Meet Aaron “coldraccoon” Mesec, an 18-year-old Xbox 360 owner from Murrieta, California. He’s a gamerscore cheater.

He’s a former cheater — or so he now claims to MTV Multiplayer.

Mesec was one of the gamers caught during Microsoft’s attempt last week to reign in gamerscore cheaters. Microsoft won’t say how many people have, like Mesec, been branded with a “Cheater” tag, had their questionable Achievements stripped and their gamescores re-set. But I’ve heard that the number of users whose gamerscores were reset wasn’t more than a few handfuls. The punishment is meant as a message to others.

And it appears to have worked on Mesec. “The cheating days are over for me. I just want to kick back and enjoy gaming again,” he told us over the weekend.

If that’s true, why did he start cheating in the first place?

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You can’t judge a game by its cover art.

Or can you?

New games are released weekly by the boatload, and honestly, we simply don’t have time to play them all — at least not right away. Therefore, a gamer’s first — and last — impression of a title could very well be the box it came in.

So to help out video game marketing departments and box art designers, we are launching a new, experimental feature, in which we make a snap judgment about a game’s artwork — disregarding gameplay, reviews and even hearsay — and base our impressions solely on initial appearances (because we’re shallow like that).

Here’s what I got in the mail recently:

“Viking: Battle For Asgard” (Xbox 360)
What the Box Tells Us: The guy on the box for “Viking” looks like Legolas on steroids. I’d make fun of his long flowing locks, only he looks poised to lop my head off with A) a pointy sword or B) a pointy ax… Or C) both.
Love It or Leave It? Love it.

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It was a slow week for the Rhythm Game Track Finder, but it wasn’t completely silent. We were able to get all of the announced tracks for the next console iteration of “Guitar Hero” added.

19 tracks for the upcoming release of “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith” were added, 13 from Aerosmith, and six from a variety of other classic bands. This ratio helps keep within the 60/40 split of tracks that was recently described by Gamespot. With 21 more tracks to go, will your favorite Aerosmith songs be making their way into the Rhythm Game Track Finder?

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) 19 Songs Added

As always, go to trackfinder.mtv.com, for all this and more — it’s the definitive search engine for all your music gaming needs.

I’m hopelessly addicted to “Bully,” but the love fest almost ended when the Xbox 360 version locked up on me this weekend, taking two hours of playtime with it. Poof! Yet I kept playing. I just save more often now.

Even though Rockstar released a patch to address these issues, I’ve read that others are experiencing the same issues post-patch. This morning, I asked Rockstar if they were looking into it. “No comment,” said the publisher.

I’ll probably keep playing, though. Are you guys running into this, too? My crash happened during a mini-game. If you have advice on how to avoid a “Bully” crash, let me know in the comments.

Much like the real MLB, the last few years have been a rather tumultuous for baseball video games.

It’s conceivable that many gamers have lapsed in their dedication to both “the game,” as well as the games.

If the last time you picked up a controller to swing a bat was back in the early 90’s to play some “Bases Loaded,” can you ever pick up a baseball game again? There may still be hope for you yet.

I recently put the PS3 version of “MLB ‘08 The Show” and the Xbox 360 version of “MLB 2K8” releases to the test to see if they are tuned for your average gamer to just pick up and play.

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You’ve read what we thought about “Echochrome,” WipEout HD,” and “Elefunk,” and now you can take a look at these games for yourself.

First up, a look at the high speed action of “WipEout HD”

Next, two lengthy sets of puzzles from “Echochrome.”

(Videos not viewable to users with Canadian or UK IP addresses)
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File this under “What Could Have Been.” Two Saturdays ago, I entrusted MTV News reporter James Montgomery with my PSP and a copy of “Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.”

His mission was to take my PSP with him to Antarctica, where he would shadow the band Fall Out Boy’s attempt to set a world record for touring on all seven continents within a nine-month stretch.

James was going to use “MGS:PO”’s Wi-Fi soldier-recruiting function that I used over a year ago in Georgia and in Rockstar Games HQ to fetch what may well have been the first “Metal Gear” warrior ever recruited from the Antarctic. And I was going to have this soldier on my PSP! Mine… all mine!

But then the weather got bad and James and the band were stuck in Chile. For a week. James returned my PSP to me this morning. Mission Failure.

Let’s blame global warming. Or James. Or Fall Out Boy.

Just got a press release from Harmonix and MTV Games announcing that “Portal” theme song “Still Alive” will be released for “Rock Band” this week. We’ve known it was coming since GDC.

But did we know how cheap it would be?

From the official press release:

And, as icing on the cake, the track will be available as a FREE download on April 1 for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and April 17 for the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system.

Why the delay for PS3? The release states:

** Dates for Rock Band game tracks are tentative and subject to change, Differences in availability are due to scheduled maintenance to PLAYSTATION Store

Over the weekend I …• Played the first four levels of “Kane & Lynch“…and liked it??? Gotta re-read that Gerstmann review.

• Tackled 11 more puzzles in “Professor Layton,” approaching the conclusion.

• Collected 20 or so more stars in “Super Mario Galaxy” and reached the first part of the game that I disliked: Freezeflame Galaxy. Also discovered a great new enemy-based power-up, the Boo Bomb. Proof that Nintendo’s Tokyo development team plays “God of War“? Maybe. Mario can spin explosive ghosts by their tongues, mace-like, until the boo bombs hit something and explode. It’s Kratos-esque and a lot of fun.

• Played one level of “Turning Point: Fall of Liberty” and was intrigued by the concept of defending New York City from Nazis. But even my game-filled life is too short to play what feels like an average entry in a genre so rich with sterling greats. One level is all I can give this game.

• Became transfixed by “Universe At War,” the first real-time strategy game with readable text that I’ve played on a console since I completed one of my all-time favorites, 2004’s “Pikmin 2.” I’m four missions into the campaign and am having a fun time controlling the first of the game’s three distinct, warring alien races. But reviews I’ve read about this game claim the campaign is lackluster. Am I settling? I’ll continue to play “Universe At War” until someone can convince me there’s a better RTS for me on the 360. I wonder…

Next: Monday will likely bring more “Universe At War,” or more “Mario.” That is, if my wife and I don’t spend the evening continuing to try to catch up on “In Treatment.”

I met with “Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword” producer Yosuke Hayashi twice last Thursday: the first time at his hotel on Manhattan’s east side to talk ninja gaming, the second to show him New York City as viewed from the 29th floor of the MTV News offices in Times Square. It was his first time in Manhattan.

At our first meeting he told me that New York smells just like Tokyo, a reference I’m still waging an internal debate about whether it was a compliment or complaint.

I invited him to come by the MTV offices later in the afternoon so he could see the city from above. From the 29th floor he looked out over the Times Square and then went to a westward-looking window and saw the Hudson and New Jersey. From each of the three sides of the building that I brought him to, he looked out of the windows and said “Sugoi!” That means he was impressed. More impressed with New York, I hope, then when I’d asked him what he thought of his trip to Manhattan during our first meeting. Through a translator, he had mustered: “Oh wow, there are hot dogs on every corner.”

I’d like to think I taught him a little bit about the Big Apple. If so, maybe it was a fair trade? During our interview earlier in the day he taught me a few key things about “Ninja Gaiden” on the DS.

This is what I learned:

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