Freedom Force Review

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Freedom Force

Review by Mike PhillipsJune 2002

Are you the sort who channel-surfs past CNN in order to watch the Justice League on Cartoon Network? Still have your Marvel comics stored in the closet? Seen the Spiderman movie more than once? Then you’ve already played Freedom Force and are far more enlightened than me.

I had serious trepidation over buying Freedom Force—even the box looked like it should reside next to Spongebob Squarepants: Operation Krabby Patty. Freedom Force is a comic book–styled superhero game, for heaven’s sake. It would surely be fun for kids to play, but no well-adjusted adult should give it a second glance.  I loved comic books as a youth, but I also had a fascination over staging battles with my GI Joe dolls, and both are a distant memory now. Okay, maybe on rainy days when I can’t play outside, I do get out the GI Joe dolls, but that’s not my point.

Eventually I caved and purchased Freedom Force, fully expecting to give it a brief glance before throwing it on my “I’ll finish it when Hell freezes over shelf” … right next to Jekyll & Hyde. What I got is easily the best game I’ve played in quite some time. Freedom Force is fun, period! For anyone who suffers from my antiquated ways of thinking, get over it and buy this game already. Irrational Games has crafted something that will appeal to everyone, and as a bonus it just oozes polish—it’s the little things that will lift this title into classic status long before it disappears from store shelves.

Installing the game gives you an idea what a treat you are in for.  Several comic book covers are displayed featuring the heroes and villains that you will be meeting while playing the game. The covers have an aged, read look to them, a fantastic touch. The people behind this game thought of everything.

The opening intro provides an explanation of how Frank Stiles, an average citizen of Patriot City who was working on the Manhattan Project long ago, gains his super powers. An alien ship drops several canisters of Energy-X on the city … because Lord Dominion wanted to rule the Earth … and, well, Mentor kind of foiled his insidious plan by … then the evil Mr. Mechanical enters the picture …  but then the Timemaster runs amok … Forget about it, I’m not going to spoil the story. The plot is very well conceived even though a tad bizarre, as it should be considering the nature of the game.

The graphics aren’t anything special, but in no way am I implying they’ve been beaten with an ugly stick. We’re talking comic books here, folks—they don’t have to be cutting-edge. If you are expecting bump-mapping, cell shading, or even trilinear filtering, you won’t find it. What you will find is a very crisp, detailed, alive, 3D world with automobiles and citizens going about everyday activities.

Virtually everything can be interacted with in some fashion; buildings can be destroyed if you so fancy. Every citizen will reply to you, although in most cases only a few offer any valuable information beyond a scant canned sentence or two. Objects such as cars, mailboxes, traffic lights, street lamps, etc., can be thrown or wielded as weapons against foes. Pedestrians often cross streets in front of speeding cars, and obviously that’s a bad thing. Again, the attention to details elevates this title to something special.

Cutscenes are something to be Marveled over (pardon the pun). These cutscenes are comic books in action. When a new superhero is introduced in a mission, at the end you are treated to vignette as to how he or she acquired his/her powers, how those Energy-X canisters affected his/her life. The legendary Jack Kirby obviously played a major role in the inspiration for this game, and I’m sure he would be proud of the effort.

Sound is where Freedom Force really shines. The voice acting is some of the best I’ve ever encountered in a game. The cast members accepted their roles with an incredible degree of professionalism, as campy and over-the-top as the roles were. This group grabbed their parts and ran with them; they lived them—how refreshing in a computer game. I’m compelled to mention the narrator by name, Ian Vogel. If one conducted a nationwide search for someone to fill the narrator role, I doubt if anyone could pull it off with more aplomb than Mr. Vogel.

The music is also something that can’t be described in printed word. Each level has its own score, and the music is mostly sung, with a baritone, foreboding chorus. How someone could sing “Nuclear Winter” as if it were going to be a Grammy contender is beyond me, but they did it, giving another aspect of the game a polished, finished feel.

