Let's Talk Watch Dog - Cause it's the best thing on E3 right now

[Bells]

For those who haven't seen the Gameplay Trailer

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First, right off the bat, allow me to introduce the obvious relatables...

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it's a game... out of those.

So, what you guys think of this one? It certainly got my eyes.. although, of course, i wonder about just how open will this game be... is it Story Centric, am i free to solve problems anyway i want? Can i wander the streets or am i being driven from scenario to scenario?

And this super hacking power... can i really control everything? Or just event-centric things?

Like, in the video, you mess with the Traffic lights and causes a major car jam. Ok... certainly that had to be timed just right, since it was supposed to stop the guy the player wants to kill. But... could i do it at any time? Would it be an automatic game over?

I wonder is this game leans more towards splinter cell or heavy rain with it's gameplay.

[Arcanum]

Looks open world sandbox from the minimap and the various scenes in the opening moments of the trailer.

As for the hacking you've got Bridges, Traffic Lights, Jam Communications, Control Train, and then what I'm guessing is Control Car and detonating a gas line or something (plus those two blank slots, which could be abilities either not yet in the game, or obtained at a future point in the story). In keeping with the open world sandbox impression, it seems logical that you could use these abilities whenever you want, so long as there's a viable target nearby.

If they're taking some influence from Assassin's Creed, then there's more than one way to kill a guy. There were no indications that you had to beat up that one security guard and intercept Demarco before he even got out of his car. It could be possible to wait inside the club and take him out there. Likewise there was no indication to jam communications so that you could enter the club. And we know there was a back door, so maybe you could have snuck in that way.

Obviously this is all speculation, but I was getting some heavy AC vibes from the game, and not Splinter Cell or Heavy Rain (I actually have no idea why you're comparing this game to Heavy Rain :S).

e- On the traffic lights, it looks like they recognized and locked onto the waypoint/objective/target, which means one of two things. 1) the hacking is limited to plot only, which is stupid, limiting, and if it's a sandbox game then ubisoft is taking some huge steps backwards from AC, so this seems unlikely. 2) The lock-on is to facilitate the timing, possibly taking the exact moment of activation out of your hands so that it guarantees the lights are hacked at the right time, which would allow any player to pull off a stunt like in the demonstration. My money's on option 2.

[Bells]

The heavy rain comparison came just about the possibility of this being very scenario driven. Like, each "Situation" is just a puzzle you have solve, and you can solve in a X number of ways, but that's the extent of your freedom and the story is taking down this path. Which they could do in a very story centric game... although, as you mentioned, this is the Studio of Assassin's Creed, so a limited design doesn't really fit with what we know they can do...

Actually, now that you mentioned... take out the Parkout and Flip that cellphone into an 'Apple of eden" deal, and i could see this game being born as a Assassin's Creed Engine Spinoff... y'know.. kinda like Devil May Cry was born from a Resident Evil prototype? there is sure as hell a couple of visual cues from AC in there...

Although, during the traffic jam you had the option to actually rescue a person... ok, so you caused the accident that killed that person's spouse... but could that be some subtle Moral choice system reading your actions? Defining your character?

It certainly got me intrigued, and that last bit in the end where it jumped to another Character, makes me wonder if you'll be playing as a puppet or the puppet master...

[Magus]

Yeah, to me, that was kind of a botched assassination in the sense that there would have been a more "stealthy" way to take down De Marco. He didn't have to hack the lights, for example. I'm assuming, or HOPING, that they've taken a hint from Hitman in the way the game goes about how to take out your target, since the best thing about Hitman was there seemed like dozens of ways to take out each target, and always a "perfect" way to do it, as well (or multiple perfect ways). The open-world thing might make it harder than Hitman (which had smaller, planned-out environments) to implement such things but I hope they can at least attempt to feature multiple ways to take out targets or accomplish missions.

Oh, and cutscenes always take me out of the moment...they spend all this time creating a convincing, breathing world, then have a cutscene pop up in the middle of a mission. But even GTA commits this sin, so it's not a big deal. Working around the concept of cutscenes is always difficult, I suppose, but I appreciated the effort in games like Hitman and Half-Life.

Oh, and I have no doubt they are channeling Assassin's Creed. They are the same company, after all. In fact this is similar to how I would have envisioned an Assassin's Creed featuring Desmond (which I assume is still coming). This looks similar to what I would have had in mind (except maybe with some near-future gadgets like, I dunno, invisibility cloak or something, and of course scaling buildings and so on, but this would be one way to go as far as some of the abilities you would have).

As for it being LIKE Person of Interest, it's actually so similar I hope they came up with the idea at the same time as opposed to copying it (likely, since it must have been in development longer than Person of Interest has been on the air).

EDIT: Well in the hacking of phones it showed some in red. So that is either the ones you are allowed to hack, which would be limiting, OR it is just giving you hints on who is important, which is a better way to go. And as far as I can tell I don't think you'd have to hack those lights--De Marco was coming for you, this was just a good way to screw up his plans. You could have let him and his goons pull up and shoot you, taken cover and shot at them that way, presumably. The trailer I think was just showing you what you CAN do as opposed to what you have to do. Or at least I hope so.

As for karma/negative reputation on the casualties, the bandanna he put over his face might serve a similar purpose as it did in Red Dead Redemption, OR it somehow makes it harder for the police to identify you, OR both, or something to that effect. I don't think it was there to make De Marco not be able to identify you, but outside elements. Not sure if it will include a karma or reputation system but that would be interesting, I suppose, depending on how it is implemented. If it is like Hitman, it would make missions harder the bloodier you are in accomplishing them, because you would be more notorious, guards would recognize you more easily or whatever like how the reputation system worked in Hitman: Blood Money.

[Aldurin]

So it's out now. I'm really hesitant as the review circuit is indicating optimization problems and apparently tons of people aren't able to play it at all if the trend of steam reviews continues that way. Considered buying it a few minutes ago but then settled for Resident Evil 4 instead so I could be sure about my fun.

Was anyone here foolhardy enough to already buy it, and if so do you think it's any good?

[Bells]

I approve of this!

Also, if you play on PC i suggest you watching this right now before buying

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[Aldurin]

The brick of salt that doesn't come with that video is that if you don't have a perfect replica of TB's computer then you might not be able to run the game. I'm seeing more and more outrage and refund demands from people who are super pissed that so much money was put into advertising and multiple collector's editions instead of making sure the actual product was functional.

[Bells]

That's because Ubisoft only gave a shit to consoles and Pc was an Afterthought. They Dumbed down and reduce the quality of the game in order to provide this game to the Console crowd...

