Scared of Watchdogs

[CrazyBlaze]

It's not as good as older titles like Mafia 2, The Saboteur, Saints Row 3/4 or Far Cry 3 and TBH

You just lost all credibility ...

Giving a reason as to why he lost all credibility would be helpful. As it stands that post just makes you look like you are trolling.

 

[pilouuuu]

I am also scared of Watch Dogs. It may bite! Hard! It looked like a good dog, but now it doesn't look so nice.

But even if that's the case we still have the loyal and fluffy Sleeping Dogs which may be the underdog, but what a nice dog it is! Sleeping Dogs never lets us down.

 

[spacevagrant]

I found it to be mostly boring for the points already raised by KingsGambit. One thing I found surprising and not cool on any level is the random acts of violence against women you stumble across while walking through the city. An example would be a guy and girl are fighting and she says she is going to leave him. Then she pushes him to hit her and says that is all he is good at doing or some such then WHAM he hits her and she runs off crying. This happens randomly and I ran into it several times with different couples. Not my idea of a good time. Ubisoft seems tone deaf when it comes to sensitive issues likes this.

 

[pntaylor]

I was planning to pre-order but held off once it was delayed. After watching some of the game play trailers and reading community feedback I'm going to wait and see how it's perceived after it's been out for a few days. In all likelihood I'll still buy it as it does seem like a fun an interesting game.

 

[Atmos Duality]

The graphics were never going to be what was promised considering that the game is still coming out on 360 PS3 and WiiU, unless Ubisoft could have accomplished something no other game company has ever done, there was always going to be a graphics downgrade compared to what was shown.

If they aren't capable of delivering what they promise and what they show, they shouldn't be bothering showing it in the first place.

There really is no excuse for that.

 

[EternallyBored]

The graphics were never going to be what was promised considering that the game is still coming out on 360 PS3 and WiiU, unless Ubisoft could have accomplished something no other game company has ever done, there was always going to be a graphics downgrade compared to what was shown.

If they aren't capable of delivering what they promise and what they show, they shouldn't be bothering showing it in the first place.

There really is no excuse for that.

I would agree with you on this, but it is a problem that a large chunk of the video game industry faces in one form or another, especially the triple AAA industry, while it is not a good thing, it is folly to still be surprised when it happens.

This instance isn't even the worst case of graphics downgrade, there have been far more deceptive tactics in the past (Aliens: colonial Marines being one of many), and Ubisoft was careful to pick their words to not actually come out and say the early trailers would be exactly how the final product would look.

It's dumb, and it shouldn't happen, but at this point, we as consumers should know better than to trust a developer when they market graphics for a cross-platform title, as soon as Ubisoft announced that the game was being made for the 360 and PS3 it was easy to tell that Ubisoft would not deliver on the initial trailers shown, or really even come close.

 

[sXeth]

This instance isn't even the worst case of graphics downgrade, there have been far more deceptive tactics in the past (Aliens: colonial Marines being one of many), and Ubisoft was careful to pick their words to not actually come out and say the early trailers would be exactly how the final product would look.

I think the earliest one I remember was all the commercials and magazine ads plastered all over for Final Fantasy Seven.

That showed all the FMV scenes exclusively. I think maybe you got 1 or 2 frames of the actual models while FMV explosions or the like were going on in the background to distract you. I distinctly remember wanting a PSone to play it, then seeing it on my cousins and being like... yeah nope.

 

[Smiley Face]

Oh, from the title i assumed you were scared of actual dogs, to which i could've related, since i was Cynophobic most of my life and the mere sight of a larger dog causes my body to freeze and my heartrate increase

I had the same thing, with an extended family who pretty much all had dogs. Made some visits uncomfortable. It's gone now because about 4 years ago, my mum came home with a surprise birthday present for herself/my brother - a puppy. I swear, for a whole year, I walked through the door, dived for the couch, and didn't let my feet get anywhere near the ground, as it wasn't big enough to jump on the couch at that point. Eventually, I calmed down, because you psychologically can't maintain that state of fear for that long, and at this point I'm sort of comfortable around some larger dogs - but those were an uncomfortable couple of years.


