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Update:

On a related topic, Blues News has wrapped up a few stories today regarding DRM-related installation issues with the PC versions of Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3. It seems that alternate installers are required in some cases. While we remain grateful to Ubisoft for helping us out, it's plain that current DRM methodologies continue to place an undue burden on legitimate consumers.

Original post:

For providing us with the means to use Far Cry 2 as a PC gaming benchmark for the next year or so, we'd like to give game publisher Ubisoft and its Ubisoft Montreal development division a quick shout-out today.

The game's DRM limits you to installing the game on only three systems out of the box, but we run our gaming tests on roughly 120 desktops and laptops each year. Ubisoft graciously worked with us to find a way to accommodate so many installs. You can expect to see the first reviews using Far Cry 2 as a benchmark next week (Crysis, Unreal Tournament 3...it's been a good run, sort of).

Far Cry 2' amazingly useful benchmark software.

(Credit: CNET)

We'd also like to point out that unlike pretty much every other graphically advanced PC game of the last year, Far Cry 2 does indeed include an extremely robust, easy-to-use benchmarking tool. Dig into the bin directory in your Far Cry 2 folder and you'll find the .EXE file. The game comes with three fly-throughs of various lengths, and it also lets your record your own runs. The settings options also provide all of the necessary toggles for adjusting the image quality, the physics, and the enemy AI. It's also well-designed enough so that any curious PC gamer can play with it

So again, thanks Ubisoft, both for enabling us to adopt Far Cry 2 as a test, and also for making the tool so easy to work with. DRM may remain an annoying reality for consumers, but for review purposes you've set an example for other PC game makers (and yes, Electronic Arts, that means you).

Based on a report from PC Games Hardware (via VoodooExtreme), it seems forthcoming shooter Far Cry 2 may let even the midrange masses dial up its image quality. According the PCGH, "Even with a Core 2 Duo E6600 or an Athlon 64 X2 6000+ and a Geforce 9800 GT/8800 GT or a Radeon HD 4850 you can play the highest settings." You can find such a system from Dell, Gateway, and others for under $1,200.

We're also excited that it apparently scales very well according to the number of CPU cores you have. Few games really tax the CPU power of even quad core PCs. With Intel's new Core i7 chips hitting eight cores (and assuming Far Cry 2 will scale across all of them), we're glad to hear game developers are finally starting to take full advantage of all of that computing power.

Far Cry 2 hopefully playable on mid-level PCs.

(Credit: CNET)

Now we just hope a) the game is fun, and that you might actually care how fast it runs, and b) the DRM doesn't thwart our own benchmarking efforts, which require us to install a game on every gaming system we test. The game seems to have a robust built-in benchmarking tool (increasingly rare lately), which we'd love to put to work.

Based on a post on the Ubisoft forum today (via Blue's News), it sounds like the French game publisher is trying harder than its Electronic Arts to make digital rights management less cumbersome on its customers. An Ubisoft forum manager outlined the DRM plans for the PC version of its upcoming shooter Far Cry 2. Assuming it works as described, you'll get a bit more freedom to reinstall the game at your leisure than EA has offered with Spore and Crysis: Warhead.

According to the Ubisoft Forum Manager:

• You have five activations on three separate PCs.
• Uninstalling the game "refunds" an activation. This process is called "revoke", so as long as you complete proper uninstall you will be able to install the game an unlimited number of times on 3 systems.
• You can upgrade your computer as many times as you want (using our revoke system)
• Ubisoft is committed to the support of our games, and additional activations can be provided.
• Ubisoft is committed to the long-term support of our games: you'll always be able to play Far Cry 2.

The biggest difference between Ubisoft's and EA's DRM is that EA lacks the "revoke" function. Once you've installed one of its games on three systems, you need to contact EA's customer support and ask for authorization for future installs.

Far Cry 2 will feature a forgiving DRM scheme.

(Credit: FarCryGame.com)

Interestingly, EA CEO John Riccotello was quoted yesterday by PaidContent saying, "We implemented a form of DRM and it's something that 99.8 percent of users wouldn't notice." That speaks to the question, who needs to load a game on more than three systems? We suspect that Riccotello is correct, and that install limits on its games won't affect the majority of its customers.

Still, we applaud Ubisoft for taking the extra step and empowering PC gamers to, in effect, manage their own digital rights. We'll also confess a personal interest, in that we've had our eye on Far Cry 2 as a new PC gaming benchmark. We still need to learn more about how it really works, but what we've heard so far sounds promising.

(Credit: Ubisoft)

We had sly grins on our faces. Not because we were here chatting with Ubisoft at the company's NYC showcase. Not because we got our hands on one of the most anticipated games this year. We were reveling at the destruction, you see.

