Ubi’s latest trailer for their Far Cry 2 multiplayer map editor shows off some of the more radical possibilities for map creation that the tool offers: with big crazy maps with Eiffel Towers, Pyramids and vast rope-bridge mountain-islands. “Crazy” they’re calling it. Better still, however, is how the headshots and explosions of the trailer are timed to coincide with the “Uhh!” of the human beatbox soundtrack. There’s something wrong about that particular juxtaposition. Or maybe that’s just me.
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Ooh, Far Cry 2 is DRM’ed up its own arsehole?
Pity, I was looking to pay money to play this, but now I’ll torrent it instead.
Noc wins an internet all of his own. :D
@Noc:
Put your sarcasm away, you’ll have someone’s eye out with that.
DRM is defective *by design*. For a games journalist to not mention that a particular game they are talking about is defective by design is, to my mind, a mild dereliction of duty.
(Not trying to wind people up with this, just my experience, that’s all)
I’ve never had any problems with DRM. Ever. Even Starforce.
None of my friends have ever had problems either.
Some dude said the other day that the issues raised by gamers only really affects 0.2% of them, and I can believe that tbh.
I can understand why some of the approaches to DRM upset people. But these people must be in a minority because of the way they use their PCs.
I would say that 98% of gamers probably don’t regularly format their pooters. 98% of gamers probably don’t own 3+ PCs, or even 2 for that matter… and so on.
I think that’s something that a lot of vocal people should maybe think about it – are their computing practises typical?
There’s always going to be a minority of people adversely/wrongly affected by anything; politics, religion, opinion, even common sense. But I think it’s important to recognise that atypical practises could be making some people a part of that minority, and that it’s something that may simply have to be put up with.
For example, I like blowing myself while two girls beat me with dildo’s and a third anally penetrates me with a live featherless chicken doses up to the eyeballs on speed. Sometimes I throw a hamster or two in to the mix. Or a second chicken on a different drug. This clearly puts me in the minority so… um… *drifts off*… mmmmmmmm….. what was I saying?
Just to confirm, this site is a blog these guys do in their spare(ish) time to write about what they want to write about, isn’t it?
@Tom: (sorry for double post, no edit feature now, grr, etc.) Same here. I don’t disagree with why people dislike DRM but I’ve never had a problem with it on any game. I’m not saying those who have been effected (even if it’s because of “atypical computer practises”) are wrong, but I really can’t work myself up into a frothy, spittle-firing rage about something that has yet to even come close to effecting me.
I feel a bit like we should have a big sticker at the top of the site saying “Games by major publishers may come with DRM included!” We probably will mention its limitations on FC2 in time, but I feel no rush to do so, nor any obligation.
Tom: “You’re part of a minority so it’s okay if you’re discriminated against.”
This isn’t a god damned review this is just a blog post about a trailer. Talk about the trailer and don’t derail the comments with that DRM shit, you have the forums for that.
The trailer was awesome, makes me want to play the MP
@Tom:
I’ve lost music to DRM like this, and whilst that cost me only £1.50 I wouldn’t repeat the mistake for that much again, let alone £20-odd of game. And I don’t think I, or anybody else, should have to.
Hopefully games publishers will learn from these mistakes like music publishers have, and this is just a silly little phase, but if we just bow down and let them dictate whatever they want it won’t be.
@Meat Circus: That’s exactly the point I was trying to make, actually. The idea that independent journalism (which means, by extension any journalism that’s not “under the thumb of The Man”) has this duty to educate the public and spread the word about The Man’s faults.
That by failing to do so, RPS is not “doing it’s part.” I understand the argument that by not mention it they’re setting people up for disappointment; but the indictment of RPS for failing to mention DRM isn’t a matter of “Think of all the people you’re be disappointing!”
It’s “You’re giving the DRM-Loving jerks good press that they don’t deserve.” Which translates, as we can see in cHeal’s early comments, to “You’re taking their side against us, by giving them good press when they clearly deserve to be roasted over the DRM.”