The game is played from a rather indescribable perspective. In most instances the game world is viewed from something resembling a 75-degree isometric view, until you zoom the camera in; then it’s more of a standard third-person, over-the-shoulder view. The camera control definitely takes a while to get used to, but I can’t think of a way it could have been handled any better. When viewing the game map from a distance, buildings, trees, etc., get in the way of the action. Quite often, in order to fight an enemy you have to zoom in and get up close and personal. Using a scroll wheel mouse is the best way to accomplish this. When you zoom in, said obstacles become transparent so you can view the action transpiring behind them. It’s very disorienting at first, yet with a little practice it becomes effortless.

Undoubtedly everyone who plays Freedom Force will have a favorite character. Mine happened to be Man o’War, not because he was the best to go into battle with (he was a useless laddie), but rather because of the outrageous remarks he makes. Stephen Russell (who provides several voices in the game) does a Sean Connery impersonation that is hilarious. I often found myself pausing the game, hoping to regain some semblance of composure before I continued playing.  If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Mr. Connery should embellish the work of Stephen for all it’s worth.

Humor is a very subjective matter, but if you happen to get some chuckles while watching Batman (no, not those recent imposters—I’m talking about Adam West, the Batman), you’ll be doubled over while playing Freedom Force. The dialog and plot give new meaning to tongue in cheek.

Ah, the gameplay, you ask. Irrational Games refers to it as a tactical RPG, and, well, it is, sort of. By no means is it your standard Dungeons and Dragons kind of RPG, although the basic structure is present, in a limited fashion. Before starting a mission you have to choose your party (squad, team, or whatever name you prefer).  Each mission has both primary and secondary objective(s). The secondary objective(s) are optional—they are there for you to gain prestige points, which in turn can be used to recruit new members to the FF fold. Primary objectives must be completed in order to advance, and depending on your success rate these determine how many experience points are gained. Experience points are used to “level up” team members upon completion of a mission.

During missions, there are various Energy-X canisters lying about.  The flavors include power, health, experience, and prestige. It’s a good plan to search the entire game map for these canisters before completion of the primary objective. A side note: the game’s initialization file can be easily edited to add bonus characters, change the zoom factor (which I highly recommend), or enable the console so cheat codes can be used if necessary.

Does it seem complex? It is, but the first level of the game serves as a tutorial, replete with an explanation of most aspects provided by Mr. Vogel. Beyond that, mouseovers are used to give a text explanation on options screens. A thorough reading of the manual is imperative to understand the finer points of the game, such as creating a custom character. Speaking of which, the manual is a sixty-page document that covers everything you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask about Freedom Force. It would have been further icing on the cake if the manual had been printed in color, but I’m just being nitpicky.

The good news for point-and-click fans is that the game can be played using only the mouse. Keyboard shortcuts make things much easier, but they aren’t needed.

If multiplayer is your thing, it works flawlessly out of the box.  You choose your characters and have at it with other gamers on differing maps. Hosting a game couldn’t be any easier, or if you want to join a game, meeting other players can be accomplished using GameSpy Arcade, which is included on the disc. I must confess that I’m not a multiplayer lover, but this game has me warming up to the concept.

Want skins, meshes, wallpaper, or have a question about the game?  A game-dedicated forum can be found here if you need tech support, strategy advice, or just want to offer an opinion. Feel the need to do a little modding? An editor is available for download here.  Tutorials are available to ensure designing your own levels is as painless as it can be.

Further good news from Irrational Games: Freedom Force is designed to be a trilogy. While this game takes place in the early 60s (the Silver Age of superhero comics), the sequels will traverse the 70s to present day, offering much “grittier” subject matter. An expansion pack is also being considered.

Of course I have some complaints—my inherent desire to whine.  The save game utility is the most confusing I’ve ever seen. There is a quick-save/quick-load option that works fine. But your hard saves are stored alphabetically—no thumbnails, no date and time, just alphabetically. It makes figuring out where you left off quite a chore; I’d love to know why the programmers did this.  It’s a very disturbing flaw in an otherwise excellent game.

