"PC Gamer:" Ubisoft want to improve their relationship with PC gamers

[Art Blade]

Found that on STEAM:

A crude metaphor for the PC gaming community

Ubisoft recently expanded their Uplay Store catalogue to include third-party publishers like EA and Warner Brothers. Their next step on the road to being a competitive force in digital distribution is more an act of contrition. The publisher realises it needs to improve its perception among the PC gaming community.

Speaking to MCV, Ubisoft's worldwide Uplay director, Stephanie Perotti, says, "Announcing all these partners for Uplay and a wider choice of PC games, it shows our commitment to PC, and we want to improve out relationship with the PC community."

"We are always seeking to improve. We took a lot of that feedback on board. With every game on PC we are improving. Far Cry 3 and Assassin's Creed III on PC were very high quality."

What Perotti doesn't mention is Ubisoft's Uplay infrastructure, which, I'd imagine, was responsible for a lot of the PC community's animosity in the first place. Removing their always-on DRM requirement was an important and welcome step, but the Uplay launcher can still act as a barrier to easy game access.

Offering consumers a choice of digital shopfronts is great, but I'm yet to be convinced that Uplay currently provides a feature-set that justifies the service's rockier patches.

Hey! You guys are a community of PC gamers! How do you feel about Ubisoft's new-found affection?

I actually posted a comment there:

"improving the relationship" is not for the love of the PC gamers, it is for the love of extra money they might make and they learned that from STEAM, if a bit late. "Far Cry 3 ... very high quality" LOL!! Okay, the game LOOKS nice but there are still so many bugs in that game (just check the "new" DLC, play it 20 times and you know what I mean) that still need fixing but instead they add new features and new bugs. Why can't we still not switch off the mini map? FC3 and other titles such as the AC series are portations of console games just so they don't lose their presence in the PC market. If they really want to improve their relationship, they should take a close look at Rockstar (GTA series) and see how they manage to make games that w@&k and don't feel as if you'd been served a pre-beta console game.

[fragger]

Good comment you sent them Art, couldn't agree more mate :-X

An involuntary snort of derision escaped me when I read that bit about FC3 being "very high quality" ::) Graphically, maybe - programmatically, not really...

[Abletile]

Nice thread here.
Whilst I abhor a bug ridden game, I must stick my 10 pence in.
FC3 is probably one of the best games in its genre (imho). In single player, despite huge maps and scenery, I have never got 'stuck' once. Graphically it's stunning. Yes there are a few 'improvements' that could be made to the user interface. It's when in coop mode that things start to go downhill for me. There doesn't seem to be any incentive for UBI to fix those bugs, after all, they already have your money!

[fragger]

I have gotten stuck once here, but admittedly that has been the only time.

I guess when I said "not really" in my previous post I was bemoaning the fact that I and quite a number of other have been plagued by game crashes and hangs. Some gamers never seem to have this happen to them while others cop it with monotonous regularity, along with some other weird bugs (land disappearing, sound FX dropping out, invisible characters). Some of the other game forums I've looked at are rife with such tales of woe. Reported fixes often seem to involve such finicky action as adjusting CPU and RAM access speeds, things that really shouldn't have to be looked into in order to run a game, even one as sophisticated as FC3. Many users wouldn't even know where to start looking to take such action.

I just feel that the game could have been "finished" a bit more before it was released. I love the open-worldness, the accessibility of the terrain and the freedom of action (outside of the main missions), and it can be a beautiful thing to look at, but the many, many crashes I've experienced have prevented me from waxing totally lyrical about it.

I'm not bagging the game out - well, maybe a little. I've had many a rollicking good time with it, lots of laughs and thrills. I'm certainly glad it came along. A few years ago many of the FC2 aficionados here believed that a Far Cry 3 would never happen. There were spurious rumours, speculations, confirmations and retractions, and all things considered, I'm glad that it finally arrived. It's colossal fun - until it hangs :-()

[Art Blade]

It's colossal fun - until it hangs :-()

Just don't let anybody quote you on that one out of context.  :-D

[Abletile]

 

[PZ]

  :-X

Although it has been quite a disappointment to discover the linear nature of the main story line in FC3, there have been many aspects of the game that have been quite pleasant. Likely we open world gamers were expecting an improved version of FC2 rather than a what is to us a descent into the COD style linear game play, which consequently jaded our view of the game.

While I really like much of the game, it does not hold the same sense of adventure that I experienced in FC2. Personally, I do not think that FC3 holds a candle to FC2.

[fragger]

Agree :)

LOL @ Art