Which implies, as you do, that the independent press has a “duty” to function as activists. Which they don’t; the entire point of an independent site that’s free from agenda-driven journalism is that the writers are free to, you know, talk about things that interest them. Without having the “duty” to make sure that they’re “doing their part to spread the word about [issue].” If the issue is something that interests the writers, they can write about it . . . if not, they don’t have to. There’s no “duty” there.
What Meat Circus said. Even more so when the company in question is purposefully delaying the big DRM reveal at the back of a truckload of hype-generating material.
@Candid_Man: Oh, man. This company is being a jerk for trying to spread the word about the good features of its product, instead of spending all of its time talking about the questionable ones.
Companies are jerks like this. Imagine! Trying to stir up positive hype despite knowing that you’re including something people might not like. What kind of person would even consider this!
. . .
To be clear: I’m not for DRM. But the argument against it is much easier to make when the people arguing alongside you aren’t talking silliness.
@ Candid_Man: You remember how the world works, right?
Big Publishers use DRM
That’s hardly something worth burning digital ink over when talking about any game released by a big publisher.
RPS has covered this matter in articles dealing with DRM as a whole, rather than it’s implimentation in any particular game. That is a balanced and fair approach, and one more likely to produce genuine discourse about the problem, (And I do think it’s a problem) rather than simply waving the DRM flag and prompting a lot of booing and hissing with little worth.
That first line at the top of my post? That’s what’s known as a ‘given’. Take it as such when you see EA, Atari, etc. featured in any games journal, ‘indie’ or otherwise.
christ…
people are so disillusioned
Yeah I’m going to say that just because it’s not reported on every single freaking time doesn’t mean that the people writing RPS in their spare time are somehow in collusion with the games industry.
To be honest, I hate this implementation of DRM, I’m not interested in buying Far Cry 2 as a result, and even I’m starting to get tired of all the accusations and mud slinging.
Noc, Get over yourself. I don’t think that RPS has sold out to the man. I do think it is being overly protective of the industry as if it’s some kind of delicate little flower which will whither and die with a single big name failure.
I asked them, quite respectfully to do an article on the DRM for FC2 as a public service. I didn’t necessarily expect them to do it but I hoped they would. The fact they would ignore my request and concern over this issue, but would indeed continue to drip feed the hype surrounding this game is a little annoying. As per a stamp saying “some games contain DRM”. That would certainly be something I support.
I asked much the same of pcgamer about a year ago, and that too was ignored. That was far more annoying as I did feel they had a public duty to serve the consumer, not the publisher.
I don’t mind that many people don’t care about DRM, I am concerned that people who would not buy this game out of principle, may buy it out of ignorance.
kyrieee: You say that word like it’s a dirty thing in your mouth.
Nice trailer. Can’t wait until I drive my buggy around setting trees on fire!
Must get collector’s edition…
Sidestepping any exchange about DRM(we know it sucks, what’s to talk about – it’s like ranting on and on trying to convince people that the nazi’s may have been doing some slightly mean things. We get it).
I still am firmly meh about the who FC2 thing. I’m not seeing anything excitingly new, I think i’ll stick with the other FPS’ that I already own.
I agree with cHeal, to a point.
No, RPS should not make a big deal out of the fact that FC2 has DRM: by writing an entire article with an attention grabbing headline, and then hammering away at it. That does get tiresome.
But as soon as they find out a game has DRM: they should post details about the DRM implementation, in the next article they write about that title. The public has a right to make an informed decision when they think about buying a game. By not mentioning the DRM, they’re not helping the readers on the site to make that informed decision.
Yes, I know that if RPS doesn’t mention DRM then someone else will, and we’ll all eventually find out. It doesn’t matter, that’s not an excuse.
BTW, I can’t help but feel a certain amount of schadenfreude at the news that Fallout 3, Dead Space, Far Cry 2, and now Gear of War 2 have all been pirated on the 360 already. Most of them well before each title’s respective release.
