Jimquisition: Watch_Dogs: A Vertical Slice Of Steaming Bullshots

[Zakarath]

I wouldn't be too surprised if it turned out that they built the game with the fancy lighting system and whetever other gfx doodads they had in the earlier version, were running it fine with the top-of-the-line gear they had in their studio in the hopes that they would be able to optimize it to the point where it would be just about acceptable for sale (remember, the released system requirements back before the delay were very high), but then couldn't quite bring it to the point where it would run well enough on consumer equipment/consoles, so they had to cut it down instead.

Maybe I'm just not cynical enough, but I do doubt they originally set out to deliberately oversell the graphics. A lot can happen in a year of game development.

 

[ANTIcarrot]

"Action-Packed with features! Just like the Real Thing! Full-Colour Sound and Slam-Vector(TM) Graphics! Suitable for IBM PC, Atari, Amegia, Pineapple, Amstrad, Nintendo. Actual game shots taken from a version you haven't brought."
- Only You Can Save Mankind, Terry Pratchett, 1992

It's been twenty years since this practice was so widely known about that a popular author could parody it, and everyone would know what he was talking about.

People might not like the practice, and for good reason, but no one over the age of 14 has any right to complain that they have been fooled *yet again*.

 

[nyysjan]

As far as I remember E3 presentation was done on latest nvidia cards available at the time, it was pretty much obvious from the beginning the console version would be scaled down my question to ubisoft: are people with the right hardware going to be provided with a proper release, with all graphic options enabled.

This is a good question, will the PC gamers get a watered down graphics because Consoles can't handle them?

"Action-Packed with features! Just like the Real Thing! Full-Colour Sound and Slam-Vector(TM) Graphics! Suitable for IBM PC, Atari, Amegia, Pineapple, Amstrad, Nintendo. Actual game shots taken from a version you haven't brought."
- Only You Can Save Mankind, Terry Pratchett, 1992

It's been twenty years since this practice was so widely known about that a popular author could parody it, and everyone would know what he was talking about.

People might not like the practice, and for good reason, but no one over the age of 14 has any right to complain that they have been fooled *yet again*.

So very much this.

I might not like the practice, and i think we should call game industry on it.
But this was neither surprising or unexpected.

 

[lukesparow]

According to sources Dark Souls 2 is apparently doing this as well.
Screenshots and gameplay videos have been released, showing there's a big difference in the lighting department.
While this wouldn't necesarilly be an issue, it seems to hurt the atmosphere quite a bit.

They were actually totally up front that the builds shown earlier were on PC, that the game was built for PC first, and that the final product would be scaled down on consoles from the outset.

Ubi on the other hand was all "This is the power of next gen" and then "Oh wait no it's not. Oh well graphics don't matter, right guys?"

I didn't know that. I've looked at the footage and I don't find it's all too bad. Glad to hear they were up front about it.
There's loads of people actually raging on youtube about this though, which is weird if they were up front about it.

 

[EternallyBored]

As far as I remember E3 presentation was done on latest nvidia cards available at the time, it was pretty much obvious from the beginning the console version would be scaled down my question to ubisoft: are people with the right hardware going to be provided with a proper release, with all graphic options enabled.

This is a good question, will the PC gamers get a watered down graphics because Consoles can't handle them?

Considering that this is Ubisoft, and this isn't the first time they've done this, I very much doubt that the PC version is going to look as good as the E3 trailer. They pulled this same stunt with Farcry 3, and while the PC version on max settings does look very nice, it just didn't match up to the early E3 trailers.

Will the PC version look better than all the console versions? Most assuredly yes, it will probably look pretty good on PC, Ubisoft can make some pretty good visuals after all. Unfortunately, it's just not going to look as nice as the E3 reveal trailer, even on the most powerful PC, some of the trailer effects were likely post-processing cleanup tricks that were added solely for the trailer.

 

[lukesparow]

I hope somebody important reads this, but I flagged your last post by accident. I literally just clicked the wrong button twice. I really didn't mean to do that.

Do you happen to know a way to tell the moderators I did this on accident?
Oh and on the subject of Dark Souls 2: the atmosphere luckily seems fine from what I've seen so far.

