ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced that in partnership with Ubisoft it will bundle Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag with the Rampage IV Black Edition motherboard and selected gaming PCs including Tytan G30 and the G750 gaming laptop.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is the newest instalment of the stealthy adventure title and its release has been awaited eagerly by gamers worldwide - and ASUS ROG will be Ubisoft's recommended hardware brand partner for the PC launch.

NVIDIA today announced an alliance with Ubisoft to offer PC gamers the best gaming experiences possible for Ubisoft's biggest fall titles, including Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist, Assassins Creed IV Black Flag and Watch Dogs.

NVIDIA's developer technology team is working closely with Ubisoft's development studios on incorporating graphics technology innovations to create game worlds that deliver new heights of realism and immersion. One example is NVIDIA TXAA antialiasing, which provides Hollywood-levels of smooth animation, soft shadows, HBAO+ (horizon-based ambient occlusion) and advanced DX11 tessellation.

AMD made an addition to its "Never Settle Reloaded" game bundle. Everyone who has already redeemed "Never Settle Reloaded" for their AMD Radeon products, will receive keys to activate Ubisoft's newest FPS title, FarCry 3: Blood Dragon, by e-mail. Those with unused coupons will automatically receive the game, when the coupons are redeemed. They keys will be given out by May 1st.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is a standalone game, and an expansion pack in-principle to Far Cry 3. You don't need to own the original to play Blood Dragon. It gives you a single-player campaign that's completely set apart from the Far Cry universe, and features a retro-futuristic, exploitative B-movie setting, which is interesting and never tried out by a game studio in the last decade. A little earlier this month, AMD vice-president Roy Taylor announced that Battlefield 4 will be part of the company's next "Never Settle" bundle.

AMD today announced its collaboration with Ubisoft to support the highly anticipated next chapter in the "Far Cry" franchise, "Far Cry 3," launching today in North America. Developed in conjunction with the AMD Gaming Evolved program, "Far Cry 3" is fully optimized for a premium PC gaming experience, harnessing the power of AMD Radeon graphics including native support for AMD Eyefinity and AMD CrossFire technologies, enabling industry-leading multiscreen experiences and high-performance gaming. By working closely together, AMD and Ubisoft have enhanced the "Far Cry 3" experience, allowing gamers to become fully immersed in an epic struggle to survive in one of the most lawless and challenging PC gaming environments to date.

"AMD and Ubisoft have worked together to make 'Far Cry 3' a state-of-the-art gaming experience on the PC, the world's most powerful gaming platform," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, Graphics Business Unit, AMD. "The AMD Gaming Evolved program aims to put gamers and developers first, and we're making sure we deliver on our promise. By working with industry-leading developers like Ubisoft, we're not only helping to develop cutting-edge titles, we're also advancing the state of PC graphics for gamers."

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that the cumulative sales of the PlayStation3 (PS3) computer entertainment system reached a milestone of 70 million units worldwide as of November 4, 2012 - less than six years after the platform launched in 2006. SCE also announced that sales of the PlayStationMove motion controller surpassed 15 million units worldwide as of November 11, demonstrating continued growth and momentum of the PS3 platform.

The PS3 system has delivered high quality, award-winning entertainment experiences since its launch. Throughout its lifecycle, the PS3 system has continued to evolve with more streamlined design, larger Hard Disk Drive (HDD) capacity, and new features through software updates. In September 2012, SCE launched the new PS3 system, which has a reduced volume and weight of more than 50 percent compared to the original PS3 model, and of 25 percent and 20 percent respectively compared to the slim PS3 model launched in 2009. The new PS3 has been well received by consumers around the world.

Welcoming the busiest time of the year for gamers, ASUS ROG is proud to offer buyers of participating products a bonus game in collaboration with Ubisoft. Select ROG motherboards, desktops, audio cards, and headsets are taking part in the promotion, as well as specific ASUS graphics cards. All deliver the best gaming hardware in their respective segments, driven by exclusive innovation and careful attention to the needs of gamers. As the leading makers of performance PC gaming hardware, ROG and ASUS offer superior products now made even better with attractive bonus games from one of the largest video game publishers.
World's leading gaming gear now bundled with best-selling and innovative games

The exclusive campaign adds further incentive to invest in the best. Participating products include select ROG motherboards, desktops, audio cards, and headsets, plus several ASUS graphics cards. All bear the ROG and ASUS passion for top-echelon performance, aggressive design, and gamer-focused features. Customers receive an exclusive Ubisoft digital game download code, which can be used at the ASUS UBIShop promotion page to redeem one of the five games specified in this press release. The promotion and its dedicated page will go live October 31, 2012.