Right! That’s the sort of thing I say when I reasonably and respectfully ask people to do things.
Secondly: they have absolutely no duty, obligation, or reason to do something because a man on the internet asked for it. Whether it was done “respectfully” or not. (Which, for the record, it wasn’t.) These folks are writers by trade, which means they write to pay their bills. They do RPS because it gives them an opportunity to write about things that they’re interested in that they’re not getting payed for.
If you want someone to write an article on something that YOU feel deserves to be written about, there’s nothing stopping you from commissioning an article for your publication. Until then, you can stop acting like you have a right to demand what these people do in their spare time.
To clarify: you have no right to be “annoyed.”
Thirdly: You’re perpetuating the idea that independent journalist have a duty to regulate how much “hype” a given publisher “deserves.” Specifically, that FarCry 2 does not “deserve” this much coverage, because it comes with DRM. As opposed to FarCry 2 continuing to produce interesting videos, which would make it, you know, a continuing object of interest.
Fourthly: Unless I am gravely mistaken, the “Games from major publishers MAY CONTAIN DRM” button was, umm . . . it was a joke. Because . . . YES. Games from major publishers MAY contain DRM. We all know this by now. Putting it as a disclaimer is silly. That is why it is a joke!
Though to be fair, both it, and the fact that it flew completely over your head, had me chuckling for a bit.
Fifthly: I think it can be pretty much assumed that anyone who makes a point of boycotting a game because of DRM will make a point of finding out if the game has DRM or not before they buy it. It’s like . . . if you’re a vegetarian, you ask if a meal will have meat in it before you order it. There is no need for a public service announcement along the lines of “Everyone! Listen up! The Salad has CHICKEN in it! Be warned!” . . . because anyone who seriously makes a point of not eating meat will also make a point of making sure that they don’t order meals with meat in it.
. . .
In conclusion: You do not have a leg to stand on! You have NO LEGS. You’re a paraplegic in argument terms.
I’m against the whole “lets post about the drm for every game, ever”.
I come to RPS to read about games that I should be paying attention to, whether they are indie or AAA or whatever. I want to know what the guys are interested in and why. I do NOT come here to read about DRM.
You know where I read about DRM? Google. Really, just try it. Google: “far cry 2 drm”. Dozens of articles about it! My “ingenious” method is to read about the games here, and when ready to purchase, a quick Google search gets me all the information I need. It’s basic research.
Well said Noc.
But really how awesome did that Giza multiplayer level look?
Does the steam version still have the drm or not? I’m getting the game regardless, but I’ll get the steam version if it’s less of a hassle.
Putting in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium was a nice touch. I’d forgotten which of Ubi’s studios was producing the game.
I just with their DRM didn’t hate on Process Explorer so much. :(
Oh, and looking at it a second time, I see it’s still configured as a baseball diamond. I guess they have some diehard Expos fans. :P
RPS(respect) =HIGH
we can talk about DRM, and we can talk about other things,..too!, here we hare talking about other things.
Amen Noc.
If the chaps RPS are interested in DRM, no doubt they’ll post about it.
You see, you say that RPS doesn’t have an obligation to be an ‘activist’ when it comes to DRM issues.
But by even running a story that talks about a defective by design, DRM-crippled game is, like it or not, promoting that DRM, thus being an activist FOR it.
Since the entirety of your readers hate DRM and think that it’s a dangerous new threat to PC gaming, there’s gonna have to be some quid pro quo, sooner or later.
So we should ignore all games that include DRM? Wow, that’s going to make the site really interesting. And by interesting I mean dead.
You could write more about World of Goo :D
We will definitely write more about World Of Goo.
Meat, I don’t hate DRM so much as hate the ludicrous ways in which it’s implemented. Publishers never seem to get that point and they keep pushing more and more restrictive DRM with every generation.
Ultimately it’s impossible to report on it every time and trying to do so would change just what the emphasis of this site is supposed to be.
