Diablo II with Lord of Destruction Expansion Set Review

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            Diablo II with Lord of Destruction Expansion Set Single Player Mode

Review by The SirenJuly 2002

I have always lived a solitary, reclusive existence as a Sorceress.  Content to move amongst the shadows, I call the wilderness and darkened wood my home. At first glance, I, The Siren, might appear frail; fragile … Lest you pass me by, know this: I not only brave elemental nature, but harness it with my own body and use it! Wielding the fearsome powers of lightning, fire, and ice as weapons in my hands, I both further the causes of good on this earth and attain my own ends.

As I wander my vast homeland, I am perplexed and repulsed by the evil spirits beginning to spawn upon it. Where have they come from, and what do they want with my world? The beauty of the richly detailed countryside becomes quickly marred by the bodies of dead Rogues—my compatriots—who attempt to battle these evil spirits as they appear. I hear rumors of other existing warriors against evil, each with their own strengths and attributes, Barbarian, Paladin, Necromancer, Amazon, Assassin, and Druid. Yet, I encounter none of them and travel this vividly colorful landscape alone.

Approaching a Rogue encampment (at this moment a darkened, rain-soaked haven), I seek solace for the night at a blazing campfire. Here, I find friends who not only impart wisdom but trade goods. They also detail for me the sordid history of Diablo, the larger devil behind this spiritual blight against mankind that we now face.  As daylight approaches, my spell-casting skills as a Sorceress are met with both skepticism and rekindled hope by these entrenched Rogues, who cannot overtake this evil uprising on their own. I am challenged by them to take on varied and ever-changing quests with my magic, to support the causes of right.

I strike out on my own to prove my worth and might! Songs of both victory and terror perpetually hang in the air. Each enemy has unique war cries and utterances, and each locale its own distinct audible nuances to aid me in my battles.

As I spar with ever-increasing numbers of zombies and all manner of demons and wraiths, my experiences only serve to strengthen both my character and reserve. Mysterious shrines of renewal and magical power dot the landscape, recharging my elemental weapons in time of need. I traverse lush green and golden hills, muted, stony valleys, and bloodied, rotting caves. Light passes into darkness; sun into storm. Cold, fire and poison threaten me, spewed from vile enemies, but I fear not. I meld lightning bolts right in my hands, first throwing them as static to weaken aggressors, then sending out chained lightning to finish them off …  I annihilate rushing herds of mad demons by forming fire bolts into rows of vicious fire hydras that fight for me. I sculpt moving blazes and set them down to protect me and follow in my wake, burning down all evil spirits that might follow … My survival is assured by fashioning ice bolts into frost novas that, spiraling outwardly in rings all around me, slow and shatter the undead servants of Diablo … All the while, raiding passed-on souls both righteous and foul, I gather gold, gems, magic items, weapons and armor to strengthen and aid me in my quests or to trade away.  I recoup lost items for the Rogues as well, in return for even more rewards!

These Rogue compatriots of mine at the encampment finally help to prepare me for their worst local foe: Demon Queen Andariel.  It is a long and arduous journey filled with hordes of murderous, otherworldly fiends who attempt to strike me down. Alas, I have hired a mercenary-archer named Gaile from the encampment, and she follows and guards me willingly and fiercely. Going into battle with Gaile by my side, her experience, defense and power growing even as mine do, we fight this poisonous Queen and her onslaught of new terrors together, emerging victorious once again!

This outland cleared, a caravan leader from the encampment offers to take us to Lut Gholein, a nearby town also overrun with Diablo’s treachery. We go, by now craving the very things that may be our end! The owner of a public house seeks vengeance for the deaths of both her son and husband, and so the first of our new quests begins … Locked treasure chests and abandoned barrels and jugs pepper the landscape, providing new jewel-encrusted magical weapons, health potions, gold, and magic portals for our emergency transference back to the safety of the town center. Their presence is mixed with the tortured corpses of past Rogues, unrelenting swarms of unique monsters and their masters, and dens and underground dungeons of evil that must be cleared for new treasures, experiences and defenses to be gained.

Our journeys, not for the faint of heart or mind, span in all five expansive locales. Gaile and I gather carnage from murdered heroes, forging new and incredibly powerful weapons from them.  We ultimately open the sinister gates of hell to confront the most heinous beings behind this demonic plague of our world; both Diablo in his infamy and the unforeseen Baal, the Lord of Destruction.  Many traps and deceptions of the eye await us, but for the bravest of brave, true light shall reign once again as we vanquish these horrendous foes and restore peace to our once-wondrous land …

Story

A demonically medieval tale woven through perpetual quests involving innumerable battles that carry through straight to the end. Diablo II itself consists of four acts that culminate in a final confrontation with Diablo; the Lord of Destruction expansion set adds a fifth act of gameplay and introduces yet another major boss to defeat in the form of Baal, the Lord of Destruction.

Game Mechanics

A point-and-click interface allows for strategic targeting of the unrelenting droves of enemies, along with easy manipulation of icon-driven weapons, inventory, and character skill tree systems.

Possibly overwhelming for a novice are the intricacies of the specific character classes and their detailed skill trees, where various types of experience points are earned for victorious battles that can be applied to numerous character traits, such as strength, vitality and energy, and used to broaden and reinforce character specialties such as spell-casting. Once specific experience points are applied, for better or worse, they can never be removed or reused; that said, the neverending battles do allow for constant earning of additional experience points. Each numbered level of character experience requires more and more game play in between to reach, though, and most locations must be played through multiple times (with enemies spawning again and again), or else a character’s experience level will not build up adequately enough to win boss fights with.

