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





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



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

[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...