It's pretty much vital to PC games nowadays, since they removed client side admin tools from games.  Otherwise, think about how long it'd take games companies to deal with a cheater on a server.

NICE.  Cheaters are the worst!  It is the single biggest reason I switched over to consoles as primary.  Used to love me some COD2, SOF2, CS1.6, Quake 1 and 3, Tribes.  Fun stuff back then.  I actually miss the fun back in the day playing Quake 1 when it was popular.  LOL Hollywood Holocaust DN3D 1v1 over Heat or DWANGO with a DUN modem?  Damn getting old.

Well, we were all kind of forced...or at least, the industry attempted to force us to adopt consoles by stripping away previously standard functionality.  Server tools, Admin tools, map making tools etc..  were taken away, because they realized they could force us to pay exorbitant monthly fees to play online.  They realized they could nickel and dime us with hideous piles of DLC crap, so they removed map making and mod tools.  You used to be able to group together with friends, and rent a server for an indefinite amount of time that you policed yourself.  When Microsoft/Sony/Activision/EA etc.. realized they could charge each person individually, that's when they started stripping these tools out, and now every year we hear of large lists of games having their MP functionality turned off, because we allowed these companies to host all this shit for us.

I don't begrudge the folks who find consoles an easier experience to enjoy.  I really don't.  I do, however, begrudge everyone who bought into this whole generation of stripping out absolutely necessary functionality, while using PC piracy/Cheating as a scapegoat, especially so, after people just started pirating and cheating on console.

Heh, I used to LAN Doom 2, Descent, Rise of the Triad, and Heretic/Hexen in the school's computer room back in the early/mid-90's, that shit was great! :)

It doesn't take much to set off PB, it will kick you things even if you haven't modified the game. I've been kicked from games of Red Orchestra 2 because I was somehow missing this one file, and the reasoning PB gives you is rather vague. The plus side is PB won't ban you for things like this so once I fixed my issue I was able to play again, but it can be annoying sometimes.

Yeah it sucks sometimes. I remember being regularly kicked out after every third round in BFBC2. In BF3 it happened a lot that I got kicked out after 15 seconds but then worked perferctly when I re-entered the same server for the second time.

I was required to download it when I was playing the Battlefield Hardline Beta. Had no issues.  Might uninstall it since I'm no longer interested in Battlefield Hardline.  Thought it was going to be more like Payday, but it's pretty much Battlefield and the whole cash stuff is very minor.  It's required to win the game, but it's just go here, fill the bag, go back to your base or make off with the package.  Very meh.  You'd think the way they set up the game could discourage camping, but Bloodmoney mode is basically camper centeral.  Get to the money first, get on the top floor or somewhere around it where you'll see people coming in, pick them off with the one hit kill rifle even without a headshot.  The game is really meh.  Heist mode one team has to escape with the packages which is more enjoyable because the objective is to camp until you secure the package if you're the police, or camp until the safe opens and then take the money and escape.

On PS4 the sniper rifle is not one hit kill.

Also the reason THIS guy

isn't around.  I hate Punkbuster.

That piss me off because a lot of PC games come with FOVs from the console version and that can cause motion sickness. So when you change FOV sometimes is not because you want to see more and cheat, but just because the damn game comes with the FOV adjusted for a 40' screen at 10ft and that's simply unbearable in a PC monitor.

This rampant cheating isn't just an issue for people who suffer with cheaters, but for players with high skill too. If you get a good kill ratio because you are simply good, people will just think you are cheating.