They are trying to steal GTA 5's thunder by providing the PC experience and Next Console experience that GTA did not.

[Overcast]

So here in Japan on Steam they have delayed the release of the game by one month to allow for multi-language optimization.

Heedless to say I am currently trying very hard to bypass this. It seems like U-Play alone will still allow me to use it now, but I am a couple hours away from knowing for sure. So lets see how it all works out.

[Bells]

The game itself seems fine but the amount of bullshit around it annoyed me so badly, im considering holding out for a discount... and i do have the adequate PC for it now!

I wouldn't get the PS4 version cause my PS4 is pretty much a ''exclusives'' box for me... so that will fill up slowly... but the bad optimization, the BS downgrade, the pre-milking, the flat out bribing of gaming media with cellphones and the multiple Collector's edition bullshit, plus all the delays and weird spidermech nonsense... it's like... a game i would like to play... but i can totally wait for it...

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Surprise surprise. Another grade AAA disastrous weak ass flop of a launch.

You'd think ubisoft would learn by now.

[Kim]

apparently one of the NPC descriptors you can find by hacking people's phones is that they're trans and that just feels really skeevy and gross

the idea of people spying on me to find out if im cis or not is just the creepiest

[Arcanum]

the idea of people spying on me to find out basically anything, really, is just the creepiest

Which I believe is one of the themes of the game, so it's doing something right.

Also, downloading the game now because I was at work all day. I barely meet the minimum requirements, and have an AMD card, so we will see how terrible this goes.

---------- Post added at 06:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:24 PM ----------

Weeeeee UPlay's connection died. Download is stuck at 50%.

edit- I don't know why my post had the miracles tag... pretty sure I didn't click it...

[Krylo]

Game is by ubisoft, which means it requires Uplay, which means that the only way I would purchase it is if it turned my computer into a literal blowjob machine.

And, really, even then I'd be pretty on the fence.

[Aerozord]

Game is by ubisoft, which means it requires Uplay, which means that the only way I would purchase it is if it turned my computer into a literal blowjob machine.

And, really, even then I'd be pretty on the fence.
I swear some day I will make a game that dispenses blowjobs

[Arcanum]

Status update: With everything cranked down to the lowest possible settings, it crashes my display driver upon trying to start a game. At least the menus are pretty.

[Bells]

apparently one of the NPC descriptors you can find by hacking people's phones is that they're trans and that just feels really skeevy and gross

the idea of people spying on me to find out if im cis or not is just the creepiest

I haven't seen anything specific about people being cis, but i have seen "Asexual'' as a NPC descriptor when you hack them. It's the white bar below the target's name, which is like their ''main characteristic''. Another one i saw is like ''Judo Master'' that sort of stuff...

Gameplay wise it has zero relevance.. but it's there.

[Kim]

Which I believe is one of the themes of the game, so it's doing something right.


I'm kinda tired of video game stories about how some white straight dude just HAS to do shitty things in his quest for REVENGE.

Plus I mean the difference between a character descriptor like Judo Master or Attended A Furry Convention and being trans is that people won't attack you or try to murder you for those.

Plus I guess I feel like this game sort of reflects an aspect of nerd culture/internet culture where people think they're entitled to play detective about other people's lives.

Like when Reddit decided to solve the mystery of the Boston bombings. Or when they outed a trans woman who was "deceiving" cis people by not saying that the life saving treatment she needed was transitional stuff to keep her from killing herself. (Which she did end up attempting!)

And unless this game is like Hyper Fucking Critical of this on a personal level and not just Da Gubberment Spying On Me then I don't think it's actually dealing with the subject it is about in a defensible way.

You shouldn't make a game about technological advancements destroying privacy if you aren't just as critical of the guys using Google Glass to take creepshots as you are of the government spying on people. Because if you passively endorse the latter in your criticism of the former, you're fucking up. Bad.

[Bells]

I'll be able to test the game not too long from now and i actually want to know this myself, but to be completely on the level with ya... from everything i saw... the main protagonist i just kinda of an asshole.

Y'know? "I'm on a personal quest of vindication and revenge for justice... which means all my actions are justified"

Which... is kinda what they are going for, afterall, this is a sandbox game, and a lrge chunk of what a sandbox game is, is giving you tools to be a tool to the world around you...

But what i got from quite a few reviews out there is this vibe of ''It's really hard to just be the good guy in this''. Which, if you just wanna play the game and have a zero-consequence amount of fun, it's fine... but if you are looking to be engaged in a story nd follow a charcter's story arc... you gonna come up short.

[Locke cole]

So, then... why should we want to follow this character, if his actions aren't defensible? I'm guessing the game doesn't turn out to be a Spec Ops-style condemnation of the character and player.

[Arcanum]

Status update: downloaded the latest AMD beta drivers. Game actually runs now. Occasional stuttering but I'm running 4GB of RAM, and not the minimum of 6GB, so that's to be expected. Otherwise, the game is running nicely. Might even up the texture quality and see if it doesn't blow up in my face. Baby steps.

Also, to Kim:

I've played the game for all of 10 minutes. I don't know the extent to which the game delves into the ethical issues of the hacking and spying and whatnot, so I'm not really going to touch on what the game does or doesn't do because I have no idea yet. I'm not saying I have high hopes that they touch on the ethical issues of your invasions of privacy, but the hope is there.

Also, "people will attack / try to kill you for X" is a poor reason to have an issue with its inclusion in the game. It's like saying "some people will go out of their way to kill black people in GTA, so black people shouldn't be in the game in the first place." What people do with what's presented to them in a sandbox game is representative of the person playing it, not of the game itself.

If there were no mention of trans people in the game, despite all the other random descriptors in the game, there would be people complaining about Ubi refusing to acknowledge them. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

---------- Post added at 09:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:13 PM ----------

So, then... why should we want to follow this character, if his actions aren't defensible? I'm guessing the game doesn't turn out to be a Spec Ops-style condemnation of the character and player.

Well here's the story so far from what I've played in the first 10-20 minutes.

The game literally starts you off with the a cinematic of the main guy hacking into a bunch of people's stuff and siphoning their bank accounts. Someone gets upset at your rampant hacking, and orders a hit on you. The hitman fucks up or something and kills your niece. Now you want revenge against whoever ordered the hit.

I'm not saying that answers your question in any way, just giving my abridged version of the intro. Do with that what you will.

[Locke cole]

So he was happily stealing people's stuff even before his revenge quest started?

Yeah, if the writing has any amount of self-awareness, it should be leading up to a condemnation of the actions he's taking, both before and after the hitman thing.

