Watch Dogs

Fair enough... but it's the first I've ever heard of a PC game with activation DRM (Steam, Origin, Uplay, etc.) that actually plays early, regardless of having media. Combined with the fact that it just leaked on PC... it's not as if it's an unreasonable conclusion. Console copies are a totally different story (as I pointed out), but AAA PC games are very rarely able to be played early by any means other than piracy.
 
song414 said:
Just wanted to give everyone a heads up. Fired up the game and i have 2x 290's and with crossfire enabled i get ~30fps on ultra on opening gameplay. When I disable crossfire I get 50-60fps. In other words do not enable crossfire until ubi releases patch or amd updates drivers.

They have a few days before official release so fingers crossed it is fixed by then.
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well this bit of news just put another tick-mark in the "do not buy" list I was still on the fence right before reading this.

I realize graphics aren't everything, but there is a reason I spend what much money on GPU's and 1440p screens. It's because I want the best experience possible. When a company willingly says "screw those guys, we don't have to code or give them options to enjoy their swanky hardware" I take a little bit of offense. And while they may not have said it, there are many signs that they just don't give a shit about us PC users.

I may still pick up a copy if the trusted reviews are all just raving about the fun level. I had fun in TF2 and Orcs must die series.

Ubi set this cluster fuck up themselves by promising (and showing) the amazing footage all that time ago. There are no takie backsies in this world without paying the price.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
Here's what SLi is doing right now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKfNUX5ima4
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Meh, pirated copy + compressed to shit youtube video + the guy doesn't appear to understand video settings.

I'll give Ubi the benefit of the doubt and wait for the game to actually release, then decide for myself, on my own system, in my own bunny slippers. Besides the possibility of a day 1 patch, NVIDIA will also likely release their Watch Dogs optimized driver on launch day.
 
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Performance is a shit show on PC. 2600k @ 4.7 and an overclocked 290 - 30-50 fps at 1440p. No improvement, if anything it gets worse, crossfired 290s. Graphics seem okay, maybe GTA4 with modded textures good.
 
This game is GTA 4 all over again.

Running at 1680x1050, everything max *except* using FXAA + no SSAO.

In-doors, my 280x is being maxed at 100% usage for about 55-60fps.
Outdoors, 50% GPU usage, about 60% CPU usage, 2.5 GB RAM usage, ~45fps. It's definitely only using 2 threads.

Worst port I've seen in a while. I'm going to spend the weekend OCing and hopefully break 50fps with this POS.
 
looks like i'll take an indefinite pass as well. thanks to the guinea pigs out there. the multiplayer seemed pretty cheesy to me as well - only way i'd buy it in the future is if the single player experience is a must play game.
 
Messed around with the settings for a while.
1920x1200, everything maxed with Temporal AA gives me about 40-45fps driving, 50fps on foot.

The game skips and stutters a lot while driving, probably something to do with streaming data. I'm playing from a Samsung 840 Pro as well.
Probably because it's only using 2.5 GB of RAM.

I can tolerate locking my fps to 30 for a consistent frame rate, but the skipping while driving is unbearable.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
Messed around with the settings for a while.
1920x1200, everything maxed with Temporal AA gives me about 40-45fps driving, 50fps on foot.

The game skips and stutters a lot while driving, probably something to do with streaming data. I'm playing from a Samsung 840 Pro as well.
Probably because it's only using 2.5 GB of RAM.

I can tolerate locking my fps to 30 for a consistent frame rate, but the skipping while driving is unbearable.
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Yep. It's a skip and stuttering show unless you choose medium textures. The high and ultra textures are no match for a standard 7200RPM mechanical drive. On Ultra textures my HDD light literally stayed solid lit up and it was jerky unplayable mess. It's not demanding on GPU or CPU really. It's the constant streaming of textures off the drive.

This reminds me of the AC4 engine if it had high res textures and fast motion.
 
