FC4 arrived today, the day after its UK release. Followed the instructions, but when disc 2 needed loading, the path it was looking for was blank. I had to enter it myself (D: drive). Disc 3 was able to remember what disc 2 couldn't.

After lengthy file copying, I was ready to go. Click on the newly installed icon, and UPlay launches, which is great except that Far Cry 4 is not listed in my games. The installation instructions don't say anything about this, So I hunted around, and saw a small Find Games button. Click that, and then you see an option to activate a product, Again, not a bit of this mentioned in the instructions. Clicked on Activate, and UPlay suddenly selects Far Cry 4 for me, so it knows it's there. I click it, enter the activation code, and Far Cry 4 is now listed in My Games. Great. Finally.

Why couldn't FC4 have been listed in My Games with Activate written across it? Then you just select it and enter the code, Was the installation process put together by a software designer? Doesn't feel like it.

Now that FC4 is listed as a valid, activated, game, I click on it and I expect it to run. Not so fast. First, it has to load an update that it says is going to take 25 minutes!

What? The box was shipped on the day the product was released and there's already a substantial patch for it? What was so bad about what was delivered on discs? Was it tested? Makes me wonder.

All in all, not great experience, having to navigate through the undocumented processes that are UPlay, but I suppose that gets you ready for the game itself. The 25 minutes is just about up, I'll go and see if the game is really ready to go, or whether some other surprises are in store.