Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 1

Technical Considerations

For the most part, the game was trouble free, but there are still some technical considerations to bring up. The major one concerns the distribution system. At present, Precipice is available through several sources. The first is direct from the new Penny Arcade spinoff Greenhouse, where you can download the trial version and buy a license for $20 (the demo contains the full game). The game is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. (Ed: We never got around to trying the Linux version, so we can't comment on it.) The game is also available via Direct2Drive, but at the same $20 price point that's more an advantage for improving visibility of the title rather than something that benefits consumers. Valve's Steam is another option, again at the $20 price point. Finally, the game is available from Xbox Live Arcade for 20 XBLA points, for use on your Xbox 360. We haven't tried that version of the game, however, so we'll confine our review to the PC versions. Steam users may be partial to that platform, if only for the addition of some Steam Achievements for the game. We played the version that came via Greenhouse.

Concerning DRM - and we hesitate to use that term - there are a few interesting items to discuss. First, it's a well-known fact that the DRM protection measures in most gaming titles are now circumvented within days of release - sometimes even before the official launch. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the availability of a cracked version of Precipice has not occurred (as far as we're aware). That's good for them, as it suggests more sales and fewer pirated copies. It also means that their security appears to be better than that used on other games - or at least the "crackheads" of the Internet aren't interested in attacking it, which seems more likely. However, there are a few concerns when it comes to installing the game on more than one PC.

The current setup is that you get a single license code that can be used to install the game three times. You can use the same code for Windows, Linux, or Mac OSX, but you only get three installs. (Note: that number may have changed; see below.) Once installed, there is no further online communication required to play the game; however, it does appear that certain hardware changes - a new motherboard for example - may invalidate the installation and require you to activate it again. We were able to determine that copying the activation files over to a different PC invalidated the install.

So far so good, but what we haven't been able to determine is what happens once you pass the three installations mark. We received two keys; the first one only installed once and then refused to install elsewhere, and the second has now been installed and activated on more than eight PCs. Hothead Games can apparently adjust the number of allowed installations on a key, so we're not entirely sure what normal behavior will be. More specifically, we are concerned with long-term prospects for game installations.

What happens if you install the game on two or three PCs today (i.e. a laptop and a desktop and your work PC), and over the next year you upgrade components or systems and you now need to reinstall the game? If you're the type of person that returns to a game a few times over the years, Precipice may end up requiring a few emails to the support people. We were unable to determine whether uninstalling would return one of the allowed installs, as neither of our keys is "normal", but that does not appear to be the case. Hothead has stated the following, however, so all of the above is probably making things out to be worse than they are:

"We don't anticipate having to limit the number of redownloads but remember that each new machine or major hardware change may trigger a new key to be issued against your license. Our plan is to allow multiple installs and to be generous in that regard to cover murdered systems, planned upgrades, people wanting to play it on their PC and their Mac or even Linux box etc. Even if the limit is reached - a limit that we have not determined yet - we will be flexible in resetting or increasing the limit for paying customers. If you are registered, we will keep your license keys stored for you in your profile and you will be able to see the number of times that license has been used for various systems so there will be no surprises."

What we end up with is something similar to the Bioshock situation, but with a title that isn't quite as high on the "must have" list. Bioshock eventually did relax their number of allowed installs, and the Precipice developers seem to have a similar approach in mind. Honestly, it's probably not a huge concern. Given the lack of multiplayer, and the fact that the game isn't too demanding, the licensing policy should be acceptable to most gamers; just know in advance that you may not easily be able to install and activate the game more than three times. As it stands, the game is enjoyable for a quick romp, but we likely won't be heading back to New Arcadia repeatedly over the coming years to relive old exploits.

We've already mentioned that anti-aliasing is always enabled, and it would have been nice to get an option to disable it. The one other noteworthy technical detail to mention is that similar to Assassin's Creed, Precipice takes the approach of forcing a letterbox/widescreen gaming experience on players. The game will fill the whole screen on 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratio resolutions, but on 4:3 or 5:4 aspect ratios you will have black bars on the top and bottom. Users that continue to run standard AR displays will probably be somewhat upset by this approach, but as a proponent of widescreen gaming I find it hard to get too upset. Given the number of titles over the past several years that have lacked adequate widescreen support, a change in the tide on occasion is welcome.