The traditional methods of adhering to particular characters and leveling up as quickly as possible don’t work well. You may find your favorite characters unavailable for some missions, and doing battle with weak characters can result in restarting the game from scratch. Not much of a complaint, but I’m trying my hardest to find anything to bitch about.

Odd tech bits and stuff: For whatever reason FF was a bit unstable (a few random crashes) for me while playing it under 98SE.  On the same system with the same drivers, ME handled it with no problems. I also briefly played it under 2K, and it ran smoothly with no problems.

In an age where you thought everything has been done before, along comes Freedom Force, shattering genre lines, daring to do something different, and instilling fun for all ages into a game—you can’t ask for anything more. Grab a copy now, because it just doesn’t get any better than this. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Irrational Games Publisher: Electronic Arts; Crave Entertainment Release Date: March 2002

Available for: Windows

Four Fat Chicks Links

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Screenshots

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System Requirements

Windows XP/Me/2000/98 (Windows 95 and Windows NT not supported) 300 MHz Intel Pentium II or AMD K6-2 processor (600 MHz or faster Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon processor recommended) 96 MB RAM (128 MB or more recommended) 4X CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive (16X recommended) 31 MB free hard disk space 16 MB Direct3D capable video card (32 MB recommended) DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card (Environmental Audio capable sound card recommended) Keyboard Mouse

Where to Find It

Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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29 Responses to The Long, Sordid Tail of DRM

  • Meho

    Good one.

    Of course, it will be very interesting to see the battle between crackers and UBI’s cryptographers. PC version of Assassin’s Creed II is already circulating the warez scene, although as yet uncracked. Everybody seems to think it will be cracked in a couple of weeks time at worst, which, admittedly is better for UBI than what usually happens (games cracked before release). Of course, I won’t be buying it because I find this practice unnacceptable (and I do have the console version anyway) but the success of this game and its DRM might mean quite a lot in the future. Of course, we ARE moving towards the age where you will be required to be connected to do any playing at all, whatwith the Gaikai and OnLive systems rearing their heads on the horizon. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, eh?

  • Spike

    I went to the Ubisoft website and looked at their list of published games.  It seems that the last of their games I played was the last Myst game in 2005.  In fact the only Ubisoft games I’ve played have been Myst games.  So I don’t see that their new DRM crime-against-my-privacy will have much of an effect on me.  But I hate the idea.  It’s an “Off with their heads!” kind of development.  Reminds me of the idea that people will put up with lost privacy in exchange for security.  In this case the security is only to benefit Ubisoft.  Yes, I allow my privacy to be violated every day – each time I visit Amazon, or read Google News -the list goes on and on.  BUT THOSE ARE MY CHOICES.  I also have a choice about where and how I spend my money, and I’d refrain from buying a game that allows so much intrusion into my computer/life.  A game that tells me how I must live my life even in the smallest of ways such as always being connected to the internet is a game I can forgo.

  • Jason O

    Consoles CAN be connected to the internet 100% of the time, but there are still many consoles that never go online. Modern Warfare 2 sold over 11 million copies, yet XBox Live only shows 840,000 users that have been on-line with it. That’s not played online, that means they played the game in any mode while connected to XBox Live.

    Games that have required an internet connection and were multiplayer only have a history of vanishing quickly from the console marketplace. Phantasy Star ONLINE did much better on the Gamecube then it did on the XBox. What was the difference? Oh yeah, you could play PSO without an internet connection on the Gamecube, the XBox version require a live account and an internet connection. That’s hardly the only example but one that is near and dear to my heart.

  • Bennet

    No, no, you don’t get it! Ubisoft’s “always connected” requirement isn’t DRM, it’s value-add for you, the beloved customer. Just like the Albertsons supermarket chain requires employees to plaster obnoxiously bright orange “Thank you for shopping with us!” stickers on your Coke and milk not because they think you’re stealing them but to express their sincere gratitude for your patronage.