Of course, I have no way of knowing if that's actually where it's going.

[Arcanum]

Driving at high speeds is a challenge because my framerate takes a massive dive as my PC struggles to load in what's up ahead. Also did a side mission where I had to chase and take out a car. When their car and mine started to smoke, the game became a slide show. I think I need to accelerate my plans to upgrade my rig. And by upgrade I mean build a new one.

[Aerozord]

Attended A Furry Convention and being trans is that people won't attack you or try to murder you for those.

You really dont know the kind of stigma and prejudice against the furry community do you?

[Locke cole]

Pretty sure there's a huge difference in magnitude there.

[rpgdemon]

Kim, just FYI, it's kind of offensive to substitute of "Attended a furry convention" for "asexual". I'm assuming it was an accident/unintentional unfortunate implications, but casually translating asexual into "Weirdo nerd" is something a lot of people do that is really not good.

(I'm assuming it was unintentional, so just to explain: In the post, Bells mentioned "asexual" and "judo master", in your post you equated those things to "attended a furry convention", and "judo master". Reads as if you translated asexual into furry convention-goer.)

[Locke cole]

That or the two of them independently chose 2 examples, and just happened to both pick "judo master" as one.

[rpgdemon]

Hence the whole, "I'm guessing it was probably unintentional and just unfortunate implications" bit.

It was more of a thing to pay attention for, than anything else.

[Solid Snake]

I just want to read y'alls opinions on this game so I can decide whether or not I want to buy it.
Kind of leaning towards "No," but I'm willing to be convinced.

[Kim]

I mentioned furry convention cuz I saw a screencap of that and also a set of screencaps where the player distracts a guard by IMing them about meeting up with other furries (wolves) for some fun.

I actually got kinda emotional about that cuz I didn't want the protagonist to break that poor guard's heart.

I also felt like it was important to draw attention to the sort of tone the game sets with some of its descriptors when talking about how it throws forms of queerness in their as well. Like, when the game is loaded with four dozen outdated memes showing up on the highway, I don't think it's throwing "furry" in there because it's "just a thing some people are" but rather to get a cheap giggle out of their target fanbase. Perhaps I'm a pessimist.

I am sorry that my original post read as equating asexual and furry, tho I don't like the attitude of furries being considered weirdo nerds. I have a fursona dat's a liddle black kitty and one of my intimate friends is a doggy and another is a wolfie and another is a kitty and she's my big sis.

[Solid Snake]

Also: Genuinely shocking that after that whole incredible E3 reveal I'm in a position where I feel absolutely "Meh" about Watch Dogs.

On the flip side, Drakengard 3? FUCK YEAH wanna play that shit yesterday
In fact the only reason I'm really considering Watch Dogs at all is because my PS3 with all the gaems is about to break, and I'd be buying Watch Dogs on PC

[Kim]

Also, to Kim:

I've played the game for all of 10 minutes. I don't know the extent to which the game delves into the ethical issues of the hacking and spying and whatnot, so I'm not really going to touch on what the game does or doesn't do because I have no idea yet. I'm not saying I have high hopes that they touch on the ethical issues of your invasions of privacy, but the hope is there.

Also, "people will attack / try to kill you for X" is a poor reason to have an issue with its inclusion in the game. It's like saying "some people will go out of their way to kill black people in GTA, so black people shouldn't be in the game in the first place." What people do with what's presented to them in a sandbox game is representative of the person playing it, not of the game itself.

"Well people will complain regardless" is a poor defense when a member of that community is complaining about how it is handled.

The difference between having black people in GTA and having trans people in watch_dogs is that in watch_dogs you actively invade the privacy of a trans person too find out their identity as trans. Also, it's not about what people will do in a game. I meant people will attack and murder trans people in real life for being trans. So a game that indulges invading a trans person's privacy regarding their status as a trans person feels more uncomfortable than were we not included in that way at all.

Also, GTAV included as too. It was much much much worse about it than watch_dogs was, I will confess.

[Solid Snake]

Honestly I just have this major, fundamental problem with a game romantically idealizing the future's inevitable trends of invading the fuck out of peoples' privacy
Like, that argument has a particular resonance when it applies to oppressed minorities like trans* people, wherein violations of privacy would inevitably lead to more violence against them, but fuck, it's something that everyone should be concerned about

And if Watch Dogs basically treats it as just a fun, morally justifiable gameplay mechanic to learn embarrassing facts about non-existent people we don't give a shit about, well, fuck that shit, that's exactly what the government and major corporations want us to believe about everything the NSA's doing

Like I'll concede I initially had higher hopes for Watch Dogs, but a lot of those hopes were based upon the notion that there'd be far greater moral ambiguity about it than just playing it straight as a revenge tale against bad people

EDIT: Wow. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_A6Z3gkXlk)

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Wow. That's a goddamn terrible pc port.

ubisoft didn't even try.

[rpgdemon]

I am sorry that my original post read as equating asexual and furry, tho I don't like the attitude of furries being considered weirdo nerds. I have a fursona dat's a liddle black kitty and one of my intimate friends is a doggy and another is a wolfie and another is a kitty and she's my big sis.

Man, this is why I need to stop trying to point out things. My post was way more accidentally offensive than yours. :/

I don't even consider furries to be weird, I think they can be charming and fun. Except for this one birdy who scared me one time. His costume was awesome, but frightening. He knows what he did.

[Solid Snake]

Wow. That's a goddamn terrible pc port.

ubisoft didn't even try.

Are the PS4 and XBone versions more representative of the E3 trailer's quality?

[Kim]

nah, the console releases are super downgraded as well

[Marc v4.0]

I gotta say, in general, I'm really getting kind of tired of seeing "Well, it's supposed to make you feel uncomfortable" being trotted out so goddamn much as an excuse these days about things.

It's a poor excuse for shitty narrative or design decisions, especially when it's something like invading a person's privacy in an attempt to out them as whatever. When this sort of shit happens to you, when it happens to someone you love...

Looks, it's just really fucking skeevy that devs keep doing this shit to force some sort of bullshit lazy pseudo-edginess dark reality into everything. Blegh.

Sorry for sort of putting you a bit on blast like that, Arc. Seen it one too many times is all, no ill will.

[Solid Snake]

nah, the console releases are super downgraded as well

...Yeah, imma go ahead and say that the toxic combination of brazenly false advertising, shaming oppressed minorities and generally just advertising loss of privacy as hella funny because who doesn't want to laugh at everyone's secrets is going to shy me away from purchasing Watch Dogs. I may buy it on PS4 or something after Watch Dogs 2 comes out if it's super cheap and Watch Dogs 2 is a massive improvement.

