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Originally Posted by Solid-Snake-Eyes Someone asked earlier what Ubi games had no DRM. I can't say for sure about the Steam version but my non-Steam digital download of AC1 has no activation whatsoever, I believe it used to but they removed it.

AC1 never used to have an online activation, Ubi started doing that with AC2 which originally required being constantly online but now only requires being online on launch of the game I believe.

As much as Ubisoft gets flack for their DRM, they've actually been pretty solid about phasing it out for old stuff. Like their releases on GOG are being heralded as some barrier breaking anti-DRM stance when most of those games have had their DRM stripped on sites like Amazon for months.

Originally Posted by fore1337 That is promising that there is a Sacred3 in the works. I had something of a love affair with Sacred2. Grabbed it on Steam, 2x hard Copies for PC I have been meaning to grab the console versions too.

Careful. The copy on the left might start suffering contamination from its proximity to Puzzle Quest Galactrix. (I really wanted to like that game...)


The Bioshock 1+2 pack from Amazon for $7.49 is tempting. I have them on disc, but Steam is so convenient.
Wouldn't be the first time I rebought a collection on Steam (Broken Sword series, Myst series, Doom series...).

Originally Posted by Corpekata As much as Ubisoft gets flack for their DRM, they've actually been pretty solid about phasing it out for old stuff. Like their releases on GOG are being heralded as some barrier breaking anti-DRM stance when most of those games have had their DRM stripped on sites like Amazon for months.

That's b/c GOG refuses to change their stance on DRM period.
ALL of the games that go on their site go DRM-FREE there period.

Amazon DVG sells plenty of games w/ DRM and w/out DRM.

Originally Posted by gcorlett I recently completed AC1 and found it to be great fun. Never really got bored with it. Although end missions were dreadfully repetitive and too combat-heavy, it was very clear that I was near the end of the game and that I just needed to push through a little more. Steam says that my total playing time was about 25 hours. I bought AC2 today and yes, I'd heard that it's much more complete than AC1, but I tried to evaluate AC1 on it's own merits when playing it. I really had very little to complain about. Played with an XBOX 360 controller; i understand that makes a big difference in perception of the game. It was very natural.

Yeah, I enjoyed AC1 as well. I agree with most people in that some of the assassinations become repetitive and the cities' goals to progress the game are also somewhat repetitive; but I still had fun doing them and the stuff inbetween like stealth killing guards, having to run and hide and stuff like that. The only thing I didn't really like was that there was no incentive to collect the insane amount of flags and crap in cities or try to kill all the templars, so I just said screw that, pick up the flags when I saw them and killed templars when I came across them.

I played it on my PS3 and while I heard there were glitches, I never experienced any but maybe it was because it had already been out so long that they had patched it good. Haven't played the other AC games yet; but have them all on PS3 and plan to play them before AC3 comes out for sure. I've heard from nearly everybody that they're a lot better than AC1 so I have very high hopes for them.

Originally Posted by Jon7 AC1 never used to have an online activation, Ubi started doing that with AC2 which originally required being constantly online but now only requires being online on launch of the game I believe.

It used to require an activation key. A while after purchasing it I tried to install/activate it and it wouldn't work. Contacted Direct2Drive and they told me I have to download a new version, that they took away the DRM. I'm just confirming this version doesn't have any form of activation since we had been discussing Ubi and DRM.

As far as Digital Download Services are concerned. GoG and Steam are my 2x go to places. It's always nice to get a 2ndary activation from the keys (i.e. origin). I refuse to even have origin installed on my primary game pc (EA's Propaganda Spin). As far as I can tell GoG and Steam aren't trying to accuse their customers of Pirating (by searching for Non-Licensed software).

I have Origin installed, never had a real problem with it aside from EA's horrible customer service. I installed it to activate all my EA games from other stores and then I was forced to use it for Mass Effect 3.

Originally Posted by Ninersfan4926 I completely disagree. In fact going back to AC1 I found impossible after playing AC2. It is a steaming pile of turd compared to AC2. Here's why -absolutely terrible characters compared to AC2, an absolute joke, every character in AC2 is 10000x better than those of AC1 -incredibly repetitive -long, boring cutscenes -extremely limited assassination techniques -open fights are incredibly boring, only counter-fests (AC2 fixes this with smoke bombs) -you can hardly even stealth-assassinate any of the main targets (goes hand in hand with the limited techniques) -there's almost nothing to do in the cities -zero variety in gameplay -and the general progression of the game is long boring cutscene (which is boring because the characters are incredibly uninteresting in this game), horse ride to the city (which is nice maybe the first time but gets old quick), another long boring cutscene with more boring characters, a few incredibly repetitive and boring tasks to get info on your main target, and then some form of "stealth" to get to the target, except it's nearly impossible to stealth-assassinate any of the main targets, so you end up in a long, boring open fight with your one sword, which is really just a counter-fest. Then you go back to the long boring cutscene and repeat. Within 10 minutes of starting up the first for the second time, after playing ACII, I was enraged at all of this. All of that said, AC1 can be somewhat enjoyable if you play it before ACII, mainly because you don't know any better. It does have very nice, historically accurate cities, something Ubi nails in all the games. Also, the story content is actually good, but because the characters are incredibly dull, you probably will not care at all about the story. I fully recommend skipping the first game, though if you like the time period (Jerusalem is awesome), I would say $5 is fine. Assassin's Creed 1 is the worst game I have ever finished. Assassin's Creed II fixes all the problems I outlined above, and the only problem you might have is that it's too easy. I've always been more about being fun than whether it's difficult enough, and ACII is certainly fun. I think Brotherhood is the best in the series (close though with ACII), with Revelations being a major step back (though still far better than AC1).

