There is a disturbing new trend in the world of the Xbox Store, if you have the money to kill you can now unlock portions of some games before you even start playing. All you need is 400 Microsoft points here and 500 there and the world will be your oyster. Still something is wrong with the world for something like this to come to be, If you pay £40 for a brand new game why spend more money so you don’t have to play it as much? But more so what dose this mean for the industry and the legacy of the cheat?

As a gamer just to enter his 20’s I remember back in my Megadrive days, being stuck on a certain part of the Electric Brain Zone in Sonic (fucking flamethrowers) for over half a year until I was handed a piece of arcane information to rival The Grand Grimoire. It was my first encounter with a cheat, I still remember the elation as I finally got the input right and the words STAGE SELECT flashed up on the screen.



Those were good times, but sadly with the advent of the 360 and subsequently achivements. Cheats became less of a work around so you can continue to enjoy a game and are now nothing more then an unfair advantage. And that’s exactly what these buyable unlocks are; they’re the those cheats that we remember from our pre-pubecent times. Only this time they’ll make you pay through the teeth to if you want to use them. Are people okay with this?

Its only unlockable weapons now but how long will it be before its items, superweapons or even money/gold?