    Maybe my memories of a time when consumers paid for a product and got the product, unadorned by FBI warnings and impossible to open wrappings and authentication servers that can vanish at any time without warning were planted by aliens. In the current cultural climate it’s certainly difficult to believe that time ever existed.

  • Meho

    But Steerpike makes a good point: business model, retail model is lagging behind the times. And developers, instead of researching ways to use the existing systems to sell more games rather research new ways to piss off their paying customers.

    Seriously, in my opinion, pirates pirate games because they are better value than retail games. Not just in the sense that they get to spend less money on them, but they get them faster, do not have to go through any hassle with DRM and have full control over the game. I think that Gabe Newell put it best saying that Valve sees pirates as customers who haven’t been served yet.

    I think UBI and their ilk should look for ways to make retail games more valuable to their customers than (free) warez copies. Yes, stuff like achievements/ trophies helps a little, sure. There are other ways too and one of them is resale value. But, oh, what a surprise, used games market pisses publishers off MORE than pirates do. In fact most of the current DRM schemes are only effective against resales. EA’s ten dollar project and all other free DLC on day one initiatives. So, honestly, I’m afraid that UBI’s online-all-the-time-or-no-service DRM is basically only going to affect sales of used games. The crackers are going to bring their games to pirates eventually. I believe that draconic DRM schemes such as this will only inspire people like GeoHot, Dark Alex and Yoshihiro to spend more of their time on circumvention. Their street cred is going to be huge after all…

    What Valve seem to understand is that playing games through Steam should make playing MORE valuable/ comfortable than not playing games through Steam (which is, at the end of the day a DRM system). Being able to instal a game on as many machines as you want and not having to have a disc in the drive is exactly what pirated games give us too, but with Steam you also retain all your stats, friends lists, achievements and everything. So it’s BETTER than playing pirated games. I only hope that UBI wake up and realise they have to ADD value, not just subtract freedoms.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not really sure I see their DRM as a huge problem.  If my PC is turned on, so is my internet.  I’m fully aware that my name is probably on a million data bases already, and although it might be annoying knowing that Ubisoft have implemented such a security feature, if you don’t physically notice it, I don’t particularly care.

    I’m currently playing Myst at the moment, having never before.  What an odd game…

  • Meho

    Well, you know, just from a philosophical standpoint: if the game is unplayable as soon as you don’t have Internet connection (which, I’m afraid, happens to me more regularly than I am comfortable with) for no other reason than making sure you have paid for it then to me this is pretty much unnacceptable. Requiring a connection for something that is a function of the game itself is OK, but enforcing it just for the sake of protection of the publisher, sorry, no sale.

  • Lewis B

    True Meho.  I had 40 minutes the other day before I went out and thought I would have a quick skirmish on Dawn of War II.  Steam (despite my love for it) wouldn’t launch the game because for some reason it kept freezing and refusing to connect or launch in offline mode.  I couldn’t actually locate the source directory either to boot the game up manually. So, I didn’t get to play and instead spent 40 minutes in a fit of rage cursing Valve and all who work under them. 

    Not exactly the same situation, but not hugely dissimilar.

  • Gregg B

    I’m really not concerned about the privacy issue simply because that illusion is just that, and doesn’t really comfort or unsettle me. My problem with this whole thing is that internet connections can be temperamental at the best of times and the idea that if the connection falters I will lose my progress (and thus my invested time which I’d argue is more valuable than my money) then quite frankly Ubi can fuck off. I’ve been pretty placid up to press with DRM simply because it’s not seemed that intrusive but this will affect the paying customers more than the pirates. It devalues the product and I fear it will push otherwise paying customers to download cracked versions that don’t suffer from this shit. Which, of course, will play into Ubi’s hands.

