According to a recent article in Foreign Policy magazine, the U.S. Government may begin searching through Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii consoles in search of criminals and nere-do-wells of various stripes.

• NEWS: New York, Apple, Microsoft, And Sony Ban 3,580 Online Gamers/Sex Offenders

The governmental types believe that easy access to your console hard-drive will allow the authorities to catch pedophiles and terrorists who use their consoles to engage in illegal activities. Privacy advocates, on the other hand, are concerned with law enforcement over-reaching and breaching privacy.

Obscure Technologies, a San Francisco-based company that performs computer forensics, has already earned a $172,250 research contract to develop ''hardware and software tools that can be used for extracting data from video-game systems'', and ''a collection of data (disk images; flash memory dumps; configuration settings) extracted from new video-game systems and used game systems purchased on the secondary market'."

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If you're of legal age in your jurisdiction, perhaps you enjoy an alcoholic beverage occasionally? If so, might I suggest you celebrate your winter-holiday-of-choice by imbibing one of the video game inspired drinks featureed inU.K.'s Guardian? The drinks were created by James Dance, owner of "stylish Falmouth bar and video game arcade Loading," and all are based on 2011's biggest video games. 

My favorite of the six cocktail concoctions is the Modern Warfare-inspired "Frag Grenade" pictured above, if only for the commitment it would take to actually drink one. It works like this: You mix Limocello and creme de menthe in a shooter to create a "Soap MacTavish," then you make a "Jagernaut" by combining Jagermeister and Baileys. Suspend both over a glass of energy drink mixed with black vodka (the Makarov.)  Then you, "pull the pin," of the Soap, dropping the other shot into the energy drink mixture -- Boom! Headshot! Drink all three before everything blows up in your face and you ruin New Years.

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The release of a blockbuster video game like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is bound to bring out some unsavory elements. It begins with the piracy -- parts of Modern Warfare 3 were apparently pirated weeks before its release -- and goes on to more visceral physical crimes, like robbery, terroristic threats and truck-jacking.

The first MW 3 crime we reported happened last week, when French thieves pulled off a brazen heist of the contents of a Modern Warfare 3 delivery truck. The gang of Pierre's crashed into the delivery truck, tear-gassed the driver, and boosted a shipment of games with a street value of over 400,000 Euros.

Today, I've got a couple of stories of less colorful, more desperate Call of Duty crimes: A robbery and some terroristic threats. Read on for the lowlife report.

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Police in Johannesburg, South Africa recently broke up a ring of pirates...PlayStation 3 pirates! According to the Joburg po-po, the raid took place at a residential property in Parktown, Johannesburg, and jailbreak devices used to "circumvent the security features on PS3 consoles to facilitate the playing of pirated PS3 games" were seized. According to the police, this is the first PS3 circumvention arrest in the world.

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Hide your wife; hide your games: A thief is robbing Florida video game stores! Police in Broward County are outraged (or at least irked) by the illegal antics of a female nere-do-well who has knocked over three GameStop stores in the last week.

The crime rampage began on July 4th, when the brazen crook busted into a GameStop in Pembroke Pines and got away with some dough after threatening the clerk with a gun. An hour later, she boosted the cash register loot from a store in Miramar, after holding employees hostage at the business end of her heater.

The suspect is not afraid to let the bullets fly, either. She fired several shots during today's robbery, before escaping with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

Surveillance cameras show a black female, who police believe to be 20-30 years old, wearing all black clothing, threatening the employees and demanding money.

Anyone with information regarding these incidents is urged to contact the Pembroke Pines Police Department at 954-431-2200. Or Superman!

Source: NBC Miami (Via Kotaku)

Cameron Pittman, 20, is TheFeed's hero of the day. The Florida resident was arrested for reportedly trying to rob a store with a PlayStation 3 controller. That's him in the photo above.

It all went down earlier this week in St. Petersburg, when Pittman reportedly walked into the Sun Food Store with a controller in his pocket, which he apparently told the clerk was a gun. While the robbery was going on, the cops got a tip that Pittman was planning to steal from the store, so a police officer walked into the middle of the robbery and quickly apprehended the suspect. Pittman dropped the controller and gave up. Reports that Pittman frantically mashed the "Start" button in an effort to pause the arrest are entirely untrue, as I made that fact up.

Pittman is facing charges of strong-arm robbery and violation of probation from the local police, but he's already been tried and convicted of being totally baller by me.

Source: BayNews9

Nefarious hackers have figured out how to boost Microsoft Points. Earlier today, word came from the less savory corners of the internet that the string of numbers on the back of those "Get 1600 Microsoft Points!" cards can be cracked, and once you figure out which numbers to enter, you can give yourself free points. Reportedly, over a million dollars worth of points have already been jacked.

Crime, as you know, doesn't pay, unless you do it really quickly. Microsoft was onto the scheme hours after it began, and have taken steps to shut down to the exploiters, issuing a statement saying, "We are aware of the situation and have taken steps to invalidate the codes obtained illegitimately." Microsoft also says it was a lot less money.

