Watch_Dogs by Ubisoft

[djskribbles]

This is what they promised:

They only showed sunset/nighttime footage at E3 in 2012, so we can only compare the two versions at night since there hasn't been any leaked sunset footage. IMO, the leaked PS4 nighttime footage looks quite similar IMO.

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?p=1848105#post1848105

 

[swaaye]

Yeah that 2012 video looks similar to what we have seen in recent videos. It is also worth recognizing that it is a realtime gameplay demo instead of nonsense prerendered visuals as other developers sometimes push. It is a pretty solid attempt at truthful demonstration.

If you guys wanna hear and see real bullshit, look up the 2005 E3 Oblivion videos. For a little perspective on pre-release exaggeration and hype machine engineering.

 

[joker454]

It's initial review was running on dual Geforce 680 cards.

What's weird is according to this article:

http://wccftech.com/watch-dogs-pc-version-confirmed-run-ultra-high-settings-midrange-gpu/

...the game can run on ultra settings on a single ancient 670 gpu. So what's really odd is that they showed it running in it's full glory on twin 680's way back when, it was all there and working, and now apparently they have removed visual features to get it all working on one 670. Which strikes me as quite bizarre as it implies they spent time, effort and money to purposely downgrade it. Why would they do that when they had it all working on first reveal? The whole thing is just too weird to sort out.

 

[swaaye]

What's weird is according to this article:

http://wccftech.com/watch-dogs-pc-version-confirmed-run-ultra-high-settings-midrange-gpu/

...the game can run on ultra settings on a single ancient 670 gpu. So what's really odd is that they showed it running in it's full glory on twin 680's way back when, it was all there and working, and now apparently they have removed visual features to get it all working on one 670. Which strikes me as quite bizarre as it implies they spent time, effort and money to purposely downgrade it. Why would they do that when they had it all working on first reveal? The whole thing is just too weird to sort out.

The other aspect to that is in 2012 it was an incomplete alpha and surely not particularly optimized yet. Demoing it on beefy hardware makes sense and isn't necessarily an indicator of what the end result will run on.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

What's weird is according to this article:

http://wccftech.com/watch-dogs-pc-version-confirmed-run-ultra-high-settings-midrange-gpu/

That's also the source of the first Watch_Dogs review, the latest iteration of which you can find here. It's been rewritten and padded out many times since it's first airing on Saturday evening, snippets of the original can be found here.

You should have seen the first 8 minute video review. The guy aims the camera at a puddle in the street and points out the tessellation of water then spends the rest of the remainder of the video getting shot while trying to destroy a petrol station. Epic.

You probably want to avoid that site when it comes to Watch_Dogs information

 

[Shortbread]

Is there any information on the rumored PS4/XB1 Watch Dogs day one patch?

 

[joker454]

You probably want to avoid that site when it comes to Watch_Dogs information

Well they got that info from a tweet from the creative director of the game who said "90% of the dev team runs on Nvidia Geforce 670, that will run Ultra if you have the CPU to match." So I presume that part is accurate.

The other aspect to that is in 2012 it was an incomplete alpha and surely not particularly optimized yet. Demoing it on beefy hardware makes sense and isn't necessarily an indicator of what the end result will run on.

Sure but why not keep the original level of visuals for hardware that can do it since they already had it all coded, optimize that, and offer downgraded settings for lesser hardware? Instead they lopped off the top settings completely which is a bit weird, unless their creative director was wrong which I suppose is possible and maybe higher settings are still available.

 

[djskribbles]

I'm sure the PC version will look like the initial reveal (even the PS4 doesn't look that far off IMO). My guess is that was the target. And instead of pushing the visuals further, they spent their time optimizing and porting to the other five platforms it's available on.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Well they got that info from a tweet from the creative director of the game who said "90% of the dev team runs on Nvidia Geforce 670, that will run Ultra if you have the CPU to match."

What the devs are using wasn't the point, the question was what was the spec of the PC running the 2012 E3 reveal and the expectations that a console could reproduce that.

 

[DavidGraham]

 

[DavidGraham]

If you guys wanna hear and see real bullshit, look up the 2005 E3 Oblivion videos. For a little perspective on pre-release exaggeration and hype machine engineering.

Regarding graphics, the only thing that was missing from Oblivion is the dynamic shadows, the rest remained intact.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Here we can see the classical mentality of:

Exclusives = amazing
Multiplatform = garbage

It ran rampant last gen and it will run rampant this gen.

