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Get $1 PC games from Ubisoft's new Uplay client
Uplay the vague Ubisoft online service is now also Uplay the PC client, through which Ubisoft sells games and offers friends lists and other services. It's worth checking out, because the company is offering a selection of $1 PC game downloads, one a day. Today, it's HAWX 2; tomorrow, From Dust, with Silent Hunter 5 and Driver: San Francisco following.The same deal applies in the UK and Europe, with prices of one unit of the local currency. There are other deep, if not as dramatic, discounts as well.
Report: Silent Hunter 5 recalled in Germany
Ubisoft has issued a recall for Collectors Edition copies of the submarine sim Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic, According to a report from the German site ComputerBase. Apparently, some offending World War II-related symbols (we're guessing swastikas) were left in some of the bonus content, which violates German law. This only affects the Collectors Edition. The ComputerBase post briefly mentions the Ubisoft DRM that has been so problematic for players of Assassin's Creed 2 and this game, confirming that the same scheme is in use there. It must not be as bad in Germany, because someone was able to play long enough to see a swastika. [Via Blue's News, Edge]
Ubisoft's PC DRM verification was out because 'servers were attacked'
Ubisoft today offered up a bit of an explanation to those of you on PCs yesterday who were desperately trying to play the publisher's games with the cumbersome new DRM (Assassin's Creed 2 and Silent Hunter 5), only to find yourselves unable to authenticate said DRM because of the outage. Apparently it was (gasp!) ... hackers! "Servers were attacked which limited service from 2:30PM to 9:00PM Paris time [8:30AM to 3:00PM ET]," the company announced via Twitter. It also noted that most folks were unaffected by the outage, saying "95% of players were not affected, but a small group of players attempting to open a game session did receive denial of service errors." Needless to say, the company of course apologized to anyone who wasn't able to play its games yesterday. We would once again like to point out that this situation would never have occurred if such a poor DRM system weren't in place to begin with.
Ubisoft updates PC DRM, denies rumored cracks
Ubisoft's new DRM program for PC games has garnered a lot of attention from the games media, thanks to its controversial mandate for a persistent internet connection. While most PC gamers likely have access to an online connection, there are concerns that a service outage -- either locally or at Ubisoft -- could lock players out of their games altogether. Even worse, players may lose progress in a game, if a connection drops before reaching a checkpoint. It appears the publisher has addressed the latter problem, updating its DRM protocol for Assassin's Creed II with the ability to resume the game from the exact moment an internet connection was lost. Although the DRM remains draconian, it shows that Ubisoft is willing to respond to at least one of the many criticisms it has received. It's easy to side against the French publisher, but it's also impossible ignore the PC community's continued efforts to dismantle every effort of publishers to make the platform profitable. Pirated copies of various PC games from Ubisoft are apparently making the rounds online, sparking allegations that the DRM has already been defeated. A Ubisoft spokesperson responded to Edge, stating, "this rumor is false and while a pirated version may seem to be complete at start up, any gamer who downloads and plays a cracked version will find that their version is not complete." Still, it seems pirates will continue to up their efforts against publishers -- resulting in a vicious cycle that only harms legitimate gamers. Source - Ubisoft: No DRM Crack [Edge] Source - Ubisoft - Assassin's Creed II, via VG247