Vis a vis the game, I'm also trepidatious, but I'm not going to treat a bunch of random people on the internet as a reliable source - I'm going to wait on reviews, get a look at some gameplay, then make up my mind on it. Gotta say, I really want it to be good, because I liked the idea of it when I first heard about it, and I'm itching for something new for the PS4, so if this isn't good, I may go out and grab a copy of Wolfenstein rather than waiting for a price drop.

I will wait at least a couple of days before making the decision though - first I'm going to play Episode 4 of The Wolf Among Us, hell yes.

 

[drummond13]

So far the footage looks like a GTA clone to me. I don't believe every game has to be original, provided it's good, and I LIKE the GTA games, but all the hype made me feel this was supposed to be something new. Not the same thing we've seen dozens of times before with a small hacking gimmick.

The Clueless Gamer footage made it look like just another AAA title. Not bad, but nothing worth getting excited about. I guess we'll all know for sure in a few days.

 

[Something Amyss]

Oh, we already know that's going to be in the game. They bragged about it. You'll have to hack certain security centers so you could hack other parts of the city. Why? Because you gotta give players something to do, and the illusion of challenge is better than nothing.

Well, nothing says "fun" like "pointless busywork."

That's why I Kickstarted "Spreadsheet Hero!"

 

[XDSkyFreak]

Coming in late after a serious run through the game. Want to add a few things to what KingGambit said:

The bad: -driving isn't actualy THAT bad when you get right down to it (at least it felt ... functional for me) however what sucks the fun out of it is the chases which basicaly resolve way to soon via you hacking something that blows off all chasers or the totaly random way you get flung of bikes (I tested it: ran into a the same pole 5-6 times. first 2 times the pole falls, the third I get flung of, 4th falls last 2 get flung off. And I was bassicaly coming at it from the same angle at max speed everytime)
-music: there are actualy no radio stations in this game. Yeah. You have a playlist of songs and you get more by hacking them from civilians. Why on earth I can't set up playlists with the ones I like or even use the songs from my own god damn computer is beyond me.
-shooting: this one ... is nothing you haven't seen a million times before. I will admit though I chuckled the first time I hacked the grenade a dude carried in his pocket and he went "ah shit" before blowing up.
-story: my god ubisoft ... get a new writing staff. "hey we have this cool game about how technology invades our lives and you get to play as hacker. Except instead of a moraly ambiguous character that exploits the system for his own gains we have a kind and noble family man with a tragic past for a hero, and instead of good intentions beeing corrupted by too much power we have

Spoiler

a mob boss basically financing the system so he can better control his enemies and friends

, removing all grey areas and making it a good guy vs bad guy.

Worst things in it?: -The hacking ... ironicaly. This isn't hacking ... it's ... it's a QTE that goes on for the entire game: press X to win (blow up enemies, prevent reinforcements, destroy cars chasing you, stop helicopters. Even when stealthing ... I expected more data-theft, investigation. Instead here it's a built in cheat code to make everythig dull and easy. You want better hacking you go play DeusEx: Human Revolution ... that had better implemented hackig in it.
-the reputation system: it's bullshit. Oh I was in high speed chase and that fucking idiot civilian jumped in front of my car: negative rep. Oh I had to cap a cop in the legwith my 9mm because he was driling me with an assault rifle: police officer homocide negative rep. What is that? I activated some bollards, making the cops crash and sending on of them flying through the windshield into a brick wall head first? Carry on stallwart hero of the city. what? you detonated a steam pipe, causing god know how much property damage, crashing several police cars and giving those in them severe burns? Eh, it's fine. Blew up a transformer, causing god knows how many accidents and deaths? You were just trying to sneak around, it's ok. The system is retarded and inconsisten is my point. And it adds alot of bussywork to repair the rep after basicaly evey driving mission or cop encounter. Oh and the worst thing? No form of punishment for beeing a total dick and hacking the bank account of a cancer patient, or of some people in bad shit. Yeah ... you can be a total shit stain and steal money from fucking cancer patients without any repercusion what so ever, but don't you date hurt a cop, or the city will hate you.
-Pointless bussywork: this game is full of it. First go hack a ctOS center to be able to do anything in said district, then go hack several more ctOS towers that unlock after the center so you get the hideouts, then go profiling (which was interesting at first, but quickly turned bland when I realised you can't actualy use it to learn anything important beyond a short blurb abut said person (like you scan one guys it says smoker, you scan the next it says he buys porn alot, but you can't really dig up data on these people ... to make them feel more than some walking bank accoun) to unlock side missions ... and I won't even get into how everything in this game is made more complicated by adding several stepts to what should be a simple proces (profile, hack account, find ATM, extract money from account) or how the map gets bukaked with collectibles way more than in any AC game to date. Most collectibles or side stuff don't even add much (aside the criminal convoy sniper rifle which is insane levels of OP). Really the only ones worth doing the the QR codes (if you want a tommy gun), criminal convoys (best gun in game), there is one that gives a silenced AR, and the privacy invasions for some gigles (they actualy recreate the plumber porn scenarion in one of them ...)

