Watch Dogs

[jorgebonafe]

Looks fun... The multiplayer part seems interesting too...
A bit expensive, though... one day, maybe...

[Kazuya Mishima]

Hearing some bad things about it regarding optimization. AMD card users seem to be getting a bad deal. Also driving is arcadey as hell. Drive a small fiberglass sports car into incoming traffic at high speed and you simply knock the obstruction out of the way, more forgiving game mechanics for the masses that don't want a brake button, paradoxically he demonstrates some of the gun combat is very unforgiving.

Total Biscuit runs it through it's paces in a video he released today. While he likes it he has serious reservations about the lack of readiness of the product for the PC market regarding optimization.

Another thing that's somewhat disappointing is the e3 version was graphically downgraded to accommodate platforms and that downgrade has affected the PC version.

[jorgebonafe]

I imagine optimization is the kind of thing they will patch up in the future... I mean, they have to, if TB is right this will run like shit in most computers...

[FaceFoiled]

I pre-ordered it, as it looked interesting enough. For me, I wanted an "open world action game". Basically, I want GTA 5 on the PC, but that's not out yet and this looked like it could fill the gap.

Well, it kinds does. I have not touched the online stuff yet, from the moment I unlocked it (end of my first play session, I spend a lot of time on side missions and exploration), I could not connect to Uplay. It's just out though, so I'm not too bothered by that.

The "hacking" bits are quite fluent, but not as intricate as I hoped. The side missions interest me the most, and can be quite hard (for me :P).

FaceFoiled rating:
3 Pantsu's on head (out of 5).

Reason:
It's fun to play, but seriously not worth the price tag attached to it at the moment. If you want to fill the gap until GTA5 PC like me, wait. :P Additionally, it needs some serious optimization patches and is not as detailed as I would have hoped.

[matty79321]

I haven't been able to play it personally (no money and not-so-great computer), but what gameplay I have seen seems quite lacking both visually and mechanically. The optimization is terrible, as Nvidia GPUs have a steep performance advantage over AMD cards, and both Nvidia's SLI and AMD's CrossFire users are taking massive performance hits over single-card users, as the game doesn't currently have a multi-GPU configuration. Also, for what would seem like last-gen graphics, the performance is pretty terrible, as framerate reaches ~50 FPS on a GTX780 Ti, and ~40 FPS on a R9 290, both on highest settings, 8x MSAA, 1080p, with GPUs overclocked (source: Youtube - LinusTechTips Watch_Dogs Graphics Card Showdown). Besides that, and the arcade-y driving, it doesn't seem to be that bad of a game if you can run it, and it certainly has its gameplay values, but I feel that it should have stayed in dev for a little while longer to actually complete the game before release (something a lot of companies seem to be doing lately that really sucks balls).

- my $0.02

[ThePowerofTower]

... both on highest settings, 8x MSAA, 1080p, with GPUs overclocked (source: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJnrifA ... rF6aAWf_Dx]

It was my understanding that if the game runs at the same resolution as your screen/moniter, it is literally impossible for Anti-Aliasing of any kind to happen because there are no redundant pixels to recolor. It should get much better settings without the MSAA (And maybe FXAA if you have a larger moniter, I guess?)
I've GameFly'd it for the PS3, and I'm really glad that they dodged the whole "Let's make it console-specific/only for Next Gen" thing, and released it for every console known to man short of a PS2, an Atari, and the Abacus. I mean, really. Make it accessible. Nice job, studio.

[matty79321]

It was my understanding that if the game runs at the same resolution as your screen/moniter, it is literally impossible for Anti-Aliasing of any kind to happen because there are no redundant pixels to recolor.

(I'm writing this at 3 AM, so sorry if I don't make any sense) As you might know AA is a method of sampling a group of pixels and coloring them on the monitor to create the smoothest image possible, generally while keeping gameplay smooth. Likewise, AA is able to sample a single pixel in multiple areas (multisampling), using some form of algorithm to find the color of a section of the pixel, and find the average color for that pixel (if it makes it easier, think of a pixel as a square picture, with a gradiant from red to yellow. if you take a sample of the picture in the middle and two sides, and find the average, the effective color of the entire image would be orange). As to what type of AA should be used, multi-sampling or MSAA is generally more taxing on the system, but with a more realistic image (generally the default in games when FXAA or TXAA is disabled), where FXAA or Fast Approximate AA is generally faster, but at a cost of detail. So maybe using MSAA isn't the greatest option for Watch_Dogs as of recent releases, unless the system running it is pretty beefy or there is an optimization hack from the community. That being said, however, it is still possible to have AA on a max-resolution program.

P.S. I'm not sure if you meant size or resolution, but size wouldn't change how well the program runs with AA, its the resolution (i.e., a 1080p 90in TV would be able to run games better than a 2160p (4K) 24in monitor, since the graphics card doesn't have to create as many pixels.

[jorgebonafe]

Hummm...

[DaveYanakov]

Whether or not the graphic quality was intentionally limited, the gameplay in no way lives up to the potential and promise of earlier 'gameplay' trailers

[jorgebonafe]

Yeah.. I'm feeling less and less eager to play this. I guess I'll save my money for when GTA gets a pc release.

[Gunnerman21]

It seems like the triple A rating doesn't live up to it's name anymore.

[EpicAaron]

I try not to get hyped for big releases anymore. The mainstream industry seems to be focused on adding gimmicks and graphics to sell their titles rather than trying to create a solid or original game.

Maybe Minecraft/BTW has broken me or something, but I find it very hard to play generic linear story games these days.

[Katalliaan]

AAA studios have the issue that the publishers don't want to fund anything unique; it's safer for them to just remake the same handful of games with (usually) better graphics than to risk it with new gameplay. They know linear shooters are a reliable source of income, so we end up seeing a lot of them.