UPlay Message Board

Ubisoft's free-to-play dungeon crawler The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot has gone into open beta. Anybody can sign up and start playing through Steam, the game's official website or Uplay.

In The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, players choose a hero from four different classes and raid other players' castles in search of treasure and glory. To build a castle, you select trap placement and enemy spawn locations, then publish your personalized gauntlet online through the game's built-in social network. Each castle run culminates in some sort of boss encounter and, if the baddy is bested, a treasure room full of riches.

After being criticized for The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot's microtransaction elements in last year's closed beta, developer Ubisoft Montreal stripped all pay-to-win elements from the game. The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot is currently only available on Windows PC. [Image: Ubisoft]

Despite being an Ubisoft game now, South Park: The Stick of Truth doesn't require or even use Uplay in any way. The news comes from developer Obsidian, who took to its Twitter account to confirm the PC version is a Steam game, and a Steam game only.

As AusGamers notes, The Stick of Truth was a THQ game in a past life, so perhaps that's why it's not integrated with Ubisoft's distribution and DRM service. Obisidian didn't offer an explanation in its answers to fans' questions.

Whether or not the news leaves you happier than a poop at Christmas, the game is less than a month out. The Stick of Truth thwacks North America on March 4, Europe March 6. [Image: Ubisoft]

Ubisoft's online store is currently hosting a massive sale, including half-priced versions of Assassin's Creed 4, and Far Cry 3 at 75 percent off.

The caveats attached to these deals are all time-based and surprisingly complicated. For instance, that Assassin's Creed 4 discount is only available to PlayStation 3 owners and draws to a close on December 21. The Far Cry 3 deal however, runs until January 5 and includes a swath of other games such as Splinter Cell: Blacklist, and even a few discounts on non-Ubisoft games like Fallout 3. A cursory glance at the Ubisoft store shows The Walking Dead's PC incarnation at $6.25 and the Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition at a mere $5.

If sorting through the reams of discounts seems like too much work, here's a trick that might help: While you can find all of Ubisoft's discounts by navigating its site, those who visit the Winter Sale page are able to pull up lists of games based on the size of their discounts.

PlayStation Vita game Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation is coming to Xbox 360, PS3 and PC as Assassin's Creed Liberation HD. The download-only release will not only benefit from updated graphics, but new missions and other enhancements as well.

An extensive Q&A from Ubisoft, available past the break, sums the improvements made to Liberation HD, touching on the new tutorial system, new combat (protagonist Aveline can dual-wield weapons now), polished free-running and improved facial animations and cutscenes. In addition to this, each mission has been "reworked" to provide better "pacing and challenge" for players. "And one more thing; we have worked heavily to improve the frame rate. The game will be smooth," says producer Momchil Valentinov Gindyanov.

AI and crowd behavior will also behave like Assassin's Creed Liberation HD's console brethren. "Using the AnvilNext engine and existing Assassin's Creed technology has really allowed us to push the crowd and AI behaviour," Gindyanov writes. "Liberation features all the crowd behaviour you've come to expect from an Assassin's Creed game, tailored to our own specific locations, so you can expect to see all sorts of activities unique to New Orleans, including Mardi Gras!"

Assassin's Creed Liberation HD is due on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC from developer Ubisoft Sofia. Neither timetable nor price has been announced.

Say you've been looking forward to playing Splinter Cell: Blacklist on PC. And yet, due to an easily fixed but annoying bug, you can't get the game to start. Man!Read more...

Ubisoft says hackers exploited one of its websites to gain access to names, email addresses and encrypted passwords of uPlay members. While no credit card information was compromised, the publisher is suggesting that users change their passwords.

Activation problems with Might & Magic Heroes 6 have been resolved, according to Ubisoft. Earlier this week, players encountered issues with the game, and many were unable to activate the game, which refused to accept the activation keys given to players upon purchase. "We have fixed the authorization issues for every specific version of the game," Ubisoft notes. "Your content is now unlocked, so please reboot the game in order to apply the modifications."