The good stuff?: -does the fact I'm still playing it count? I mean, it is most definetly NOT some new revolutionary game, but at it's most basic level it is still somewhat enjoyable, and it feels that at least some effort went into it. It's not a bad game, but don't expect your mind to be blown at anything in it.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I would agree with you on this, but it is a problem that a large chunk of the video game industry faces in one form or another, especially the triple AAA industry, while it is not a good thing, it is folly to still be surprised when it happens.

That's the most ridiculous part: Some people still act surprised when obvious bait-and-switch schemes work, even when the difference is plain as night and day.

It's dumb, and it shouldn't happen, but at this point, we as consumers should know better than to trust a developer when they market graphics for a cross-platform title, as soon as Ubisoft announced that the game was being made for the 360 and PS3 it was easy to tell that Ubisoft would not deliver on the initial trailers shown, or really even come close.

You'd think eventually, folks would take a hint when a company has to put a pile of disclaimers at the end of every demonstration. It's an obvious red flag because it means they are LEGALLY telling you that what is being shown isn't actually what they developed OR what they have developed they have no confidence in.

My policy is to treat disclaimer-laden demos as infomercials; overhyped and worthless.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

-the reputation system: it's bullshit. Oh I was in high speed chase and that fucking idiot civilian jumped in front of my car: negative rep. Oh I had to cap a cop in the legwith my 9mm because he was driling me with an assault rifle: police officer homocide negative rep. What is that? I activated some bollards, making the cops crash and sending on of them flying through the windshield into a brick wall head first? Carry on stallwart hero of the city. what? you detonated a steam pipe, causing god know how much property damage, crashing several police cars and giving those in them severe burns? Eh, it's fine. Blew up a transformer, causing god knows how many accidents and deaths? You were just trying to sneak around, it's ok. The system is retarded and inconsisten is my point. And it adds alot of bussywork to repair the rep after basicaly evey driving mission or cop encounter. Oh and the worst thing? No form of punishment for beeing a total dick and hacking the bank account of a cancer patient, or of some people in bad shit. Yeah ... you can be a total shit stain and steal money from fucking cancer patients without any repercusion what so ever, but don't you date hurt a cop, or the city will hate you.

Keep in mind that people don't know that you have unrestricted access to everything that is networkable in the entire city. When those bollards pop up and the police officer careens out the windscreen it is a tragic accident (or someone who raised the bollards too late to stop the suspect), when someone's bank account gets drained it is probably some scummy internet hacker and when the transformers blow up it is equipment malfunction. But when the Vigilante shows up and starts shooting cops or recklessly speeds through downtown without any care for who gets in is way that is directly attributable to the Vigilante. The reputation system reflects that; As long as you appear to do good stuff, keep innocents out of harms way and evade the cops people will respect you, go around acting like a loose cannon and people will fear you. But they can't base their opinion about you on things they don't know that you are responsible for.