    Am I right in believing all this stems from the hideous retail model that just refuses to die? Physical retail creates pressuring deadlines, costs considerably more due to increased physical production (and overheads in staffing and floor space), it’s inflexible with stock limitations and shelf space dictating the range of titles available in any given store and by the sounds of things is the sole reason for this ‘tail’. If you look at Steam, it isn’t always the newest games that sell the most due in no small part to their sales and weekend deals.

    “I wonder if we’ll ever get to a point where a person would be just as likely to invest in a beloved classic as a hot new release.”

    From my experience there are a lot of people who simply can’t stomach old looking games, even some of my friends who’ve been playing games since they were young have turned into total graphics whores. Seriously you want to see the totally underwhelmed look on their faces when I show them XCOM for any period of time. We’re at a stage now where graphics are so advanced that for a lot of people going back so far to sample an allegedly classic title is simply too much. Thankfully GOG is doing a fantastic job of making these titles as accessible, and valuable, as possible.

    EDIT: Spot on Meho. My point exactly.
    See what I mean though Lew? Time. Valuable stuff. A quick skirmish on DoW turned into a 40 minute skirmish with Steam.

  • Mat

    This seems like an awful idea.. or at least one which sounds like a good idea to somebody somewhere, but in reality is unworkable.

    Since I’ve been a paying internet customer I have lived at 3 different addresses and used around 5 different ISP’s. I have ALWAYS had problems with my internet connection. With my current set up it tends to go down if a menacing looking cloud passes overhead..

  • xtal

    Some people may like to play a game offline now and then; this is especially easy with older ones before the dawn of activation codes and online authentication. While those aren’t that annoying, having to maintain a constant internet connection just to play a game that you paid for, which is not specifically a MMO, really bites.

    Gregg B said:
    “Am I right in believing all this stems from the hideous retail model that just refuses to die? Physical retail creates pressuring deadlines, costs considerably more due to increased physical production (and overheads in staffing and floor space), it’s inflexible with stock limitations and shelf space dictating the range of titles available in any given store and by the sounds of things is the sole reason for this ‘tail’. If you look at Steam, it isn’t always the newest games that sell the most due in no small part to their sales and weekend deals.”

    I agree with this. Just a few years ago I couldn’t see myself paying for intangible, digital goods. Fast forward to now and it’s really my preferred method of computer gaming, whether it’s GOG, Steam, or elsewhere, I find it’s the model that works best for the customer. If I’m not mistaken, I believe once upon a time that was who the industry was trying to serve, no? The customer?

  • Cesar

    You know, I’m from Brazil and there piracy is HUGE. Maybe for that reason I feel for the industry and understand the efforts to stop it. However, I suspect this crack delay would have a very minor impact in markets like Brazil. People can’t afford the games, so they wouldn’t pay full price anyway.

    It is a shame that we don’t have privacy anymore. The other day a friend of mine on XBox Live sent me a message to congratulate me on a goal I scored in Fifa 10. I didn’t know but apparently not only you can see I’m playing Fifa, but you also see when I score and my avatar cheers! While that sounds very cool, it is also very disturbing. But like Matt points very well, privacy is already gone. And since I don’t have it anymore, why not help stop piracy?

    On the other hand, the plurality of solutions is a different matter, it becomes a hassle. I think the solution should be platform dependent, not publisher dependent. In Brew phones, the control is embedded in the system and you cannot use an app if it cannot be verified, which means if you are not connected to the network you can’t play.

    Unfortunately that cannot be applied to consoles, there’s a considerable number of devices outside the internet umbrella. But if the game constantly checks if you are online and tries to authenticate the copy, online piracy will suffer a big hit and the technological move towards full connectivity will make the practice more and more efficient over time.

  • Andrew

    Not going to buy the game, long tail or not, it sucks to have that kind of persistent connection needed for offline play. Not even just startup authorisation either. I must admit any Game For Windows Live games can be similar (Dawn of War 2 being one of them necessitating it) although most of them allow offline profiles, and most of them allow the saves to be moved easily between any online or offline accounts.

