Breaking News: DLC workaround for ZA Live! users!!

I can hear the popping of a thousand champagne corks around South Africa. Some very clever and brave person has found a way to download restricted content from Xbox Live! I think possibly this is the best news we've had all year.

When Epic released the Gears of War Map Pack 2 last year for 800 MS points with the promise of a free download in the future many South African gamers decided to wait until they became free rather than pay for the download. What we didn't know was that before the maps became free Microsoft would start IP blocking 'mature' content - a result of Germany's restrictive censorship laws - and any region falling outside of Live's supported territories list, was by default blocked. For those that had used the small window of opportunity to pay and download the maps this was not immediately a problem. However it started to become a really annoying issue when half of the Gears lobby would drop when the new maps were in the cycle. It soon became evident that including the new maps in the cycle was just not worth the trouble - and many people missed playing a brilliant addition to the multiplayer behemoth that is Gears of War. Epic then also updated the achievement list to include the new maps and gamer score suckers where effectively cut out of the picture. It was a sad turn of events.

With the immanent release of GTAIV the worry returned. There was just no way South Africans would have access to the DLC which would be a real shame, as no-one needs to be told that this is the most anticipated title of the year!

A Hero rises from the ashes of censorship:

Sploit made a post yesterday - he'd done some research and found a website that offered an offshore VPN - thereby scuppering Live's attempt at working out your location. The service cost $10 - not a princely sum by any means - but it presented a risk. Would it work? And more importantly, would Live! figure it all out and ban the console?

I can answer one of those questions: Yes, it does work!

Kudos to Sploit for risking his cash and his console in an attempt to help all of us! This guy deserves South African MVP status in my opinion. We are all still biting our nails though, will he be banned? We'll just have to see, but I think things will be fine.

-RE: Gamer