We took our flamethrower, lit up a patch of dry brush in the African savanna, and observed as the flames spread to a small bungalow from the prevailing winds. Just as a group of enemy soldiers ran over to investigate the damage, we ambushed and mowed them down with our M16. We're not in the tropical island jungles anymore.

Far Cry 2 throws you into the swamps and jungles of the African continent this time around with a new cast of characters and a new setting, further drawing players into the open-ended first-person game that the first game pioneered. While Crytek (developer of the original game), is off working on the sequel to Crysis, Ubisoft Montreal came to the helm for this game, developing a brand new engine, dubbed Dunia.

Yes, we enjoyed lighting him up too.

(Credit: Ubisoft)

We were first shown a early mission in the game. The premise of the game, as already covered by Video Games Blogger, leads up to the "assassination of 'The Jackal,' an arms dealer who has been selling weapons to both sides of the conflict that's tearing apart a small fictional African country. The way to complete this task is entirely up to the player. There are various factions involved, where a player can do missions to earn influence."

As we were told during the demo, for example, at the beginning of the game your character is infected with malaria. The only way to alleviate the symptoms (as there is no cure) is by receiving medicine from an underground faction for doing missions and also subsequently earning reputation.

However, if you wreak too much havoc, such as killing innocent civilians, to the countryside and thereby draw attention to the faction, expect to be shunned and lose your precious supply of drugs.

(Credit: Ubisoft)

Sequels make me nervous. If you have a great game and a sequel gets approved, more often than not it'll become an overworked mess that ignores some of the best parts of the original title while tacking on additions that serve no purpose and make the game a chore to play. This becomes even more likely when the new game is handed off to a different developer. Naturally, when I heard that Far Cry 2, the first genuine sequel to Far Cry (and not a pseudo-sequel with the format Far Cry Additional Word) would be developed by Ubisoft Montreal and not Crytek, I filled with dread.

Yesterday I got to see a preview of Far Cry 2. The verdict is still out (and will be until I can play the final, released product), but I can honestly see this game as not sucking. It might actually be pretty good, if Ubisoft puts its money where its mouth is.

First, let's look at the changes between Far Cry and Far Cry 2. They're completely different games. Period. From what I saw of Far Cry 2, it shares absolutely no ties with the original Far Cry beyond both containing very pretty jungle environments and guns. This new title seems to completely abandon the original Far Cry's convoluted Island of Dr. Moreau pastiche for a much more realistic paramilitary theme. This time you play a gun for hire in a fictional African state, where two factions are vying for control. While Far Cry had a fairly direct progression like Half-Life, Far Cry 2 boasts an open world. It forgoes discrete levels for a 50-square-kilometer sprawl of sub-Saharan African. Besides jungles, you can explore (and fight through) African savanna and war-torn villages as you play through the game.

The early build I saw looked very good. Instead of the Cry engine that powered Far Cry and Crysis, Far Cry 2 uses Ubisoft Montreal's in-house Dunia engine. Its physics don't seem quite as elaborate as Crysis' CPU-intensive system, but it still manages to pack a fair amount of destructible knick-knacks into the game. You won't see individual bits of splinters fly when you shoot at a tree like you would if you played Crysis on the experimental military supercomputer it was intended for, but you can still blow up shacks and vehicles, send people and objects flying, and generally have a fair bit of fun seeing what various things your bullets and rockets can mess up. The engine's fire effects seemed particularly impressive; set a patch of dry grass on fire and watch it spread to a respectable firewall to cut off enemy reinforcements (or just to burn things and laugh).

Ubisoft also makes some very grandiose claims about Far Cry 2's AI, which makes me far more leery than any promises of beautiful graphics or realistic physics. Every game I've seen that promises realistic artificial intelligence has fallen short. It's not about bad AI, but more about developers making promises they can't back up. According to Ubisoft, Far Cry 2 will sport complex, nonscripted artificial intelligence that has enemies and NPCs reacting to personal needs. I've heard that enemy soldiers will seek shade when it's hot, take breaks then they're tired, and seek out food when they're hungry. Combine these claims with a sprawling world and I find myself having flashbacks of the buildup to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Bethesda Softworks promised some amazingly realistic behavior in its NPCs, but it didn't quite make it. The game was still very good and its characters occasionally showed glimpses of intelligence, but it didn't live up to the hype. I saw an enemy medic pick up a wounded soldier to carry him to safety in Far Cry 2 and was impressed by the action, but until I play the final game myself and see that sort of behavior manifest consistently, I'll take the promises of AI with a generous spoonful of salt.

Hype concerns aside, Far Cry 2 looks like it could be a good game for shooter fans. I'm not sure how it serves as a sequel to the original Far Cry, but even without tropical islands and genetic experimentation, I can see this as shaping up to be a solid shooter when it hits PCs and Xbox 360s later this year.