (Playstation 3)

Fixed occasional crashes during loading and waiting.

Friendly or neutral NPC health bars, when taking damage, no longer flicker repeatedly.

Fixed issue where certain NPCs would occasionally disappear from the game.

Fixed issue where dead NPCs would occasionally come back to life.

Fixed rendering issue with the Gatling Laser gun's tracers.

Fixed issue where the haircut menu would occasionally not appear properly.

Added ability to remap your VATS and pip boy buttons.

Fixed rare load/save issues that would cause NPCs to behave incorrectly.

Fixed issue where quest objectives would occasionally not update properly due to talking activators,
intercoms and conversations.

Using Radaway from the Pip-Boy's Status Menu repeatedly no longer crashes the game.

Player no longer gets stuck in level up menu if their skills are maxed out.

Fixed issue where multiple followers would occasionally not load into an interior.

Fixed rare issue with getting stuck in VATS mode.

Fixed rare crash with fighting NPCs with corrupted data.

In game radios will now play properly if player was listening to the radio in the Pip-Boy first. (Playstation 3)

Fixed rare crashes while loading and saving games.

Fixed rare issue where player would fall through the floor while in VATS.

Fixed occasional crash after scoring a critical hit in the head with a Railway Rifle.

Prevent NPCs from inadvertently dying from falling.

Fixed occasional issue where the controller would stop working properly.

Fixed crashes related to repeatedly equipping and dropping clothing and armor into the world.

Quest Fixes
Fixed several instances where quest item stayed in inventory permanently after completing quests.

Fixed an issue where the distress message would occasionally not play in Trouble on the Homefront.

In The Waters of Life quest, the Citadel gate will open properly if the player fast travels away after exiting the Taft Tunnels but before reaching the Citadel gate with Doctor Li.

For the Home Sweet Home quest, the broken protectrons in Big Town become active at the proper time.

In The American Dream quest, fixed specific issue which prevented the player from accessing their belongings in the locker by the door if they left the room first.

Fixed infinite caps exploit in Strictly Business quest.

Fixed rare instance where Dad would have no valid dialogue during The Waters of Life quest.

Prevent issue during the Finding the Garden of Eden quest where player would fade to black, instead of traveling to Raven Rock, while in combat with a follower.

Fixed several XP speech exploits with certain NPCs.

Fixed XP exploit with a robot in Fort Bannister.

Fixed issue where player's controls can become locked permanently during The American Dream.

Reports from readers, as well as the PlayStation Forums and Penny Arcade forums, are pointing to games saved during the World's Fair segment of the episode as the most problematic. That problem? An inability to load your end-game save.

It appears that the Hothead Games team is already aware of the issue affecting the new Penny Arcade Adventures episode and is "looking into this." With the holidays mucking up the work schedule, we'd say it's probably best to take a holiday from your game progress and hold tight for a patch.

Rockstar's forums are GTA Forums is alive with complaints of unresolved bugs, even new ones, so if you're seeing the same kinds of things, you're probably not alone. However, the look/spin issue is the only one Rockstar's commenting on so far. Here's the word, as of 6:45 a.m. today.

With the latest Title Update, some users are experiencing a Look/Spin/Stuck Key issue that interferes with user input. The temporary fix, described below, will restore Keyboard/Mouse and XInput (360) controller functionality. Support for DirectInput devices is currently limited. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.

To fix the issue:

A1) Unplug any DirectInput controllers (gamepads, joysticks etc..)
A2) Reboot your computer
A3) Launch GTA IV

If the issue persists, the following instructions are provided as a guide to assist you in deleting the conflicting DirectInput drivers:

B1) Exit game
B2) Go to Start->Control Panel->System->Hardware Tab->Device Manager->Human Interface Devices
B3) Locate drivers for devices
B4) Delete drivers for devices
B5) Launch GTA IV

**Some users are able to reinstall the drivers for their DirectInput devices, with the device attached, and have found that it will work in game. If you do attempt to reinstall your device and the problem resurfaces, please follow steps B1-B5 again.

