Watch Dogs thread (new story trailer and release date announced!)

[Dahak]

Id figure that I will add my impressions here too..

The biggest overall feel I have is it needs some more tweaking, not really sure what exactly but it reminds me of AC1 compared to the later games, most of the base ideas goals are there but needs more.

Graphics are great, able to run ultra and seems to be fine for me, did notice a bit of tearing at first but its seems to have gone away. Not sure what fixed it but I did not change anything.

I had been doing a lot of side missions and did all of act 1 and a few in act 2, do like the ability to try to sneak your way around and take down the guards or avoid them all together.

AI, Been a bit hit and miss for me, mission npc seem to be either stupid some times, and at others seem right on the ball. NPC ai seem fun, taking down a guy by exploding something in front of him and watching his reaction and hearing the reaction of people standing near by when catching him are nice touches.

Multiplayer has been a pain for me, usually only races would work for me and only when other players start it. Did some troubleshooting and it seems like I have narrowed it down to the Windows Firewall, or port Forwarding. Once I had changed those I was able to get into games without the check nat errors.

One thing that I think would have been a good idea, is for the ctOS Centers, instead of fully unlocking the district, it should unlock a portion around it and where the towers are you have to unlock those to fully unlock the district

As for a possible WD2, its highly suggested in the games, I came across audiologs of the guy that built ctOS for chicago and pretty much said that it could rollout to all the major cities so it looks like it would be setup for that

Specs, I7-4770, 16gb ram, 256 SSD OS, 1TB Games, 770 4GB

 

[tornadog]

The game has been growing on me. The voice acting and plot lines are top notch. The hacking mechanism is cool though a bit too simplified. The driving has been my biggest pain point. In normal situations I can go fine but if its a chase or escaping from the cops, its pretty much fail and retry a lot of times. I have pretty much stopped doing any driving missions unless its part of the campaign. I have never been comfortable shooting with the controller and this game is the same. My strategy is pretty much get an assault weapon and spray bullets in the general direction, seems to work most of the time.

I have not tried the online portion as I disabled it right from the get go. I want to finish the campaign once without any disturbance.

 

[BrightCandle]

I have been hacked remotely twice after having failed to catch people reporting me for hacking their phones (which is the only way you seem to get remotely hacked in the game).

The first guy used a graphical glitch area to hide, I couldn't find him and the reason was that my graphics went crazy the moment I went into the area he was in. I found out that was where he was hiding after he got away with the data. The second guy we had a massive chase, then a car chase down the beach which ended in a swim in the sea and I finally gunned him down after about 10 minutes of chase. So far its not been too much of a problem leaving it on.

 

[tornadog]

I hear there's a bug where if you are hacked by someone and you die while the hack is going on, the hacker loses the "contract". Has anybody experienced this?

 

[Majcric]

I just started playing WD today for a short period time. Graphical impressions are positive for me. The game may not look like those early E3 trailers but I think its still the best looking GTA clone type game.

Performance is fine on my rig; I suspect after a patch or 2 it will be even better.

 

[gevorg]

My impressions/tips:

- the word "hacking" can be replaced with "magic" 🙂
- Economy of the game is broken, money is very easy to get (i.e. press button to hack = instant money). I got top tier weapons during Act I.
- If you're pretty good at combat, do not disable reinforcements and do not run from them like you run from cops, just kill them for experience points, use grenade launcher before they come out of cars
- Completing gangster side-missions gives you two skill points each, nice and quick way to build up your hacking skill tree

 

[Majcric]

Luckily for me, the driving gasn't been a problem in this game. But I am very good with W,A,S,D keys. In fact, it is my preferred method in comparsion to everything else.

 

[kyrax12]

I feel like playing these games with a Keyboard/mouse is a pain. Definitely prefer a controller over it.

using Xbox 360 controller.

 

[gorcorps]

I hear there's a bug where if you are hacked by someone and you die while the hack is going on, the hacker loses the "contract". Has anybody experienced this?

You're not supposed to kill the person you're hacking, so if that person dies you lose the contract. I don't think it's a bug, just lazy programming... There's doesn't seem to be a way to tell if the hacker killed them or something else, so it's just an auto lose for the hacker if they die.

I had wondered what would happen if you killed yourself while being hacked, as there's no real death penalty. Now I know, it sounds like it's a viable way to "escape" the hacker you can't find.

 

[sxr7171]

I haven't played the game much as I'm waiting for the patch. I was lucky with AC4 as I waited until 3 patches were released so my initial experience with the game was great.

I must admit that IMHO this is the most graphically advanced looking game I've played. Others may nominate other games for comparison and contender for best looking game.

