Ubisoft’s misguided and universally despised Digital Rights Management system proved itself a complete failure last week, depriving rightful owners of Assassin’s Creed II and Silent Hunter 5 the ability to play the very games they paid for.  It would appear Ubisoft’s servers failed, an event everyone knew would happen sooner or later as a perfect illustrative example of DRM nonsense that harms no one but the paying customer.

Ubisoft, is all this bad press really worth these daily articles? Can you truly say you’ve sold more copes of Assassin’s Creed II and Silent Hunter 5 because of your new DRM scheme? Or have you pushed away even more customers and alienated loyal fans? It’s not too late to call the whole thing off and return to creating stable, relatively bug-free games that merit a purchase.

Last weekend, two statements were issued from the UK Community Manager:

Ubi.Vigil (UK Community Manager): I don’t have any clear information on what the issue is since I’m not in the office, but clearly the extended downtime and lengthy login issues are unacceptable, particularly as I’ve been told these servers are constantly monitored.

I’ll do what I can to get more information on what the issue is here first thing tomorrow and push for a resolution and assurance this won’t happen in the future. I realise that’s not ideal but there’s only so much I can do on a weekend as I’m not directly involved with the server side of this system.

Ubi.Vigil (UK Community Manager): Due to exceptional demand, we are currently experiencing difficulties with the Online Service Platform. This does not affect customers who are currently playing, but customers attempting to start a game may experience difficulty in accessing our servers. We are currently working to resolve this issue and apologize for any inconvenience.

We’ve also been covering Ubisoft’s newest DRM strategy here on our sister site InfoAddict where we first broke the news that it had been defeated in less than 25 hours.

This year’s GDC (Game Developer’s Conference) is fully underway, and Sony has finally announced an official name for their upcoming PS3 Motion Controller, previously rumored to be codenamed “Arc.”

The official name is now “PlayStation Move,” and Sony managed to show off some software during its presentation such as a sports pack tentatively titled “Sports Champions,” which included table tennis and archery among other activities.  Another game pack, entitled “Move Party,” was shown off and evidently superimposes images such as swords and shields into the game based upon the movement of the PS Move controller.  The software sounds very similar to some Virtual Reality technology I experienced back during E3 2009, which superimposed a sword and shield onto my hands with VR goggles.

Sony showed off two different motion controllers during the GDC presentation: the previously disclosed Move with the orb at the end, and an orb-less “sub-controller” which evidently can act like the Wii’s Nunchuck accessory.  Some demonstrations included players using two orb-topped Moves – one in each hand.

The release date is still scheduled for sometime in the fall, but a price point was announced: $100 for a starter kit that includes a Move controller, the PlayStation Eye and a game.  There will also be three separate bundles: the controller itself, a controller and a PlayStation Eye, and a PS3 system bundle.

Several games have been announced for Move support including Socom 4.

More details were not announced, and Sony did not unveil a specific release date.

Source: Kotaku.

I write this guide not for your benefit but my own. You see, I am tired of playing with teammates who treat a round of Bad Company 2 (BC2) like it’s Halo or Modern Warfare 2. An overwhelming amount of players just don’t seem to grasp the fundamentals; how to score, how to win, how not to suck, how not to play like a lone wolf who doesn’t contribute anything except a few useless sniper-rifle kills.

Not to brag, but I consistently rule at Battlefield games and have since the genre originally debuted back on the PC with Battlefield 1942. I play like a man on a mission with clear goals and objectives, a style that usually finds my score high enough to lead the team. It’s not because I wield l33t weapon skills, it’s because I play the game as it is intended. Hopefully, by the end of this guide, you’ll be playing in a similar style and I won’t have to curse my team for being top-heavy with noobs.

1. Objective Based, Not Kill-Based

Contrary to how a lot of people play Battlefield, killing members of the other team is NOT your objective. Killing other players is a fringe-benefit of completing objectives.

Your overall objective is to destroy targets dotted across the map, usually two crates in each zone. These crates represent your holy crusade. If you’re on the attacking team, every thing you do as a player should be geared towards taking down a crate. Any activity not related to taking down a crate is a waste of time. If you’re on defense, saving those crates is your prime directive.

