French publisher Ubisoft has revealed that it is latest publisher to make its PC titles available via Valve's digital distribution platform Steam, with the upcoming PC release of Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition currently available for pre-purchase.

The stealth title Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Crytek's non-linear shooter Far Cry mark Ubisoft's initial offerings, with Far Cry priced at $9.95 and Splinter Cell going for $19.95. Both will sell at a 10% discount until April 8.

Over 40 titles will be eventually be available, including Tom Clancy games, the Heroes of Might & Magic series, the IL-2 Sturmovik collection and more, along with upcoming releases such as Far Cry 2. According to Valve, bundles packaging franchise entries together will be available in the coming weeks.

"Ubisoft will be delivering the largest library of titles available from any single publisher or developer to Steam," said Valve business development director Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve.

"We look forward to working with Steam and continuing to strengthen our commitment to the PC gaming community with innovative products and wider distribution channels, added Ubisoft senior sales director Andy Swanson.

It's taken a while, but Ubisoft has finally released a new Far Cry SDK. The mod tool set is now synced with the game's version 1.4 code.

Ubisoft sends along a new Far Cry patch, updating version 1.33 of the game to version 1.4 (a patch to update the retail version is available as well). The new update mostly offers multiplayer related changes and fixes, but it also includes remakes of assault maps and adds joypad support.

Ubisoft today announced that it has gained full ownership of the Far Cry franchise. In addition, the company now has a perpetual license to use the Far Cry version of the CryENGINE. Ubisoft is now free to create sequels, adds-ons and merchandise based on the Far Cry universe. Far Cry developer Crytek is currently working on Crysis for Electronic Arts.

In addition to the brand in itself, Ubisoft, its subsidiaries and affiliated companies have the license to use the Far Cry Edition of CryENGINE to develop, sell and distribute an unlimited number of video games. This provides another own production pipeline for the company. Ubisoft's internationally renowned development teams look forward to taking this engine to the next level.
"Far Cry is one of Ubisoft's most successful brands and this agreement is one further step in our strategy to constantly enrich our catalogue of fully owned brands. With Far Cry, we look forward to further consolidating our leading position in the first person shooters genre" said Yves Guillemot, President & CEO of Ubisoft Entertainment.

Due out this week are Far Cry Instincts Evolution and Far Cry Instincts Predator, with the first coming to Xbox and the latter to Xbox 360. Not really sure what the difference between the two is, or what these games even offer over last year's Far Cry Instincts? David has put together this interview with Ubisoft producer Bertrand Helias telling you all about the two games.

Anyone that has played through the original Instincts will be familiar with Jack's Feral Abilities, but for those new to the series or those of you that have only played the original Far Cry on PC, a bit of explanation is in order. Feral Abilities are essentially super powers. Some make you stronger, faster, what have you. All Feral Abilities from FCIE return in Evolution, (and Predator, of course) but as expected, there are new Ferals to sink your teeth into. "One new feature is Feral Climbing," Bertrand says, "which allows him to climb on some surfaces [e.g., trees and cliffs] that will become handy at certain points in the game. Jack is also capable of performing a Feral Attack from underwater. His Feral jump has also improved as he can jump and reach higher places."

Ubisoft sends along an updated Far Cry Linux server, finally bringing it in line with the v1.33 client patch. You'll need a copy of the game to run the server.

Ubisoft sends along a new patch for Far Cry, updating 1.31 / 1.32 to version 1.33. The 21mb update takes care of some cheating issues, and fixes a problem where extended characters in player names caused server crashes.

Ubisoft sends along a new Far Cry patch, updating v1.31 to v1.32. The new release fixes issues related to RCON, Shader Model 3.0 on ATI cards and servers.

Ubisoft has released a Far Cry 64-bit patch, which runs on Windows XP Pro x64 systems for those of you with an AMD64 or Intel EM64T enabled system. A content pack is available as well, featuring improved textures, increased view distance and detail, and two new multiplayer maps. Anand Tech takes a look at the performance, as well as the visual difference.

A new Far Cry patch has been released, updating v1.3 of the game to version 1.31. The new update reportedly takes care of some multiplayer issues.

The crytek modding portal has Far Cry tournament map pack, containing 12 new multiplayer levels including some created by the people at CryTek. We have the download mirrored on FileShack. Thanks Blues News.

Ubisoft sends along a new Far Cry patch, updating the CryTek shooter to version 1.3. The 74mb update fixes several bugs, and also adds Normal Map Compression and SM 3.0 and SM 2.0x support. Save games from previous versions are not compatible with 1.3. Linux dedicated server files are available now as well.

Patch 1.3 change log
* Fixed a crash with the ForkLift when loading some levels.
* Fixed a bug that prevented levels from loading after saving in a previous level.
* Returned surround 5.1 sound option to the menu.
* Fixed a mounted weapon traverse problem.
* Fixed a delay relating to tagging enemies in binocular mode.
* Improved tangent-space calculation to improve bumpmap quality.
* Anisotropic filtering disabled for some textures (light-maps, several lookup textures, fall-off maps) for increased performance.* Improved syncronization in multiplayer.
* Fixed bug in leaning with different player classes.
* Fixed an invisible wall exploit in mp_freighter.

This post on the Ubisoft forums has a change list for the upcoming Far Cry 1.3 patch, though a release date is nowhere to be seen. Thanks Blues News.

Ubisoft sends along an updated Far Cry SDK, adding AI documentation and Maya5/6 plugin support. The SDK allows you to create mods and import custom assets to CryTek's first person shooter.

Actually making good on their promise, Crytek has finally released the mod SDK for Far Cry. The 29mb download comes with source assets, documentation, exporters, plugins and more.

According to fan site Far Cry HQ, the long awaited Far Cry software development kit will be released real soon. Tomorrow in fact. This will finally allow people to create mods for the game.

Ubisoft let us know that the Far Cry 1.2 patch released a few days ago has been recalled. According to the publisher "Far Cry patch 1.2 has shown unexpected behaviour on specific hardware configurations. These matters are mainly due to incompatibilities with several optimisations brought lately to the code, with the intent to please a large number of users". CryTek is working on a fixed version of the update to be released "as soon as possible".

Ubisoft has released the Far Cry 1.2 patch, offering a slew of fixes and improvements for the Crytek first person shooter. And though not mentioned in the readme, the 65mb update adds Shader Model 3.0 support for GeForce 6-series of videocards. Here are some of the changes

* Made the run speed about 15% faster
* Made sprint last 30% longer
* Adjusted damage to vehicles
* Fixed a number of serious issues with headshot detection
* Fixed some issues with ladder animations appearing odd to other players
* Added quicksave support for single player (still in process)
* Fixed a significant number of bugs relating to quicksave (~100 bugs)
* Addressed a number of issues with the server list UI
* Fixed a rendering issue with Radeon 9600 graphics cards

The Firing Squad has a Far Cry patch interview, asking Cevat Yerli about the Shader Model 3.0 support that's being added to the 1.2 update. The 1.3 patch is already being discussed as well. Thanks HLF.

Anand Tech and Tech-Report have articles on the upcoming Far Cry 1.2 patch, which will include Shader Model 3.0 support. Though this won't change the game's visuals, performance increases greatly (on a GeForce 6800 that is). The patch will apparently be released July 5.