Nobody likes it when people cheat online (except the cheaters), but a swift and vast sweep of almighty righteousness is about to take the great western plains of Red Dead Redemption. Rockstar themselves are rolling out the banhammer and are smiting anyone who is detected with modified or hacked save files.

The online badlands of Red Read Redemption have been known to be a dangerous place, and whether on PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, it's one of the worst places for people cheating on consoles. Moseying around deathmatch or freeroam, its a matter of time until you find someone who just seems to have that upper edge on everybody: you'll run into a cheater.

Rockstar actually gave the cheaters a little nod of courtesy last week, having warned them that the sweep was coming in a week - so if you don't want to be banned from playing Read Dead online, you've still got an entire 24 hours to go and delete your modified save games.

Rockstar sent out a publication this morning detailing the sweep, and giving one last nod to the cheaters that it's time for them to log off and remove all their manipulations from the online environment:

Starting on Tuesday, August 24th - we will be swiftly and indefinitely banishing from the world of Red Dead Redemption multiplayer all Gamertags and PSN IDs we've detected with hacked game saves. Such cheating is a clear violation of our code of conduct, and punishable at our sole discretion.

I'm just glad their 'sole discretion' means permanently banning the cheaters. I've had a few run-ins online with a variety of different hacks, and it all ends the same for the average user: much death, much annoyance, and hearing the squeaky voice of a 12 year old telling you how he "totally owned you" before questioning your sexuality. And let me tell you, Ranters - nobody questions the sexuality of a man riding a donkey!

Rockstar has no't confirmed how long the sweeps will be running for, nor have they confirmed if it will be added to a their regular maintenance list. Either way, only time will tell if the cowboys of tomorrow will have a good fight online, without somebody coming in and ruining the occasion with modified data. I'm all for ruining occasions with a magnum, but not modified data - save that for Microsoft Excel.

What do you think of Red Dead Redemption's online environment? Have you run into hackers? Are you happy a sweep is finally coming?