SilverSliver said:
Spot on. Engine and gameplay is basically AC4 plus hacking plus cars.
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It's a shame it's a stuttering and hitching mess. The game itself is awesome.. The constant HDD churning and hitching makes it completely unenjoyable. It isn't even as if it's all that demanding of a game. Everywhere I read.. Hitching and stuttering is the main complaint.. Even seeing it with people using SSD's..
 
It's not that bad.








Gameplay is fun but I definitely think there is a SLI issue. Game runs 40 FPS on or off.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
This game is GTA 4 all over again.

Running at 1680x1050, everything max *except* using FXAA + no SSAO.

In-doors, my 280x is being maxed at 100% usage for about 55-60fps.
Outdoors, 50% GPU usage, about 60% CPU usage, 2.5 GB RAM usage, ~45fps. It's definitely only using 2 threads.

Worst port I've seen in a while. I'm going to spend the weekend OCing and hopefully break 50fps with this POS.
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so how is actual gameplay...is the hacking interesting or does it get old fast?...are player invasions implemented well?

how do you even know all the things you can hack as you are speeding down a street?...isn't it all a blur of icons and text??
 
Alright.
The one setting I found that actually impacts performance is Level of Detail (The first setting).

It has 4 options. Each setting down gets me about 5 fps.
Putting it to the lowest setting locks me at 60fps. This is regardless of every other setting.

so how is actual gameplay...is the hacking interesting or does it get old fast?...are player invasions implemented well?

how do you even know all the things you can hack as you are speeding down a street?...isn't it all a blur of icons and text??
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I did the opening mission to get access to free roam, I spent the rest of my time messing with graphics options...
 
SilverSliver said:
Spot on. Engine and gameplay is basically AC4 plus hacking plus cars.
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This isn't using the same engine as AC4. Assassin's Creed used the anvil engine. Watch Dogs is using the disrupt engine.

But the performance leaves alot to be desired. I get about the same performance at 1080p as I do 2560x1600 on a GTX680. To get smooth steady framerate I have to set it to medium. Its quite easy to tell the difference between high and medium. Maybe there will be a drive update that will improve performance.

Granted I'm the Xbox one. I'll go back play this the PC after gone through a few generations of videos cards.
 
Been playing it for a while, on SLI GTX-Titans and 4930K w/ 16GB 1866 Dominator Plat w/ Evo SSD's, inside i get stable FPS, outside I get textures sliding around and stuttering. All in game settings at Ultra.
 
Well if you're bored of GTA then you'll be bored of this.
Drive a little, shoot a little, the hacking mechanics are more like mini-games than actual game mechanics.

And it does all aspects inferior to GTA.

It lacks... inspiration? Creativity? Originality? It's just so bland and uninteresting.
No bueno.
 
qbanb8582 said:
This isn't using the same engine as AC4. Assassin's Creed used the anvil engine. Watch Dogs is using the disrupt engine.

But the performance leaves alot to be desired. I get about the same performance at 1080p as I do 2560x1600 on a GTX680. To get smooth steady framerate I have to set it to medium. Its quite easy to tell the difference between high and medium. Maybe there will be a drive update that will improve performance.

Granted I'm the Xbox one. I'll go back play this the PC after gone through a few generations of videos cards.
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I didn't mean they used the same engine, I meant it feels the same. AC4 was so poorly optimized for PC and kinda felt like the whole game was in mud. This feels the same. There is nothing here, gameplay wise, that GTA or Saints Row does not do a lot better.
 
SilverSliver said:
I didn't mean they used the same engine, I meant it feels the same. AC4 was so poorly optimized for PC and kinda felt like the whole game was in mud. This feels the same. There is nothing here, gameplay wise, that GTA or Saints Row does not do a lot better.
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Eh? What? AC4 felt amazing on the PC, it was super smooth and looked amazing aside from the volumetric smoke that would plummet my FPS.

More day time shots.