Leading mainboard and graphics card maker MSI is now offering the full version of the latest "Assassin's Creed III" game for download with every GTX 650 Ti graphics card (N650TI PE 1GD5/OC and N650Ti-1GD5/OC). The new game from Ubisoft has been for three years in development. The new game engine delivers revolutionary visual effects, realistic character models and advanced computer AI to take the Assassin's Creed series to new and stunning heights. Assassin's Creed III is set against the American War of Independence. History takes a different turn here with all new heroes, a wide array of gaming elements and life like scenery.

When combined with the extraordinary performance of the GTX 650 TI, the player can take the role of a master assassin and fight their way through the revolutionary battlefields. Along the way, they will witness the truth behind the conspiracy of the American War of Independence, explore the realistic Colonial world within the game and experience the smooth combat effects.

Nintendo has great news for gift seekers looking to keep their loved ones entertained and energized this holiday season. Starting Nov. 4, consumers in the United States will be able to choose from two new Wii bundles, each containing a Wii console and one of two new games from Nintendo's third-party partners. One bundle includes Ubisoft's Just Dance 4 and a white Wii console with matching Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuk controllers, offered while supplies last at a suggested retail price of $129.99. The other bundle includes Activision's Skylanders Giants, a blue Wii console with matching Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuk controllers, one Portal of Power, two Skylanders characters and one exclusive Giant Skylander, available while supplies last at a suggested retail price of $149.99.

The incredible tropical-paradise visuals we were treated to in trailers of FarCry 3 called for some serious hardware muscle. The studio released minimum, recommended, and high-performance system requirements lists for the upcoming AAA title. The lists are quite accommodating of today's mid-range hardware, but can be quite demanding of PCs more than 2 years old. It was also announced that the game will implement a revised Uplay DRM scheme that needs a one-time activation, and doesn't require you to stay logged-in when playing the single-player campaign.The system requirements lists follow.

Mad Catz Interactive, Inc. announced today a new range of licensed Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier products, due for release to coincide with the upcoming Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier videogame from Ubisoft, expected to launch in May 2012.

Due for release on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system from Sony, the new range of licensed products includes the Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Pro GamePad and the Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier 7.1 Surround Sound Headset.

Darren Richardson, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz Interactive, Inc. stated, "We're excited to be a part of the Tom Clancy's franchise and look forward to the release of our range of licensed Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier products."

Microsoft's next-generation Xbox console, codenamed "Durango", will implement an "always-on" DRM, according to a VG 24/7 report. Always-on is a stringent anti-piracy measure that's already in use with some PC game titles published by Ubisoft, which requires the players to be connected to the Internet when playing. Even as its proponents (read: game publishers only), claim increased sales, it faces strong opposition from the gaming community. The Christmas 2013 (tentative) launch of Durango rides on the assumption that fast, always-on broadband Internet will have proliferated to every living room.

Next up, there's talk of Durango featuring a unique multi-GPU hardware design that doesn't resemble symmetric PC multi-GPU technologies such as NVIDIA SLI or AMD CrossFire, but instead, the two GPUs will be tasked with rendering the same object redundantly. Perhaps Durango features native flicker-free stereoscopic 3D capability, and the two GPUs are merely rendering the two planes? Once again, there's talk that these GPUs will be designed by AMD. The CPU of Durango will feature "four or six" cores. Lastly, Blu-ray disc is back as the storage medium, in these latest rumors.

Portal 2 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim won big at the Game Developers Choice. Bethesda's smash-hit title bagged the coveted "Game of the Year" (GOTY) title, while Portal 2 bagged three top honors, winning "Best Narrative", "Best Game Design", and "Best Audio".

The year 2011 also saw the raising of the technology bar with two new game engines, CryEngine 3 from Crytek, and Frostbite 2 from EA-DICE. The two were implemented in flagship titles, Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3, respectively; both of which were published by EA. In the end, Battlefield 3 won "Best Technology". "Best Visual Arts", however, went to Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception.A list of top honors follows.

After much speculation it has been confirmed that Assassin's Creed 3 will take place during the American revolution. Images with hints of this have been floating around the internet for a few days now but Ubisoft has released the official box-art for Assassin's Creed 3, which confirms that the game will indeed take place during the American Revolution. Prior to this several images were seen on Kotaku, Game Informer, and Shacknews leading to this speculation. No word yet on a release date or if the game will use the intrusive DRM that previous titles did.