It does make me slightly hypocritical insofar as I purchased GTA V but I feel despite all its monstrous problems at least Rockstar put forth a quality title from a gameplay-only, disregarding the story perspective, whereas everything I'm reading about Watch Dog's driving mechanics and other gameplay quirks feels so derivative and such a huge step down from what was advertised that it's hard to want to support it even before you get to the social justice criticisms. And, the PS2-era San Andreas at least gave GTA V a pedigree that it failed to live up to.

I was hoping Watch Dogs was going to be a genuinely new and exciting experience, but it sounds like it's just a GTA clone that was marketed as something far greater than a GTA clone, and we don't need shitty GTA clones, especially when Sleeping Dogs and Saint's Row have already proven that exceptional GTA clones can exist and prosper

---------- Post added at 05:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:26 AM ----------

Also: Who genuinely woulda thunk after the 2012 E3 event that Sleeping Dogs would be the far better 'Dogs'-titled GTA clone?
The games industry sure is unpredictable.

---------- Post added at 05:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:28 AM ----------

Finally: Holy shit I can buy Tropico 5, Transistor and the XCom: Enemy Within expansion to Enemy Unknown for the same price I would've paid for the Steam special edition of Watch Dogs I nearly pre-ordered last week

...This feels like I've just won the lottery.

[Krylo]

Lemme know if Transistor is as good as Bastion, or like, in the ballpark even. I'm seriously considering that one, myself.

[greed]

Transistor so far seems better, gameplay wise at least. Bit early to say with the writing but it's definitely good on the dialogue, gameplay and music fronts.

[Bells]

in watch_dogs you actively invade the privacy of a trans person to find out their identity as trans. Also,

I would say that when you say ''to'' you imply intent. I don't think there was intent in there... let me explain.

From everything is saw out of Watchdogs, i didn't see intent... you press a button on your cellphone and your cellphone gives you a "magic summary" of a human being.

Now, of course, there is two views here... there is the people who made the game (so, they created the game system which allowed for certain conceptions to be made in game... ) and there is the game world. In which the tales, stories and themes are all set in motion by the player (mostly).

I don't think there was intent because i don't think they care. Just like i don't think the whole furry thing had any sort of emotional construct behind it... it was written as a joke. Because the writers are ignorant.

Mind you, i speak of Ignorance as in lack of awareness... knowledge.

That's because Watch_Dogs is WAY less smart than it think it is. This is not a Smart game, there is no brilliant storytelling here... it's just dumb excuses to allow you to play as Hack-Man (which is like Batman, but dumber) with no consequences to your actions except ''fun fun fun fun''.

The same level of lack of awareness or structure was applied to the whole drug thing in game. Where you can get these ''digital trips'' because ''LoL Minigames''

I wouldn't take offense to Watchdogs... it speaks way more from a place of Ignorance than a place of malice. Of course... unintentional harm is still harm... but it's not intentional. And there is a difference.

It is overall, no more harmful or contains any more ''Commentary'' (on anything really, even hacking) than Saint's Row and GTA...

[Locke cole]

Not enough of a difference to not be harm, though.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna pass on this one. I was already going to wait until the Wii U version came out, but now I just don't think I'd find the subject matter palatable at all.

[Bells]

If you just want some dumb sandbox that works well (when it does) and looks real pretty, it's totally a fine game... but i just went ahead and saw both endings on youtube... and you know what? Story mode is an afterthought on a string... plus sequel baiting.

[Locke cole]

If I need dumb sandbox fun, I can go back to Lego City or Spider-Man 2.

Or Assassin's Creed IV, if I specifically want a Ubisoft sandbox.

[Bells]

If you don't care about the Hacking aspects i suggest Just Cause 2. If you want a Big City Crime Life sim with a better story (still not great though) Sleeping dogs...

Hell, get both, all the DLC and you may still have cash to spare for a couple of indie titles...

[Aerozord]

I do get slightly irked that this is what people think hacking is like. You have no idea how many times I've had to scream YOU CANT HACK A TRAFFIC LIGHT

[Locke cole]

Well, the central premise is that the city is wired up to some massive central operating system of the sort we don't have on the modern day, right ? So perhaps the traffic lights are on the network in this big impractical city OS thing.

[Bells]

I do get slightly irked that this is what people think hacking is like. You have no idea how many times I've had to scream YOU CANT HACK A TRAFFIC LIGHT

Oh c'mon old man, haven't you heard of Live free or Die Hard? get with it!! :smug:


...also, no yea, Chicago is totally running on "Not-i-Android" ...which, i'm still not sure of how that is suppose to make everything super safe and better and 'smarterer' ...but there you go.

Also, i'll play the game tonight and i'll know more, but i can tell you a lore breaking BS right here and right now. You can blow up gas pipes on the floor to blast pursuers away... i WONDER how many streets you would have to see blow up due to hackers before you patched your shit... that assuming CtOS can actually detect when it's system is doing something it is not supposed to be doing...

.......on that regard, blow up the street with a pipe, go around the block, see the same street intact. I'm calling BS on that even though i know it would be a crazy tech thing to do... but you know what? Watchdogs 2012 sold me that idea... so fuck it.

[rpgdemon]

I do get slightly irked that this is what people think hacking is like. You have no idea how many times I've had to scream YOU CANT HACK A TRAFFIC LIGHT

Well, technically, they do have some sort of sensors for when ambulances are coming through, to turn green for the ambulance. Thus, those sensors could be tricked, in a thing that would be very similar to "hacking".

[Kim]

This tweet by one of the devs feels really gross (https://24.media.tumblr.com/935ee8b7a0ddca06de113ba3fa78543a/tumblr_n6adshNVfM1tz1eo3o1_1280.png)

[Ryong]

No such thing as bad publicity, no sir.

[Solid Snake]

This tweet by one of the devs feels really gross (https://24.media.tumblr.com/935ee8b7a0ddca06de113ba3fa78543a/tumblr_n6adshNVfM1tz1eo3o1_1280.png)

...Yup! Feeling better and better about picking up Transistor and Tropico 5 instead and not giving these assholes a cent of my money.

[Doc ock rokc]

Lemme know if Transistor is as good as Bastion, or like, in the ballpark even. I'm seriously considering that one, myself.

Ballparking it, Yes. It's not as heavy handed about the narration this time around and the Gameplay is ...much more interesting to behold. Their is literally hundreds of builds (and not in the usual RPG way) It's a bit clunky Menu-wise but in the fighting and story its pure silk.

