UBI SOFT Ban

[DBS]

Ok..we were just discussing Starforce and UBI SOFT has now banned all members discussing it there on their forum. Interesting stuff....no warnings just you are banned from the forums.

Same thing Starforce does when talking about thier software or when people report trouble with it. They claim the only people having trouble with it are hackers...I don't agree. I know this is getting old but I think it is just the beginning of even worse protections coming.

I am seriously considering writing off any UBI SOFT game personally. If Lockdown is the stuff they are gonna push I guess it is no loss anyhow.

[Suicides-by-Steve]

Yeah, that's BS. Discussing it should be allowed. Man, you're going to be going through a serious dry-spell of gaming in the future DBS! LOL

[Mochan]

Well, Ubisoft is Starforce's staunchest supporter. Why, I do not know but Ubisoft probably strives for more pirate protection than any other publisher. That is probably why they are behind Starforce 100% of the way, since Starforce is the toughest protection to crack.

Me, I wrote off a lot of Ubisoft game already. Oh and Steve when you meant a workaround for Splinter Cell 3, I meant you can get the game running but Star Force is still enabled. There are some weird workarounds for it, none of which are really worth doing for me, but the Starforce itself is still intact and working.

As for DBS, it's not that big a dryspell, how many games worth mention are upcoming on the Ubisoft brand? Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six are there but a lot of us here are already disillusioned with the two franchises. Prince of Persia? Good thing Farcry came out already. Far Cry 2 though might be a problem. HOMM5 as well. Splinter Cell for you but nobody else here is particularly hot for Splinter Cell.

Anyway none of the other big publishers are really pushing Star Force, so I'm not particularly worried. Oh but Jowood I think has been getting into Starforce, too. Basically the non-US publishers seem more likely to go Starforce. Well that's a problem with Stalker on the horizon but I hope otherwise.

[DBS]

Well I guess somewhere you have to stand for what you believe and if it means I miss out on a few titles..so be it. I really dislike what I have read about Starforce and I dislike the whole atmosphere from the team at Starforce. Ubi Soft has put out some good titles but lately most there stuff is not so hot. As for the Splinter Cell games or other ones I could always break down and pick up a console...but I think that is not enough as they still get my cash. Seems most publishers use other techniques other than SF so far.
Oblivian already desided to not go with Starforce...good thing as I would of missed that one but I would not of purchased it.


I am picking up Galactic Civ 2 to support both a good game and a smart team. I can see no problem with no copy protection on the original and make the updates something you need a key for. Most of us know the updates are mandatory in pc gaming and if you like it...you will buy it.
Piracy is also a problem because so many titles are sub par crap. People want a demo but a lot of publishers do not do demos. So they find other means...and find if the game is worth buying. Most places do not take games back so there is the trouble too.

UBI SOFT has gone to the dark side ....hurting its reputation not that they care.

[Suicides-by-Steve]

When you get Galactic Civ 2, let me know, I'll have a game with you. It's one I'm interested in too. X^2 did the exact same thing as GC2. If you had a key, updates (and even the NoCD crack) were available. Trouble with that though, it requires you to have an internet connection, and as well, "sneaky" developers may end up not entirely "finishing" a game in order to have you verify the CD in order to "update" to "complete" the game. Smacks of Steam to me.

"Most of us know the updates are mandatory in pc gaming and if you like it...you will buy it."

Same goes for me regarding SF3 installed games. Cp isn't going to dissuade me from getting a game I like.

As for consoles? Have fun getting your cash totally ripped off from your wallet. Console games are notoriously high priced, even 6-12 months down the road.

[DBS]

I agree on the console price of games being too high but that is the cost as usually they lose big bucks on the hardware. I also should not right off the first 2 splinter cell's as they did not use Starforce. As for more games going that route we will see. So far the majority of publishers do not use it but time will tell what happens in this industry.

As for the unfinished games being pushed out the door that seems the norm with a fix it later mentality. They will meet their deadlines no matter what and sometimes , as in Dungeon Lords it is so early that no one cares about the updates. The game is far too broken to even be fun.....

I have to say all this crap has had a little effect on my gaming....I been playing with my ds and that Castelvania game a lot !

[Suicides-by-Steve]

Speaking of Dungeon Lords, they just released 1.4 not too long ago. Haven't tried it since getting Sacred, but I will see what it contains soon.

[Mochan]

Maybe those buttons in the character gen screen actually do something now!

[moya]

developers may end up not entirely "finishing" a game

Yeah, but isn't that what they do already?

[Suicides-by-Steve]

Yeah generally, but having it as a standard practice for "security" measures, is beyond me. Give me a completed game, and Starforce, and I'll be happier than opening a game as unfinished as DL. As DBS said, it's so unfinished, it's hardly even fun. Bradley should be beside himself, because it really makes me long for Wizards and Warriors again, a highly innovative party-based RPG, that DL is NOTHING like. Well, besides that, I still would appreciate an offline authentication process over one that requires the internet. If the net is down for any reason, you're SOL. Not preferable to just dropping a disc in your drive and playing (at least to me anyway).

[Mochan]

Wizards and Warriors was a good game? It got so much bad press, even from Sarenthalanos, that I never bothered with it.

[Suicides-by-Steve]

W&W was AWESOME! Great dungeon crawls, a nice FPS perspective, and excellent animations rounded out the package. It wasn't perfect, but I have really fond memories of the game. I prefered it more than Wiz 8, and that was a good game... Too bad I traded it to Renz for a GPU... :(