The game can look amazing at times and horrible at others. The lighting seems to be the issue, also they disabled dynamic shadows from spot lighting, makes me angry >< Night time could've been so much better.
 
NickJames said:
More day time shots.

The game can look amazing at times and horrible at others. The lighting seems to be the issue, also they disabled dynamic shadows from spot lighting, makes me angry >< Night time could've been so much better.
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the game looks really dated...textures on the cars look awful...the character model/clothing look better but Ubisoft really misled people by calling this game next-gen...what the heck is taking up all the resources?

as far as gameplay I still don't understand the hacking ability...is the entire city and most of its inhabitants hackable or only a select few?...doesn't sound like they used this feature in the most creative way...sounds very basic...game had potential but I think it became something so potentially complicated that they watered it down to its most simple form
 
I would like to take this opportunity to address people who keep saying "2 GB is enough" and remind you that both Wolfenstein New Order and Watch_Dogs have issues on 2 GB cards. That's two games within 1 week of each other.
The future is bright.

<3
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
I would like to take this opportunity to address people who keep saying "2 GB is enough" and remind you that both Wolfenstein New Order and Watch_Dogs have issues on 2 GB cards. That's two games within 1 week of each other.
The future is bright.

<3
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Watch Dogs would have issues would 200GB cards at this point.. The stutter is strong with this one.
 
polonyc2 said:
the game looks really dated...textures on the cars look awful...the character model/clothing look better but Ubisoft really misled people by calling this game next-gen...what the heck is taking up all the resources?

as far as gameplay I still don't understand the hacking ability...is the entire city and most of its inhabitants hackable or only a select few?...doesn't sound like they used this feature in the most creative way...sounds very basic...game had potential but I think it became something so potentially complicated that they watered it down to its most simple form
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Basically the entire city is controlled by a single network. Hacking people works on basically an RNG. Some citizens are talking on their phone (hack communication for random event or funny conversation) some citizens are just rich (take money) someone could be getting setup to be attacked by an angry ex (view text messages, track suspect, do event). It works the same as FarCry 3 or Assassins Creed, you need to hack these node networks that enable hacking of different utilities throughout the city such as telephone poles, barriers, gates etc.. I think the game makes pretty fun use of the hacking ability, could it be better? Probably but no one has thought of it yet. It's a great attempt and I hope this continues to be a franchise and gets better overtime like AC and FarCry. Ubisoft tends to get better with age.

Also as far as stuttering and hitches are concerned, yeah it runs poorly but I am sure that's just the sketchy version floating around. Day 1 should release a big performance patch and drivers from Nvidia and AMD to fix it. Let's just say my rig below runs at roughly 40-50 FPS outdoors and 70+ indoors, 2560x1440 ultra smaa, SLI is not working yet.
 
I've tried it and so far it's been fun with a learning curve of getting use to the game mechanics. It's clearly a mashup of AC and GTA. Nothing ground breaking by any means but still enjoyable. I don't know if it's worth the full price tag but I can see getting plenty of entertainment out of it. The hacking part so far brings a little different element to the GTA formula but then again I don't know what it brings deeper into the game as you get new skills as you level up. The graphics are what they are, everyone has there own opinion on that. They work for the game and don't take away from my enjoyment.
With a game like this it's tough to say how it will be long term. The AC/GTA open world game play can be good or bad if the story play isn't engaging enough and if the extras don't keep your attention in between. It's hard to try all of it in a short time to know if it's worth it but if you've played the AC and/or GTA series you know what to expect. It's main story with side quests, gear unlocks, mini games, collectibles and stats accomplishments.


FYI this is my first post only because for some reason I can't post under my other user name.
 
Can anyone tell the difference between Ultra vs High? I've been switching back and fourth so far I can't really tell the difference. I was wondering if anyone else has and could where the difference can be noticed.

EDIT: stupid me, i just realized textures have a ultra option. Now I can see a difference.
 
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