The stuttering during driving needs a good fix. I have read from people who have tested 6GB cards that VRAM quantity is not so much the issue as it is streaming assets into VRAM. I'm hoping a patch will fix this.

My game is installed on a 840evo and I have 16gb RAM and 3GB VRAM. So I'm expecting they can get this game to run on ultra with those specs. Otherwise I wonder if installing this game on a Ramdrive may help. Except that dealing with a Ramdrive is just a headache.

 

[felang]

There is this one ctOS station that is a plaza and its plastered with guards. The actual terminal is behind these shutters and basically what I did was took the high ground, opened the shutters, fired off the distraction available in there and threw down a load of IEDs. As they come to investigate I blew the grand majority of them up and the remainder couldn't find me and I picked them off with my silence pistol. But then the reinforcements turn up and come through the doors - another classic use of an IED to kill most of the guys.

I use IEDs a lot, they are really effective ways to get rid of guardians and groups of enemies but now I have a grenade launcher it full fills a similar role.

Or just hack cameras from far away and you never have to fire a single shot. Most guards are wearing cameras.

 

[BrightCandle]

Or just hack cameras from far away and you never have to fire a single shot. Most guards are wearing cameras.

And how does that get people dead? I can see you can distract people and potentially sneak in sometimes but I did try that approach a few times on this one and didn't get very far, too many guards in too tight a setting. I hack guard cameras all the time, but that doesn't get me closer to the terminal (which you can't hack remotely).

 

[KentState]

I haven't played the game much as I'm waiting for the patch. I was lucky with AC4 as I waited until 3 patches were released so my initial experience with the game was great.

I must admit that IMHO this is the most graphically advanced looking game I've played. Others may nominate other games for comparison and contender for best looking game.

The stuttering during driving needs a good fix. I have read from people who have tested 6GB cards that VRAM quantity is not so much the issue as it is streaming assets into VRAM. I'm hoping a patch will fix this.

My game is installed on a 840evo and I have 16gb RAM and 3GB VRAM. So I'm expecting they can get this game to run on ultra with those specs. Otherwise I wonder if installing this game on a Ramdrive may help. Except that dealing with a Ramdrive is just a headache.

I was thinking about trying a Ramdrive. I have a SSD RAID 0 set and I still get a lot of stuttering while driving. Turned down graphics to high textures/high settings and still have stuttering.

 

[sze5003]

And how does that get people dead? I can see you can distract people and potentially sneak in sometimes but I did try that approach a few times on this one and didn't get very far, too many guards in too tight a setting. I hack guard cameras all the time, but that doesn't get me closer to the terminal (which you can't hack remotely).

Sometimes you can hack a guard with those go pro cameras and then set off a distraction in the vicinity of the terminal ground support box. Of course many times you need to actually go in and get closer. This worked for the first ctos compound. Did my first gang hideout tonite without any major fuss. I did have to headshot the guy who can call in reinforcements since he was walking around the target that I needed to knock out.

 

[felang]

And how does that get people dead? I can see you can distract people and potentially sneak in sometimes but I did try that approach a few times on this one and didn't get very far, too many guards in too tight a setting. I hack guard cameras all the time, but that doesn't get me closer to the terminal (which you can't hack remotely).

The point is in that specific mission you don´t have to kill anybody, you can hack into the guards´cameras, hack the shutters open and then hack the actual computer or whatever without setting foot inside the compund.

 

[Jeff7181]

I was thinking about trying a Ramdrive. I have a SSD RAID 0 set and I still get a lot of stuttering while driving. Turned down graphics to high textures/high settings and still have stuttering.

What makes you think your disk subsystem is to blame? Have you looked at performance counters and noticed high latency or high queue lengths?

The reason I ask is that even a single SSD shouldn't be a bottleneck, and multiple in RAID 0 definitely shouldn't be a bottleneck unless you're on an older controller that doesn't support TRIM, in which case maybe your SSD performance is lower than it should be - which would be evident in the performance counters.

Otherwise, if you have no indication that disk is a bottleneck beside the fact that you know the game is installed on the disk and textures have to be loaded from the disk and they appear to be loading slowly, spending the money or taking the time to set up a RAM drive will be wasted effort.

 

[sxr7171]

What makes you think your disk subsystem is to blame? Have you looked at performance counters and noticed high latency or high queue lengths?

The reason I ask is that even a single SSD shouldn't be a bottleneck, and multiple in RAID 0 definitely shouldn't be a bottleneck unless you're on an older controller that doesn't support TRIM, in which case maybe your SSD performance is lower than it should be - which would be evident in the performance counters.

