I expect steam couldn't come to an arrangement about needing a connection to 2 different sites. 1 for steam and 1 for Ubi. Steam can run in offline. I'll wait until it goes in the bargain bin. I expect it will be half price in a month.
Tweakguide had a good look at the DRM included with Assasins Creed 2. Pretty informative and the guy that wrote it hasn't had any issues as of yet. Still sucks you'll be unable to play the game when your connection is down or when you're on the move.
Steam's version of Assassin's creed 2 DOES include the strict (and stupid) drm. http://store.steampowered.com/app/33230/ By the way, this DRM has already been cracked (for Silent Hunter 5 and AC 2 which both use it)
Seems you can get some one in a another country to buy it and gift it to you. But you cant buy it from steam UK WTF. Looks like Play.com will be getting my money.
I got mine yesterday morning, played a few hours last night, it's good fun. I've just got past the second assassination. Is it me or are the textures not that great? Spoiler In Tuscany, the 2nd assassination, when you kill Vieri(?) the floor behind him is really blurry, whereas he is very well defined. Also, the mouse+camera feels a bit clunky, not as slick as the last game; and the streets are wider, so I go crashing down to floor level quite often. Still good fun though And the DRM hasn't got in the way or anything, though I had to dig up my old Ubi.com account details to play >.> Edit: I checked during NetMeter, and despite a 'constant connection' required to play, when you're just playing, it doesn't use any bandwidth. I didn't manage to check what it was using during an autosave, but in general I don't think it's using much at all
Mine is full screen @ 1440x900, with all graphics on highest with a 4870 512MB, fps average 40 I'd say (not super-slick), very rare dips. Edit: Wait... Damn. I didn't notice the black bars at all until I started the game a minute ago, and this is after ~3hrs ingame They won't be there on a 16:9 screen though I don't think.
I personally think this is stupid, if you buy Assassins Creed II, why the need for a PERMANENT internet connection! What if someone moves house and they won't get the internet connected for a couple of weeks and instead they decide to play Assassins Creed II to pass the time, oh yeah they won't be able to!! Which I think is disgusting, basically your being forced to have the internet to play the game which in my book will never be right! I don't condone piracy but I can tell you now I won't be buying the game, and if it gets pirated at least people will know they can play it whenever/wherever/at anytime they want even if they don't have an internet connection, which is how it should be, Ubisoft aren't making piracy better by using this DRM method they are making it worse forcing people like me who would usually buy all my games to do the opposite if I get the chance. I have a lot of games taking space up on my shelves and on my hard drive via steam and wonder why the hell I bother buying the games when you have all on just trying to play them without being forced to put up with stupid DRM methods shoved up our asses. No wonder people prefer consoles, you don't need the internet to play Assassins Creed II on the 360 or PS3! I will say this though if If Ubisoft patch out the DRM (the part that requires PERMANENT internet connection) I will definitely buy it! Because don't get me wrong I don't mind some forms of DRM or even online verification but this is a step too far! Any and all games can be verified as genuine without the need to be PERMANENTLY connected to the internet. Ubisoft were also asked the question below, Asker of question: If a widely available working cracked version of an Ubisoft game is out, will you patch the option of an offline mode for paying customers? Is that even possible? Ubisoft: It is possible, yes. And it's a valid part of a varied set of options that we would consider. So in other words, only when it's cracked will they release a patch for PAYING customers! What a slap in the face that is! Make it uncrackable and release a patch ONLY for PAYING customers that also needs verification before the patch works, that way the patch will NEVER work for pirates!
lol: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98927-Ubisoft-DRM-Authentication-Servers-Go-Down to summarise, the authentication servers went down meaning that paying customers couldnt play.
I can't say anything about the PC version as I have it on the 360, but with regards to the game itself. Yes, it's better than AC1. If you liked AC1 but found it a bit samey/repetitive, then you'll probably really like AC2. If you completely hated AC1 though, maybe it's still not for you.
Even microsoft let you use windows without being permenantly online. Plain ridiculous as a business move.
Protection has been bypassed. You can now run a emulator of the drm server and play the game. Pirates are playing now. I doubt ubi will drop this stupid drm though.
Not the sequence of 12 and 13 but that would be done soon, Anyways i'm playing the game and i have reached sequence 11 never had single problem with DRM
what i find ironic is that the DRM emulator server is local, so unlike paying customers, when pirates' internet connection is dropped, they won't loose their game progress.
yes the pirate version is indeed going to be the better version once all the triggers are bypassed on the emulation server. Just for fun... Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
to be honest the DRM put me off buying it when it was released.... but now it is only £16 ill bite the bullet
