Hi there!

I've installed AC, without problems.
I start AC, the UBI-Intro begins, but after a few seconds the video stops and I can stop AC only via Taskmanager.

Any solutions?

Thanks!

PS:
Dell Inspiron 15R
Win 7 64 bit german
iNTEL HD & nVidia GT525M
IDC HD Audio

Probably a videocard driver issue. I doubt the IP-block solution some mentioned as there shouldn't be any DRM in the GOG.com release.
http://www.gog.com/forum/assassins_creed_directors_cut/ac1_frequent_freezes_fixed
http://www.gog.com/forum/assassins_creed_directors_cut/assassins_creed_crashes

Unfortunately it has. The DRM-free Amazon version has the IP problem as well. The game tries to contact a dead server.

@Alexrd
Indeed, I switch off the network, and AC works!
So does this means AC has DRM incorporated???

Apparently yes, lthough I'm not sure it can even be considered DRM. Either way, it shouldn't be present on an allegedly DRM-free version.

P.S: If you don't want to turn off your internet connection to play the game, add the following IP addresses to the "hosts" file on "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc":

216.98.48.18 127.0.0.1
216.98.48.53 127.0.0.1
216.98.48.57 127.0.0.1
216.98.48.133 127.0.0.1
216.98.48.134 127.0.0.1

Thanks!

But why doesn't GoG fix this?
They always preach "No DRM in our games" and than this!

This needs to be stickified.

Well, in fact it's a problem that shouldn't occur in the first place and should be fixed but for now this HAS to be a sticky.

It´s not a problem anymore:
If you install the latest Nvidia-Driver and do NOT install Nvidia Update this problem is completly gone!

Given that a large draw of GOG is that games are generally pre-patched and do not require any workarounds on the part of the user, this is still troubling. Add in the fact that the source of the problem appears to be a form of DRM in a game that is supposed to be DRM free, and the whole thing stinks that much more.

It´s simple a problem between the game and Nvidia Update, nothing more:
Cause Nvidia Update is quite a shit this shouldn´t be a problem ;)

I wouldn't exactly call it DRM, since the game never had an internet connection as a requirement (even before it arrived on GOG). Not to mention that it has been confirmed to be a drivers problem.

TL;DR -- these are the actual hosts file entries you want:

127.0.0.1 gconnect.ubi.com
127.0.0.1 uts.ubi.com

--

As this is still a problem in 2022, and a number of other posts directly or indirectly link here, I wanted to briefly clear up this invalid hosts file set that's perpetuated for nearly a decade both here and over on Steam.

The above hosts file entries are not only invalid, but if they did work as they're written, they would actually send more traffic to Ubisoft's servers (because they're written backwards). However, they seem to work on Windows due to an apparent bug in Microsoft's hosts implementation.

The hosts file, located at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts on Windows and at /etc/hosts on Linux, does not map IP addresses to one another. It simply bypasses DNS and directs domain requests in the second column to the IP address listed in the first column.

If you inspect the Ubisoft request packets from Assassin's Creed using a network packet analyzer, you'll see that the requests are being made via domain name, not IP address. Though the requested domains have resolved to the aforementioned IP addresses in the past, there's no guarantee they will continue to do so in the future...

...so you want to block the request domains, not their temporarily associated IP addresses.

The requested call-home domains are gconnect.ubi.com and uts.ubi.com -- so those are the domains you want to redirect back to your local loopback address (127.0.0.1).

Therefore, you only need to add the following two lines to your hosts file to stop AC1 from calling home and keep the game from crashing:

127.0.0.1 gconnect.ubi.com
127.0.0.1 uts.ubi.com

Note: If you're on Windows, you should restart after making the above hosts file change, or manually flush your DNS cache with the following terminal command:

ipconfig /flushdns

If you're on Linux, the hosts file update should be immediate and no restart is required.

Supplementary: If someone notices down the line that additional domains are being requested during cut scenes or the like, let me know and I'll gladly update this post accordingly.

Greetings from Oct 2023! It was blowing my mind that my 8700k and GTX 1080 was having stuttering issues with this game. I noticed there was 0% cpu usage during these freezes which was strange. The fact that a supposed DRM free release was contacting old servers causing hangs is mind boggling. Why the hell was it released this way and why hasn't it been fixed!?

Thank you mighty hero.

Hey man, so I did everything before finding this post and added the lines mentioned there, but it still doesnt work. This game only launches if I disconnect my ethernet. Truly a shame, ubisoft should be ashamed.