Stardock-run digital distribution platform Impulse has begun adding PC titles from publisher Ubisoft to its catalog, with more slated to arrive in the "summer" timeframe. Assassin's Creed and Far Cry 2--both from Ubisoft Montreal--and Nival's Heroes of Might and Magic V - Tribes of the East mark the three Ubisoft titles offered thus far. Impulse is currently offering 10% off each game, making them $17.99 a piece.

"As our Impulse platform continues to gain favor among PC gaming fans, we're continuously adding the best titles the industry has to offer," said Stardock CEO Brad Wardell. "We look forward to working with Ubisoft on future releases."

As Ubisoft and Valve's week of one-day Steam discounts continues, the duo are now offering up a download of Far Cry 2 PC for $14.99--50% off the usual asking price.

Released this past October, Ubisoft Montreal's open-world first-person shooter has players taking missions in Africa whilst trying to fight off a nasty bout of malaria.

Far Cry 2 also marked the first retail game to debut DLC via Steam. At $5, the Fortune's Pack add-on brings more weapons, vehicles, and multiplayer maps to the game.

After debuting the ability to sell downloadable content earlier this week, Valve's online storefront Steam is now selling a $4.99 add-on pack for the PC release of Far Cry 2.

Only compatible with the Steam version of the Ubisoft Montreal game, the "Fortunes Pack" adds three new weapons--a silenced shotgun, sawed-off shotgun, and crossbow--two new vehicles and five new multiplayer maps to the open-world shooter.

The pack initially hit PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 last winter for $10. While it carried the same weapon and vehicle add-ons, the consoles only got four multiplayer maps.

The next wave of patches for Ubisoft Montreal's Far Cry 2 will bring a new "hardcore" multiplayer setting to the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 open-world shooter.

"The hardcore mode has been designed as an answer to a community request," Ubisoft community developer Atmon wrote on the game's official forums. "Some players were seeking and expecting a more realistic experience. "

The changes will be available in every multiplayer mode, bringing:

• A new damage model will be applied with increased damage for all weapons.
• All weapons have been rebalanced on normal mode... Read more

Now available at FileShack is the free Far Cry 2 Intel Bonus Mission Pack, which adds two new missions and roughly three hours of gameplay to the PC release.

Mission 1: The Morrocan
• This mission sends you into the most heavily guarded region of the Leboa-Sako territory. Hiding out at the old Legion fort is a Moroccan who might be able to help you locate the Jackal. Your objective is to locate him and find out what he knows.
Mission 2: The American
• Your predecessor has tracked down the American informant to the Dogon village in the rocky northern ranges. Your objective: follow his trail and find out what the informant told him.

Ubisoft has yet to say if the content will be released for the console editions. Developed by Ubisoft Montreal, the open-world shooter hit PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in October.

A patch for the PC version of Ubisoft Montreal's Far Cry 2 will arrive next week, according to publisher Ubisoft, though exact details on its contents are not known.

The update should hit between December 8 and 11, going by a post from representative Ubi_Marc on the game's official German forums. No other details were provided.

Since its late October release, the open-world first person shooter has drawn complaints for its narrow field-of-view, which does not properly take advantage of widescreen resolutions, much like the initial release of 2K Boston and 2K Marin's BioShock. Ubisoft has reportedly pledged to fix the issue.

Ubisoft has filled in the price point for the upcoming Far Cry 2 "Fortune's Pack" downloadable content. The collection of multiplayer maps, weapons and vehicles will sell for 800 Microsoft Points ($10).

The pack is expected to be released before December on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with tomorrow's PSN update marking the last opportunity to meet that deadline. There is still no word yet on whether the content will see a PC release.

To refresh your memory, the Fortune's Pack DLC will contain the following:

Single-Player Mode
• Three brand-new weapons
  • Silenced shotgun
  • Sawed-off shotgun
  • Crossbow
  ... Read more

A downloadable "Fortune's Pack" will add new weapons, vehicles and maps to the PS3 and Xbox 360 editions of Far Cry 2 next week, publisher Ubisoft has announced.

Pricing was not disclosed, nor was the possibility of a PC release for the content. Developed by Ubisoft Montreal, the open-world shooter was released in late October, and has since sold over one million units.

The Fortune's Pack DLC will contain the following:

Single-Player Mode
• Three brand-new weapons
  • Silenced shotgun
  • Sawed-off shotgun... Read more

Ubisoft Montreal's open-world shooter Far Cry 2 (PC, PS3, 360) has sold over a million units worldwide since its hit North America and Europe during the week of October 19.

"[Far Cry 2] is well on track to achieve our expectations for the year," said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. "The holiday quarter is off to a solid start with the successful launch."

A per-system breakdown of the game's sales was not provided. The PC version topped the retail sales chart in North America the week of its release, though no hard numbers accompanied that feat.

If the console versions make it onto the monthly top ten, US sales figures for the PS3 and 360 releases will arrive later in the month courtesy sales-tracking group NPD.

The first Far Cry 2 patch has been released by Ubisoft, updating the recently released shooter from Ubisoft Montreal to version 1.01. A 42MB update, the patch offers multiplayer, singleplayer and map editor bug fixes.

Multiplayer

- Server's IP address now displays in lobby, beside the match's name (for direct IP join to work)
- Dedicated Server can now be launched in command line.
- Improved match start conditions. Ranked games can now also start if the player max is attained and everybody but the host is ready.
- Fixed a bug causing random crashes when joining a game.
- Ranked matches in progress will no longer display in the match list.... Read more

Ubisoft Montreal's open-world shooter Far Cry 2 (PC, PS3, 360) heads off to retailers today, so publisher Ubisoft has released a new trailer highlighting the sequel's story, guns, vehicles, swordplay, and explosions.