The game manual does little to direct the player towards the better experience point choices or to detail many specifics, so too much experimentation yielding poorly placed points often lends itself to beginning the game again on a better footing. The game automatically saves all progress over itself in the same save slot.

Once a quest area is started, if the game is exited before completion of that area, reentering the game will start at the closest safe town and the desired area will have to be accessed via Waypoint portals for transport and then conquered from scratch again. If a playable character dies, that same character spawns again back at the nearest safe town bereft of most inventory previously carried (except that which has been stored remotely in personal chests) and also sans acquired armor and jewelry previously worn.

One must only save and exit the game, then reenter it at said town and raid one’s old corpse, however, to recover everything intact, except for items carried in personal sashes and any gold the character had on his or her person. If a particularly difficult fight has been won or a large amount of experience points just earned, it is a good idea to exit the game and back up the sole save onto a disk, where it can be reinstalled back into the game over the current save if there is a major mistake made. A saved character from a previous Diablo II game may be converted to an expansion character for use with the LOD, but once converted that character cannot be changed back. Maps randomly change with each new character and game started, and a nice red overlay map showing all entrances, exits, shrines, caves and the like can be toggled on and off.

Inventory System

The ability to upgrade “socketed” weapons and armor by inserting acquired gems and jewels into those sockets, thereby adding magical attributes, certainly personalizes and enhances the gaming experience. However, there are so many magic items added with the LOD expansion set in addition to the already overwhelming amount of existing magic items, armor and weapons available in Diablo II itself that even the doubling of the storage area in LOD and the inclusion of large, wearable sashes for extra goods can’t keep inventory from spiraling out of control. The perpetual required trading and manipulation of inventory can be cumbersome and overly time-consuming.

The Horadric Cube, an acquired inventory device used for combining inventory items and morphing them into better items, has vague connotations and can be difficult to use to its maximum potential.

Rewards of battle are immediate, and health and mana (fuel for spell casting) refills are abundant. Keyboard shortcuts can be programmed for quick fortifying of characters, as well as for fast access to inventory and character attributes, etc. Constant upgrades for armor and weapons are in almost infinite supply; however, when selling items to vendors, their worth is cut in half compared to what a game character will pay to purchase them, making poor purchasing choices or lack of inventory storage space more costly.

Learning Curve

To the uninitiated, the amount of character stats, class-specific weaponry, beneficial shrines, and magic items may seem inhibiting at first. With patience it becomes easier to comprehend, and the thrilling battles will quickly draw the player in and render the less-clear points as secondary to some degree. The game can still be completed even if its finer details are not understood and the Horadric Cube’s use is not maximized.

Graphics

Diablo gets a boost with the Lord of Destruction expansion set, bringing its world into the long-overdue 800×600 resolution, with optional (and more enjoyable) 3D. Scenes are bright and richly detailed, if not still somewhat pixelated. The rare in-game movie sequences look stunning, however, and offer decent backstory information. 

Sound

The voice acting of the NPCs is superb, as is the constantly evolving medieval musical score. Sound effects for everything from changing weather to enemies’ actions and vocalizations are top-notch as well.

Replay Value

The wide range of character classes to choose from, the forming and perpetual refining of each character, and the sheer breadth of customizing traits available all serve to solidify the replay value of this immense epic. The fact that maps differ when beginning a new game also adds to replay value.

Stability

Diablo II with the LOD installed and ran flawlessly under Windows 98 SE on my Athlon XP 1900+ PC with 512 megs of PC2100 DDR RAM and an Elsa Gladiac GeForce2 Ultra video card. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Blizzard Publisher: Blizzard Release Date: 2000 (Diablo II); 2001 (Lord of Destruction expansion)

Available for: Windows Macintosh

Four Fat Chicks Links

Player Feedback

Screenshots

Click to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlarge

System Requirements

PC—Single Player: Lord of Destruction expansion pack requires the full version of Diablo II to play Windows 2000, XP, ME, 98, 95, and NT 4.0 SP 5 or greater Pentium 233 64 MB RAM 800 MB available hard drive space (in addition to the original 900 MB Diablo II multiplayer install) 4X CD-ROM drive Direct X compatible video card

Additional requirements for Lord of Destruction multiplayer: Up to 8 players over TCP/IP network or Battle.net (Battle.net requires a low-latency 28.8 Kbps minimum internet connection) Multiplayer games played over a LAN require a TCP/IP network Enhanced graphics support: 8 MB 3D acceleration card that supports either OpenGL (v1.1.2 or higher), Rave, or 3dfx

Mac—Single Player:G3 processor or equivalent Mac OS 8.1 or later 64 MB RAM plus virtual memory 650 MB free hard disk space 4X CD-ROM drive Video support for 256-color display at 800×600 resolution Mouse and keyboard Glide, OpenGL (1.1.2 or later), RAVE, or 3dfx compatible 3-D accelerators (optional)

Multiplayer:64 MB RAM plus virtual memory 950 MB free hard disk space 28.8 Kbps or faster modem Up to 8 players over TCP/IP network or Battle.net requires low-latency Internet connection with support for 32-bit applications

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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