f13.net

Played the first couple of hours of this last night.  This is the the first game in quite a while I haven't been able to crank everything to max - I've got textures at 'ultra' and everything else set to 'high' and it delivers a pretty stable 40-60FPS framerate though there are occasional hitches when driving fast (I'm assuming it's streaming in the environment or something similar when these occur).  Also, there's quite a lot of pop-in, even at those settings - at night, you'll see some disembodied headlights fade in at about a block away, followed by the rest of the car shortly after.

Sorta torn on the main character - the game sets him up trying to protect his family, but he's at least partially responsible for why they need protection.  Also, being able to just steal hundreds and thousands of dollars from random passersby by tapping X, while also listening into conversations and what not makes you just as bad as the 'surveillance state' you're ostensibly working against, so it's sorta hard to like Aiden, especially since he spends most of his time just growling and grumbling at people.

Most of the run/jump/shoot gameplay is perfectly fine, but the driving physics and the chase camera while driving are just completely fuck-awful.

It reminds me of the first AC game, where you knew that the sequel was going to be great, but there's definitely a 'not quite there' feel to a lot of the game.

SUMMER/HOLIDAY SALE TARGET OF THE YEAR.

That should really be a category in GOTY awards for upcoming games.

For 2015.

Naw, I bet it'll be $35 in a month. PC Games have a sharp curve these days.

After 2 hours, I'm going to give it a 80% score from myself.  It's questionably a AAA title.  I don't regret the purchase, but $35 seems spot-on. 

The game it feels closest to is Sleeping Dogs, to me at least.  GTA5 and Just Cause 2 still have a better open world and more variability. 

I like it though.  "Manage Expectations" is best way I can describe it.

How well integrated is all the hacking stuff? I'm not really interested in AC with guns (we have that already, its called FarCry3), unless the modern elements really shine.

X

See that button?  Get used to pressing it, because that's how you hack.  In my first two hours, I fired a pistol maybe twice but I've looked through cameras, stolen money from people and made some stuff explode all with the X button. 

This game feels more like an AC-GTA hybrid than AC-FC3.  In fact, I haven't gotten a FC3 vibe at all from it yet.

I like some of the puzzly bits when you're cracking the CtOS data centers (the luring guards and hopping from camera to camera, etc, not the silly Pipe Dream-esque minigame at the end), which give me a bit of the 'bandit camp' vibe from FC3.

That said, yeah.  Press X to MacGuffin.

EDIT:  Also, in a development that will likely surprise nobody, people are currently having a devil of a time logging into uPlay (https://twitter.com/watchdogsgame/status/471365262655373312).

Pressing X a lot doesn't sound super fun  :oh_i_see:

You can press f to make it person of interest occasionally. Or tab.

It's a decent person of interest simulator.

Damn. I was really looking forward to this too. But maybe it's for the best. I have like an hour a week to game these days, so if it takes a few patches to fix and coincides with a price drop, I'll be better for it.

I liked the comment about knowing the sequel will be great. Felt that in AC1 (first) and AC3 (first in a new engine).

I find it interesting that due to Ubisofts inept coding, currently the PS4 version of the game is the best.

Once they patch the stuttering and tearing issues obviously the PC version will be on top, but it is another mark of the difference in power between the two next-gen consoles.

I hear their terrible uplay system was shitting the bed all day too.  Got cloud saves enabled through it?  Better hope it's up while you're playing.

This game always looked like 'Generic Open World AAA Game' to me.  I don't get it.

I tried telling this to a buddy who constantly gets his hopes up for games like this. He has been preaching about this game in teamspeak since it was first announced. He was raging in chat when he started playing it. He hasn't been back online since that play session. I think not living up to the hype in his head really got to him this time.

I've been playing this for a couple of hours, and I find it enjoyable enough, I guess. The online/multiplayer bits feel very disconnected from the rest of the game, though, and I think I must have missed some important bit of the backstory somewhere, as I have no idea why I'm both fighting crime (random crime that occurs in the city) and ... well... stealing money from regular people at the same time. :P

I assume the original design doc was tweaked during development. :oh_i_see:

The game needed another 6 months I'd say. The driving is terrible.