Even with the fixes, those who bought Might & Magic Heroes 6 and the Shades of Darkness expansion on two different digital platforms will be unable to merge the two games. Both games, however, will still be playable via the platform on which they were purchased.Might & Magic Heroes 6 activation issues resolved

Update: Ubisoft has issued a new response on Facebook, apologizing for the problems users are facing. The post lists possible solutions to some issues, though it seems that those with problems redeeming keys or with inaccessible content will have to wait. Ubisoft is preforming maintenance today to reauthorize players and "gradually set everything back to normal."

Many Steam and Ubisoft customers are complaining that Heroes of Might & Magic 6 has become unplayable since the release of its recent expansion, Shades of Darkness, and the 2.1 patch that accompanied it. The issue seems to center around Ubisoft's Uplay service, which refuses to accept the download codes issued to customers after they buy the game.

Users are saying that the problem arises after downloading the game and activating their key within Uplay. Upon booting the game, the in-game store page asks for the same key. If the key is entered again, the game produces an error message that the key has already been redeemed. After this, players have access to the Heroes 6 expansions, but are unable to play the main campaign (it's grayed out in the menu).

For its part, Ubisoft has acknowledged the issue on its own forums, assuring users that their keys are "not broken and will be fixed as soon as possible." The company is also recommending a workaround discovered by forum user ElektroDragon, which involves manually downloading and installing the patch instead of allowing the game to do it automatically.

Meanwhile, Steam users have started a petition against Ubisoft, specifically its use of 3rd party DRM via Uplay. The publisher has a rocky history with its PC games, often releasing them long after their console counterparts and saddling them with restrictive DRM. Earlier this year, Ubisoft's Uplay director, Stephanie Perotti, said that the company is working to improve its relationship with the PC community.

We've contacted Ubisoft regarding this latest issue and will update this story if we hear anything new.

Update: The specifics of the problem have been clarified. Thanks to commenter LamiaMistral for providing the image above.Might & Magic Heroes 6 currently unplayable for many [update: Ubisoft responds]

#ubisoft Ubisoft's name has been mud with PC gamers for a good long while. Ending always-on requirement to play games and other DRM restrictions helped it somewhat, but it is still widely perceived as a publisher most interested in Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 titles—and for good reason, as Rayman Legends fans might say. More »

Ubisoft's Uplay service, a hub for purchasing Ubisoft PC games, has expanded to include third-party titles from major publishers such as EA, Warner Bros., Focus Home Interactive, Freebird Games, Paradox Interactive, Telltale Games and more. A few games listed at launch are Batman: Arkham City GOTYE, Crysis 3, Orcs Must Die 2, The Walking Dead and To the Moon.

To entice potential customers to check out the new and improved Uplay, Ubisoft offers a free copy of one of the following games with a purchase of £16.99 or more (excluding pre-orders), now through March 4: Driver San Francisco Deluxe Edition, From Dust, Might and Magic Heroes 6 Deluxe Edition, Rayman Origins, The Settlers 7 Gold Edition or World in Conflict: Complete Edition. Uplay members can also redeem rewards for Assassin's Creed 3 and Far Cry 3 for free during this time.

As part of the deal, Ubisoft is throwing its own games onto EA's Origin service, another PC digital distribution hub.

In September, Ubisoft teased the idea of offering games from other publishers on Uplay, and said that the service would eventually feature things "beyond digital distribution."

At the time of publication, Uplay is down for maintenance.