    Oh, and if you’re disconnected it won’t kick you out of the game too, even Microsoft didn’t get that wrong.

    I don’t even understand how privacy comes into it, my main issue is twofold:
    – The above note about simple, offline play (and disconnects for blips in service)
    – The fact it isn’t just your connection that is necessary, it is THEIR connection and servers

    The second point as a partial game historian leads me to wonder how many years (not decades) the servers will be there. Publishers have removed much more necessary servers quickly if they are a cost liability (or they want to push people onto a newer game…). Downtime is also, considering some of the services require payment (Xbox Live for instance) devastatingly poor considering the user base sizes, especially on high load days (and I wonder if we’ll see “Assassins Creed 2 unplayable at launch due to server overload” at all, heh). Lucky it’s “just games” though, no worries if we only have 99% uptime right?! 😉

    (Also, frankly their Assassins Creed 1 port was poor until they patched it, where at least then it was playable (in full on 16:9…for some reason), which makes me wary of any PC release of a console game they do. I wonder also if they still have unskippable cutscenes, I’ve not checked it out on the consoles).

    The fact they’ll never have enough sales of this PC version due to the earlier console release to either say this is a roaring success or roaring failure. It’s the longest end of the tail in the first place. Or they’ll lie about whatever happens anyway. It’s utterly bizarre…I just don’t understand it.

  • Meho

    Cesar: I’m in Serbia and here piracy reigns supreme (much worse than Brazil, I imagine) but still, this is pure and simple bullshit. I purcahsed BioShock 2 today, for my PS3 even though I’d prefer to play it on my PC just because of the stupid DRM that won’t let me control the use of a game I pay for. They can fuck off with that. So, my purchase was influenced by DRM, depsite the game being more natural to play on a PC. Protection measures should not create this kind of bitterness in a human being.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    The issue of server overload on release days is significant. Think about it – a game like Modern Warfare 2? Or any other hotly anticipated release? Of course the servers would go down. It’s not cost-effective to install a server infrastructure capable of handling Day Zero traffic. That would royally piss people off.

    Ubi and others who use draconian DRM typically insist that if they ever go out of business or shut servers down, they’ll issue patches so the games can be played offline.

    Around the holidays here, big stores like Best Buy station a guy at the exit. His job is to go through your bag and consult your receipt to make sure you haven’t stolen anything. That’s a very similar ideology to this one: treat all consumers like thieves in hopes of catching the few who are.

  • Lewis B

    Considering most MMOG servers cannot cope on launch day, I see it as a gaurentee that when the next Modern Warfare is released, if they do follow through with this, would see many unhappy players.

  • lakerz1

    This new DRM policy will totally be screwing me over because I have a wireless internet setup, but my signal is a bit weak so here and there it drops out for a 10-15 second period before it reconnects.  Plus my wireless router is a bit wonky and will just stop working once in awhile until I cycle power to it.  So, until my setup changes, I will be forced to avoid all Ubi PC games that use this.

  • Igor Hardy

    I seriously doubt a person which would normally pirate a game, will pay money for it just because she has to wait a short while longer for the cracked version. This can work only for very cheap games – like 1$ cheap.

  • Meho

    Just for those keeping tabs: the Russian version of Assassin’s Creed II has apparently been successfully cracked, with a fix for the saves too. Of course, I don’t KNOW this for sure but that’s the word circulating through the grapewine.

  • Cesar

    Brazil is a strong competitor in the piracy rates. 95%-97% if I am not mistaken.

    Anyway, I don’t have a problem with the privacy issue. Not even with the assumption that we are all thieves. If you extrapolate that idea, you will conclude we shouldn’t have patrol cars on the streets. They assume people will commit crimes and have to keep watch. Homo homini lupus. Society isn’t perfect and even though losses are part of the model, no one is ready to lose out of good faith alone. I don’t mean to say DRM and police watch are the same thing, I’m just saying it’s not that simple to draw a line where it becomes offensive to monitor society.