 

[Ambitiousmould]

To be honest, I don't I think I could be disappointed. I just tend to ignore hype and ignore how good the devs say it's going to be because they aren't going to say otherwise. After all, hope is the first step on the road to disappointment. What I am expecting is a fairly standard sandbox shooter with one or two interesting (at least for a while) game mechanics, which I feel is a pretty safe assumption. And at £39.99 on steam it isn't any more expensive than games have been for the past fuck knows how many years, so with the technological advancement since then it feels to me like a pretty good deal.

What I want to know is about the multiplayer. I know that along with FPSs talking about such things is considered reasonably unholy on this site, but I want to know if I can go on it with a friend and have the choice of playing co op missions/campaign or arse about shooting/running over/blowing each other up in free roam. If it has those features, I'll buy it.

 

[TheAsterite]

I like how people complain about the driving in this game. I bet they're the same people that complained about the driving in GTA IV, which is why they made driving 5x worse in GTA V. They'll never be satisfied.

I'd also like to know what people thought when they saw the e3 reveal trailer. We're getting exactly what they showed, nothing more, nothing less (other than the graphics).

 

[Blitsie]

Grabbed my copy today, have to promote it this weekend so got myself a free PS4 copy hahaha, gawd I love my job.

Anyway, I can honestly say I'm glad I gave this game the benefit of the doubt. The graphics are of course a big downgrade but its still quite the looker at spots, there's a proper crapton of stuff to do and everything is quite well crafted (doesn't have that disjointed, gamey feel to it that AC games have) so going through the side content is actually genuinely fun. Hacking is pretty well done but not that big of a game changer, so far I can do pretty cool things like change traffic lights, pull up bridges and have those road blocker poles pop up, I see I can later get a blackout option which kills the whole city's power which sounds super cool.

Overall I'm impressed, its by far not the game changer they put it up to be but I'm immensely enjoying myself and finding it hard to put the controller down, so that's good. Definitely worth getting if you're interested in a solid sandbox game.

Oh, and the spider tank is the most fracking awesome thing I've ever played as.

 

[pearcinator]

There's a lot of hate out there...unjustified though because I think the game is very good.

I like it better than GTAV so far, will it last? Maybe not but the mini-games are great distractions when things get too repetitive. They are a nice way of mixing up the gameplay. I can play it on Ultra/High. Ultra in most cases and high in a couple of others and the game looks great!

Driving is not bad, feels similar to GTAV to me. It's not truly 'revolutionary' but it's great for a new IP. I am sure the inevitable sequels will be better as Ubisoft is pretty good at listening to feedback to improve future installments. Don't listen to all the hate though.

 

[SonicWaffle]

TLR - I wish I could print out this post and put it on my wall.

Allot of People have gotten Watchdogs early by playing it offline and they have talked they have said alot of bad things about the game that might have some points to it but I don't know if they are telling the truth or trolling I'm just a little scared Watchdogs may not be the game we got hyped for back in 2012. Opinion?

In short, it's good but not great. It's not up to the hype, not even close, but it's good.

Starting with the bad:
- Driving is horrendous. It's so bad I am actively avoiding driving missions where possible and being chased by police is such a horrid experience I simply stop and let them arrest me. The radio stations also pipe out terrible music, so much so it's the first sandbox game I've actively turned off the car music. Driving responsiveness is negligible. ie. you only give general suggestions to the vehicle (stop, go, turn) and it takes it under consideration.

God yes. Driving cars in this game, unless you get a high-end sports vehicle, feels like riding a greased-up Orca whale down a big hill and trying to get him to go into a hairpin turn at the bottom. He will not appreciate this. He will throw a fit and spin in angry circles, roaring and thrashing his tail, causing untold property damage and knocking down civilians like they were particularly feeble bowling pins. The only way to mitigate the whale's rage is to ride him as slowly as possible, but since the police are riding on (to drag this metaphor out to painful levels) laser-guided precision sharks, going slowly is a death sentence for poor Shamu. Whatever you're driving, they are faster than you. They can brake and turn better than you. They will also gang up on you. If you manage to duck them and hide in an alley, they'll loiter around the area investigating (points to Ubisoft for a decent cop AI, at least) and if they spot your car they'll start shooting at you even if your crime was as minor as running a stop light.