Why This is Effective: The entire game is based around destroying or saving crates. Destroy all the crates as the attacking team and you win. Prevent the attacking team from destroying your crates and you win. It’s as simple as that. Winning has nothing to do with how many players you kill, unless you are on defense, where every kill will slowly bring you towards victory, but not at the expense of losing crates.

2. Hey Rambo, Join a Squad!

I was hoping that DICE, the designers of BC2, would make joining a squad mandatory in their latest version of the game, but my hopes and dreams didn’t pan out. It’s too bad, as compulsory squad enlistment would go a long way in forcing players to play properly. As it stands, you have the option to either join a squad or go it alone when loading up a new map.

There is zero reason not to join a squad, nor is there a single benefit to playing solo.

Why This is Effective: Joining a squad allows you to spawn with any living squad-mate currently playing on the map. If you have squadie who has already penetrated enemy lines then you can select him and spawn right next to his location, giving him a much-needed hand. This saves you a ton of time by not forcing you to run or drive from the initial base all the way to the objective. With a full squad of four guys, you’ll usually have three good spawning options, allowing you to appear closer to the action. This ensures you keep the pressure on the opposing team. If you elect to not join a squad, then you will always spawn at a base, costing you valuable time.

Additionally, joining a squad opens up a ton of extra scoring modifiers that will greatly increase your point total.

3. Proper Spawning

A lot of people just button-mash the spawn button until they return to action, giving little thought about where they are appearing or why. If you’re in a squad then you have a lot of options. You can either spawn with a teammate or at your base, depending upon your current needs.

When you die and the time to spawn arrives, analyze the map and see what assets you have available in the form of vehicles or aircraft. If there is an unused tank at your main base then you should spawn there and use the asset. If the base is empty of assets, then spawn with a member of your squad.

Why This is Effective: One sure way for a team to lose a round of BC2 is by not using all available assets. If your team is not using available tanks, helicopters or UAV, then your team is going to lose. Nothing is more depressing than watching your entire team just go running by all the heavy equipment as they make their long journey towards an enemy position.

If you have a squad-mate in a tank or copter then you can spawn within his vehicle, assuming a position is free. You’ll wrack up extra points working as a unit, plus you’ll be using available assets at their maximum efficiency.

4. Play Your Class

Every class in BC2 has special abilities that can make all the difference between victory or defeat. Additionally, using these abilities will earn you extra points for faster leveling. If you’re a medic, then you should be dropping med-kits where your teammates are making a stand, plus reviving dead teammates as they go down. If you’re an engineer then you should be using your wrench to fix damaged vehicles. Pay attention to the radar, as icons will appear that indicate what needs doing by your class. If you see a wrench icon, that means a friendly vehicle is in need of repairs.

Why This is Effective: Having an engineer repair a tank while the tank blasts enemy positions is a very effective use of the class. Done properly, a tank can withstand a great number of direct hits. Add a second engineer to the repair process and you’re virtually unstoppable.

5. Use the BACK Button

The BACK button, which is seldom used in games, gets a real workout in BC2. When targeting an enemy or enemy vehicle, you can press the BACK button and essentially call out that target to the rest of the team. This makes the target appear on the map so everyone will see what you are seeing and can begin blasting. Plus, you get a few extra points for calling out targets.

Why This is Effective: It all comes down to situational awareness. The more your team knows about enemy positions, the better.

Despite the ridiculously over-covered scandal involving Tiger Woods’ personal life, EA Sports has stayed true to its words by continuing its relationship with the golfer, announcing that Tiger’s latest golfing title, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, will release June 8 on the Wii, PS3, Xbox 360 and and iPhone.

The game will feature “one of the most prestigious tournaments in golf,” The Ryder Cup, which is said to be one of the last great sporting events to be founded in prestige rather than prize money.  The Ryder Cup is a competition hosted by Ryder Cup Europe LLP and the PGA of America that brings together the best American and European golfers in a team competition format.  Accordingly, Tiger Woods will represent the U.S. team and Rory McIlroy will represent Europeans.  McIlroy is a pro golfer hailing from Northern Ireland and currently ranked 9th according to the Official World Golf Rankings.