Spot-on review. I'm one of the people who said that I enjoyed AC1, but I agree with everything you say here. In my case, it was more of a "willful igorance" - I knew going in that AC2 is considered a better game, but the completist in me wanted to start and the beginning so I played the game with limited expectations, and standing on its own, it was a good time.

But the cutscenes were interminable, as was riding around to get to the cities (fortunately there's fast travel, eventually). The events you need to accomplish to advance your missions are just a loosely structured set of minigames. To be honest, though, these are things I expect from console-first games: never-ending cutscenes and artificial lengthening of the game are normal features from games like these, and I just accepted it because I was having fun.

I found that I could accomplish more stealth assassinations if I took the time to eliminate the rooftop guards all over the cities. Unfortunately, I didn't figure this part out until near the end of the game. It makes rooftop travel much easier.

Anyway, looking forward to AC2.

Originally Posted by fore1337 As far as Digital Download Services are concerned. GoG and Steam are my 2x go to places. It's always nice to get a 2ndary activation from the keys (i.e. origin). I refuse to even have origin installed on my primary game pc (EA's Propaganda Spin). As far as I can tell GoG and Steam aren't trying to accuse their customers of Pirating (by searching for Non-Licensed software).

I'm not a fan of Origin either, but didn't GOG do something with region restriction? I remember some news about GOG placing a region tracking method on their games to deter Russians from seeding cheap games to the rest of the world. It could have been that they removed that feature, though...

Anno 2070?! Thats how you end the Ubi sale? No HAWX, No Blazing Angels, No Driver, No PoP, No Brothers in Arms days, but an Anno 2070 day? At least the Summer Sale should be coming in a month or so...

Originally Posted by TctclMvPhase Anno 2070?! Thats how you end the Ubi sale? No HAWX, No Blazing Angels, No Driver, No PoP, No Brothers in Arms days, but an Anno 2070 day? At least the Summer Sale should be coming in a month or so...

Drat. Definitely would've jumped on blazing angels.

I updated the OP with today's deals, but for those who are too lazy to move your mouse curser to the first page redirect link down below, I present them to you here.

Today's daily deal
Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity $19.99 $9.99

Ubisoft weekend deal for Sunday, May 20
Anno 2070 $49.99 $24.99

Originally Posted by TctclMvPhase Anno 2070?! Thats how you end the Ubi sale? No HAWX, No Blazing Angels, No Driver, No PoP, No Brothers in Arms days, but an Anno 2070 day? At least the Summer Sale should be coming in a month or so...

I'm dissapointed as well was hoping for a sale on Prince of Persia and Driver SF, I guess we will have to wait for the summer sale

Never even heard of Anno. Looks like a cruise ship simulator but it says strategy.

What happened to Anno 1404 aka Dawn of Discovery?

I refuse to buy 2070 because of the drm with limited activations but I'd buy the old game on Steam if it were available and had any unnecessary additional drm removed.

Originally Posted by Motoki What happened to Anno 1404 aka Dawn of Discovery? I refuse to buy 2070 because of the drm with limited activations but I'd buy the old game on Steam if it were available and had any unnecessary additional drm removed.

They were taken off Steam awhile ago for some reason, I'm glad I got them when I did.

Originally Posted by Motoki What happened to Anno 1404 aka Dawn of Discovery? I refuse to buy 2070 because of the drm with limited activations but I'd buy the old game on Steam if it were available and had any unnecessary additional drm removed.

Supposedly it was taken off because the Steam version wasn't being updated with the most recent patch that other versions had, so it was pulled because this is apparently against Steam's ToS.

Originally Posted by Jon7 Supposedly it was taken off because the Steam version wasn't being updated with the most recent patch that other versions had, so it was pulled because this is apparently against Steam's ToS.

*sighs* Ubisoft.

Originally Posted by The End I updated the OP with today's deals, but for those who are too lazy to move your mouse curser to the first page redirect link down below, I present them to you here. Today's daily deal Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity $19.99 $9.99 Ubisoft weekend deal for Sunday, May 20 Anno 2070 $49.99 $24.99

Nice to see Sins on Steam, I guess since Stardock sold Impulse they're ok with Steam now. $10 is very tempting.