You guys just not answering the question. Gee.

Anyways, to TS, the bricking issue was due to MS's own fault, and people not flashing their consoles correctly. There was no patch issued specifically to detect hacked firmwares and intentional bricking.

AFAIK, you don't need to update to play a game? Only if you're on Xbox Live will it ask you to update before you can play a game (if the game requires an update)