[Locke cole]

Is there any narration, though?

I'm not expecting something as glorious Rucks's voice, but...

[Ramary]

...Yup! Feeling better and better about picking up Transistor and Tropico 5 instead and not giving these assholes a cent of my money.

I recommend Tropico 5, my only complant so far is that some of the features they cut to trim the fat I miss, but what they added (Differnt Eras, smoother budget mangement, Dynasties) is worth it so far.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Is there any narration, though?

I'm not expecting something as glorious Rucks's voice, but...

It has the same voice actor as Rucks (Logan Cunningham) but instead of a narration its more of a one sided conversation.

Also I'm secretly hoping that there's going to be a TWIST ENDING and that the Wii U version of Watch Dogs was actually the only one that lived up to the E3 visual standards because it'd be funny.

[Locke cole]

It has the same voice actor as Rucks (Logan Cunningham) but instead of a narration its more of a one sided conversation.

Sold!

[akaSM]

outdated memes.


EDIT: Wow. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_A6Z3gkXlk)

http://i.imgur.com/rdRYCSJl.jpg

[Bells]

Well ok, this is fucking hilarious

http://kotaku.com/the-windows-in-watch-dogs-look-into-an-alternate-realit-1582889474/all

[Azisien]

I own the deluxe edition and the season pass and fuck the hype/anti-hype I'm totally going to play this later in the week.

Promised myself I would beat Dark Souls II first, and pragmatically, it seems like waiting on some NVIDIA drivers couldn't hurt.

[Solid Snake]

So apparently one of the hacking powers lets you be a voyeur and illicitly watch a couple have sex?
...Please tell me I misheard that.

Also: Here's some relevant social-justice criticism. (http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/05/in-watch-dogs-women-are-victims-and-plot-points.html)

[Bells]

One of the Hacks allow you to access security cameras. You use those cameras to profile people and locate targets. That's it. That's the function and the intended design of that function.

Now, considering that there is a lot of ''for lolz'' on the text peering you can do in game, while intercepting messages between two people when you profile them... yeah, a similar feature is avliable with the cameras via video... some are mission or plot related, others are ''for fun'' as it is... s previously mentioned, the writing in this game is dumb and thinks too highly of itself...

For being ''illicitly'', i'm going to say that it is a non factor... everything the main character does in this game is Illicit. He calls himself a Vigilante, he is scumbag and the plot dictates that he is some sort of ''grey area of justice'' arbritrer...

For you being able to ''get'' two people having sex, you are probably referentiating this scene

TlZXfQX2D7A

It is nothing over the top, but i would consider it NSFW regardless, so please take notice of that...

Now, if i understand this correctly, the above scene is the one you re talking about snake... and that one is a scenario you can come across during a mission in the game where you are investigating a Women Trafficking operation with the intent of shutting it down... as you can see in the character descriptor for the profile of the woman in the video, she is a "Human Traffic Victim" , which would mean that unless the randomization of the game's NPC profiles screwed up badly... that is a rape scene.

In the context that you are in mission to destroy a human trafficking operation (to which i do not know the details of) . Also bear noticing once again that the writing and characterization in this game reeks way more of ignorance than any deliberate malice. And i might have the wrong details here since i don't own the game... but i know of the mission i mentioned and i know what the above video showed me... so....

[Solid Snake]

I guess I'll give it credit for the actual scene not being nearly as disturbing as the way it sounded when described in text, but still...

...There are plenty of ways Ubisoft could have illustrated utilizing l33t hacking skills to shut down a repulsive human trafficking operation that do not involve, however inadvertently, romanticizing the notion that hacking can be used to spy on sexual conduct, particularly when setting up technology to spy on sexual conduct has led to attempted suicide on college campuses, among other things.

At best, you could say it's relatively harmless in and of itself but totally unnecessary. Ignorance, sure, but even ignorance can have malicious consequences.

I'm also totally under the impression that precious little attention is apparently paid to any of the female victims beyond merely illustrating them as victims for our chivalrous male anti-hero to rescue. That article seems to suggest that women in general suffer from awful stereotypical characterizations -- or hardly any characterization at all beyond being objects to move Aiden from Point A to Point B in the story.

In any event, my rampantly unsubstantiated speculation aside (and really, this speculation is far more flagrant than when I commented on GTA V in that other thread, because at least I've played and beaten GTA V), I'll recommend both Tropico 5 and Transistor. Tropico 5 is pretty good, akin to a casual version of the old-school SimCities, except it's done right, which is more than you can say for the latest SimCity. I'm barely into Transistor but it has Bastion's [I]excellent aesthetic vibe and the Sword continues their tradition of awesome narrators.

Both games are worth far more than a Dull GTA Clone With Hackers!

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Snake, that's entirely assuming Ubisoft would put a modicum of effort into their product beyond wowing audiences with a trumped up demo at a convention.

[Kim]

To be honest, I do think the dev team put a lot of effort into their product, and I do believe the developers believe in what they made, or at least believed in what they were making. The issue of course being that the trailer they produced was either deception pushed by marketing or thinking they could do a lot more than they actually could.

That doesn't mean the product is good. It doesn't mean it wasn't deceptive, intentionally or now. Hell, the devs themselves deserve a ton of criticism.

I just think the idea that they didn't put effort in to be silly. They did! It wasn't necessarily well thought out effort or in the right places, but I'm sure they tried really goddamn hard to make what they thought would be a good game.

[Overcast]

I'm on with Kim on this one, I'll admit this game isn't everything I dreamed it would be, as I dreamed I was going to be a rogue hacker who used a system that invaded privacy to fight against both crime and the powers that be. They went down a somewhat scummier and more desperate route that i don't respect as much because I don't believe it makes as much of a social point, but the situation within isn't absolutely terrible.

One thing I will give the game absolutely is that its world is more alive than any other open world game I have played thus far. People seem to exist and converse and just plain old live in a fashion that doesn't revolve or even involve you. Which consolidates any time you invade their privacy.

As for invading their privacy, is it kinda offputting to be invading privacy like this? Yeah, but this has been an in game element since even the demos and trailers. We knew we had the potential to, without morale recompense, just rob good people of their money. Know about their personal lives and details and just about everything else. Is it being played up as awesome? I don't really think so. Aiden Pierce is anything but a hero, he's a criminal, a vigilante with a power trip rising from his personal skills and lack of a desire to market himself any other way.

Now the writing isn't so great, and they may be poking fun in certain ways by using the profiling aspects and all that in a fashion I disagree with. But as someone who totally doesn't use an AMD card I can say this is a solidly upper mediocre game. With a lot of effort put in, but maybe flawed in its execution.


