Despite Falling Leaf Systems' promise to Windows XP users that they were soon to start work on the "Alky Project" in order to get Microsoft's Halo 2 for Windows Vista and Shadowrun to function on the older operating system, the cheeky chappies at cracking group, ‘Razor1991’ have been meddling with the games' codes and already come up with a fix that allows players to run the 'Vista-only' titles on Windows XP.

Reports have arisen stating that the crack fix for the two games only requires a simple overwrite of a few files. Once successfully completed, the games will run in Windows XP even if users have only got DirectX 9 installed. Naughty, naughty!

The information text file that ships with the crack states: "Tired of waiting for Falling Leaf to produce drivers so that you can play Shadowrun in XP? The wait is over, because Razor1911 already has the remedy! Yes, you read right. This game will also function in Windows XP".

The Alky Project was launched by FLS in early May after no attempts had been made by Microsoft to deliver Shadowrun to the millions of owners of Windows XP. The drivers being worked on were planned to be ready later on this year, but it looks like they've been beaten to it.