Players will be able to choose from the U.S. or European squad and participate in the various competition formats – foursomes where players hit alternate shots, fourballs, and singles, which traditionally bring the biennial event to a close with players going head to head. When playing The Ryder Cup mode offline, you will have the option to swap matches.  Team play will not only be available offline, but online with the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.

The Wii version will support Motion Plus much like last year’s PGA Tour title, and will feature an Advanced Plus swing difficulty that reads rotation and swing angle while the Tour Pro swing mechanic assesses rotation, swing plane and point of contact.

The game is also going to support Sony’s upcoming Motion Controller for the PS3, but as the title is scheduled to launch on June 8 and the Motion Controller isn’t scheduled to launch until this fall, we’re not sure if the game will already have Motion Controller support built in or if it will arrive in another retail version or DLC.

What would God of War be without the sex mini-games?  It would be God of War and not God of Sex, that’s what it would be.

The latest God of War title, launching on March 16, puts Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball to shame.  As shown in the wonderful picture above, manliest of all manly heroes, Kratos, has the, um, “option” to… how shall I put this…

Thanks Burgess.

God of War III features a highly-detailed foursome – OK, OK, so it’s not really a foursome… the other two girls only watch – complete with ultra-realistic nipple physics thanks to the PS3’s Cell processor and HD-supporting Blu-Ray drive.  Unlike BMX XXX’s pathetic, boxy boobs, God of War III’s breasts are lush and flowing.

The game’s director, Stig Asmussen, originally felt that the sex scene should have been left out, but ultimately decided to leave the mini-game in to, you know, advance the plot or something like that.  We’re sure he made the right choice.  It’s not like there will be a sudden rise of parents catching their kids tossing their crank with a PS3 controller in hand after March 16 or anything.

Perhaps this will quell lauded porn star and one-time video game critic Ron Jeremy who stated back in January that violent video games are a much bigger negative influence on kids than porn.  Are you happy now Ron?

To see the upcoming “artistic expression” or whatever the hell it is for yourselves, simply follow this link to the GameTrailers footage.

We’re no programming experts, but we’re certain it took quite a bit of memory to program those mammaries.  Probably at least one gig per breast.  That’s money well spent.

It looks like Scribblenauts’ sales have been a resounding success because Warner Bros. just announced that it plans to release a sequel to the dictionary-based DS title from last year.

The game, tentatively titled Scribblenauts 2, will release in fall 2010 and will include an adjectives system that “allows players to push the limits of their imagination to create their own experience.”

From the press release:

“In this new game created and developed by 5TH Cell, players use the stylus and touch screen to help Maxwell, the game’s hero, acquire the ‘Starite,’ the prize earned from solving the puzzle in even more robust challenges and redesigned levels. Players now have the ability to write any object that comes to mind and modify it in any way they desire using adjectives to reach the goal in each level. Adjectives can change the colour, size, elements, behaviours and many other aspects of the object they are describing. Multiple adjectives can be combined together to produce incredibly creative objects, allowing the player’s imagination to run wild for a truly unique and individualistic experience.”

A sequel to such a creative title sounds wonderful, but let’s hope 5th Cell submarines the bug from the first game which allowed you to beat the title with just two words.

Revolt is a twin-stick shooter (or twin-thumbs if you’re a stickler for accuracy) featuring some of the best graphics yet on the iPhone. Gameplay appears pretty solid for this type of genre and the feature list is very promising. Perhaps most impressive is that Revolt was made by only two people over 10 months of time.

Features:

• 8 Story Levels and 20 Survival Arenas
• 15 Weapons
• 8 Unique Enemy Types
• Weapon and Armor Upgrades
• Advanced Gameplay
• Destructible Environments
• 3 Difficulty Modes
• “Kickass” 3d Graphics
• “Killer” Music and Sound Effects
• High Score Leaderboard

Revolt Homepage

We’ve been wondering for a while now when Nintendo would update the current Wii bundle in North America to replace the same launch version from 2006 which includes just the system, controller and Wii Sports.

If some posts over on VGChartz are to believed, then Nintendo may have secretly rolled out a new (still white) Wii bundle that includes Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, as well as Motion Plus.  Note that Europe has already received the bundle shown above, in black no less.

A poster on VGChartz’s forums is claiming to have run into the Wii bundle pictured above at a Wal-Mart in Illinois.