#pcgaming The last couple of weeks have given us two of the biggest games of the fall, both from Ubisoft. Assassin's Creed III continues the historically focused swashbuckling adventure series, and Far Cry 3 lets players loose on a violent South Pacific island paradise. More »

Assassin's Creed 3

Actions

Mystery Guest (10 Uplay points): Complete sequence 1 & 2.
Tea is for Englishmen (20 Uplay points): Complete sequence 6.
The Sum of Truth (30 Uplay points): Complete sequence 12.
Abstergo Entertainment (40 Uplay points): Reach level 20 in the multiplayer mode.
Rewards

10 Uplay: £3000 in single player the next time you play as Connor.
20 Uplay: Increase the capacity of Connor's tool pouches and unlock exclusive multiplayer profile items.
30 Uplay: Play in Ezio's outfit from Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.
40 Uplay: Unlock the multiplayer night stalker's renegade costume and additional profile items.

Avengers Battle for Earth

Actions

Here I Am (10 Uplay): Win your first battle in campaign.
King of the hill (20 Uplay): Win the arcade mode once.
Earth united (30 Uplay): Finish the first part of the campaign.
Closure (40 Uplay): Finish the campaign.
Rewards

10 Uplay: Unlock "I mean business" collector's card.
20 Uplay: Receive 5,000 XP to boost your rank.
30 Uplay: Unlock a new appearance for Venom.
40 Uplay: Unlock 8 new trials.

Just Dance 4

Actions

Let the party begin! (10):Complete your first song.
Dance Quests Master (20): Complete 5 dance quests.
Dance, sweat and fun (30): Complete a sweat class.
Are you a real Just Dancer? (40): Get 5 stars on a song.
Rewards

10: Unlocks a new title page for Just Dance 4.
20: Unlocks the Good Feeling Dance mash-up for play in Just Dance 4.
30: Unlocks the Beauty Dance mash-up for play in Just Dance 4.
40: Unlocks the Call Me Maybe alternative version for play in Just Dance 4.

Rabbids Land

Actions

World Champion! (10): Win your first trophy in trophy race.
Very first time! (20): Complete a trophy race.
Numismatist! (30): Collect 10 coins in treasure hunt mode.
Osteopath! (40): Unlock all mini-games.
Rewards

10: A new rabbid color for the trophy race.
20: An exclusive level in the pyrobang mini game.
30: The best music in Rabbid Land.
40: An exclusive rabbids video.
Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2013
Actions

On Your Mark! (10): Create the first fitness program.
Endurance Rookie (20): Spend one hour working out.
Workout Wonder! (30): Bear your own or another player's high score in any workout.
Marathon Planner (40): Complete one four-week fitness program.
Rewards

10: Enjoy your training with this Ice Blue trainer.
20: Enjoy your training with this Deep Red trainer.
30: Use powerful yoga exercises to tighter your leg muscles. A Pilates exercise rounds off this workout.
40: Work through standing, sitting, prone and supine positions and strengthen your whole body.

ZombiU

Actions

Bob is your best friend (10): Pick up a backpack

Unbreakable (20): Reach a survivor score of 2,000 points.

CCTV is watching you (30): Hack all of the CCTV Junction Boxes in London.

I survived! (40): Complete the game.

Rewards

10: ZombiU logo 80's style.

20: Punk cricket bat customization.

30: God Save the Queen bonus video.

40: New multiplayer survival game mode.

Far Cry 3 will be able to run on PC rigs with 512MB of video RAM and 4GB of memory, although it'd be nice to have 1024MB, and it'd be really ideal if you had the latest DirectX 11 graphics card and 8GB of memory. Below find the official Far Cry 3 PC requirements, broken down into "minimum," "recommended" and "hi-performance," with AMD and Nvidia examples for each.

Far Cry 3 will need to be activated once via Ubisoft's Uplay, but doesn't require an always-on internet connection to run through the single-player campaign (in offline mode, obviously). Now that your DRM-panic-attack meter has settled, see if your PC is up to the challenge after the break.

Uplay, Ubisoft's recently revamped PC client, may start selling third-party games, Ubisoft worldwide director for online games Stephanie Perotti says.

"We remain open to opportunities," Perotti tells MCV. "Right now, we're starting the service with our own games, but as we go forward, we plan to potentially add other titles."