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ATI has released Far Cry 2 hotfix drivers for Windows XP and Vista, improving DirectX 9 and 10. PCGH has benchmarks comparing older drivers to these new ones using a Radeon HD 4870 X2, showing significant gains.

Ubisoft Montreal's Far Cry 2 ships this week for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Publisher Ubisoft has joined with Adult Swim to promote tomorrow's arrival of Far Cry 2 on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. In addition to a downloadable tribute album entitled African Swim, the beloved network provided new clips of the open-world shooter.

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Adult Swim's look at the making of Far Cry 2 can be found below... Read more

Ubisoft has released the first screenshots from the Far Cry 2 area of Home, the PlayStation 3's Second Life-ish virtual space and promotional platform.

A promotion for Ubisoft Montreal's sequel to Crytek's breakout open-world shooter, the space looks like it's taken straight from Far Cry 2's African battlegrounds--but with a few chairs thrown in to help the space's feng shui.

"Among the available activities will be a multiplayer game of Mancala that will use bullets as game pieces, the opportunity to explore in-game environments including a bombed-out train station that has been turned into an ad hoc cafe, as well as the ability to launch the game directly from the PlayStation Home space," reads a press release from Ubisoft.

The real Far Cry 2 lands on October 21 for PC, 360 and PS3, but those with access to the Home closed beta can check out the space now and get a taste of the atmosphere.

Publisher Ubisoft has confirmed that the PC its open-world shooter Far Cry 2, which hits alongside the PS3 and Xbox 360 editions on October 21, will use a slightly different configuration of the SecuROM DRM technology found in Spore and Crysis Warhead.

Ubisoft forum manager bukowski113 posted the details on the game's official forum:

You have 5 activations on 3 separate PCs.

Uninstalling the game "refunds" an activation. This process is called "revoke", so as long as you complete proper uninstall you will be able to install the game an unlimited number of times on 3 systems.

You can upgrade your computer as many time as you want (using our revoke system)

Ubisoft is committed to the support of our games, and additional activations can be provided.

Ubisoft is committed to the long term support of our games: you'll always be able to play Far Cry 2.

Upon Spore's release, the game's DRM generated a fair amount of controversy, to the point where someone filed a class action lawsuit against publisher EA.

EA CEO John Ricitiello recently spoke out on the subject, admitting that while he doesn't personally like DRM, it is needed to fight piracy and is "something that 99.8 percent of users wouldn't notice."

With just a few days left until Far Cry 2's retail debut on October 21, publisher Ubisoft just announced that the open-world shooter has gone gold and entered manufacturing.

Developed this time around by Ubisoft Montreal--the PC original was crafted by Crytek--Far Cry 2 will hit PS3 and Xbox 360 at $60, with the PC version coming in at $50. Additionally, those that pre-order the PC version through Valve's digital distribution platform Steam will receive $5 off.

For more on the sequel, check out our recent interview with lead designer Hardy LeBel.

Ubisoft sent along a new trailer for Far Cry 2, in the works at its Montreal studio. Viewers are introduced to the Jackal--the player's primary objective--and all the shady characters one must go through in order to reach him.

In development for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Far Cry 2 puts players in war-torn Africa on October 21.

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Hardy LeBel has been around the multiplayer block. Lead designer on the original Halo multiplayer component, LeBel most recently joined the team at Ubisoft Montreal to develop the online portion of Far Cry 2 (PC, 360, PS3)--more details of which you can find in our fresh preview.

I caught up with LeBel at an Ubisoft event, where he told me that developing multiplayer levels for Far Cry 2 was far more challenging than he expected. He also explained the game's modes, his approach to level design, and why he feels that faster is not always better when it comes to multiplayer shooters.

Shack: Is part of the challenge just the fact that you're designing for an open, natural environment, rather than a more shut-off, corridor-based shooter?

Hardy LeBel: Yeah, no question about it. No question. To make something that looks plausible, and still reads and has good flow.. As an example, you can take--again, apologies to the Halo guys for this--you can take a science fiction setting and put glowing arrows on the floor, and nobody is going to complain about that. You can not take a fishing village in Africa and.. put glowing arrows on the floor. [laughs] Read more..

The star of Far Cry 2 (PC, 360, PS3) multiplayer isn't the modes, or the levels, or even the guns--it's the map editor.

After spending some time manipulating the editor with an Xbox 360 controller, I was very impressed. It is probably the most powerful FPS map editor that an eight-year-old could master in five minutes. Using a radial menu to select major categories--roads, buildings, etc--and sub-menus for smaller categories, I was able to assemble a mish-mash of huts and trees in seconds.

Many of the functions are as simplistic as they get. Roads are laid by connecting line segments, the curves drawn in automatically. The weather and time of day are adjusted with sliders. Objects can be dropped in and overlapped with ease, to create monstrous forts or intricate jungle settings.

Supported by an online download and ranking system, I can see the editor fueling the Far Cry 2 multiplayer experience. What Spore does for character design, and LittleBigPlanet hopes to do for platform level design, this editor can do for shooter levels--that is, if the multiplayer component itself is worth the effort.

With the focus on the editor, Ubisoft's multiplayer strategy was... Read more

Publisher Ubisoft has released 15 new screenshots from Ubisoft Montreal's open-world shooter sequel Far Cry 2, providing a glimpse of the title's various multiplayer modes running on the PC.

Far Cry 2 arrives on October 21 in PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 incarnations.