    That being said, it is not acceptable to have a DRM impact gameplay at all. I don’t mind it authenticating my copy. But if I am offline it has to work. And if I loose connection during the game I shouldn’t be kicked out.

    And while the efficacy of the solution might be questionable under these circumstances, like I said in the previous comment, it only tends to increase.

  • Andrew

    “Ubi and others who use draconian DRM typically insist that if they ever go out of business or shut servers down, they’ll issue patches so the games can be played offline.”

    I have seen this happen to absolutely zero games ever. The fact that it is nearly impossible to sanction any work on IP if a company is in administration is the key. That and it is non-trivial to get around your own disk DRM by producing an installer that will work with your disk copy to install it.

    I’d love to be proved wrong…this is by far the most worrying thing of the deal, just installed Bioshock 2 and it has online activation (sigh)…worried I might need to download cracked versions to install it in the future!

    Oh, did you see the patch notes of the first patch? It makes the DRM very very very slightly “better” (I mean, better as in “still shit”):

    http://www.fileshack.com/file.x/17456/Assassin%27s+Creed+2+Patch+1.01+-+US

    “Game can now be continued from the exact same point when connection is restored”

    Ho ho ho. Ho.

  • Gregg B

    I like this bit:

    “Only those who purchased a copy of ACII or SHV legally appear to be affected. Pirates playing illegally downloaded cracked versions of the game are able to play without a problem.”

    Is it apparent pirates are having no problems yet? If they’ve properly cracked it then what I feared (above) is true. Last I heard was that the DRM apparently downloads levels or important files as you play. I don’t know whether this is true or not though.

  • Spike

    Meho beat me to it.  I just read a similar article on The Register.  I don’t suppose that the DDoS attack will make Ubi rethink its evil ways, but this might (I can dream, can’t I?):

    “Meanwhile Ubisoft’s much criticised controls have been broken by software hackers. A hacker group called Skid-Row managed to bypass DRM restrictions on Silent Hunter 5 less than 24 hours after the game was published. Skid Row has releasing a crack for the game based on this work, Zdnet reports. ®”

    Full article here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/08/ubisoft_anti_drm_hack_attack/

  • Littermate

    Spike.  RE: The Register article
    There is a comment to that article that claims the crack for SH5 is not a complete crack and would only allow an incomplete experience, because not only are save games stored online but some of the game data files are stored online too, implying that the boxed game you buy is incomplete.  This seems plausible and effective IMO, because if I was demanding an internet connection for my software this is how I would do it.  It demands not only that a games code be cracked but that missing data files be supplied too.

  • Spike

    Having just read this article – link below – I’m thinking that DRM will be fine and dandy AND hunky-dory with me as long as the packaging it comes in is “green”.  Yep.  That makes it more palatable.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/1620105/ubisoft-green-recycled-case-digital-manual-sustainable-packaging

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    I would kind of like to buy games in potato cases.

  • xtal

    I was thinking… and remembered one of the most creative instances of “DRM” if you can call it that: King’s Quest VI! I looked it up and sure enough it is mentioned on KQVI’s Wikipedia page:

    A booklet titled “Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles” (written by Jane Jensen) is included in the KQVI package. Aside from providing additional background to the game’s setting, this booklet serves as part of the game’s copy-protection. The player will not be able to pass the puzzles on the Cliffs of Logic that guard the Isle of the Sacred Mountain without information from the booklet. The booklet also includes a poem encoding the solution to one of the puzzles in the labyrinth on the Isle of the Sacred Mountain.

    I guess that’s not very feasible today, what with widespread use of the internet around the world. I still think it’s more creative than the “thank you for your money, we intend to treat you like a criminal” method.

  • Bluebogle

    I played the KQVI game with the booklet. I was a kid at the time, and thought the booklet was so cool! It really added to the whole game’s experience.

    The quest for Glory games came with fun booklets as well, though I don’t remember if they had copy protection elements to ’em.

    Ahh, the good old days..

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