Uplay first launched in 2009 as a hub for players to share media and unlock content in Ubisoft games. Uplay got a facelift last month and now allows players to directly download Ubisoft games, offers a collection of personalized player information for each title, and has a friends list and chat system.

Perotti says Uplay will offer more than similar services, such as Steam. "The plan for UPlay goes beyond digital distribution," she says.

Uplay the vague Ubisoft online service is now also Uplay the PC client, through which Ubisoft sells games and offers friends lists and other services. It's worth checking out, because the company is offering a selection of $1 PC game downloads, one a day. Today, it's HAWX 2; tomorrow, From Dust, with Silent Hunter 5 and Driver: San Francisco following.

The same deal applies in the UK and Europe, with prices of one unit of the local currency. There are other deep, if not as dramatic, discounts as well.

#ubisoft A major security flaw in Ubisoft's Uplay service for launching their PC games was not a product of devious programming nor part of the company's DRM strategy, the publisher of Assassin's Creed and Far Cry 3 said in a statement released this evening. More »

Between delays and draconian DRM, Ubisoft doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to the PC versions of its products. We might have to add browser exploits to that list, if a post on Seclists.org is to be believed. According to a poster by the name of Tavis Ormandy, Ubisoft's UPlay browser plugin, designed to let users launch a game from the web, contains an exploit - namely one that allows "wide access to websites."

Ormandy discovered the flaw in the PC version of Assassin's Creed Revelations, though it's reasonable to assume it would appear in all of Ubisoft's UPlay enabled PC titles.
The upshot of this, according to TechDirt, is that the exploit could allow any website - i.e. "bad websites" - access to your computer. Both Joystiq and Engadget have contacted Ubisoft to confirm the flaw. In the meantime, you may want to disable the UPlay browser plugin.

#ubisoft Ubisoft has caught a lot of flak from PC gamers over their uPlay system, online-authentication DRM that most recently came to attention for being unavailable at exactly the wrong time. More »

#ubisoft Ubisoft's uPlay, the online service largely used for validating the digital rights management on PC games, has been down for much of the day. If this is planned maintenance, Ubisoft didn't do a great job of communicating that to its user base, which is ripping the publisher a new on on its official forums. More »

#assassinscreedrevelations In a sign that either the PlayStation 3 version of Assassin's Creed Revelations needs more public beta testing than the Xbox 360 version or that Sony and AC publisher Ubisoft are—gasp—using a beta as a marketing stunt, the Assassin's Creed: Revelations multiplayer beta will launch next month only on PS3, initially to a subset of PS3 owners. More »

It's understandable if you don't know about every facet of the Assassin's Creed franchise -- hey, they're a sneaky bunch of products! But with Assassin's Creed: Revelations just a few months from launch, Ubisoft clearly felt the need to refresh our memories of the series' many media outings with a stylish little clip.

Even more exciting than the clip is news that the Revelations multiplayer beta will kick off on September 3 exclusively on the PS3, available in the first week only to PlayStation Plus and UPlay members. According to Ubisoft, nine characters will be available in the beta across three maps with four modes each, which we've detailed in full after the break. A handful of new screens were also sent over, showcasing the aforementioned multiplayer modes.

It's understandable if you don't know about every facet of the Assassin's Creed franchise -- hey, they're a sneaky bunch of products! But with Assassin's Creed: Revelations just a few months from launch, Ubisoft clearly felt the need to refresh our memories of the series' many media outings with a stylish little clip.

Even more exciting than the clip is news that the Revelations multiplayer beta will kick off on September 3 exclusively on the PS3, available in the first week only to PlayStation Plus and UPlay members. According to Ubisoft, nine characters will be available in the beta across three maps with four modes each, which we've detailed in full after the break. A handful of new screens were also sent over, showcasing the aforementioned multiplayer modes.