It has already been confirmed by both Nintendo and outside sources that the Wii is currently suffering from shortages due to the insane sales numbers from December, so a new SKU would make sense at this point.

Unfortunately, we can only file this report under rumor status for now as Nintendo has released no information on any new bundles, which is odd considering that the company just wrapped up its 2010 Media Summit presentation.  With GDC coming up this month though, Nintendo could still drop some news on a new bundle.

If you happen to own a PS3 or Xbox 360 and are looking for great media-streaming software, then TVersity is a worthy option. It’s fast, stable and free, my three favorite words when it comes to media-streaming. While it doesn’t support as many formats as Java PS3 Media Server, it does benefit from having a simple design, making it more accessible for your average consumer.

TVersity has just been updated to a new beta version and with it comes some pretty cool new features.

Download Version 1.8:

Pro edition

• Completely new off-screen browser, based on Google Chromium: runs out of process for increased stability and solves all the known issues with premium content (it used to occasionally fail to start on some systems).
• Premium content site are now defined in an external file (osb.xml), advanced users can easily add their sites.
• List of supported websites can now be updated without requiring a new release, so expect many new sites to be added and pushed to you from now on. (Advanced users should send us their additions since from time to time we overwrite your osb.xml automatically).
• New premium content sites:
  • CNN
  • Food Network
  • HGTV
  • Snag Films
  • YouTube Movies and Full Episodes

All Versions

• Update and expand YouTube support to include subscriptions, favorites and playlists by user (in addition to user video uploads which were previously supported). Also support adding YouTube content by search queries (replaces the “by tag” category which YouTube has obsoleted).
• Various minor bug fixes.

EA Mobile has released some new screenshots showing off the previously HD-console based parkour game, Mirror’s Edge, running (no pun intended) on the iPhone. How does it look?  Not bad, really.  The texturing for the game’s protagonist, Faith Connors, is a little blocky, but overall, the images capture the essence of the original version.

Though the company’s web page on the game doesn’t speak about the controls, it does promise that you will be able to “Run, slide, zip and jump between rooftops to elude your enemies [and] Burn through 14 immersive 3D levels flooded with realistic sound effects and phenomenal music.”

You can view more screenshots for the game here.

A new trailer for the Wii’s upcoming Metroid: Other M has debuted, which you can view above.  Sadly, the new trailer does not display any actual gameplay footage, merely showcasing heavily voice-acted cutscenes.

Nintendo sure appears to be taking a different approach with the new title, delving heavily into Samus Aran’s history and apparently, her emotional side.  The trailer itself features Samus talking about how she “was so young” and “was scared.”  I’m not exactly sure if I like the prospect of the galaxy’s deadliest bounty hunter getting in touch with her emotional side, but we’ll see how the gameplay turns out this June.

Other than that, the trailer could easily pass for a one-minute clip of Coruscant from the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

If you own an original, fat model PS3, then Sony is suggesting you stop using it for a period of 24 hours while the company institutes a fix for a problem plaguing PS3s worldwide.

If you haven’t experienced the problem yourself, here is what is reported to occur: When you try to go online or boot up certain games, the system displays “Error: 8001050F,” and it endlessly reboots, rendering the games/online functionality unplayable.  Complaints about the error have apparently begun pouring in since Sunday, and Sony has indicated that the flaw is related to clock functionality in the fat-model PS3.  Sony does not believe that the error is affecting PS3 Slim models.

Oddly enough, the flaw has reportedly affected retail display models and titles currently in production for the PS3.

So in the mean time, Sony is suggesting that you stay off your PS3 until a fix is instituted.  From Sony:

“As you may be aware, some customers have been unable to connect to the PlayStation Network today. This problem affects the models other than the new slim PS3.

We believe we have identified that this problem is being caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system.

Errors include:
* The date of the PS3 system may be re-set to Jan 1, 2000.
* When the user tries to sign-in to the PlayStation Network, the following message appears on the screen; “An error has occurred. You have been signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)”.
* When the user tries to launch a game, the following error message appears on the screen and the trophy data may disappear; “Failed to install trophies. Please exit your game.”
* When the user tries to set the time and date of the system via the Internet, the following message appears on the screen; “The current date and time could not be obtained. (8001050F)”
* Users are not able to playback certain rental video downloaded from the PlayStation Store before the expiration date.

We hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours. In the meantime, if you have a model other than the new slim PS3, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data.

As mentioned above, Please be advised that the new slim PS3 is not affected with this error. We are doing our best to resolve the issue and do apologize for any inconvenience caused.

For the latest status on this situation please check either the PlayStation blog (blog.us.playstation.com) or PlayStation.com.”

Source: Kotaku.

Countless people lose control of their World of Warcraft accounts on a daily basis, whether through good old-fashioned hacking, falling for phishing scams, clicking on bogus email links, etc. In answer this ever-growing problems, Blizzard released the World of Warcraft Authenticator at an extra charge, offering participating players a solid layer of security between their passwords and WoW account. Up till recently, the WoW Authenticator proved robust and secure, but has since been the target of a successful hacking attempt.

Blizzard suspects a keylogger may be involved. A Keylogger is a nefarious bit of code that sits on your computer and reports all keyboard interaction, ultimately ratting out your passwords so a hacker.

MMOCrunch article:

So the Authenticator is not a fail safe way to keep accounts safe but it is still a very good investment. If you want to check to see if you have the virus just search for the file “emcor.dll” on your computer. If you have it then your account most likely has already been hacked.

Tools like the Authenticator can only do so much. It is really unfortunate that people are getting hacked even with this security measure but it all comes down to the user. Safe browsing habits, a good anti-virus, common sense (against phishers) and things like an Authenticator can make your account virtually hack proof.

A small group of loyal King’s Quest fans have been toiling away on a fan-made sequel to the classic adventure series for eight years. Eight years! At one point, Vivendi, the IP rights holder, got all uppity and made an attempt to shut the project down, but an agreement was reached that allowed the team to continue working on the project. Known as “The Silver Lining”, the team hoped to release the game, for free of course, at some point in 2010.

Unfortunately, Activision recently came into possession of the King’s Quest IP and are now acting like big, throbbing dicks. That’s a technical term, look it up. Activision has demanded that all materials relating to King’s Quest be removed from The Silver Lining Website, in effect destroying eight years of dedication and labor…and for what? They weren’t going to make any money from this project. The Silver Lining was made for fans by fans. No threat whatsoever to Activision’s license.

A sad turn of events that makes Activision the Darth Vader of the gaming industry, at least until the next corporate snafu comes along and pisses me off.

Statement from The Silver Lining Team:

To Our Fans:

In 2005, Phoenix Online Studios received a Cease & Desist letter from Vivendi Universal, the owners of the King’s Quest IP, in regards to our work on The Silver Lining. We complied with the request, and over the months that followed, we were able to work out a non-commercial fan license with Vivendi that allowed us to continue our work on the game.

We have spent a lot of time recently reworking the material of The Silver Lining into episodic releases, with the first out of a planned five episodes completed, and submitted for review, and had hoped we would be able to bring our game to you, the fans, in the Spring of 2010.

Recently, however, ownership of the Sierra IP changed hands and became the property of Activision. After talks and negotiations in the last few months between ourselves and Activision, they have reached the decision that they are not interested in granting a non-commercial license to The Silver Lining, and have asked that we cease production and take down all related materials on our website.

As before, we must and will comply with this decision, as much as we may wish we could do otherwise.

We cannot say enough how much we appreciate the support we have had over these years from our fans. Without you, we would never have gotten this far. There would be no game to develop, and no one to develop it for. You have been amazing and steadfast, and we will always remember that and appreciate it more than we can say.

Sadly, after eight years of dedicated work and even more dedicated fans, The Silver Lining project is closing down.

What the future holds for us, as individuals or a team, we cannot say. We have an amazing development team, however, filled with talented and hard-working individuals, and we hope the teamwork and rapport we’ve developed won’t go to waste. We hope that when we do know what the future holds for us, our fans will be there to enjoy what we can give them still.

Again, thank you all so much for everything. This has been a long and crazy road, full of more twists than we could’ve anticipated, but more triumphs and wonderful memories than we could’ve ever hoped for. And for that, to all of you and to everyone on our team, we will always be grateful.

Thank You,

The Silver Lining Development Team