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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.

Spore isn't the only new PC game from Electronic Arts to come with a frustrating DRM scheme. Crysis: Warhead, the follow-up to last year's Crysis, has a similar five-install limit. We know PC gamers hate DRM, and you've certainly not been shy about making your complaints known. As gamers ourselves, we share your outrage. We're also feeling the pain as reviewers.

We've negotiated frustrating Windows DRM in the past, but our PC testing efforts have never been thwarted by an individual gaming title. Our problem is that in order to use an application as a system test, we need to install it on every PC that comes through CNET Labs. As much as we'd like to stay current and adopt a Crysis: Warhead benchmark, we can't take the chance that on the sixth, twelfth, or eighteenth system some random EA customer service rep will deny our reactivation request.

Our hopes and dreams, as represented by Crysis: Warhead.

(Credit: Gamespot)

After the job the original Crysis did on even high-end gaming PCs, it didn't surprise us when we heard from PC vendors requesting that we adopt the supposedly optimized, more forgiving Crysis: Warhead as a high-end gaming test. We've also heard from EA that it recognizes the problem for testers and that a solution could be forthcoming. In the meantime, we'll be scouting for other new games that aren't quite as high maintenance. Far Cry 2, we're looking at you.

Blogger Chris Remo followed up this week on his report from July that Electronic Arts was developing a desktop to coincide with the launch of PC shooter Crysis Warhead. The pseudo-sequel to last year's Crysis promises to be just as graphically advanced as its predecessor, which is infamous for bringing even top-of-the-line gaming PCs to their knees.

UltraPC, coming soon with a Crysis PC.

(Credit: UltraPC)

With this new post, Chris reveals the specs and pricing. We'll refer you to for the details, but we'll say that the price does indeed live up to the earlier report that it would be between $600 and $800.

Remo reports that EA will not assemble the hardware itself, but instead it's pairing with PC vendor UltraPC to build the system. Where you would need to go to actually buy this system remains unknown. UltraPC's own Web site says its "Configure this PC" section is still under construction, and neither Best Buy nor Amazon list any UltraPC SKUs.

We assume the point-of-purchase information will be revealed soon. According to Remo, preorders start this week when the system is officially announced, and the system ships on September 16, the same day as Crysis Warhead.

Even the mightiest graphics boards bow to Crysis. And Nvidia's newest dual-graphics board is no exception.

First some background. Crysis is a science fiction computer game developed by Germany-based Crytek and published by Electronic Arts. "Crysis is visually stunning, packed with intelligent, thrilling gameplay, and easily one of the greatest shooters ever made," according to GameSpot (which is owned by CNET Networks). For hardware reviewers, it's the ultimate gaming test of a graphics card.

Nvidia's GeForce 9800 GX2 contains two graphics chips.

(Credit: CNET)

Though so far the reviews of Nvidia's GeForce 9800 GX2 are positive ("The GeForce 9800 GX2 is an absolute powerhouse, the fastest graphics card you can buy today"--The Tech Report), it stalled when faced with the gaming equivalent of Everest's north face, running Crysis at its highest settings.

"The 9800GX2 is no magic bullet for Crysis," said Rich Brown, a senior editor at CNET Reviews, responding to questions. The GeForce 9800GX2 "was still unable to achieve 60 frames per second, which is generally considered the goal for acceptably smooth gameplay in first person shooters." he said.

CNET Asus EN9800GX2 review here.

Another review discussed similar issues when antialiasing (a technique for smoothing the jagged edges of curved objects) was turned on. "When antialiasing is activated and the card should be showing all it has to offer, its performance drops to the same level as the other cards," according to Tom's Hardware.

Optimally tweaked drivers are another hurdle in getting games to run well on the latest and greatest hardware. Particularly in the case of multi-GPU configurations using Scalable Link Interface (SLI). Nevertheless, Crysis has yet to meet its match at the highest settings using mass-market graphics cards.

Upcoming four-way configurations using SLI may be up to the challenge. We'll see.

The state of the PC gaming industry is fine. Just ask any executive whose business depends on PC gaming.

Representatives from Nvidia, Intel, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, and Crytek held a combination political rally/pep talk for the PC gaming industry Friday at Nvidia's GeForce LAN 4 event in Alameda, Calif. The audience--several hundred rabid PC gamers with plans to spend the entire weekend playing Crysis--cheered the panelists as they reassured attendees that all was well in the PC gaming world.

The runaway success of gaming consoles like Microsoft's Xbox 360, Nintendo's Wii, and Sony's PlayStation 3 has the PC gaming industry on the defensive these days. Once the only destination for serious gamers, the PC has lost a little momentum as less expensive and increasingly powerful consoles proliferate. According to NPD, sales of PC gaming software in 2006 were down substantially from 2001, when $1.5 billion worth of games were sold. Last year, total sales were just $970 million.

Some of the panelists took issue with those numbers, claiming they don't reflect the increasing number of games distributed digitally. And Michael Wolf, global product manager for Microsoft Games for Windows, pointed out that there are more people playing games on PCs than on all consoles combined. Still, the executives couldn't help but sound defensive as they discussed some of the broader issues.

Part of the problem is that modern PC games require a very expensive system to deliver a suitable experience. Nvidia's Roy Taylor, vice president of content relations, noted that Crysis can't be played at its maximum settings even on top-line PCs today. Half the audience upgraded their systems just to play Crysis, which is great for hardware companies like Nvidia and Intel but tough on the average person's wallet.