Ubisoft has confirmed Uplay Passport, its version of "online pass" or "Project Ten Dollar." The Uplay Passport, which will be implemented for the first time in Driver: San Francisco, is the standard multiplayer pass that will restrict online play to those who have redeemed a code in new copies of the game or purchased a code from the Xbox Marketplace or PSN. A new Uplay Passport, for those who pick up the game used, will cost $9.99.

Ubisoft mentioned it was looking into implementing the feature last year after EA's success. Driver will be the test drive, but don't expect it to be a revelation if the next Assassin's Creed has it too.

#passparty Ubisoft today confirmed rumors that they will begin locking out free online multiplayer modes to anyone who buys some of their newer games used. More »

Launched last year with Assassin's Creed 2, Ubisoft's Uplay has served as an in-game rewards system on top of Xbox Live's Achievements and PlayStation Network's Trophies, letting those who sign up for it unlock bonus items using accrued points across supported games. Recently, these same folks got an email offering them a free bonus mission in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood called "The Trajan Market." The mission was originally available as part of the game's "Codex Edition" and sends Ezio into a marketplace in the middle of Rome, where he fights Borgia guards and discovers a treasure hidden in a ruined tower.

As you can see in the screen grab above, the code was even sent out to Uplay members who don't own the game. If you're not yet a Uplay member, you can sign up on the official site. Also, you didn't tell us there'd be free stuff, Ubisoft! Oh wait, maybe you did.

[Thanks, RobLink]

Filed under: News, In The News, Weird But True, Opinions, New In Pop Culture During a recent press event, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood mission director Gaelec Simard disclosed to Joystiq that 40 percent of Assassin's Creed 2 players finished the game -- "which is huge," he added. The figure is up roughly 5 percent from the estimated 35 percent completion percentage of AC1 players on Xbox Live, who were tracked through their Achievements.

Ubisoft's AC2 data paints a more complete, cross-platform picture of the total player base's completion rate, as it was provided by the game's built-in Uplay service, which tracks gameplay statistics (in addition to providing a platform through which players can unlock in-game content). Still, players must have their consoles connected to the internet and must register Uplay accounts before the service begins tracking their data.

While 40 percent completion might seem low, especially for one of the best games of 2009, it's still significantly higher than the less than 30 percent rate of completion among a sampling of GTA IV players, as found in a study published by Gamasutra a year ago. "In the industry, the number of games that are finished is more like five to ten percent," Simard figured. "We all think people finish games, but when you start asking around, you'll find that a lot of people don't get to the end. We want the player to experience the whole package, so that's something we're trying to push."

#ubisoft Ubisoft is calling it Project Legacy, but the newly launched Facebook training simulator for Templar front company Abstergo Industries is as Mafia Wars as they come. More »

#explainer We've been mentioning DRM, or Digital Rights Management, a lot lately here on Kotaku. It's an important topic! Thing is, we've been made aware a lot of you don't entirely know what it is. If that's you, here's a guide. More »

Ubisoft formally announces their inter-game service.

With the launch of Assassin's Creed 2 today, Ubisoft has officially lifted the veil on its Achievement/Trophy-like "Uplay" program. First revealed at E3 (though minimally detailed), Ubisoft claims it to be an "online destination where gamers are at the center of a connected gaming universe," intended to link all Ubisoft titles across Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Players can access the Uplay portal through the web or in-game, with AC2 being the first title to include the still-in-beta service. Of the "four primary services" Uplay includes - titled "Win," "Help," "Share" and "shop" - only Uplay Win is currently available in the beta. Ubisoft explains Uplay Win as "[enabling] players to collect units based on their actions in the games and exchange them for rewards such as exclusive in-game content or digital items," the first of which are an Altaïr outfit and "access to the Auditore Family Crypt" (among other things). We've yet to fully plunge the depths of Uplay's offerings in Assassin's Creed 2, but if there's anything really exciting, we'll be sure to let you know all about it. Keep it locked!