SeithCG

Recently I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed 2 for PC, and I have to say I enjoy it. The artistic direction is excellent, and sometimes (especially during some of the cut-scenes) the facial animation actually conveys some pretty good acting.

But the worst thing about the game is its protection against pirating. Ubisoft has effectively put itself in a position where they turned us (their customers) into little children and themselves into a parental authority figure. Think the analogy’s far-fetched?

1) They demand to know at any moment if we are playing or not. And they check on us every couple of minutes.

2) They make us ask for their consent before we are even allowed to play. Not just once, but each and every time.

3) They can turn off the game (and I mean that literally) at any instant, for whatever reason (out of our control), be it technical or temperamental.

I still can’t fathom how some people in charge at Ubisoft thought this could be a good idea. I’m sorry for stating the obvious, but blatantly invading your customers’ privacy is NOT a step in the right direction from treating them like thieves.

Over the week-end I’ve been working on some textures and I also played a bit with Sandbox2’s particles and lights. This is just a wall from the WIP dungeon I use to test stuff. As you can see, polygon density is rather low… 😛 What you can’t see on the picture though is that the torch is spewing little cinders which fly in the air before dying off, as well as smoke and subtle heat distortion. Coupled with flickering lights, the effect is surprisingly immersive!