Spore de-authorisation tool released

Good news for PC gamers today - not only has Electronic Arts fulfilled its promise and loosened the install restrictions on Spore, but Ubisoft has also patched the widescreen issues in Far Cry 2. About time, eh?

EA has tackled the DRM in Spore by releasing an official de-authorisation tool for the game that lets users bypass the five-machine install limit on Spore by managing their own systems rather than relying on EA. The company had previously promised that the DRM system for the game would be loosened, but face flak over its inclusion anyway.

The bad news however is that while the tool is available for PC users, there's no version currently available for Mac gamers, not that there are enough of them for anyone to worry about.

At the same time Ubisoft has also seen fit to give PC gamers a Christmas gift by releasing a patch for Far Cry 2 that, among many bug fixes, gives the game proper widescreen support. The title had previously been released with some weird widescreen issues that caused the viewable area of the screen to be cropped to 4:3.

You can get the v1.02 patch for Far Cry 2 here and a copy of the Spore de-authorisation tool here.

If you've not played either game then you can check out our full PC reviews of both Spore and Far Cry 2 for more information, or just head to the forums and get answers there.