From Dust

"From Dust" is a so-called god game from Ubisoft, in which player takes control of the prime elements to help a tribe survive and reach it's goals. Depending on where you direct your followers, player gains various abilities to manipulate the nature even further and can even call tsunamis and build mountains. It happens to be a very charming and technically impressive game. Yet the gameplay feels kind of shallow, as if there should be more to do in this game. You start a level, direct your tribe where they need to go, use some new abilities, build a few hills, next level, rinse, repeat... There isn't much challenge (except the last level which I haven't beaten yet, arrrgh!) and the whole experience feels a bit empty. Then again, the game only costs 15 euros at release and it's a download-only title, so it shouldn't be viewed as a full game.
Now to the really bad part...
The PC port for "From Dust" is just awful! A player controlled world-manipulating game with water physics and majestic world sounds exactly like something that PC-gamers want to test their new graphics cards on but alas, we can't. Not only that, there are no graphics options other than resolution, which is crazy. The game looks jagged and textures are muddy, there has been reports of locked FPS and screen tearing. And to top it all off, the game requires a constant internet connection despite Ubisoft officially claiming otherwise before launch. I'm pretty sure the reason behind all this was incompetence and not cruel intentions but this was enough for Steam (as online distributor) to offer refunds to people who bought the game.
I don't know what's wrong with Ubisoft. Their neglect to PC gamers and insisting always-online DRMs are getting constantly worse, as are their games. Think it through guys, consoles aren't getting any younger and the next next generation is far from sight! At the same time, new PC parts are getting better and cheaper. The PC crowd will rise again, and ignoring them is not a bright idea. I mean, have you seen what GTA 4 (also originally a very crappy port) looks like these days?

Rant over, I rest my case.

Saiko