Edit: This is on GTA Forums, a fansite with no official connection to Rockstar, except that Rockstar's people seem to be providing support through it.

Look/Spin/Stuck Key Issue [GTAForums]

Better late than never I say. The patch, promised in late October, is now nearing finalization, and will offer sweeping fixes for the game's most nagging problems. Targeted for elimination are bugs affecting the Monk Quest, the Guild Cave chest, the unresponsive ship captain in the Spire, the empty furniture shop in Bowerstone, and much more. No longer will your child be chosen as an assassination target, allowing you to leave them at home secure in the knowledge that they and the children from all of your other families are safe and sound.

Hit the link for more details on the patch, as well as a slew of freshly minted Pub Games activation codes.

Fable II Patch Status Update [Fable II Dev Blog]

Fresh off the back of what is quickly becoming known as Don't Publish Negative Scores Until We Say You Can-gate, a glitch has been discovered in the Wii version of Tomb Raider: Underworld that makes it impossible to finish the game.

In the video clip (see after the jump) you will notice Lara negotiating the usual assortment of stone pillars and deadly drops in the Coastal Thailand section of the game. A leap of faith is required to grab a pole, which turns out to be a lever that lowers the corpse-robbing society girl to ground level and opens a convenient passageway... Except on the Wii, where the lever sometimes doesn't exist.

Eidos recommends reverting to earlier saves and trying again and has published a set of saves that can be plonked on an SD card to work around the problem if you are really stuck.

All the same, bad show old girl.

Tomb Raider: Underworld glitch prevents gamers from finishing game [Qj.net]

We've contacted Bethesda regarding these issues, specifically inquiring as to the possibility of a patch to fix problem with the PS3 version.

PlayStation 3 Issues Forum - Pick A Post [Bethesda Forums]

LittleBigPlanet features a toe-curling 51 levels of platforming joy and frustration in its single player mode. There’s also that spiffy level creator which amounts to endless fun. But one of the game’s biggest selling points is its ability to share those levels you make, and to play the levels others make.

Unfortunately The online servers for the game, which went live yesterday, seem to be crumbling under the brute force attack of legions of Sackboys trying to share. Last night I wasn’t able to log onto the servers a single time and checking into Media Molecule’s post about putting the server’s live I found I wasn’t the only one.

Comments from people in the U.S., Canada and Europe report the same issues. We’ve emailed Media Molecule to see if we can find out what’s up with the downtime. I’ll make sure to update once we hear back.

Powering Up [Media Molecule]

[UPDATE]: Media Molecule lets us know that, no, we're not losing our minds, the servers for LBP are down. They took them down about eight hours after they went live to avoid "glitching issues" some people were seeing that was affecting offline play. They tell us that the servers will be back online just as soon they can get their hands on whatever little SackGremlin is causing the problems in their servers.

We’re keeping a close eye on our forums, while a lot of the issues reported are not issues with the game necessarily, some of them are (like the two examples mentioned in my blog) however and so we’re looking at those, plus some (like the Abbot Quest) have been fixed already. The biggest issue is when people report a show stopping issue on our forums without enough information for us to reproduce it. Regarding the ETA for said patch, there is no news yet.

And that's the bad news. There is a fix, yet no word yet on when the patch will hit. Still, Sam did present us with more good news...

The issue with missing DLC codes from the LCE will be resolved tomorrow (28th October).

As a person who bought the Fable II Collector's Edition without the code included, I am overjoyed at the fact that I can finally replace my character's pink and black assassin's outfit with medieval Master Chief Armor. And just in case that isn't good enough news, the Fable II Development Blog is also going to be posting codes throughout the week that players can snag in order to download the Fable II Pub Games for free! They've already posted the first five codes, which have no doubt all been redeemed by now. Seems a bit of a backwards way to distribute them, but free is free.

Several users - both in our tips@kotaku.com inbox and the official Lionhead Forums - say that Fable II has been 'freezing' or locking up at various stages.

