Here We Go Again... Ubi DRM Really Cracked?

So claim hacker collective Skidrow, at any rate. It's all been a bit quiet on this once-frenetic front for a couple of weeks, but the war is very much back on it, seems. (Also, watching Twitter today, I've seen several folk with Splinter Cell: Conviction PC review code alleging that they're being unfairly dragged to a menu screen a little too often. Nothing says "dynamic espionage-based action" like "network connection lost".)

If Skidrow are telling t'truth, they've got rid of the always-online requirement for Assassin's Creed II entirely - no fake servers, no refusing to get past the first mission. Apparently, anyway - when this happened with Silent Hunter V it turned out to be all mouth and only some very small trousers. If this is all as it appears, perhaps it'll be enough to finally convince Ubi's higher-ups that punishing their paying customers with a near-sighted restriction that limits when and where they can play isn't worth the time and effort after all. Oh, if only.

Here's what Skidrow have to say, albeit with a bunch of bragging (which seems to be their major motivation for doing this) removed. And no, I'm not linking to the crack. It can only be obtained by embarking on a 14-month expedition to the Tree Of All Knowledge in Patagonia. You know that full well, internetperson.

We know that there is a server emulator out in the open, which makes the game playable, but when you look at our cracked content, you will know that it can't be compared to that. Our work does not construct any program deviation or any kind of host file paradox solutions. Install game and copy the cracked content, it's that simple.

Thank you Ubisoft, this was quite a challenge for us, but nothing stops the leading force from doing what we do. Next time focus on the game and not on the DRM. It was probably horrible for all legit users. We just make their lives easier.

If it's anything like last time, there may be a "oh no it isn't" response from Ubisoft in the next couple of days. We'll bring you that if and when it happens, of course. We are nothing if not fair (and slightly sweaty).