Piracy and DRM get reported on whenever something significant happens, and often even when the most minor mentions are made, so I can’t really see why people are saying that there hasn’t been enough coverage of it so far.
Also: Not talking about DRM ≠ advocating DRM.
Not talking about DRM = Not talking about DRM.
Saying “This game looks pretty interesting” does NOT involve saying “This game is pretty good and you should buy it regardless of whether it has DRM or not.”
I mean, look at half of the comments in this thread: they say “Yes this game looks really interesting but I don’t know if I’m going to buy it because of the DRM.” Because these are separate issues! DRM is an issue of distribution; “Does this game have DRM?” falls under the same category as questions like “How much does it cost?” and “Is it available on Steam?” and “Is it available in my region?” Gameplay videos are an issue of the game itself, with questions like “Is it fun?” “Is it pretty?” and “Does it have multiplayer?”
Thus, an article on how some game just released a really pretty video isn’t an article in support of, say, the game being banned in Australia simply because it didn’t take the opportunity to rant about how the game is being unjustly banned in Australia.
@Noc & Ian
I’m not questioning the normality of such behaviour by game publishers. On the other hand, I don’t wish it mirrored by journalistic sites I frequent.
Is a brief mention about such a controversial issue so much to ask for?
What …the… …HELL????!!!!
Anti-DRM zealots are becoming more annoying than DRM itself. Truly no mean feat.
K so that was amazing. However, is the combat going to be like the original Far Cry’s? Because that shit was unbearable. I’m all for realism, but dying in three shots while enemies take three clips to the face really isn’t my bag.
And please tell me you’re no longer referred to as “the guy with the shirt.”
So..er to get back to the original point of the post. That looks pretty damn good, shame its only for multiplayer though.
They should have that uuh! sound effect in the game.
Looks pretty awesome. Hopefully they’ll get rid of the DRM in a patch some time after release, to make the game worth buying.
But, nobody’s suggesting that you should never mention DRM-crippled, defective-by-design bullshit masquerading as a PC game, but if you fail to even mention that it’s so crippled, seems to be tantamount to condoning it.
Which is not somebody I suspect any of us want. As I said, there has to be a quid pro quo.
Smurfy: “It makes it seems like anyone can make a video game with a bit of spare time”
And that is a bad thing how?
But it’s actually not, is it?
I don’t have anything to say about FC2’s DRM. Nor do the other chaps. When we do we will say something.
When somebody gets it I’d be grateful to hear exactly what sort of DRM is implemented in it. Last two Ubisoft games I bought refused to work because I had virtual drive software installed on my PC, really annoyed me. One, I remember, didn’t even work when I uninstalled the cd-emulation software because there was a single lonely little registry key left over that I had to open regedit and wipe by hand. Haven’t bought a Ubi game since, I know it’s my loss but I’ve got a huge backlog of unfinished games already so it’s not like I need them more than they need me anyway.
I like this “you’re with us or you’re with the terrorists RPS” stuff, that’s great. Highbrow stuff.
I gotta say; a game as interesting looking as this doing all the stuff I think games ought to be doing, I want to see covered. If the DRM turns out to self destruct your computer at the sound of the word ‘crack’ in a Spike Lee film you happen to be watching, the game is still the game. The idea that any positive word is tacit approval for whatever bolted on stupidity that comes with it is poisonous post modern claptrap.
Easy for me to say perhaps. As dumb as Bioshock’s method was, I didn’t have any trouble with it. So if it’s no worse here it probably won’t slow me down. Just assume it’s not going to work and don’t try and install it in the first week.
Ooh, Angry Internet Men. Just for the record, I for one am not really that bothered by DRM, even at its most invasive, and my respect for RPS remains unsullied. Keep up the selling out to The Man, guys ;).
Oh, and I forgot to mention. Between all the different videos they’ve released, I get the impression Far Cry 2’s soundtrack is going to be awesome.