Rhazzy, it's going to get me into a lot of trouble with people around here, but I'm in agreement with you on this one - piracy is threatening PC gaming right now, and something drastic needed to be done. This DRM is shutting out the pirates, and it's the first system that's worked, for single player games... well, ever, actually.

There's a new generation of people out there (raised on free music, quite frankly) who believe that this stuff is just.. free. That's what they believe. It's frightening. And it's only getting worse.

I installed and played AC 2 yesterday, and if I hadn't been following this debate about the DRM I wouldn't even have known it was there - and that's no joke... I seriously would not have known it was there. Installing that f'ing Rockstar Social Club for GTA 4, on the other hand, and then trying for two days to get Games For Windows Live to run was an absolute nightmare. To this day, every time I turn on my PC I'm greeted by that stupid Rockstar Social Club logo. I'm keeping it for now because I'll be buying the Liberty City stories at the end of the month - and I sure don't want to have to install all that crap again.

WufusRainwright

[QUOTE="tghm1801"][QUOTE="WufusRainwright"]

If I were searching for something to complain about, the left and right triggers don't work for the wireless 360 controller. I've since discovered that the wireless controller isn't even supported for this game. The wired controller - yes. The wireless controller - no. That said, I've been using the wireless controller and apart from those two trigger buttons, which I re-mapped right away, it works perfectly. The wireless controller is even listed in the main menu.

I also notched the AA up to 8X and it's still running like butter on my system.

But my god is AC 2 ever an atmospheric game - I can't wait to get to the Tuscanny map. This is where the countryside opens up around a much smaller town, which obviously never happened in the original game. Florence is pretty cool though. :)

WufusRainwright

Core i7 - GTX 275 - VISTA 64

I'm using the wireless 360 controller and I've never dipped below 30 fps (most times I'm way above it) - all sliders maxed at 1920x1080. I had a problem with V-sync, which caused weird stuttering whenever I swiveled the camera, but that issue went away after I disabled it.

This game feels slightly more optimized to me than the original. And I've gone back and looked at the original game twice now, and this one is just better looking - to see this, all you have to do is examine the face of Ezio's mother when you're walking along with her in-game, and then exit and start up the original game... you'll see how that detail and clarity is just missing. I have no idea how the developers create this stuff but I'm guessing it's some sort of texture thing that's going on.

Anyhow, I stayed up until 2 o'clock in the morning last night playing AC2 (and am paying for it now quite frankly). But I was enthralled by it. If there's one thing people need to know about this game it's that the mindless repetition of the first game is just gone - you're constantly moving forward and doing new things.

That said, it's still very much an exploratory game. I could walk the streets for hours, just exploring the world, and accepting the missions as they're presented to me. The missions, by the way, such as the timed running missions, are more fun in this game, because they're actually challenging. If you fail on your first try (and you likely will) then you're taken right back to the start of the mission, and off you go again. Usually when you finally do succeed you have only seconds to spare. And these types of missions, by the way, are no longer connected to the main quest - they're entirely optional this time.

The diversity of the maps is not to be taken for granted either. Remember how the cities in the first game all looked alike - not so in this game. You know you're always in Italy, but Tuscany is Tuscany and Florence is Florence, etc. etc.

If I were searching for something to complain about, the left and right triggers don't work for the wireless 360 controller. I've since discovered that the wireless controller isn't even supported for this game. The wired controller - yes. The wireless controller - no. That said, I've been using the wireless controller and apart from those two trigger buttons, which I re-mapped right away, it works perfectly. The wireless controller is even listed in the main menu.

I also notched the AA up to 8X and it's still running like butter on my system.

But my god is AC 2 ever an atmospheric game - I can't wait to get to the Tuscanny map. This is where the countryside opens up around a much smaller town, which obviously never happened in the original game. Florence is pretty cool though. :)

WufusRainwright

I've been playing AC2 all day, and I only got interrupted by the DRM once, when my friend nudged the wireless card.

And I don't have a high speed connection - max 100kb/s

AMAZING!

I'm in memory sequence 7.

Sometimes it lags a bit though, which is surprising because I can run games from 2010 on high, with framerates at 60fps.

Cool. Can you play it?Litchie

Because I live in the Philippines, and it cost 1395PHP, which is, in USD, $30. But in the US, its $59.99. Oh well.

Half price for a game I bought on the release date! :D

http://www.tweakguides.com/AC2_1.html

That's the article I was talking about if you fancy a look. That makes it seem unobtrusive and stable...

And it also proves that you can store save games OFFline.

The DRM appears to be working. I hate the pirates far more than I hate this DRM, so I'm willing to put up with this as well. I'd prefer not to have this, but Mass Effect 2, and Dragon Age, both good games, were heavily pirated and shouldn't have been. If the pirates need to be stopped, then they need to be stopped. Even if this DRM inconveniences them I'm willing to put up with it. The pirates are jeopardizing our hobby. It's the pirates who are doing this, not the gaming companies. I don't want to argue about this too much because in my opinion people are set in their ways about this - you're either willing to put up with the DRM, or you hate it. Threads like this usually just deteriorate into shouting matches.WufusRainwright