Timesplitters: Future Perfect Review

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Timesplitters: Future Perfect

Review by DavoAugust 2005

Making the Quantum Leap into Gaming Fun

If you’ve seen the first Spiderman movie with Toby Maguire, you might recall the scene where he first realizes he has spider powers after webs begin shooting out of his wrists and he develops super speed and strength. Maguire, as Peter Parker, Spiderman’s alter ego, slowly begins scaling a vertical wall. Clinging to the wall about 20 feet off the ground, he looks down, breaks into a wild grin and exuberantly screams “woohoo” as he scales the rest of the building and begins leaping over rooftops. He’s clearly having a grand time. Timesplitters: Future Perfect is like that moment when Parker realizes he has spider powers. This game is grand fun in a big way.

Now, admittedly, fun is a vague term. What makes a game fun? I can’t provide a universal definition. In this case, it’s solid gameplay combined with an interesting story, unusual environments, surprising variety and generous helpings of humor. At a time when most FPS games are striving for dark, moody and atmospheric, Timesplitters: Future Perfect focuses on laugh-out-loud fun in both single and multiplayer modes. If you require dystopian environs, hell on Mars or futuristic ring worlds in your FPS games, then you should look elsewhere. You won’t find anything like that in Timesplitters: Future Perfect. If, however, you’re intrigued by the idea of a game that flings you through time into environments that range from an eerie underwater city straight out of a Jules Verne novel to a zombie-filled mansion reminiscent of Resident Evil, then read on. Much fun lies ahead.

Back to the Future

You play Timesplitters: Future Perfect as Cortez, a deliberately bald, muscular, slightly oblivious, can-do hero. The story focuses on Cortez’s efforts to thwart an evil alien-like race called the Timesplitters that is determined to destroy humanity. Events in the game span a 500-year stretch of time. As Cortez, you zip back and forth through time trying to decipher the Timesplitters’ next move and preserve the future of humanity.

Timesplitters: Future Perfect is the third game in the series, and the first to provide a decent storyline. The first Timesplitters game had virtually no story. The game plunked you into the middle of one of many playable time periods and grabbed your attention with gorgeous graphics, diverse level design and tight gameplay.  Noting the trend toward story in FPS games, the developer wrapped a thin storyline around Timesplitters 2. While the game was excellent, the story was little more than an idea that connected the time periods together.

With Timesplitters: Future Perfect, the developers have finally gotten the story right. Originality is not this tale’s strength.  Rather, it grabs hold of you with a time travel story that conceals a few intriguing mysteries and provides much humor. If you’ve followed the series, the story is a bit of a treat because you’ll learn the surprising origins of the Timesplitters. Following the series from the beginning is not, however, a prerequisite to enjoying this game’s story. Even if you don’t enjoy the mysteries or you find the unoriginality grating, you’ll likely enjoy the humor.

Most levels allow you to play the story as future and past versions of yourself. You’re future self will run into your past self and dole out vague hints about what’s going on. Halfway through the level you’ll play as your future self, complete with the opportunity to gloat at your past self’s incomprehension of what’s about to happen.

Much of the story is conveyed through outstanding cutscenes. The Timesplitters games have a very distinctive cartoon-like graphical style. All of the characters have a rubbery appearance, with slightly exaggerated facial features and body movements. The developers have mastered the ability to animate the characters in the cutscenes. The characters display a range of emotions that you rarely see done well outside of Square/Enix games or lavish Hollywood CGI movies like Toy Story or The Incredibles. No effort is made at photorealism, and thank goodness. The animation is done so well that you’ll rarely wish anything looked more realistic.

The cutscene animators have done an outstanding job capturing subtle human emotions through facial expressions. My favorite moment occurred during a scene in which Cortez, accompanied by a pretty, young female punk rocker, looks down a deep pit behind a zombie-filled mansion and hears the growl of something big. The punk rock girl looks at Cortez, and, with an expression that is partly sly, partly scared and partly daring, says to him, “You go first.” It’s over in about two seconds, but the emotional impact of the moment is conveyed entirely through the expression on the punk rock girl’s face, the expertly animated lip-syncing and the tense tone of her voice.

Weak voice acting has become less of a problem over the past couple of years as developers have turned to professionals to bring life to their characters. Following this trend, Timesplitters: Future Perfect has outstanding voice acting throughout the game. Every voice is unique and appropriate for the character speaking.