 

[Atmos Duality]

As a consumer, the sharp drop in graphical fidelity (something new AAA releases are always pushing hard) makes me wonder what else is being slashed for the final release. Especially after being pushed back from a Holiday season launch.

And the comment about E3 is especially true: It's been a sad joke for a while now; a glorified industry-wide commercial to push Pre-orders with doctored demos and false promises. What should be obvious false advertising is disclaimed away with the fine print "This is just a demo"; even though it's pitched as if it were the real thing.

(Hey, it's not "lying" if it's just "misdirection".)

A:CM wasn't the first to use an obviously doctored-demo, it was just the most egregious offender in recent memory, and now it could very well be that Watch Dogs is next (I hope not; it looks like a legitimately great game conceptually, but alas, concepts are fleeting things).

 

[C14N]

I dunno. I mean I watched both the trailers over an internet connection with not particularly high quality so maybe that's my problem but the story trailer didn't really trigger any feeling of looking worse to me. I mean most of the story trailer was cutscenes rather than actual gameplay. Maybe it's just because I never really thought the graphics looked mind-blowingly good to begin with, just pretty good. It would be annoying if they initially showed one thing and then did a bait-and-switch but I just can't really see it. I'm assuming it happened because they originally planned on just a current-gen release and then backtracked and decided they could make a lot more money releasing it on the older systems too. We won't see our real killer graphics until this Christmas I'd say when the sales have become high enough to justify it.

 

[white_wolf]

The change looks terrible especially compared to E3 2012 footage. I was going to pre-order it now I'm going to wait until more images emerge. The car driving though crap doesn't look too bad when speeding but the images I've seen on street level where he's just walking around, horrible! The graphics was a key factor in this game realism was touted to be pretty much the it thing, bringing in great story for a really nice package and while I'm not that into graphics for once that was a large part of the game for me all the details the new street scenes are plain and terrible maybe they have weather still but maybe not, surely no dust, leaves flying around, or fabric and hair swaying with the wind engine maybe the rain might look ok but maybe it doesn't or is gone completely with the new switch, the lighting looks horrible at night but it could be because of where we are, there aren't enough daylight photos either to compared each day shot to day shot, what about all the scanning effects are they gone? not to mention 2012 gameplay vs 2014s so until I start seeing those elements I'm not putting down a penny. I'm also not touching Division now either to see what they've done with it to be sure they aren't changing things up in such a drastic manner.

In some respects last I can find several last gen games that blow the new WD graphics out of the water and thats not good considering the entire marketing approach they were doing here. I don't think there will be a revolt that event gets half as brutal as ME3's controversy with their devs even flat out denying or just dodging the issue that there has been a graphic downgrade at all.

 

[Flunk]

I really don't care about the graphics. Seriously.

Yes, it's scummy to present something that is not representive of the final product.

But I don't care about graphics. If they put out more SNES games, I'm up for it!

 

[Something Amyss]

I would bet that some of these people would continue to defend these companies even if they quite literally shoved cast iron rods up their asses as long as they got to play the latest games that is.

"The rod isn't all that uncomfortable, I don't know WTF you're complaining about. God, some people just like to ***** about nothing."

It's like a large chunk of the gaming community has Stockholm Syndrome or something.

 

[Something Amyss]

Do you happen to know a way to tell the moderators I did this on accident?

Unless there's something against the rules in the post, it should be a "no harm, no foul" scenario. Last I knew, you're fine.

I really don't care about the graphics. Seriously.

Yes, it's scummy to present something that is not representive of the final product.

But I don't care about graphics. If they put out more SNES games, I'm up for it!

You know, Atmos raises a decent point:

As a consumer, the sharp drop in graphical fidelity (something new AAA releases are always pushing hard) makes me wonder what else is being slashed for the final release. Especially after being pushed back from a Holiday season launch.

Honestly, if they lied about the graphics, what else might they have lied about? It's not like visuals are the only thing that takes development time and effort.

I mean, I don't know. Perhaps you'd be okay with more SNES games regardless of quality (and I'm not talking visual), but still. This should raise warnings in folks' heads, even if you don't care about graphics.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

I hope somebody important reads this, but I flagged your last post by accident. I literally just clicked the wrong button twice. I really didn't mean to do that.

Do you happen to know a way to tell the moderators I did this on accident?
Oh and on the subject of Dark Souls 2: the atmosphere luckily seems fine from what I've seen so far.