It's a multiplatform game being discussed by all sides with equal impartiality (it does kinda suck, especially next to the promo materials). Why drag console wars-ery into this? Are we to avoid ever criticising multiplatform visuals because that have platform-diplomatic-immunity? "I am cross-platform; you can't touch me!"

WD is a massive downgrade. Ubisoft over-promised and under-delivered. That's what's got people annoyed, irrespective of any platform. You're the only person here who can't separate discussion of the game from the console wars.

 

[Globalisateur]

Watch_Dogs being optimized for Nvidia GPUs + big CPUs confirmed (implied) by the creative director:

They certainly didn't use GPU compute, Nvidia GPUs not being very good at it, and all physics, particles & animations must certainly rely on the weak consoles CPU then, explaining the very bad performance on both consoles.

It's really a pure PC game optimized for Nvidia GPUs and big CPUs "if you have the CPU to match" ported on all consoles, it really shouldn't surprise us as we know how Nvidia is affiliated with Watch_Dogs. It's explains all the downgrades and why it's one of the worst optimized game on both consoles. I think even on XB1 only Dead Rising 3 (launch title) runs worse than WDs.

Case closed.

 

[Phil]

Am I mistaken, but I'm pretty sure the game is already out here. Why aren't there any reviews or why is the talk still mostly speculative? Isn't anyone playing this already? What are the final thoughts on the shipped game so far?

 

[Gradthrawn]

Am I mistaken, but I'm pretty sure the game is already out here. Why aren't there any reviews or why is the talk still mostly speculative? Isn't anyone playing this already? What are the final thoughts on the shipped game so far?

You're a week early (5/27). Not sure when the review embargo ends, however.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

You're a week early (5/27). Not sure when the review embargo ends, however.

The review embargo is also the 27th. That seems to be the norm now, it's even seen indie games (witness Transistor out today) having a review embargo on launch day.

The date was confirmed over the weekend by the official Watch_Dogs account.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Ubisoft over-promised and under-delivered. That's what's got people annoyed, irrespective of any platform.

Let's not over egg the pudding, Ubisoft - for all there faults - promised nothing. They showed an early concept demo running on a high-end PC and little since they associated themselves with the PS4 launch. I have not noticed any massive downgrade since they began showing PS4 footage but those expecting the quality of the 2012 PC reveal may feel disappointed. Some footage looks better than other footage, depending on the time of day, lighting and weather.

Ubisoft have also never stated the final resolution until recently. Previously it was no information, or "we are targetting 1080p" on PS4.

If Ubisoft had, as you suggest, promised or pledged to deliver certain visuals then I would understand the negativity.

 

[Phil]

You're a week early (5/27). Not sure when the review embargo ends, however.

That's really weird. I guess our local Mediamarkt (very big electronic store in German-speaking-Europe) didn't get the memo then, as last Friday when I went there, I saw a huge stack of them ready to be sold, which pretty much prompted me to check this thread here in the first place...

 

[Shortbread]

It's a multiplatform game being discussed by all sides with equal impartiality (it does kinda suck, especially next to the promo materials). Why drag console wars-ery into this? Are we to avoid ever criticising multiplatform visuals because that have platform-diplomatic-immunity? "I am cross-platform; you can't touch me!"

WD is a massive downgrade. Ubisoft over-promised and under-delivered. That's what's got people annoyed, irrespective of any platform. You're the only person here who can't separate discussion of the game from the console wars.

Console wise, I agree with you. Hopefully, the PC edition isn't a complete hack (no pun intended) job.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Let's not over egg the pudding, Ubisoft - for all there faults - promised nothing.

Perhaps they didn't promise, but the problem with showing too early a game that gets people excited (look at the opening posts in this thread) is you set the expectations. Ubisoft have no-one to blame but themselves for setting everyone's expectations so high with their next-gen experience. PR is a double-edged sword. Using unrealistic high-end visuals to get early attention is going to back-fire when the real game can't match those visuals. It's an old-school way of promotion that should probably be given up on now. Use clearly CGI trailers (labelled as such) to describe the game concept, and show WIP builds during development to grow interest organically and realistically. Huge prerelease impact from misleading PR materials only every comes back to haunt the game (see Aliens). Only show people what they're going to get, and show it getting better over time during development. Or show nothing until you've something decent to show.