Nothing about this game draws me in, it's a giant zero. I wonder if that's the very same thing that pulls others in.  The vague generic quality combined with massive hype lures people in while doing nothing to turn them away.

I was thinking of buying it anyway just to try something new, but then I saw the review scores.  3 stars on Giant Bomb.  It got an 84 on IGN, but what is an 84?  I see an 84 nowadays and I think "average game."  But then you'll meet people who are hyped about the game getting an 84.  The 84 validates the hype they want to feel.

I don't know.  I could play that game and enjoy it I'm sure.  But there's nothing about that particular game that makes me want to.  It's just another wildflower in a meadow full of them.

A bunch of clan mates thought this game was going to out do all of the GTAs and Saints Rows. I think they were hoping for a complete sandbox they could do what ever they wanted to and manipulate what ever they wanted to. A couple of them buddies even thought they might be able to kind of do their own role-play shit in it. The whole time I was trying to set some realistic expectations for them and they were just getting more and more furious at me. Now that it's kind of a flop I am getting the silent treatment like it is some how my fault it wasn't everything they ever dreamed of.

Edit: A bunch of them are masturbating to Destiny as well. I am not even going to try to temper their outlook on that one. I am just going to do up a bag of popcorn and listen to tears on Teamspeak when it releases.

Which is funny since it was already pushed back 6 months as it was.

Which probably means The Division is vaporware at this point.

Unfortunately, I have some major issues with suttering in the game.  Anytime I move too fast I get soft-locks.  Driving missions are impossible right now; on average it locks solid for 3-4 seconds per block while driving.  I've tinkered with the settings a bit and it's just not working as it should.

I'm hoping for a resolution soon, but I think for future games like this I might just have to go the console route.  At least on a console their QA teams can focus on one platform instead of trying to make it work for hundreds of configurations on PC.  

Mildly disappointed gamer; nothing new.

I wonder how much worse it would have looked like if they hadn't of delayed it.  I really like how some of the mirrors are reflecting completely different scenes than the ones in front of them.  I thought we had reflection figured out since one of the early 90's unreal engines but I guess not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idA9BEA4Hxs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idA9BEA4Hxs)

That happens in a lot of modern games, which is disappointing when I remember the mirrors in Duke Nukem 3D.

I have a lousy memory but one of the few 'omg' type gaming moments I do remember was when I was playing a now very old fps, walked onto this enormous, shiny, checkered floor and saw my character's reflection in the glossy tiles I was standing on.  I was just blown away and spent a bunch of time standing there rotating the camera and marveling at it.  That was many years ago and I think it was on a damn voodoo card ffs.  I don't know what their excuse is for not being able to do it nowadays with such powerful systems, is it just too much detail to be able to reflect now or what?

- Edit for Example.

2014 NEXT GEN AAA Title:  Top is 'reflection' bottom is the same spot and what is actually behind him.  At no point in the storyline does he become a vampire to explain his absence either.

(http://i.imgur.com/T3leCeT.jpg)

I don't make games, but I will assume that it is a limitation of the middleware.  I suppose people in the 1990s wrote games in C++ while today they are made in a rent-a-engine.

In the case of Watch_Dogs, some of this may be attributable to serving up a WiiU console variant.  If your team is behind schedule, you're not going to spend a lot of time trying to pretty-up the 360 version.  At least not under my watch.  :why_so_serious:

I am tempted to throw the blame at "consoles" in general, simply because I want it to be true.

I think that is part of any cross-platform production.  The weakest link in the chain determines your bells and whistles.

It kinda is. I think one of the reasons I'm enjoying it is because I had negligible expectations and due to a few trade-ins, didn't pay anything out of pocket for it.

Overall it compares favorably to the last two open-world games I've played, GTA5 and Infamous Second Son. The story and relatively subdued main character are a breath of fresh air after GTA's psychotic histrionics, and the world is absolutely packed with stuff to do unlike Second Son's anemic, token open-world.

