Gaming Hacks

Catch Half-Life FPS Cheaters Redhanded

Identify, catch, and call out people who cheat in certain online FPS games.

The developers of FPS titles such as Half-Life are making it easier and easier for users to create modifications. This increases the longevity and enjoyment of the games, but it also puts power in the hands of the clients. Giving up some control means that users can surprise you, but it also makes it much easier for people to create cheats. Cheaters are almost inevitable and commonly difficult to identify.

How can you recognize a cheater in, say, Counter-Strike, and what can you do about it?

Identifying Cheats

To understand the problem, you first need to understand what kind of things cheaters can do. One of the best places to find out about anticheating software is at the Counter Hack site (http://www.counter-hack.net/content.php?page=typesofhacks), which lists hacks common to games. They even go one step further and specifically describe Half-Life-specific hacks (http://www.counter-hack.net/content.php?page=halflife), as seen in Figure 3-1.

Figure 3-1. The magisterial Counter Hack site

Here are some of the most common hacks:

Aimbot

This type of cheat locks the cheater’s crosshair onto other characters. It is commonly configurable so that players can aim automatically at different parts of their targets. In some instances, players may also use auto-shoot in conjunction with ...