Otherwise, if you have no indication that disk is a bottleneck beside the fact that you know the game is installed on the disk and textures have to be loaded from the disk and they appear to be loading slowly, spending the money or taking the time to set up a RAM drive will be wasted effort.

You're probably right. If kentstate is using a raid-0 ssd setup and even people with 6GB VRAM are experiencing stuttering then there must be something else wrong with it. I'm basically not playing until this gets patched.

Especially if even high settings still stutters.

 

[sxr7171]

I was thinking about trying a Ramdrive. I have a SSD RAID 0 set and I still get a lot of stuttering while driving. Turned down graphics to high textures/high settings and still have stuttering.

I will say that it happens mostly when driving only. It does happen when on foot but rarely. This game needs to be patched.

 

[futurefields]

Things like this are almost always down to the engine. Far Cry 3 never got rid of it's inherant stuttering. Ubi Soft's engines suck, they are taped and glued together pieces of other engines that they buy from other companies. Far Cry 3 is still basically Far Cry 1 engine, with a few enhancements. And Assassin's Creed engine is also 7-8 years old. And that's what Watch Dogs is using, those two engines glued together.

 

[Jeff7181]

Looks like there's already DLC - Watch_Dogs - Conspiracy.

"Unlock a standalone mind bending game mode in which cyborgs invaded Chicago. Track them and take them down!"

 

[gorcorps]

Things like this are almost always down to the engine. Far Cry 3 never got rid of it's inherant stuttering. Ubi Soft's engines suck, they are taped and glued together pieces of other engines that they buy from other companies. Far Cry 3 is still basically Far Cry 1 engine, with a few enhancements. And Assassin's Creed engine is also 7-8 years old. And that's what Watch Dogs is using, those two engines glued together.

I don't remember stuttering in FC3, so if it's there it's not that noticeable to me. I thought that was dependent on hardware though (I remember multi-card users were having issues)

 

[Lil Frier]

Ugh...to hell with these drinking games. The one down south is REALLY easy. However, this one where you have to stabilize the sticks for a period of time is awful. I'm getting it taken to me on Level 4, because it makes you stabilize both the left and right stick simultaneously, which is just wrong. I might never beat this, we'll see.

 

[lilrayray69]

I just got a used copy of GTA 5 for 360 (I'm late, I know) and I must say it kind of blows Watchdogs away and puts it to shame.
I do realize GTA 5 had the insane budget of $250M compared to Watchdogs ~$70M, but still.
It just sort of reinforces problems I was having with Watchdogs - mainly the lack of details breaking immersion. GTA 5 is so well detailed it's nearly flawless in that aspect. It of course meets what is expected from a GTA-type game but polishes on everything.
It's small details like the fact people will actually crash into you as a pedestrian, radio stations being different in different people's cars (i.e. steal a gangbangers car, it's probably on rap - steal a hillbilly's car and it's probably on country or rock), the way the ocean floor is so detailed (blew me away when I first saw that - even the fact you could actually dive underwater was cool), and other things like that which make it immersing and impressive. One of the coolest things I've liked in GTA 5 is your character will change the radio station if it doesn't fit with their mood.
Watchdogs just feels bland in comparison, to me. I do like their idea of making a smaller world with more overall interaction, but most of that interaction is repetitive i.e. hacking cameras, electrical boxes, etc..And while I don't think it needs all the somewhat useless mini-games GTA 5 has (bike riding, movie theaters, all that crap) simply the fact that you CAN does add immersion.

 

[sze5003]

I feel like gta and watch dogs are two complete different games. I never did any of the exploration stuff in gta v. I think I went and did it all once and after that I didn't bother with most side quests. Huge open and detailed world but you can't interact with it much.

They are not the same genre to be compared in terms of play style.

 

[KentState]

What makes you think your disk subsystem is to blame? Have you looked at performance counters and noticed high latency or high queue lengths?

The reason I ask is that even a single SSD shouldn't be a bottleneck, and multiple in RAID 0 definitely shouldn't be a bottleneck unless you're on an older controller that doesn't support TRIM, in which case maybe your SSD performance is lower than it should be - which would be evident in the performance counters.

Otherwise, if you have no indication that disk is a bottleneck beside the fact that you know the game is installed on the disk and textures have to be loaded from the disk and they appear to be loading slowly, spending the money or taking the time to set up a RAM drive will be wasted effort.

I was just trying to eliminate any disk IO problems. I already have the RAMDrive software and it's easy to copy the game files over and point Steam to them. Basically, I'm so frustrated with the game at times that I need something else to do until they patch it.