The hacking just comes down to having another way to interact with the environment, which is a welcome addition, but hardly some kind of groundbreaking genre-defining gameplay. Gunplay is meatier and more satisfying than GTA's carnival popgun autoaim. Driving doesn't feel quite as tight though.

I asked for a Steam refund last night.  I'm 99.9% sure I'll be denied, but I'm still asking.  Seems like once per year I get bamboozled; game isn't even playable due to soft-locks.

Interestingly, the last game I requested a refund for was From Dust, another Ubisoft title.  I think that's my only other refund I've ever asked for.  

Moral of the story:  I'm permanently finished with Ubisoft.  Congrats, EA.  You're not alone anymore!  In retrospect, wasting this $70 saves me a lot of money in the future.  

I don't have high hopes for your success in getting the refund.  They said "you only ever get one" when I got a refund for Force Unleashed 2 because it wouldn't run at all on my system.  I probably shouldn't have wasted my refund on a game I spent $7.50 on, but I was really pissed off.

It's okay.  It really feels like "Lesson learned, dude!".  Again.  Hopefully for the last time. 

I just have better shit to do with my life than spend my gaming time fixing their shit that should work out of the box.  The saddest part is that I like the game, premise and all the warts.  Except that really big wart that keeps me from actually playing it.

You actually get as many as your disputes department at your bankcard issuer decides.

Instituting a chargeback on Steam insta-bans your account.

Yea I wonder. I haven't booted up AC4 in awhile, but maxxed out that game looks fantastic. Can't remember the reflections though. Anything on the water did have water reflection, but I don't remember about windows and mirrors. I want to say no, but don't feel like launching.

I am so lazy that in a gaming discussion on a gaming forum, I'll spend three minutes writing a post about a game I don't want to take the extra 4 minutes to fact check a question on :-)

A shame. From Dust was awesome.

That's always nice, I guess that means I have the bank institute a charge back for the full year.

Wait, what? How is that legal? They remove all the other software you own because you charge back one thing that you can't get a refund for?

I'm up for that class action suit when that goes through. That's some fucking bullshit right there.

This is the age of digital media, you don't "own" anything.  You're giving them money and they're graciously letting you use their service just because they're such swell guys.*

_{* no guarantee of any kind of quality or longevity is implied, service may be terminated at any time for any reason, by clicking "I accept" you acknowledge that you have read and accept the terms and conditions of the end user licensing agreement and cannot dispute anything we do to you afterwards, if you have a problem I hope you like sports because you won't be playing many video games, do not taunt happy fun ball, etc. etc.}


From the Steam EULA Section 12:

Multi-studio development and its consequences seemed to also impact the game. I would have lost my shit if I was QA on this game and we allowed this to ship.

I give them maximum points possible for their reveal demonstration, but based on aggregate review scores it seems to be a disappointment.

(http://i.imgur.com/NRHeLh6.png)

While that is all accurate. A contract is basically only as good as the lawyer arguing its case. Which is to say, contracts are not law, you can put any ridiculous thing you like in them, it all comes down to what a judge thinks. To grossly simplify.

And then your supreme court went ahead and said that "if a company slips in a statement saying you're not allowed to go to court if you don't like something in this contract that you have no legal recourse fuck you" (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/04/scotus-rules-att-can-force-arbitration-block-class-action-suits/).

And so naturally all companies have slipped said language in.  Including steam (http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/07/valve-to-steam-users-no-class-action-suits/).

Yup, they can bill you for the item and force you to go through adjudication edit* arbitration, but the merchant agreement and visa/mc/amex/discover dispute process generally trumps tos's.

Amex is very funny, "oh, you're disputing this item?, here's the money back."

Steam just refunded the game to my Steam wallet, which is extremely fair.  Interestingly, about an hour before they refunded the game, Ubisoft decided to answer my technical ticket I placed on Tuesday.  They didn't fix anything in the hour I worked with them, so I'm still glad I got the refund.

