Sure, you could get Assassin’s Creed 2 for the PC, assuming you can actually play it (Ubisoft are *already* having troubles keeping their DRM servers up). You could get BlazBlue Portable if you have a PSP. PS3 owners get Mega Man 10 and Yakuza 3 (minus certain parts of the game that apparently North American folks “don’t get”). There’s Bioshock 2 DLC and 360 owners get Twisted, er, Scrap Metal. So, you’ve got some choice of interesting titles this week.

So, this Ubisoft DRM thing just gets better…

What?

Am I forgetting something?

Some sorta RPG is coming out this week?

FINAL FANTASY XIII? When the heck did *this* happen?

I guess that’s kind of a big deal, isn’t it?

Great, the fanbois are gonna be out in full force this week. Final Fantasy XIII was going to be a very polarizing game to begin with. Old school fans might not like the way the direction is heading with the series. Early reviews complain about its linearity and how it caters too much to novice players. It’s a technical marvel, but the gameplay is a love/hate thing. But now, for kicks, let’s take what was supposed to be a PS3-exclusive, and port it to the XBox 360. Notice how most of the advertising for the game is for the 360 version. Observe how there’s no 360 port in Japan. Gaze at the side by side screen shots and comparisons done between versions. Oh noes! The 360 version only runs in 576p but the PS3 version has momentary dips to 25.435 frames per second! Fanboi rage will be at a fever pitch this week.

Look, we all know this thing is going to sell. Heck, I’m not an RPG guy, and even I’m thinking of picking this one up. It looks really nice. Like Heavy Rain, but without all the rumoured killing of children that I really can’t deal with emotionally. For me, the 30-60 hours of gameplay is the most concerning. I seriously don’t have that kind of time. Especially with Bayonetta and Assassin’s Creed 2 still sitting on my shelf and review games coming in this week. Might have to look at it this summer when the release schedule settles down a bit. I actually like that it seems to handhold you a bit through the first part. Since I’ve only ever played one RPG in my life, I’d need all the in-game practice I can get, I think. I know the hardcore folks won’t like it, but if you’re going to grow your audience, sometimes you gotta dumb things down at the beginning to suck them in.

So, as I was saying, the Ubisoft DRM story just keeps getting better. First came rumours that their DRM scheme had already been hacked. Now we’re hearing that they’re having trouble with their DRM servers and people are having issues installing playing their legitimately purchased games. Seriously? You implement a DRM system that requires constant connectivity to your servers, and you can’t keep them up? At what point do I start believing the conspiracy theorists out there? You know, the ones who think all this DRM stuff is being done on purpose to kill the PC gaming industry because publishers don’t want to deal with that hassle anymore. Once again, bad form, Ubisoft. For that, I leave you with this…