ZOTAC International, a global innovator of graphics cards, mainboards and mini-PCs, today announces select graphics cards will ship with a free gaming pass for the full version TrackMania 2 Canyon from Ubisoft. The free gaming pass unlocks the full version of TrackMania 2 Canyon for 3 days to let gamers experience the thrilling racing world the game has to offer.

"TrackMania is the most popular PC racing game with over 10-million gamers and an active community that generates thousands of customized tracks. The recent release of TrackMania 2 Canyon is a perfect opportunity for ZOTAC to introduce the game to our customers," said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International. "The game sports incredible graphics that take advantage of the available graphics processing power, which is perfect for new graphics card owners."

For all of you PC gamers who didn't play the Uncharted series, and are starved of the visually-intense tropical-island setting that Dead Island miserably failed in, Far Cry 3 promises to be a bomb! Ubisoft released the latest "Stranded" trailer on the 15th, with a fuller trailer slated for later today, that shows incredibly detailed visuals, that are a throw-back to the original Crytek-made Far Cry. The trailer follows a possible protagonist touring a tropical island with his explorer friends, most of it is shown in found-footage style, leading up to one of the explorers' encounter with the game's antagonist. The trailer also gives out the release-date, September 4, 2012.The trailer video can be watched here.

Caution: The trailer contains strong-language, violence, and dubstep.

If you are trying to play Might and Magic: Heroes VI, The Settlers 7 and Tom Clancy's HAWX 2 or are trying to activate Assassin's Creed Revelations, Anno 2070 and or Driver: San Francisco don't bother. Ubisoft has announced a server migration this week that will block all access from players validating their legitimate purchases via Ubisofts DRM "always on" model. The original plan was to allow some of these games to remain playable. However it didn't seem to work. Some DRM schemes are more intrusive then others but the Ubisoft "always on" DRM has come under heavy fire this week from players turned critics via Twitter. One is quoted as saying, "Dear @Ubisoft I am totally unimpressed with your server upgrade strategy."

Ubisoft has yet to give a specified time when the servers will be re-launched and players can regain access to their games.

Next week, Ubisoft will be performing large-scale server maintenance, which could see its DRM-handling go offline. It would directly impact some games that are designed to work with Ubisoft's infamous "Always-Online" DRM, which requires gamers to be connected to the internet when playing games enabled with it. Tom Clancy's HAWX 2, Might & Magic: Heroes 6 and The Settlers 7 will be unplayable during the course of maintenance. Bigger titles such as Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Driver: San Francisco, however, will stay online for the duration of the switch-over. Ubisoft is loathed for its hyper-strict DRM that requires you to ping their DRM servers every few moments to reassure them you're not a pirate. It is even known to limit activations to your graphics card. This is yet another example where DRM only ends up hurting legitimate users more than piracy.

Last week we brought you news of Ubisoft's hard three machine activation limit on Anno 2070 and how it scuppered a review by Guru3D when they swapped out graphics cards. Guru3D's post then went viral on the web and it appears that this has put sufficient pressure or 'heat' on Ubisoft to relax the restrictions just a tiny bit, since they weren't going to use any more Ubisoft games for benchmarks. So what have they done? Allowed an unlimited number of graphics card swaps. That's it, everything else stays the same, so if other components such as the CPU, motherboard etc are changed, then one will still run into this frustrating brick wall and have to get in touch with customer support to reset the activations.

Anno 2070's Draconian DRM: Guru3D's Graphics Card Review Killed Off (UPDATED)

Hilbert Hagedoorn of well-known PC tech review site guru3d.com recently bought a copy of Ubisoft's Anno 2070 and wanted to use it in one of his graphics card reviews. However, he became badly unstuck. This game comes on the Steam platform and the store page states: "3rd-party DRM: Solidshield Tages SAS 3 machine activation limit". Unfortunately for Guru3D, they found out exactly what this means, which resulted in just one performance graph, an aborted review, an unplayable game - and bad publicity for Ubisoft once again. They have published an article about their experience, pledging not to use their titles again because of this DRM.

ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and the world's largest channel manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and mini-PCs, today takes the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 560 Ti series to new performance heights with the supercharged GeForce GTX 560 Ti AMP! Edition. The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 560 Ti AMP! Edition aims to maximize performance without sacrificing visual quality or stability for an unbridled gaming experience.