If, by some miracle of miracles, you lose them completely you can set off back to your destination. Get outside the grey circle and you're home free. Except that they use the cameras of the city to check for your face, instigating "random" checks which are usually at both your current location and the very next street you're about to head onto. Floor it if you like, but the checks will always be one step ahead of you and you'll pick up a tail again almost immediately. Thanks to the aforementioned greasy whale style of handling, your vehicle will not be manouverable to avoid them for very long. One of the first side missions I picked up was to transport a wanted car from a garage to another location, but after about ten attempts I just gave up and quit because however far I ran, they always found me. It's painful.

- The shooting isn't great. It's "functional" but there's no satisfying gunplay to be found. Think Resident Evil 4, but with strafing, only much more ungainly. I tried an AR (Alternate Reality) shooting minigame and aiming was an absolute chore.

The shooting is also usually accompanied by taking cover and stealthing around an area. A nice idea, but the cover is so wonky you'll usually be spotted fairly early and end up shooting it out with the guards anyway. You can use various distractions to occupy guards, but if you then creep up and take them down you can't move the bodies, guaranteeing that after all your hard work the next guard will soon spot them and sound the alarm unless you abandon subtlety and start popping headshots. Way to be sneaky, Aiden.

- Controls are cumbersome. There are so many functions and menus it puts Far Cry 3 to shame. I've failed missions on multiple occasions because my control of Aeden is rudimentary. The menu is horrid to navigate and there's a lot of stuff whose functions I can't even guess at. I don't understand the need for a horrid sticky cover system at all (Splinter Cell style).

Agreed again. The controls seem to be a mishmash of other Ubi games, with free-running taken direct from Assassins Creed except without the climbing, and that to actually free run (which in this context means "vault over low obstacles") you need to hold both the right trigger and the B-button. Hacking is a nice idea, but in practice you're often moving - or your target is moving - so fast that all you have time to do is hold the X button to get paid. You won't often have time to read the little tidbits of info on a target. Shooting is innacurate, with what I assumed to be a guaranteed headshot from six feet away pinging off into a wall behind the target. The movement stick is also hella sensitive, with the pressure difference between walk and run being minimal, presenting a problem in the multiplayer "invasion" mode where the best bet is to act like an ordinary citizen. Just a hair too much pressure and Aiden breaks briefly into a jog and alerts the target to his presence.

- You cannot customise Aeden or change his outfit, at all, but we can reskin/retexture it. You can buy the different skins from the clothes store (same outfit, different colour combinations, textures (eg. leather, wool, etc) and caps.

The bulk of which look ridiculous for the setting. I've currently got Aiden outfitted in a bright blue-and-red combo because it appears to make no damn difference at all; for a stealthy hacker he sure does like to draw attention to himself with garish outfits and constantly wearing a mask in situations that don't warrant it.

- There's a binary-morality system depending on how you solve side missions, where people hate or admire you. I went from hated to admired and saw some cool changes. I hacked one person having a text conversation about how cool it was that I was right there next to them. Made me smile.

Another idea that's nice in theory but rubbish in execution. You can be an absolute paragon of virtue in your missions but still lose a ton of reputation when your vehicle inevitably skids on a wet corner and plows down a convents worth of nuns on their way to church. It lacks any sense of actual morality to boot - helping people will cause them to admire the Vigilante, stealing from people and generally being a fucking menace to society (blowing things up, shorting out lights or exploding water mains etc) won't do anything at all. Apparently nobody in Chicago can put two and two together and realise that the cyber-hero who manipulates the city's computer systems to his own ends might also be the guy greedily siphoning funds out of their bank accounts.

Still, it's playable and interesting enough to be worth a look by anyone interested in sandbox games. There is a freedom to explore, tackle content in whatever order and in most missions, many ways in which to tackle it. There are some cool moments to be found, though it takes a lot of looking to find them.

I agree. For all my gripes, it isn't an un-fun game, and will probably keep you entertained for some time. I'd recommend it to pass the time, but it's hardly the revolutionary experience we were expecting way back when. Don't go into it with your expectations too high, and you probably won't be disappointed too badly.