From Dust - Ubisoft - PC, XBox, PS3

[schild]

Steam denied my first attempt at refund.  I replied to them with about four articles and links to three different threads on this, including this from the Ubisoft forums:

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/6645/drmgo.jpg

They denied mine also.

[Khaldun]

Agree on the camera for sure. I'm a sucker for this kind of game but man the camera is totally annoying the shit out of me on the PC.

[climbjtree]

If you've got a gamepad, start using it. Camera control was clearly designed around two thumbsticks.

[jakonovski]

Never buy a pc game from Ubisoft. Ever.

[Hawkbit]

I was denied again.  Lesson learned; $14.99 out of my pocket, but that seems pretty cheap to learn that a) I'll guaranteed never buy an Ubisoft product again, and b) Steam just got a big black mark in my book for not supporting its customers. 

When I was a kid, my dad would take me to the arcade at the mall and we'd spent $10 or so every week in there.  One day, he put a token in a machine, but it was broke.  He asked the attendant for a token since the machine was broken.  The guy walked over, verified the machine was broken and told my dad "no refunds".  We never spent another penny in there again.  It's no surprise that a few years later, the arcade closed down. 

Not saying I'll never buy another Steam product (indies!), but instead of being all frothy about Steam, I'll just shop around now.  They also just guaranteed lost my Deux Ex sale, which I was likely going to buy from Steam if this all worked out.  Now it goes to PS3. 

[KallDrexx]

Now it goes to PS3. 

Buy it used on the PS3 to really stick it to the :P

[Paelos]

Never buy a pc game from Ubisoft. Ever.

Not until they rethink their life goals.

[Khaldun]

It's been a long time since I have. I'm going back on the wagon. Basically this is a Populous with very nice art direction, some retarded controls and pathfinding, and a camera on the PC that would be more manipulable if it had drunk a fifth of whisky and was looking at porn while you tried to get it to go where you wanted.

[Hawkbit]

From http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9751064939/m/1511052349

We recognize that one of our posts in the From Dust forum regarding the need for authentication in the game was not clear. We sincerely apologize for the misunderstanding. Our tech teams are working on a patch that should release in approximately two weeks that will eliminate the need for any online authentication. This development time is required as we are working to ensure that those who have already started the game, and who’s progress is currently saved on our servers, will receive and save their game information locally. Once the patch is ready, players who already have the game will automatically receive the update on their next login and subsequent game sessions will be 100% offline.

Second post: 

I'll believe it when I see it.

[Paelos]

I'm shocked they left something like that in the game! Shocked!

Good luck trying to sell the next Anno with a huge pile on computer AIDS attached to it, Ubi.

[tgr]

I love the apologists in that thread.

[Tebonas]

Sounds like I will be buying From Dust in approximately two weeks, if they are telling the truth.

[Furiously]

It's Ubi... Can you really ever trust them?

[Tebonas]

I still trust Steam if they tell me that there is no copy protection anymore. Of course, Ubi could turn the table on them a second time. Hmm

[tgr]

I never trust that a game being sold on Steam doesn't have DRM on it when it's new. It always seems to take 1-2 weeks (sometimes more, though) before they update the store page with that information. It might be what the publisher demands, it might be that the publisher just lies to valve, I don't know. All I know is that I'm not pre-purchasing, and I'm always googling the games to see if people in general say it's actually removed.

Especially with ubisoft.

[Yoru]

So, I preordered this on Steam and played it over the course of last week and the weekend. It took, all told, about five hours to finish.

I didn't have the issues most other people have been reporting with the camera, so I found it pretty enjoyable. The last couple levels were creeping into annoyance territory - I liked the calmer ones, where you had to figure out how to achieve your goals organically and slowly. The later levels rely more on planning at the outset and use of special powers rather than manipulation of terrain, and they tended to have a "tipping point," whereby the level was really really hard until you got some combination of powers, and then it was just a bit of mop-up work.

After playing the final level, I kind of felt like they'd built a beautiful and powerful engine and then thrown away the opportunity to reinvent the god-game genre. With some more mechanics building on the growth and development of villages, this'd be a nice Populous-Lite.

As is, I'd advise most folks to wait for a Steam sale, really.

[Hawkbit]

I suspect that they will only remove the connection issue, but we'll still have to launch the Ubilauncher to get into the game.  It's better than having the DRM, but it's still bogus.  I hope I'm wrong. 

I'll reinstall it once the patch hits.  From there, I personally feel that I will get my $15 out of it, but like Yoru, it would be okay to wait for it to hit $5.  There's such significant potential for a massive sandbox type game here, but it's so damn short as it stands. 

[Hawkbit]

From Steam just a bit ago:

Hello,

Ubisoft has just announced that they are working on a patch that will eliminate the need for any online authentication for From Dust. The patch will release in approximately two weeks.

If you don’t want to wait for the patch or if you haven’t played the game, per Ubisoft’s request, we will issue refunds for this title.

If you would still like your purchase of From Dust refunded, please reply to this ticket.

[Sky]

The last couple levels were creeping into annoyance territory - I liked the calmer ones, where you had to figure out how to achieve your goals organically and slowly.

That happened with Black and White for me. The tutorial and first level were this awesome sandboxy god game where you got to fool around for hours in a cool setting and then someone decided to slap a shitty RTS onto it. Never did finish the second level. The day Molyneux died imo.

[Ingmar]

What always gets me is when they throw a timed element on top of things, that always makes it go from fun screwing around to chore.

[Hawkbit]

My refund just went through.

[Mrbloodworth]

So uh.... Other than DRM madness (!). Is the game any fun? Looks fun.

[Teleku]

My refund just went through.

So does that mean you love steam again? 

[Hawkbit]

Kinda.  Their wording was less than generous.  Phrases such as

this refund was issued as a one-time customer service gesture.

and

If you don’t want to wait for the patch or if you haven’t played the game, per Ubisoft’s request, we will issue refunds for this title.

mean that Steam never really stood up to Ubisoft for their customers, rather Ubisoft caved under the pressure.  Steam could have made themselves look a lot better by telling us how much they went to bat for the customers, but they didn't. 

The whole experience went from having me be "100% onboard with Steam, they can do no wrong", to recognizing that they're just there for the dollars.  As they should be, but I just had the false impression they gave a shit. 

[Paelos]

Steam gives a shit. Just not about UbiSoft's shit.

It's buyer beware, which we should all be MORE than aware of by now.

[Khaldun]

I suppose. Steam has enough weight by now: it should basically be enforcing a design minimum. You want in, you don't fucking do Ubi shit. Otherwise go sell it in your horrible little online slum that you made yourself.

[tgr]

God, I wish they would do exactly that. That way I would know that if it's on steam, that's all I would have to worry about.