Just send a PM to one of them, here's a list.

[user]Caliostro[/user]
[user]DigitalSushi[/user]
[user]Eleuthera[/user]
[user]EscapeGoat[/user]
[user]JonB[/user]
[user]maddawg IAJI[/user]
[user]Marter[/user]
[user]Nasrin[/user]
[user]NewClassic[/user]
[user]Scde2[/user]
[user]sky14kemea[/user]
[user]TimeLord[/user]
[user]TopazFusion[/user]

I personally wouldn't worry too much, when the forum was redesigned and the 'flag post' button moved I must have hit it half a dozen times by accident.

 

[lukesparow]

I hope somebody important reads this, but I flagged your last post by accident. I literally just clicked the wrong button twice. I really didn't mean to do that.

Do you happen to know a way to tell the moderators I did this on accident?
Oh and on the subject of Dark Souls 2: the atmosphere luckily seems fine from what I've seen so far.

Just send a PM to one of them, here's a list.

[user]Caliostro[/user]
[user]DigitalSushi[/user]
[user]Eleuthera[/user]
[user]EscapeGoat[/user]
[user]JonB[/user]
[user]maddawg IAJI[/user]
[user]Marter[/user]
[user]Nasrin[/user]
[user]NewClassic[/user]
[user]Scde2[/user]
[user]sky14kemea[/user]
[user]TimeLord[/user]
[user]TopazFusion[/user]

I personally wouldn't worry too much, when the forum was redesigned and the 'flag post' button moved I must have hit it half a dozen times by accident.

Do you happen to know a way to tell the moderators I did this on accident?

Unless there's something against the rules in the post, it should be a "no harm, no foul" scenario. Last I knew, you're fine.

I really don't care about the graphics. Seriously.

Yes, it's scummy to present something that is not representive of the final product.

But I don't care about graphics. If they put out more SNES games, I'm up for it!

You know, Atmos raises a decent point:

As a consumer, the sharp drop in graphical fidelity (something new AAA releases are always pushing hard) makes me wonder what else is being slashed for the final release. Especially after being pushed back from a Holiday season launch.

Honestly, if they lied about the graphics, what else might they have lied about? It's not like visuals are the only thing that takes development time and effort.

I mean, I don't know. Perhaps you'd be okay with more SNES games regardless of quality (and I'm not talking visual), but still. This should raise warnings in folks' heads, even if you don't care about graphics.

That's good to know. Now I can stop worrying!

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

See they should of shown GTA4 type graphics at E3 and then BOOM GTA5+ graphics today and people would have been wowed. Making your graphics look worse after one year just makes your game look like shit in comparison. An loses a lot of hype and excitement people had about it. Now it looks like your getting a worse game, regardless of how great the story is.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

As a consumer, the sharp drop in graphical fidelity (something new AAA releases are always pushing hard) makes me wonder what else is being slashed for the final release. Especially after being pushed back from a Holiday season launch.

Maybe they are saving the E3 looking version for a future HD rerelease. Never know.

 

[Atmos Duality]

As a consumer, the sharp drop in graphical fidelity (something new AAA releases are always pushing hard) makes me wonder what else is being slashed for the final release. Especially after being pushed back from a Holiday season launch.

Maybe they are saving the E3 looking version for a future HD rerelease. Never know.

Maybe.
Though if HD is the spearhead of the next generation consoles (and gaming), that would mean they're really putting the cart before the horse.

 

[ValiusEvil]

Now knowing that "watch dogs" is to be on all platforms... trying not using it as an excuse, but what if the story trailer is from the 360/ps3 version of the game... they built it for the old gen and just ported it to the new gen... not saying its right or good but is that not a valid problem the game might have run into...

 

[wooty]

The same argument could be said for movie trailers as well then. Yeah sure you can't really improve the visuals on a movie (minus some botox here and there), but it still has to end in that medium too.

 

[softclocks]

This was one of the best ones yet.

Jimquisition can be a mixed bag at times, and I'm glad it is, but this one was filled with greatness and nothing but.

How dare these guys sell a game on graphics and then try to pull the fucking gameplay-card. And Ubisoft's one of the really big ones when it comes to pointlessly pushing the graphics.