Where the game really distinguishes itself in terms of story is in its approach to humor. Like a Naked Gun movie, the game throws one gag after another at you. Some of the humor is verbal, as when Cortez tries to use a catch phrase throughout the game with mixed results. Much of the humor, however, is visual and easy to miss if you’re not alert.

The game has an excellent co-op mode that lets two players play at the same time on a split screen. Be warned, however, that playing in co-op mode detracts a bit from the humor. Although the cinemas remain unchanged, the secondary characters, which the computer controls in single-player mode, do some hilarious things during gameplay in the one-player game. There’s the malfunctioning robot, for example, that charges ahead of you in single-player mode, crowing in its mechanical voice about the superiority of machines and the certain death awaiting flesh-bag humans at its hands. In co-op mode, player two will control the robot without the benefit of its humorous comments.

Seven Days

Timesplitters: Future Perfect’s single-player mode takes about 10 hours to complete and represents only about 7% of the game (at least, that’s what the game indicated when I finished the single-player mode). I completed the single-player game in 90-minute sessions over seven days.

The game’s controls don’t take seven days to master. You can pick them up easily in a few minutes. The controls are as good as can be expected from an FPS on a console. As usual, if you’ve played Halo, you’ll master the controls instantly. I played the Xbox version of the game, which generally provides better FPS controls than other consoles, although the Gamecube does okay with shooters. Still, you should keep this in mind if you’re planning to play on the PS2.

Gameplay is fast-paced and exciting. You’ll race through each level looking over your weapon in typical FPS style and killing everything that moves. The game has a nice variety of weapons, and the firearms are appropriate to whatever time period you’re visiting. If you’re in 1924, you’ll use revolvers and single-action bolt rifles. In 2400, you’ll use ray guns and plasma weapons.

The music and sound effects are fitting and well done, although nothing really stands out as exceptional. The music created the right mood at the right time, but I can’t say I remember any of it from the single-player game. There is one challenge level (more on these later), however, involving monkeys dancing in a discotheque that just wouldn’t work without the music chosen by the developer.  The end-game cinema also features a real treat, both musically and visually. Sound effects are excellent throughout.

The in-game graphics don’t fare quite as well as the previously mentioned cutscenes. The Timesplitters graphics engine is aging gracefully, but it’s getting a bit long in the tooth, especially in terms of character detail. The environments were well animated and expertly drawn, but Cortez’s hands, for example, looked chunky and flat, like four Twinkies mashed together. In addition, characters’ lips don’t move when they’re speaking during gameplay. The aging in-game engine never bothered me, but graphics aren’t my first priority.  If top-of-the-line graphics are truly important to you, take notice.

The 4400 Things to Do with 12 Monkeys

After you’ve completed the single-player game, extensive multiplayer maps, challenge modes, unlockable characters, a mapmaker toolset and online capabilities round out the package.

The Xbox multiplayer maps are variants of the single-player levels.  You can play them on- or offline. Online, you play over Xbox Live against other players. Finding an online game was easy and painless.  Create a character, pick a game mode and map and off you go. I hit a few snags when I tried to find online games for modes that no one was playing at the time. I’m not sure whether this is an occasional problem or something endemic to certain types of multiplayer modes.  I found plenty of people playing the virus mode, for example, which has you trying to avoid an infectious disease. If you become infected, your role is reversed and you have to spread the infection. I could not, however, find anyone playing vampire mode, which has you draining other players’ energy to stay alive. You get to continue playing only so long as you kill other players to absorb their energy and keep your life bar from depleting.

The multiplayer modes are insidious little exercises in clever game design. Virus and Vampire mode were a lot of fun. My favorite has to be “Monkey Assistant” mode, which grants five killer monkeys to the player in last place. If you slip into last place, you suddenly have five murderous monkeys assisting you.

Once you pick a mode, you choose from about a dozen maps. One of the most clever maps takes place on an airborne dirigible. You can fight inside the blimp or on top of it. At all times, you have to be careful not to fall off the top of the blimp or through numerous holes in its floor that appear as the airship takes damage from the combat.

If you don’t have an Xbox or an Xbox Live account, or you plan on playing the Playstation 2 or Gamecube versions, not to worry.  All of the multiplayer maps are available offline for single-player action against bots or split-screen play against other players.