I still like the premise of the game.  Maybe I'll snag it when I buy a PS4 later this year.  I'm not sure, though.  This has soured me on Ubisoft.

Got this for the PC and yes, it does run like ass (GTX 660Ti). The big culprits for me were motion blur and HBAO, luckily neither will be missed. But even so, controlling a car at high speeds is shitty, especially if you turn.

I played for a couple of hours, and it seems like a competent open world thingy, if you like that sort of stuff (I love open worlds). I wish it were a bit more cyberpunk, but who knows where the story will go. The hacker vigilante Mary Stu they got for a protagonist is hilarious.

Hacking your way out of trouble seems very promising, but there's a needless emphasis on guns. I guess focus testing requires a gazillion different weapons because Reasons. I for one prefer to use hacking, but who knows how long that will last. Making a bad guy's car collide in an intersection was glorious though.

To promote the game launch in Australia, UbiSoft sent a fake bomb and threatening letter to a journalist who possibly wasn't even the video game reviewer (http://mumbrella.com.au/watch-dogs-ubisoft-bomb-hoax-pr-stunt-ninemsn-229352). It ended about as well as could be expected, with the bomb squad being called.

Meh, it doesn't sound that bad from the article.  Ubisoft sends a copy of the game in a locked box with the wrong PIN to the wrong reporter (oops).  The reporter can't get it open, thinks it's suspicious because it's black and kinda heavy, so they call the cops, who evacuate the building to poke at it.  Nobody was hurt, nobody was even really worried (according to the article, they were "just being cautious").  Doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me.

10 hours in right now, still feeling pretty good. Gameplay keeps getting dumber (insta spawning pursuers with physics defying homing capabilities kinda ruin car chases), but the story is okay. The game is desperately trying evoke Deus Ex vibes, right down to borrowing audio cues. Why they thought that would work in a game that is set in Chicago 2013, I do not know.
 
edit: as a word of warning, the game has a bug where some players cannot join multiplayer games. The game complains of NAT but the problem has been confirmed to be on Ubi's end. Judging from forum chatter it seems to me that Ubi considers the bug fixed and fuck those who still have it. Like me.

The ironic thing about the game having so many weapons is 90% of the time I am either using the starter silenced pistol or just doing ninja take downs. Usually if I am pulling out any other gun except maybe the sniper rifle for really long range take downs or grenade launcher if I am taking out a convoy then I did something horribly wrong.

I just played a mission in the projects, where you had to activate some doodads. I stealthed my way through, and then the game despawned everyone and spawned like 10 guys behind me, automatically aggroed and knowing my location.  

I guess you gotta justify all those weapons somehow, even if you have to force the player.

Yes there are a few missions that have set respawn to force you into a fight but even there if you sneak around long enough they lose sight of you pretty fast. And then you can go back to silenced pistol sniping and batons to the knee.

I beat it, what a POS ending. Hands down the worst final mission in an open world game. I guess it's true that developers feel like they can phone it in towards the end of a game, because statistically most people don't see it.

I was expecting the plot to suck, but even the pacing was surprisingly amateurish. They filled the world with side objectives, yet the game never once had a spot where it felt like you had time to do them. It was always DO THIS AND FAST. Sometimes to the point of endless plot music playing over everything until you start the next story mission. So I gave up and didn't do the side stuff. Which is a pity, because it might've been interesting.

Though it probably doesn't matter anymore.

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

Turns out ubi decided that rather than consoles complaining about getting tuned down versions of the pc game, they would just downgrade the pc versions as well!

Give them a sequel to sort out the issues, worked for Assassin's Creed, though Watch Dogs doesn't seem as powerful a potential for its brand.

I have a feeling the game would've turned out a lot better if it was developed solely for PS4/Xbone/PC.

Yep.

So they released a patch. Multiplayer works for me now, but the patch introduced horrible stuttering that makes it impossible to do any shooting or driving.

When will I learn to not buy Ubisoft games? They always have this awesome setting but the game is inevitably so fucked up that you can't realize even half of what should be possible.