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Look on the above photo and offer praise: You see before you the mighty Gamerator cabinet that combines 85 classic arcade games and a fully functioning keg tap as well as a refrigerated interior to keep your brew of choice cold -- beer and games in one place. According to the device's manufacturer, you'll be able to buy one this week for only (?) $3,499.

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While I don't fully accept that playing video games can alter people's behavior, the case of a Clemson, Soutch Carolina man's accident may be enough to change my mind.

According to police, the 23 year-old man was standing on a street corner with some friends, discussing old school arcade game Frogger. He reportedly yelled "Go!" and took off across a busy highway. He was immediately struck by a 2010 Lexus SUV.

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Stealing a game system from anyone is low crime -- you're making off with an object that provides hours of distraction and fun, after all-- but stealing a game system from a corpse might be the lowest crime I've ever heard of, yet it seems to have happened. Police in Montgomery Township, PA allege that Jody Lynn Bennett, 37, lifted a GameBoy from inside the casket of a teenager who died in an auto crash over the weekend.

The GameBoy, GameBoy Light and three cartridges were placed in the coffin of 17-year-old Bradley “Boog” David-McCombs Jr. who died when he flipped his SUV. Apparently, Bennett attended the public viewing of Boog, and lifted the GameBoy his family intended he take to his eternal resting place. Bennett then reportedly fled into the night.

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Pro Tip: If you live in San Antonio, do not take a job at the GameStop. The chain has been robbed three times in the last week. The latest heist happened on Tuesday night when a couple of marauders busted through the doors, brandishing guns, and corralled the no-doubt terrified employees into a bathroom where they tied up them up with Duck Tape. The thieves vanished with a cash register, and it took the employees over 45 minutes to free themselves from their bonds.

On Tuesday, a different store was boosted when a persons unknown pried open the doors of the place in the early morning and absconded with a bunch of games. 

The third incident this week: On Monday afternoon, police say a criminal walked into a third Game Stop location and said he was  he was armed with a gun and knife. He left after employees handed over some games.

The police say these incidents are probably not related, but it begs the question: Is Game Stop a particularly attractive place to rob, and if so, why? I guess a staff full of gamed-out young people isn't too imposing to criminals...

Source: Ken5 News

When we received a Microsoft Kinect recently, G4 wanted to really put the device through its technical paces and test the system's face and body recognition software. So we called porn star Kirsten Price.

The Wicked Pictures contract performer and star of G4's Sexpo South Africa put on a skimpy bikini and checked out Kinect's chat to see if Kinect had some kind of nudity-identification capability, whether Kinect censors video chat or picture sending, as well as checking out the system's ability to recognize a person in a disguise or wearing different kinds of clothing. This video is much more than a cheaply gratuitous attempt to show a naked porn star... we're doing it for Science. 

For more Kinect comedy, check out X-Play host Adam Sessler, who learns that Kinect is always watching you... the hard way.

The latest update to the 360's firmware obviously made it capable to use the new Kinect device, but there was, apparently, another feature added that will have a bigger impact... on pirates.  Along with the motion control support, the fall update added new copy protection technology that locks out "backup" games from Xbox Live, and even stops copied games from loading at all.

According to hackers who have looked into the matter, "challenges" to the DVD drive's firmware are embedded into the security sectors on the game disc. If they don't match, the console is flagged for banning on Live, and the game will not load, although original copies of the disc will continue to work.

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Cops in Yokohama Japan have collared an alledged arch-criminal mastermind! Twenty-seven-year-old Makoto Sekiguchi was recently arrested for uploading unreleased Pokémon characters from Pocket Monsters: Black & White to the internet. The horror!

Sekiguchi reportedly uploaded six images of Pokémans like Chaoboo on September 1, a full 17 days before the official release of the game in Japan. Sekiguchi is charged with violating copyright infringement.

In a deposition, Sekiguchi said, "Thought I would show everyone the characters that haven't been made public yet."

I, for one, feel much safer now that Sekiguchi is off the streets.

Source: Kotaku

An argument over a game of Madden turned deadly in Kansas late last week. According to police, on Thursday night, four "friends" were chilling out and playing Madden on the PlayStation 3 when a fight broke out. When the dust settled, Luke German, 22, was dead on the front lawn, and his three friends were wanted by police. 

According to Lt. Ken Landwehr, head of the Wichita Police Department's homicide section, German died of "severe internal injuries" consistent with being kicked, punched and perhaps struck by a pipe. He was taken to a hospital, but died shortly thereafter.

As for the motive: "Somebody was accused of cheating," Landwehr said. Obviously, this is the worst reason to kill someone ever, except, maybe religion.

Two suspects were arrested immediately in the case, while a third, Benjamin Redgate, was just picked up this morning. That's Redgate in the photo to the right.

Source: 

Kansas.com