A True Prince Amongst Thieves

There was an extra reason for gamers to rejoice Holiday season of 2008: draconian DRM schemes appeared to be on their way out. First Bethesda striped SecuROM to the bare minimum for FALLOUT 3; then DRM-free World of Goo (an indie game!) outperforms Spore - a 45-million flop; and, finally, UbiSoft decides to walk the narrow yet honest path towards customer loyalty, by releasing a DRM-free game. Yes, Prince of Persia is DRM-Free!

This was either a very decent and brave decision (after all, only a month ago, Far Cry 2 came with a fully activated SecuROM 7.xx and Limited Installations) or it was an experiment: the executives wanted to see whether games do indeed sell good either with or without intrusive DRM.

Either way, UbiSoft deserved to be congratulated.

I was one of the first to chastise their decisions to ruin good games with heavy-handed DRM schemes. It is only fair to be one of the first to congratulate them on a customer-first decision. And because talk is cheap, I bought my copy the moment it was released. I would advise anyone who would care to listen to vote with his or her wallet and support such a gutsy decision. Because it sure takes guts to go against the current and brake ranks with the other greedy game publishers. And, this time, the Canadians at UbiSoft (Montreal) proved they have brass ones.

The game itself is simplified fun. The graphics are clear and fresh in a comic-book/retro way (known as cel-shaded) and the gameplay enjoys (or suffers, depending on your point of view) a number of assists that make it easier and flowing. Probably, too easy. You will not get the frustrations of repeated deaths but neither the satisfaction of finally making it through a hard boss.

The game does give off a platform feeling (combos on a PC game always give me an awkward feeling as they are much easier with a gamepad - but that again, this is an action game, it is to be expected). 

All in all, a good game that still deserves our support.

When We Were Afterburning Towards A DRM-Free Future

After Prince of Persia and EndWar, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. was the third major UbiSoft retail release to come out protected not by any intrusive yet ineffective DRM scheme but simply by gamers' honor. And, on top of that, it was a very good game.

There had not been a similar game released for some time: simplified arcade-like action with easy controls, breath-taking cinematics and impressive graphics - that will run in full even in low-to-mid-range PC systems. My advice: as with any flight combat game, using a joystick will make things so much more enjoyable and intuitive.

If you are more of an authenticity buff (and still have tons of free time to spare) I would advise going with a combat AddOn for Flight Simulator or a good old Jane's title. You will find no realistic cockpit and detailed controls in H.A.W.X. So, is this flight combat game dummied down? Well, yes. But I promise you: you will have fun like never before!

Hammerheading over cityscapes and coming in from the Sun over the desert has never been more easy to master. The electronic aids and bare-minimum controls will let you enjoy the fights and start mastering them early on.

This is a 4star game but I decided to give it full marks just because the Canadians at UbiSoft kept walking the narrow path towards a DRM-free future. It cannot had been easy to take such bold decisions during a bear economy. They deserved our support. Too bad they did not appreciate it

The Day Gaming Cried

Some time ago UbisSoft had to settle a huge class-action suit brought against the company for bundling (the notoriously harmful) StarFORCE DRM with its released games. So what the geniuses at the helm do next? They decide to make the same mistake yet again - by choosing the same DRM scheme that made BioShock, Mass Effect and Spore infamous: SecuROM 7.xx with Limited Activations!

Mass Effect (a great game in all other aspects) can be fouSpore not only undersold miserably but also made history as the boiling point of gamers lashing back, fed up with idiotic DRM schemes. And the clueless MBAs that run an art-form as any other commodity business decided that, "hey, why not jump into that mud-pond ourselves?"

nd in clearance bins only months after its release;

The original Far Cry was such a monumental game that any sequel of it would have to fight an uphill battle to surpass it (especially without its original developing team). Now imagine shooting this sequel on the foot with a well known, much hated and totally useless DRM scheme that turns it into another Rent-A-Game no one wants. Were I a UbiSoft stock-holder I would be ordering my broker to "Sell-Sell!-SELL!!" instead of posting this...