More than 150 unlockable characters are available for multiplayer use. Multiplayer characters range from the pedestrian to the novel to the bizarre. Pedestrian choices include the main characters from the single-player game, scantily clad women (and men) and generic soldiers. Novel choices include mummies, dinosaurs, zombie monkeys and enemies from the game. Bizarre choices are incredibly weird.  You can play as “The Shoals,” a tophat-wearing whale surrounded by an uncontained bowl of goldfish circling a central axis. Other characters include a giant white glove with a face on the back of its palm, Mr. Giggles, a freaky clown who laughs uncontrollably, and the Deerhaunter, a skinless zombie deer that walks upright and runs as fast the skinned undead Doberman pinschers in Resident Evil. The character selection screen extends the weirdness by presenting some characters in action-figure packaging, on pedestals or as flattened cardboard cutouts.

A whole series of strange and wonderful challenge modes are also available. If you’re pressed for time, the challenge modes offer you several dozen unlockable experiences that you can complete in a couple of minutes. Try the “Behead the Undead” monkey zombie challenge levels. You’re in a locked room with only a shotgun as zombie monkeys spawn in and lumber after you. Survive as long as you can. The “Avec la Brique” level requires you to break every glass item in a Japanese pagoda in three minutes and thirty seconds using only bricks. Finally, there is the pinnacle of Timesplitters: Future Perfect’s challenge modes: “Electro Chimp Discomatic.” Four monkeys kept alive with batteries are dancing in a discotheque. Your job? Keep their batteries charged with an electro-tool. If their power level reaches zero, they die.  Every 45 seconds or so, four more monkeys hit the dance floor, which, by the way, occupies two floors. Now you have to race around like a lunatic keeping your monkeys charged up. By the time you hit 12 monkeys, it’s an exercise in futility just finding them on the huge dual-level dance floor.

Then there’s the mapmaker mode. Making a map is easy. Pick from a selection of tiles taken from the game’s levels, snap them together, add in some enemies, weapons and items and start playing. The game also provides you with half a dozen multiplayer maps made by the developers using the toolkit to give you an idea of what is possible.  I built a very basic but workable multiplayer map in 10 minutes.

If you have an Xbox Live connection, you can also upload your maps for other people to enjoy and download maps that other players have made. I downloaded two maps. There was an extremely difficult map that was supposed to be modeled after Halo. It didn’t look anything like Halo and was way too hard for me. On the other hand, a map modeled after Doom was very impressive. Although it didn’t look like Doom, it had the feel of the game, complete with colored key pickups and a rudimentary single-player story line (conveyed through text).

“Get Your Filthy Hands off Me, You Damn Dirty Ape”

Timesplitters: Future Perfect has a lot of monkeys. It’s safe to say this game has more monkeys than any game other than Ape Escape. These aren’t just any monkeys, either. There are zombie monkeys, robot monkeys, mutant monkeys, lab monkeys, disco monkeys, ninja monkeys and plain old throw-feces-at-you monkeys.  If you love monkeys, this game is for you.

Lost Somewhere in Time

Aside from the aging graphics engine, Timesplitters: Future Perfect contains a few additional imperfections. The game uses a checkpoint save system in single-player mode. The checkpoints are numerous and well placed; I never had to replay more than a couple minutes of a level after dying and returning to my last checkpoint.  I only mention it because the ability to save anywhere is a make-or-break feature for some FPS players. Also, the controls, while as good as can be expected on the Xbox controller, aren’t as good as a mouse and keyboard. And with no PC version planned, it seems my computer-loving comrades won’t get a chance to experience the game. That’s a shame, because it would be interesting to see what kind of content PC modders could add to the mapmaker tools. Finally, my analog control stick stopped working on three occasions. I don’t know whether that was a problem with my controller or the game code, but I was able to go back to my last checkpoint each time and continue playing.

The Future Is Perfect

Well, not really. Timesplitters: Future Perfect doesn’t quite reach perfection with its aging graphics engine, imperfect console FPS controls, lack of a save-anywhere feature and small number of glitches. Its negatives, however, are vastly overshadowed by its positives and certainly not significant enough to keep it from getting a stellar rating. I never noticed the imperfections for more than a passing second or two, and that’s mostly because I was looking closely while wearing my reviewer hat.

I’ve put in nearly 25 hours of game time with Timesplitters: Future Perfect and have completed only about 12 percent of the game, according to the statistics screen. Boredom has yet to set in, and I still get a kick out of watching the unlocked cinema scenes to experience the story again. Timesplitters: Future Perfect is one of my favorite console FPS games of 2005, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Now I have to go back and unlock some more challenge levels. As Cortez says, “It’s time to split!” The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Free Radical Design Publisher: EA Release Date: March 2005

Available for: Game CubeXbox  PlayStation 2

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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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