EDIT: Oh and Transistor, I had some fun with it. I feel like more could have been done as far as the depth of the world you are dropped in, as you don't get to really learn nearly as much about it as you did the old world in Bastion. The main plot also has some minor hiccups here and there and sometimes the battles especially around the end seem uninspired. Except the last one, that was boss. Also the ending made me drop my controller with my mouth agape. What is strongest in this game is the modular nature of your skill system, the music, and the dynamic between Red and ???(who is in the Transistor). The amount of stratagem customization is fairly fantastic (I mostly cheated myself using stealth and summons and one intense power attack) and required if you are like me and wanted to mine as much background info as you can find. The music is just gold, especially all the ones that have vocals with Ashley Barret, I am still singing the fuck out of In Circles, and the regular and boss versions are replaying till they turn to garbage. And more than anything else the relationship between those two is what will get into your guts, even more than the meat of the revenge story. I'd totally suggest you grab that shit now Kry.

[rpgdemon]

Well ok, this is fucking hilarious

http://kotaku.com/the-windows-in-watch-dogs-look-into-an-alternate-realit-1582889474/all

To be fair: Reflections are actually a hard problem in computer graphics to tackle in real time, and are still non-trivial when you can prerender things. Not that it is anything to aspire to, but you can actually see this same issue in one of the prequel Star Wars movies, when landing on Corescent. It's a super reflective ship, and ships are flying through the air, but it does not reflect any of the moving ships, because it would have just taken far too long to do.

This is why, generally speaking, you do not see reflective surfaces in games, or if you do, they are very specifically placed so that they'll only really reflect one thing, and they don't respond to real-time changes.

If you're interested in the technological details of how it works/why static reflections are easy to compute but dynamic ones aren't, I'd be happy to delve into more detail. Long story short, though, I can give them a pass on the reflections (Unless they were shown dynamically changing at E3).

[Magus]

I have for a while now maintained that due to the extreme hypefest the past couple of years surrounding this game, that it's release would be accompanied by a Fable-like disappointment. I don't think I was wrong.

[Aerozord]

The game seems to fit better in with the "super power sandbox" genre. Like I said this isn't hacking, this is magic technology controlling powers. Its the hook to separate it from the pack. But the hook is kind of lame. These abilities seem so meh in the overworld and in a sandbox game the overworld is where you spend most of your time. From what I've seen of gameplay the ability you use the most is spying on peoples personal data. Unless you are a voyeuristic that gets boring fast. Manipulating electronics? Since its mostly an on/off toggle or very contextual its no more entertaining than walking up and hitting a button.

Maybe if late game you can like, hack and remotely control tanks or something it would have potential dicking around fun but from what I saw. Meh

[Azisien]

Maybe everyone is just blind-sided by E3 trailers for some odd reason. It is a yearly snake oil convention, world, in case you didn't know that. Watch Dogs always, ALWAYS seemed like an open world action game to me, with some hacking as the added gimmick.

Anyway I've been busy but I did play the first 30 minutes and so far no complaints. Oh wait no, obligatory UPlay sucks. My aging PC runs the game on High settings, though.

[Bells]

My biggest complain is the Gameplay Demo from 2012. Because it is a blatant lie.

Ubisoft names the video ''Game Demo'' does not put anywhere in the video that the video does not represent final product or that it is a work in progress, the video is completely displayed as valid gameplay footage... and then the thing gets released to the world.

It's so flagrant and so low of that to do that... it truly bothers me.

[Kim]

Relavant article about stuff said earlier (http://kotaku.com/some-players-are-hunting-down-minorities-in-watch-dogs-1584813361)

[Solid Snake]

Relavant article about stuff said earlier (http://kotaku.com/some-players-are-hunting-down-minorities-in-watch-dogs-1584813361)

I think there's going to be issues with bigots hunting down minorities in just about any open-world game that dares to authentically represent diversity, but in Watch Dogs it just feels much more egregious because the whole "Hack to Discover their Secrets" thing makes it all feel much more deliberate and invasive.

So much of the information you learn about random NPCs is completely ancillary, too. I'm pretty sure you could have a story about near-future hackers targeting specific enemies, the government, major corporations or infrastructure at large without a magical item that somehow sifts through the entire internet in a second to give you a concise summary on everyone who's ever lived.

[Kim]

Apparently one of the things that can show up as a descriptor is Masturbates To My Little Pony Porn so it feels gross to have stuff like that, which is clearly thrown in as a joke, alongside authentic aspects of self identity.

Worth Noting: The transphobic caricatures of trans sex workers in GTAV got murdered a lot too, so this is hardly the first game to have this issue.

I just think it's also worth acknowledging that the difference between "This is going to happen" and this is that a developer actively encouraged it. "Have fun abusing our NPCs!" when that abuse may often be in-game recreations of hate crimes.

[Solid Snake]

I just think it's also worth acknowledging that the difference between "This is going to happen" and this is that a developer actively encouraged it. "Have fun abusing our NPCs!" when that abuse may often be in-game recreations of hate crimes.

Yeah, the developer commentary there was absolutely disgusting.

Defenders of the game seem to fall back on this notion that the game is actually criticizing privacy invasion, but it seems like if you were actually criticizing it you wouldn't try for such a 'comedic' vibe with the whole "Let's discover NPC secrets!" thing.
The fact that NPCs are basically strangers without agency or personality deprives you of any consequences from abusing them.
It'd be far more effective to play that kind of theme with a smaller cast of well-developed characters, like in an RPG, where privacy-invading software takes a group of close friends you identify with and splinters them apart. That'd actually be a cool idea for a game that'd provide real commentary on privacy.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Real shame to hear that gamers are abusing the game's hacking features like that. Ubi aimed big but fell short in the end from the what I'm hearing. Maybe we'll get some more unique hacking features in the future as dlc.


To be fair: Reflections are actually a hard problem in computer graphics to tackle in real time, and are still non-trivial when you can prerender things. Not that it is anything to aspire to, but you can actually see this same issue in one of the prequel Star Wars movies, when landing on Corescent. It's a super reflective ship, and ships are flying through the air, but it does not reflect any of the moving ships, because it would have just taken far too long to do.

This is why, generally speaking, you do not see reflective surfaces in games, or if you do, they are very specifically placed so that they'll only really reflect one thing, and they don't respond to real-time changes.

If you're interested in the technological details of how it works/why static reflections are easy to compute but dynamic ones aren't, I'd be happy to delve into more detail. Long story short, though, I can give them a pass on the reflections (Unless they were shown dynamically changing at E3).