"ZOTAC strives to deliver a quality gaming experience with all of our products. With the GeForce GTX 560 Ti AMP! Edition we wanted to maximize performance without sacrificing visual quality or stability for our end users," said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International. "After carefully tuning the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 580 AMP! Edition, we are able to deliver the highest clock speeds capable of passing our rigorous DirectX 11 testing procedure without a single graphical artifact."

SteelSeries has teamed with game publisher Ubisoft to bring fans exclusive branded peripherals for the upcoming real-time strategy game R.U.S.E. Designed to give players a competitive advantage, the SteelSeries Xai Laser Mouse R.U.S.E. Edition enhances performance with its superior technology and a preconfigured profile setting that optimizes game-play. The preloaded R.U.S.E. profile, created with input from Ubisoft, allows quick access to the R.U.S.E. and HQ Menus, and preset macro buttons can take the player from the bird's eye view of the war to the heart of the battlefield in an instant. The SteelSeries QcK Limited Edition (R.U.S.E.) mousepad features graphics from the game and provides a smooth and consistent glide; combined they deliver a complete and immersive R.U.S.E. experience.

Currently in open beta, R.U.S.E. allows players to use strategy and bluffing tactics as the general of their nation's army during World War II. The speed and range of movement required in the game, demands tools that can deliver superb levels of precision and accuracy. Ubisoft chose to partner with SteelSeries, because of the award-winning, innovative features and technology that the SteelSeries Xai offers to gamers. In addition to the R.U.S.E. profile that comes pre-loaded on the SteelSeries Xai Laser Mouse R.U.S.E. Edition, SteelSeries will offer pro-gamer recommended R.U.S.E. profiles for users to download once the game launches in June. These recommended profiles will be found on the SteelSeries web site.

We all regard PC games, as an entertainment medium, but spend hundreds to even thousands of Dollars regularly, to keep our PCs up to date, to be able to play the latest PC games. Imagine a medium that rids us of that, and we are able to consume PC gaming like any other content, like the TV or radio. Well, that the potential a new on-demand gaming platform holds - to make you never have to buy/upgrade a gaming PC again.

Called OnLive, the on-demand platform consists of a web service, an internet connection, and a thin-client, called "micro-console" that connects your input (game controllers), and output (monitor/TV/HDTV). You control the game - whichever you're subscribed to and playing - the client relays your input to the OnLive servers, that do the processing, including graphics rendering, and send back output to your client. The client then displays the output. Sounds familiar? Cloud computing? Exactly, but for PC gaming. The platform is conceptualized to be advanced-enough to handle any of today's games, Crysis included. The work-model of this platform is what makes it tick with any game, and is far more future-proof than the present mode of PC gaming (where people own expensive hardware that are in requirement of upgrades, the costs of buying games, buying gaming services separate).

For standard definition television quality, a broadband connection of at least 1.5 megabits per second is required. For HDTV resolution, a connection of at least 5 mbps is needed. The service uses patented algorithms that work to counter lag caused by network constraints. The technology is already gaining attention from major publishers, including EA, THQ, Codemasters, Ubisoft, Atari, Warner Bros., Take-Two, and Epic. People can buy or rent a game to play it, the usage fees are expected not to be much more than the subscription fees for Xbox Live.

The Steam Holiday sale is on now. Through January 2, 2009, every game on Steam is available at 10% to 75% off the regular price. Select publisher catalogs such as Ubisoft, THQ, and 2K Games are 25% off. Award-winning titles such as Bioshock and Portal are available for 75% off the regular price. For more information, please visit this page.

Point of View today, has announced special graphics card game bundles with Ubisoft's fourth generation addition to the Prince of Persia franchise. The bundles start at the range of a GeForce 9500 GT based graphics card, and go high up the range of what Point of View has to offer. These special edition bundles can be identified with the box packaging with the new Prince of Persia theme. Inside the box would be the usual contents of a graphics card package, along with a copy of the full-version of the game.

Point of View in its press release includes a short description of the game, and on how its hardware is geared up for it. The game by Ubisoft is described by Point of View as "a magnificent game which looks like nothing you've ever seen before!", which is somewhat justified by the screenshots posted. With the incorporation of design elements such as Cel-Shading the characters are presented as something hand-drawn, as something straight out of an animation film. The Point of View bundles will be hitting stores soon. The company has a history of offering such themed graphics card bundles, with affiliations to titles such as Assassins Creed and Wall E. The full press release can be read here.

Thanks to Intel and its Game On website, fans of Ubisoft's Far Cry 2 title can now enjoy 3 more hours of their favourite game, playing several bonus maps. These explosive bonus missions are kindly available for free here thanks to Intel.