Ever since its 7.xx version, SecuROM has nothing to do with..."fighting piracy". All it does in this direction (blocking certain optical and virtual drives) is a very old, lame and already bypassed attempt that serves as a thin smoke-screen. SecuROM is, in fact, an intruding and silent Data-Miner and Root-Hijacker that is delivered by means of popular games.

That is why even the STEAM versions as well as the (free) Demos of such games are infected with it. SecuROM will borrow deep into our PC systems and will refuse to be removed completely even after uninstalling the game it came with. It will retain backdoor access and will keep reporting to its mothership.

Lately, these security concerns have been accentuated as known Trojans seem to be exploiting SecuROM's backdoor access for their own purposes. In effect, installing a SecuROM-infected game in our computer will be placing your hardware and data at risk long after having uninstalled the game.

And the latest vehicle to deliver this hazardous snoopware is Far Cry 2 - a game crippled by Limited Installations! No, thanks. I think I 'll pass this one too.

The only people who do not care about SecuROM are, in fact,...pirates! Because cracking games "protected" by this contraption apparently is very easy. Every single game that was supposedly "protected" by SecuROM was cracked hours withing its release!

To everyone else though, SecuROM (or StarFORCE or any other hazardous DRM scheme) is a core issue that needs to be resolved before PC gaming can evolve any further. And the best way to resolve such issues is market correction.

That is why it is important for gamers to keep voting with their wallets. And as with any vote, well informed decisions are paramount in making the right choice. 

The Latest OnLine DRM Fiasco

Einstein defined idiocy as doing the same thing over and over and yet expecting a different outcome. A definition I was reminded of after the latest Must-be-OnLine-to-play disaster. If there ever were an attempt to prove that there is, indeed, bad publicity,  the release of SimCity 2013 sure was it.

Mega-publishers are repeatedly trying to turn the beautiful artform of gaming into a utility, where "gaming content" will be streaming to your TV or PC or phone - and you will be charged by the second for it. Monopolistic issues aside for the moment, are they even remotely ready for such a model? It matter because their every attempt is (involuntarily!) financed by the customers they manage to scam in paying for games that do not deliver the gaming experience advertised. Paying for a product or a service that you do not receive because the seller planed it this way is the definition of a scam. So calling it an idiocy is in fact generous. 

Let's count the number of times the same idiocy was repeated, shall we? BioShock, Spore, Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell (or any UbiSoft game at this point), Command & Conquer IV (was that a stinker!), Diablo III, SimCity 2013 (and every single EA game requiring Origin). The list is long and it could go on.

The problem with gaming today is not the hard-working and creative people working in game studios but the executives at the top of game publishing houses, the likes of EA, ActiVision/Blizzard and 2K.

They do not love, comprehend or even care about the product they are marketing. They might as well be peddling sacks of potatoes. And they clearly do not care about the game developers who provide them with games to market. They only care about one thing: their annual bonuses. And their bonuses depend solely on last trimester's profits.

That is why they operate on a very short-sighted basis.

Sell the most popular games for over $150 by portioning them in thin DLC slices? Sure!

Release games before they are completed to catch the Summer or Christmas market? Why not?

Exploit and truncate a beloved franchise in order to promote the new Digital Distribution DRM? Go ahead!

Ruin the experience of most paying customers by forcing them to log on to servers that do not exist? Who is to stop us?

They do not care about the company they are running (and the bigger it is, the easier to dissociate) because this time next year they may be running a company selling hardware or health care insurance or weed control. So, they do not care whether they insult, make angry and chase away customers the company they are now running enjoyed for years. It takes almost a decade for a game studio to acquire a loyal fan base. Yet it only takes a couple of months to chase them away never to come back.

But the bozos at the top do not care. They will have grabbed their fat bonuses and run.Who is there to stop them?

Well, we all are. I, for one, have stopped buying EA and UbiSoft games for some time now.

We are the Gandalfs standing in the bridge they want to cross. And THEY. SHALL NOT. PASS.