I'd love to hear more about it.

[Aerozord]

I heard before that "reflections" basically require the graphics engine to duplicate whats being reflected. So you are doubling polygon count.

Though portal got away with it by making a virtual camera but I get the feeling in practice its not the same.

[Azisien]

I'm still only about 2 hours into the game proper (so far no complaints beyond Fuckin' UPlay) because I can't stop playing the ctOS mobile vs. PC multiplayer. If the game has done any innovation, it's that, and I love it, and I can't wait until more games do this.

[Arcanum]

Since the ctOS mobile app is the only Watch Dogs I can play at the moment until I get my new rig, I can second that it is a boatload of fun. Except when the person I'm relentlessly pursuing with 5 SUVs ramming the crap out of them disconnects and I don't get any exp.

[Azisien]

Since the ctOS mobile app is the only Watch Dogs I can play at the moment until I get my new rig, I can second that it is a boatload of fun. Except when the person I'm relentlessly pursuing with 5 SUVs ramming the crap out of them disconnects and I don't get any exp.

Yeah I've had one disconnect too and I dislike the lack of reward on either side for such an event. I can see that it might be an anti-exploit maneuver, but still, if the runner is through multiple checkpoints I don't see why they couldn't get a partial reward. They put the time in, etc.

Also, add me to Uplay so you can SUV ram me to death.

[Arcanum]

I assume you're Azisien on Uplay, because it succeeded in adding that user to my contacts list. Dunno if you have to accept or add me or something, but I'm HyperionMBD on Uplay.

[Azisien]

I assume you're Azisien on Uplay, because it succeeded in adding that user to my contacts list. Dunno if you have to accept or add me or something, but I'm HyperionMBD on Uplay.

Sure am. I'll add you when I get home.

[rpgdemon]

Re: Reflections.

Essentially, there are a couple of different ways that real-time reflections can be handled in games, and none of them are good, performance-wise.

The first thing that you can do is render the entire world twice, with a "window" letting you look into the other set of objects being rendered. This is expensive, as you can imagine, because you're rendering every object twice.

The "better" way to render things, which is the way that it is done in the Computer Graphics world, is to use what's called ray tracing. The general idea of ray tracing is that for every pixel on-screen, you're shooting a ray out into the world, figure out what that ray hits, and then coloring your pixel to be that color. When your ray hits a mirror, it bounces off the mirror and continues onward, until it hits a non-reflective surface. This technique is used in computer graphics because it can produce spectacular results, looking incredibly lifelike. Unfortunately, it's ALSO very expensive. Like, potentially days rendering your scene, expensive.

http://i.imgur.com/sMZ4At4.jpg

How do games handle reflections then, if ray tracing is way too expensive? Well, in general, video games use real computer science or computer graphics techniques that cannot run in real time, but cheat, so that they can run in real time. They pre-calculate as much as they can, so that the load at runtime is lessened. In the case of reflections, a "reflection map" is used. You can imagine the reflection map as a box that surrounds the reflective surface, which is textured on the inside with what you want the surface to reflect. A ray being shot out against your mirror doesn't bounce into the world, but instead would hit a certain pixel on the texture surrounding your object. This means that instead of doing a raycast to figure out what the mirror is reflecting, you just have to look at your reflection map, and display the pixel at the correct position. This is immensely faster, and can give the illusion of a reflective surface, assuming that your reflection map actually corresponds to the way that the world looks around your object. Unfortunately for Watch Dogs, your texture has to look somewhat like the world around the reflective surface. Most games don't use a unique map per reflective object (That amount of textures would start getting huge in memory), but a single texture per type of visual "zone". Watch Dogs, however, just didn't make a "top of the roof" reflection map, to their detriment.

[Aerozord]

I want to see if I get what you are saying. Sounds like the method used in games, only works with static objects.

[akaSM]

I want to see if I get what you are saying. Sounds like the method used in games, only works with static objects.

Except, not really.

http://www.rigidgems.sakura.ne.jp/index_en.html#spec

Granted, this is hybrid raytracing but, you can move the gems around and it looks pretty.

[rpgdemon]

The method most often used in games works for objects which are moving, but the scene that is shown in their reflection will be static, as it is being drawn from a texture. The reflections will move around and stuff like they should, and moving to a different viewing angle will cause a different thing to be reflected, like you'd expect, but what's shown IN the reflection will not be moving.

As GPUs get increasingly powerful, we'll start to see more hybrid techniques like akaSM showed, and there are a lot of different tweaks that you can do to get better results. What I gave was pretty much just an overview of the basic techniques and ideas, not a comprehensive explanation of everything.

[MSperoni]

I'm not particularly interested in Watch Dog, but here's an article about it that I found kinda neat:

link (http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/06/why-modern-games-cant-hack-it.html)

Kind of about the genre in general.

[Nique]

So far I have had really little interest in the story, seeing as the relevant criticisms of it stated in this thread so far have been pretty much on the money.

The online multiplayer is where it's at - hacking other players is an ultra-fun & tense game of hide and seek. If the whole game were just an expansion of that that aspect, with a story that was better suited to a custom character then dumb Aiden who is dumb and boring, then you could be like, your own hacker guy/gal in hackerville chicago with your RL hacking buddies with their own hacker gal/guy hacking it up.

---------- Post added at 08:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:35 PM ----------

The human trafficking part is totally gross and despite it's predictable finger-wagging at the practice, it's still comes off as voyeuristic and as being intended to titillate.

Like, there are no healthy portrayals of sex in this game at all and I don't understand why there can't be positive sexual imagery in games if there's going to also be horrifying (or worse - not horrifying portrayals of actual awful things) sexual imagery in games.

[Bells]

So... Watch Dogs? Yeah... it has a fucking E3 Mode Button.

FUCKING. E3 MODE. TOGGLE IN THE CODE.


Did you buy Watchdogs for PC? Here. Read this thread on Neogaf, get the patch, improve your game.

Not only it brings the game closer to the original 2012 demo, but it FUCKING IMPROVES PERFORMANCE.

God damn it Ubisoft...

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=838538


Get the super small patch, patch your game. Play the game you were supposed to have got on PC before they dowgraded to be on par with console versions. This is super new and the Mod for the patch is already being improved, so if you want your copy of Watchdogs to be 100% of what is was supposed to be, follow up on these news.

[Ryong]

Okay that really, really feels like a PR stunt.

[Azisien]

So... Watch Dogs? Yeah... it has a fucking E3 Mode Button.