"as soon as I got into my adult stage in the gypsy camp it froze," said Lionhead Forum member 'Sansight', "Strange freeze too, loud buzzing noise for about a second, then the screen gets all sorts of weird artifacts."

There has been some speculation that the recent co-op patch may be the cause of the issues.

These are still early reports, though, and it is unclear if there is actually a fault with the game or if this is just a few unlucky gamers with a hardware problem. Please let us know in comments if you have been affected.

Lionhead has been contacted for comment.

Problems with freezing... [Lionhead Forums]

Sifting through a 15-page thread I can't seem to find any response from Harmonix on this, as to whether the glitch is known, what the problem is, if there's a workaround, if a patch is coming, what. Now, I don't have a direct line to Harmonix — I don't even have the game here — and besides, it's a Saturday anyway. But yeah, if this problem is as people describe it, that's pretty goddamn aggravating and they're owed an explanation, or at least an acknowledgment of the issue. So how about it, Harmonix.

Email from a tipster explaining the glitch is on the jump.

Writes Justin B.

A number of Rock Band 2 players are experiencing an error in tour mode where at some point through the game (it seems people most often make substantial progress and are just prior to the airplane award) they start the game and find they cannot access their band. Your character and your band do not show up in the selection screen, but unlocked songs are still available. If you enter quickplay mode your character is deleted. For some reason your band will show up in online mode, but when you access it you get a message stating "looking for band leader" that never resolves and you have to back out. In the game options screen, when you try to load your band, or modify it in any way, you can still see the band but your only option is to delete it. This error seems to becoming more and more common, and its incredibly frustrating because your only option is to create a brand new band and start your tour all over again.

The common threads seem to be the use of an X-box Live Enabled primary account and a non X-box Live Enabled secondary account. To form your band. This makes me believe this will be an X-box 360 error and not anything that would effect the Wii or PS3 versions.

Rock Band 2 Bugs — Freezing, Characters Deleted, Band Name Association Broken [Rock Band Forums]

First, Molyneux and the "deliberate glitch" idea. The original phrasing of IGN's sentence about it: "Just be warned. Molyneux has said that the cheat was no accident and that those who used it to earn their money will be in for a surprise." was rewritten to "Just be warned. Molyneux has said that they are well aware of the cheat and that those who used it to earn their money will be in for a surprise."

That sounds about right. The idea that this particular glitch would be included is kind of laughable, even if you want to think of it in the choose good/choose evil context of the Fable franchise. Isn't that a little subtle, anyway? Well, the whole thing's was patched as of Thursday evening, resetting the leaderboards, so it's all moot — or is it?

See the annotation in the video above? Someone's now saying you can continue to use the gold exploit by entering the "perform maintenance on storage devices" code (at the storage device tab in System, highlight a drive, enter Y X X LB RB X X). But it doesn't really matter for me because I never got above the minimum bet limit in Fortune's Tower, the game where the gold exploit works.

Disclaimer: Although performing storage device maintenance sounds like an innocent-enough thing to do, I have no idea if this procedure, in combination with whatever's in the patch, actually does nasty shit to Fable II Pub Games, renders it inoperable, or anything else you don't want done. In the end, you're getting cheat tips off a YouTube video, be warned. However, if someone does get it to work, let me know in the comments.

Gold Exploit in Fable II Pub Games [YouTube, via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Fable II Pub Game Glitch 'Intentional' [BritishGaming.co.uk]
IGN: Fable II Preview [IGN]

There have been widespread reports of networking problems with some gamers being unable to connect to games and others being completely unable to find online servers. Several instances of Xboxes freezing were also reported in the Xbox.com forums.

To compound the problems, the official Crashers website and forums went down shortly after the game's launch.

In an interview with Joystiq, Tom Fulp and Dan Paladin from The Behemoth acknowledged the problems and claimed that help was on the way.

"There are certain network settings," said Paladin, "where, if you're in a very specific network environment, it won't work with another person's connection and that's what's happening. But that's something we're already addressing by working with Microsoft to get a patch out as fast as possible."

PAX 2008: The Behemoth talks Castle Crashers pricing, patches and performance [Joystiq]