Since many have been asking, here’s a quick update on Silent Hunter 5 Battle of the Atlantic. SH5 is an important PC game on many counts – it’s the latest installment of a popular franchise but it is also one of the first games to use UBISOFT’s new *much hyped* DRM system. If you aren’t aware, UBI’s new DRM requires users to stay connected to the internet during the time they play the game (even for single player mode). Although the publisher tried to reduce piracy into nothingness by taking such draconian measures, scene group SKIDROW put a damper on their plans earlier yesterday. SKIDROW released a modified (aka cracked) version of Silent Hunter 5 which according to them bypassed UBIsoft’s DRM. But has the DRM really been defeated and is the pirated release really playable?
Now that’s an interesting question. According to UBIsoft, the pirated release that’s circulating on the internet is not complete. It’s a pretty vague statement – does the game contact UBI’s servers to download additional content? I think not. But it may be possible that it phones home to verify the authenticity of the game at various points in game, something like an online version of SecuROM triggers.
Anyways the pirated release by SKIDROW does not seem to be fully functional anyway. According to folks on various gaming forums, some have had difficulty in getting the campaign missions to work. Getting the second mission to work after skip tutorial seems to be pretty hard at least for now. Some have also been greeted with crashes to desktop (CTD) at random points in game. Note that these could also be actual bugs with Silent Hunter 5. However, it’s not logical for UBI to release the game to public with such massive showstopper bugs present so the issues are probably DRM triggers (or results of modifications done by SKIDROW).
But that’s not to say UBI’s new DRM has been a success. In fact, it seems to have gotten partially cracked in less that a day since public release - that’s a lot less time than it took to crack Starforce back in the day. Naturally, cracking groups will adapt to the new protection and release quality will only improve in future.
Note : Do not post download/torrent links to cracks or ISO here. This post is purely for informational purposes.