FUCKING. E3 MODE. TOGGLE IN THE CODE.


Did you buy Watchdogs for PC? Here. Read this thread on Neogaf, get the patch, improve your game.

Not only it brings the game closer to the original 2012 demo, but it FUCKING IMPROVES PERFORMANCE.

God damn it Ubisoft...

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=838538


Get the super small patch, patch your game. Play the game you were supposed to have got on PC before they dowgraded to be on par with console versions. This is super new and the Mod for the patch is already being improved, so if you want your copy of Watchdogs to be 100% of what is was supposed to be, follow up on these news.

I got this mod yesterday and played it for ~4 hours. I think to really enjoy this patch you need a really insane rig. On my GTX680 2GB, there were minimal improvements (and actually a few graphical glitches introduced). It did relieve the stuttering when travelling at super high velocities though. That was great. I play on High at MSAA x4 for reference.

Most of the effects seem to kick in at Ultra, but I just have way too bad of a framerate at that point. At current settings I still get drops down to 20FPS, and while it's a 20-50 range, my average is only 30-35.

That XML file you edit for the game is downright depressing though. The "Ubisoft doesn't care about PC gamers" comment seems to be fake or exaggerated, but ugh. Half of the default values are set to "console", 1280x720 resolution, etc. Just terrible shit.

Right, as for actually PLAYING the game. Still working my way through that slowly. I'm almost done Act II and I have to say I really don't like the story at all. MSperoni's link didn't quite resonate with me that much (it makes sense for Deus Ex comparison, though the Neuromancer analogy doesn't really fit and seems confused). However, I can confirm Snake's criticism of the game kind of sitting on this gold mine of present-day surveillance state issues and not capitalizing on any of them. Instead it's just Aiden Pearce out for vengeance, killing hundreds of people to make up for his dead niece and kidnapped sister and whatever. The plot just isn't even remotely immersive.

It's a shame because the open world itself is an amazing sandbox, but they've hamfisted it with this boring, uninspired, inflexible ("Kill all these gang members!" "...But, I'm playing a hacktivist stealth Batman don't kill anybody playthrough..." "NO! MURDER FIFTY PEOPLE RIGHT NOW OR MISSION FAILED") main campaign.

Maybe my stealthy Aiden stops crimes and has max positive Vigilante score, but I don't feel my effect on the world too much. I guess citizens don't rat me out to the police, but that's about it. I steal from the rich and...do what? Support what positive change causes? There's nothing. I can hack Wall Streeter assholes into pedophilia and use that money to... Buy guns and energy drinks. Woop.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

So... Watch Dogs? Yeah... it has a fucking E3 Mode Button.

FUCKING. E3 MODE. TOGGLE IN THE CODE.


Did you buy Watchdogs for PC? Here. Read this thread on Neogaf, get the patch, improve your game.

Not only it brings the game closer to the original 2012 demo, but it FUCKING IMPROVES PERFORMANCE.

God damn it Ubisoft...

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=838538


Get the super small patch, patch your game. Play the game you were supposed to have got on PC before they dowgraded to be on par with console versions. This is super new and the Mod for the patch is already being improved, so if you want your copy of Watchdogs to be 100% of what is was supposed to be, follow up on these news.

Makes me wonder why this was turned off for the PC release to begin with.

[Arcanum]

Makes me wonder why this was turned off for the PC release to begin with.

Probably to make the console versions look better, or at least make them look on par with the PC version, in a feeble attempt to make the current gen consoles look as powerful as modern PCs.

[Bells]

Now, the Argument CAN be made that "unlocking" Watchdogs makes the game even more of a resource hog. That is a fair point to make.

HOWEVER. the Counter-Argument is already made... that could be resolved with better Optimization. For a game that was delayed ( twice? )

So, absolute dick move by Ubisoft. And that by pure relation makes me weary of all their OTHER games that are coming to the market so.

So, no UBI Pre-orders for me for a while...

[Azisien]

Now, the Argument CAN be made that "unlocking" Watchdogs makes the game even more of a resource hog. That is a fair point to make.

HOWEVER. the Counter-Argument is already made... that could be resolved with better Optimization. For a game that was delayed ( twice? )

So, absolute dick move by Ubisoft. And that by pure relation makes me weary of all their OTHER games that are coming to the market so.

So, no UBI Pre-orders for me for a while...

The "unlocking" argument seems rather moot. The mod unlocks all those effects with, apparently, a very small performance impact. It actually improved my performance overall, if only by a little.

And this may be a rumour, but I read somewhere that on the PC version specifically all textures are rendered twice to TRY to bog the platform down. I don't actually believe that because I didn't see the proof for it, but if true, we're in full blown global console conspiracy mode then.

[rpgdemon]

So, no UBI Pre-orders for me for a while...

Dude, just don't preorder anything. All preorders are is a way for game developers to stick it to the customer, forcing them to pay for a product they have never even seen, or heard any reviews of.

Early access is the same way. Stop paying people to not make games.

[Bells]

Nah, the last game i pre-ordered was Batman Arkham Origins... i learned my lesson.

The Division is already soured for me, so that was not going to happen... but i was considering reserving my copy of Unity... not anymore though! I'm really glad i backed out of Watchdogs. If i want the game, i'll be sure to pick it up at 30-35% off this holiday on the steam sale for sure.

[Azisien]

All right, so v0.7 of the "E3 Graphics Mod" had much better results on my system. Now I'm running the game at Ultra with about a +10 FPS gain over unmodded High. Woo. That rain does look incredible. I wish I could hack the clouds.

[Aldurin]

All right, so v0.7 of the "E3 Graphics Mod" had much better results on my system. Now I'm running the game at Ultra with about a +10 FPS gain over unmodded High. Woo. That rain does look incredible. I wish I could hack the clouds.

This is the weirdest "wait for post release optimization" I've benefited from. Now if only it would go on sale soon.

[Bells]

Oh it will... and guess what? This might be in our benefit. There is a chance Ubisoft will release some sort of "high rez textures" pack or something to that effect... i mean, even Sleeping Dogs did it, and that game was pretty awesome and didn't have any of this bullshit. Ubisoft could really use some Decent PR right about now...

[Arcanum]

Downloaded the mod. My performance is actually worse now, strangely enough.

[Azisien]

Downloaded the mod. My performance is actually worse now, strangely enough.

According to the mod creator, the mod is currently not functional with the Watch Dogs patch that released yesterday.

[Arcanum]

I figured that was it. The rain does look really damn pretty though.

[Aldurin]

Patch wars between Ubisoft and the modder?

[Bells]

Oh you can bet on it.