There's troubling news on RPS regarding a potential security risk associated with Ubisoft's Uplay plugin software that could allow hackers to remotely install programs onto your PC. The problem seems to centre around the Uplay browser plugin, which is easily disabled. In Chrome, search for about:plugins and disable Uplay. In Firefox, head to tools - add ons - plugins and then disable Uplay and the UPlay PC Hub. To be safe, you might want to consider deleting Uplay and related programs from your PC.

The problem is detailed on Hacker News, which exposes a backdoor thread that allows a website to install and run programs remotely. We've contacted Ubisoft for comment and they're "looking into" the problem. We'll update with any further statements. Meanwhile, here's a list of Uplay associated games that you might want to steer clear of until we know exactly how serious the problem is.

Update: Ubisoft have sent over a statement saying that they've patched the problem out. Here it is:

“We have made a forced patch to correct the flaw in the browser plug-in for the Uplay PC application that was brought to our attention earlier today. We recommend that all Uplay users update their Uplay PC application without a Web browser open. This will allow the plug-in to update correctly. An updated version of the Uplay PC installer with the patch also is available from Uplay.com.

Ubisoft takes security issues very seriously, and we will continue to monitor all reports of vulnerabilities within our software and take swift action to resolve such issues.”

Assassin's Creed II
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy
Assassin's Creed Revelations
Beowulf: The Game
Brothers in Arms: Furious 4
Call of Juarez: The Cartel
Driver: San Francisco
Heroes of Might and Magic VI
Just Dance 3
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Pure Football
R.U.S.E.
Shaun White Skateboarding
Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic
The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved

Assassin's Creed 3 put in a good showing at the Ubisoft conference earlier with some balanced in-game footage showing life in the wilds, some man on dog combat (a regular sight already at E3), camp life and a spot of assassination. It would be hard to describe Connor's style as subtle. His idea of an explosive diversion is one that you walk straight through afterwards, and he's startlingly unconcerned about dropping down directly in front of gun lines. See some of Connor's more choreographed, but equally reckless moves in action in the E3 trailer below.

As reported on Eurogamer, an author is suing Ubisoft for copyright infringement relating to the Assassin's Creed franchise. John Beiswenger claims that Ubisoft have lifted various aspects of the series' plot from his 2003 novel, Link.

The novel features a link device, where ancestral memories can be accessed and relived by the user of the machine. According to his complaint, references to assassinations, a bio-syncronizer, ancestral memories, and various bits of religious imagery - including the Garden of Eden and Jesus himself - are evidence enough that Ubisoft are in breach of copyright.

Thanks to the popularity of the series, the author is asking for $1.05 million, or $5.25 in total damages depending on whether Ubisoft intentially pulled the plot, or if they did it accidentally. Gametrailers.com are also involved in the case thanks to this trailer, advertising an Assassin's Creed II PlayStation Home space.

Until a few days ago, Link had just one review on the Amazon marketplace. Since the complaint, 16 more have been posted. And the scores aren't pretty. "This book is terrible; its not worth the time it takes to read, and i will rage if it delays the AC3 release," says one user.

The snowy wastes shown in the latest screenshots of Assassin's Creed 3, picked up by All Games Beta, are one of the few locations in which the white cloak actually works as camouflage, making Connor one of the stealthiest assassins to star in an Assassin's Creed game so far. However, he seems to be practising his skills on a defenceless deer, which could make him the biggest jerk of the series so far, though that bit where Altair stabs that clueless guard at the start of the first game was also quite mean. Get the new shots right here.

The debut Assassin's Creed 3 trailer suggests that Ubisoft are planning to take Assassin's Creed to the wide open plains and forests of early America. Up until now they've relied on heavily built-up cities to support its assassins' free-running style, from the behaviour of our new hero in this trailer, it looks as though we'll be vaulting through trees instead.

It won't all be countryside, though. Ubisoft promise a range of locations from the "untamed frontier" to "bustling chaotic towns" and even scenes set on battlefields like the one shown at the end of the trailer. We'll be playing as "Ratohnaké:ton," aka "Connor," an assassin of "Native American and English heritage."

Assassin's Creed 3 is being built in a new engine called "Ubisoft-AnvilNext," which promises much improved visuals, animations and enemy AI. Ubi say it's been in production for the last three years across seven studios, with Ubisoft Montreal at the head of the team. It'll be out on October 31. Expect to hear more as GDC unfolds.

Ubisoft PR chap Jay Acevedo has tweeted an image that looks like boxart for Assassin's Creed 3, officially confirming earlier rumours that the next game would be set in the American Revolution. It shows the assassin star of this morning's concept art axe murdering a soldier as the revolution rages behind him. Click "read and comment" to see the whole thing.