Consoles deliver a pretty good gaming experience for far less, and even an audience of hard-core PC gamers had to agree. About two-thirds of the audience owned either a Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3--or both. As a result, the PC gaming market is increasingly devoted to more immersive games, such as complex first-person shooters like Crysis, while the consoles are thought of as more of a social experience, Taylor said.

And that's what the PC industry would like to try to do: find a way to get casual gamers interested in the PC again as a gaming platform. Randy Stude, director of Intel's gaming platform office, fielded several questions about the integrated graphics performance of Intel's PC chipsets. No one at the event was using an integrated graphics chipset, which is designed to deliver basic graphics performance for cheaper desktops or notebooks. And that's part of the problem. "Something needs to be done so a person buying a PC at Wal-Mart could be a PC gamer too," Stude said.

There are always going to be inherent advantages of the PC as a gaming device, said David DeMartini, vice president and global general manager for EA Partners, a division of Electronic Arts. For one, it's easier for game developers to write software for Windows PCs using Intel's or AMD's chips, as the three major consoles all use different technology. It's also possible for gamers to evolve their systems with the games, dropping in new processors or graphics hardware to accomodate the demands of new games. Once a console is developed, it doesn't evolve, and the game experience doesn't evolve along with it.

But it seems that PC gaming is becoming more of a specialized experience for only certain types of games. At an event last week, Intel's Dadi Perlmutter, vice president and general manager of Intel's mobility division, bemoaned the fact that just about every game developed for the PC these days seems to involve killing on a mass scale.

There's more to it than that, of course, but PC games do seem to either be first-person shooters or complex role-playing and strategy games. And that's the interesting question for the PC industry: people are buying PCs anyway, why don't game developers focus on casual yet compelling games for those of us without an itchy trigger finger?

Perhaps because they are making so much money on the current audience. The several hundred gamers at the Nvidia event are willing to spend vast amounts of time and money on the games that are already out there, and no good business executive wants to alienate their best customers. It seems likely that the PC will continue to be the platform of choice for the rabid gamer, but if the gaming industry wants to convince people who are buying PCs anyway to think of those systems as more than just a word-processing and Internet surfing device, they've got some work to do.

'Crysis' is set to launch November 16, raising the bar for PC gaming.

(Credit: Gamespot)

Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli says the company's vision for Crysis has always been to create the most stunning, immersive first-person-shooter experience ever. And from our early looks at the game, it appears Crysis will be just that. However, we also assumed that to play the game in its full glory you'd need a super high-end PC. How high-end? Well, The Escapist is reporting that Crytek and Electronic Arts, the publisher of the game, have announced the minimum and recommend system requirements for the game, which hits stores November 16.

According to The Escapist, the minimum system requirements are:

• OS - Windows XP or Windows Vista
• Processor - 2.8 GHz or faster (XP) or 3.2 GHz or faster (Vista)
• Memory - 1.0 GB RAM (XP) or 1.5 GB RAM (Vista)
• Video Card -256 MB, Nvidia 6800 GT or higher, or ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (X800 Pro for Vista) or higher
• Hard Drive - 12 GB
• Sound Card - DirectX 9.0c compatible

However, the article goes on to note that "for optimum performance and visual quality, Crytek recommends an Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ processor, 2 gigabytes of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS/640 'or similar.'"

Crytec's CEO is also quoting as saying, "We've been working hard not only to do that on the high end, but also in pushing current generation hardware so that everyone gets the maximum experience. And while these specs affect how Crysis will perform now, we have also optimized Crysis so that the game scales forward one to two years--we want to make sure that Crysis' gameplay, visuals, and performance improves as technology does."

Crysis is the successor to Far Cry and uses the new CryENGINE2, "one of the first to make us of DirectX10." Check out the screenshots.

Our meeting with Sierra yesterday highlighted perfectly why you'll need to be very careful in cutting through the hype surrounding the next-gen PC gaming graphics. First we sat down for a showing of World in Conflict, a real-time strategy game that asks, "What if the Cold War ran hot?"

Soft particles make the smoke in World Conflict look more natural.

(Credit: Gamespot.com)

As part of the demo for World in Conflict, a producer from Sierra showed us a video hosted by the game's lead designer, highlighting the game's graphical features, specifically regarding the benefits Sierra is getting from DirectX 10. "Soft particles" was one feature the designer cited, which essentially means modeling all the little particles in a cloud of smoke, for example, so that they look and move more naturally in a game. The alternative creates a banding effect at the edges of a smoke cloud, which hurts the overall feeling of immersion.

Cool. Soft particles. Finally, we thought, DX 10 comes to life.

Our next meeting with Sierra was for TimeShift, a very detailed-looking shooter that involves time travel and does not incorporate any features of DirectX 10 in its graphics engine. And what did company reps show us when highlighting its current-generation visuals? That's right, soft particles!

We're not suggesting that anyone at Sierra is trying to pull a fast one. The features he pointed to probably are capable because of DirectX 10, at least in World in Conflict. As one of the developers of Crysis told us when we interviewed him later in the day in front of his own game: right now, it's not so much that DirectX 10 gives you the ability to incorporate any one feature that you can't do in DirectX 9. Rather, you can expect that games claiming DirectX 10 will have more of the current-gen stuff, but in varying degrees. In other words, if visuals are important to you for gaming, we'd suggest you approach any bullet lists of supposed next-gen features warily. We expect DirectX 10 will have a more significant feature-based visual impact eventually, but for now, you're probably better off looking at screenshots to determine not what but how many graphics bells and whistles a game has to offer.