Pretty awesome, no?

Recently we mentioned that many Ubisoft games would be unplayable this week because some server shuffling at Ubi HQ. The downtime has started, locking players out of Might and Magic: Heroes VI, The Settlers 7 and Tom Clancy’s HAWX 2. Players who have just bought Assassin's Creed Revelations, Anno 2070 and Driver: San Francisco won't be able to activate their games while the servers are down.

According to Ubisoft's Uplay page, Anno 2070 was one of the few games that was supposed to remain unaffected during the switch-over, but many players can't launch the game. Our copy of Anno autopatched without a hitch, but when we tried to start it up, we got the error message above. "We apologize for the inconvenience, it seems some of you can't connect to games announced as playable during migration," said Ubisoft on Twitter, adding that they're currently working on a fix.

Players on the Ubisoft forums say that they can't log into Driver: San Francisco either.

They still haven't given an estimate as to how long the downtime will last. Players who can't get into the games they've paid for have been expressing their anger on Twitter.

"Dear @Ubisoft I am totally unimpressed with your server upgrade strategy. Offlining auth servers with no backup for DRM games is terrible" says CanuckStig. "When are your servers coming back online? asks HabbaDrums. "I just bought Revelations, and I have NO way of playing it." pkyle says "Bang up job, @Ubisoft. Doesn't save a local copy of my game so their DRM servers being down keeps me from playing my save at all." Those are a few of the more polite ones.

What a shambles. Have you been affected by the Ubisoft DRM server down-time?

Ubisoft are having a bit of a hardware reshuffle next week, according to Eurogamer, which means major disruption to their DRM servers.

Games that use Ubisoft's always-online DRM system ping these constantly to reassure the publishers that you're not a pirate. That means that next week's switchover will render Tom Clancy's HAWX 2, Might & Magic: Heroes 6 and The Settlers 7 unplayable for an unknown period of time. The servers are set to go down on February 7. Ubisoft don't say when they'll be back up again.

Other games will be playable offline, as long as you've completed the one-time activation process. If you haven't, you won't be able to activate them for the duration of the downtime. Big recent releases like Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Driver: Francisco, however, will stay online for the duration of the switch-over.

Ubisoft told us that their hyper-strict DRM restrictions (which extend to limited activations tied to your graphics card) are considered to be "a success." They told us their anti-piracy measures had resulted in "a clear reduction in piracy of our titles which required a persistent online connection.” For many, next week's server outages will only reinforce their decision to steer clear of Ubisoft's games entirely.

You've read the review, now build the best character, find the dev team's favorite items, survive your first PvP encounter, and get the most out of Star Wars: The Old Republic with our enormous 10-page launch guide and behind-the-scenes coverage. Then bury your nose deeper into the February 2012 issue of PC Gamer US for previews of 2012's biggest games, including Diablo III, BioShock Infinite, Guild Wars 2 (which may just change everything we know about MMOs), Mass Effect 3, and more, as well as an all-star lineup of reviews, including Minecraft, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Modern Warfare 3, and Assassin's Creed: Revelations.

You can find it all and more on newstands now! Or, if your house is surrounded by small rabid beasts which have somehow made it clear that only your flesh can satiate their voracious appetites, you may want to stay inside and check us out on Coverleaf.com and Apple Newsstand.

Ubisoft has released a list of the changes the Assassin’s Creed: Revelations day one patch will bring to the game. As reported by DSOGaming, the patch will improve Nvidia’s 3D vision with added sky rendering, and also fix “problems with running game in offline mode”.

Maybe Ubisoft aren’t all bad. Both Skyrim and Batman: Arkham City have required substantial post-launch patches to get them up and running properly on the PC, and these have taken a few weeks to appear. We won’t know if there are any more issues until we actually play it on December 2, but it seems Ubisoft is at least trying to nip some problems in the bud.

Full changelog after the break.


Fixed issue when in some situations smoke bombs didn’t trigger properly

Fixed issue with a Dares being displayed incorrectly

Fixed various text overlaps caused by the localised representation of Keyboard buttons
Multiple graphic improvements related to NVidia 3D vision (Added sky rendering options to game menu)

Various small camera related fixes, like camera now follows a fresh respawned user if he spams the “Center Camera” action key

Fixed some issues that sometimes occurred when switching between executables

Eyefinity optimizations for superwide resolutions

Various tweaks and fixes in Multiplayer related to Friends system

Voice chat icon is now properly displayed when it’s turned off
Fixed problems with running game in offline mode