The threat of Watch Dogs

[Patrick R]

Oh man, that's a pretty great recreation of Chicago, though. It might be worth a rental for me on that alone.

[castorp]

Pop pop POP

[Twig]

I like combat, but I like the idea of a game like this without combat every five feet, too. We have combat everywhere. Do something else. Shame TRIPLE AY can't/won't do that.

[sclpls]

I'm definitely interested in this game because of the Chicago setting. If they get it right it should be fun to explore because for my money Chicago has the best architecture of any American city. I'm not so concerned with how crazy violent or nonviolent it is just because I'm looking for games that just present a cool space to exist in for awhile.

[TychoCelchuuu]

The first time this game was revealed with that big (scripted?) gameplay sequence I got super pumped. It was like a William Gibson novel in video game form. A freeform combination hacking/puzzle/adventure/action game. It was a really big deal that the protagonist had a gun and a lot of time was spent walking around figuring things out. That got me very excited. Now the game looks like Grand Theft Auto with a magical phone.

[SecretAsianMan]

Every time I see this game all I can think of is this

[Roderick]

They crossed the line, and for that... I'll make them pay.

Honestly. You can't write that anymore.

[ADDED] Haha, 'They think I'm a man out of control... but I've never had so much control.' This is great. The magic phone could be nice, but it could also be the equivalent of blowing up well covers in AC:Revelations. Just some scenery interaction here and there. With open world games like these, it's so hard to live up to the wild imaginations of the audience. I wouldn't be surprised if this turned out to be another Sleeping Dogs: competently made, but nothing special.

Then again, this is Ubisoft, and they did do the paradigm shift thing with Assassin's Creed back in the day. Who knows. They think I don't know anything... but I've never known so much.

[Roderick]

They think I'm a man who never double-posts... but I'm double-posting right now.

[melmer]

Delayed until next spring

http://blog.ubi.com/watch-dogs-delay/

http://www.allgamesbeta.com/2013/10/watch-dogs-delayed-to-spring-2014.html

That's going to fuck up a lot of console preorder bundles

(Game looks major boring dog do do's anyway)

[JonCole]

Yeah, I'm on the line with a Amazon rep to see what can be done about that bundle. Ideally, I'd just convert it to a non-bundle but I guess I'd be okay with another game. Already digitally preordered the only other game I really want for PS4, though (BF4).

[melmer]

I've changed my opinion of kill zone watching some recent videos and am now quite looking forward to it. You can zip line on command! As in you have a drone that flies around with you all the time and at any point you can shot out a zip line from it and away you go weeeeeeee (I'm easily pleased)

[JonCole]

I would begrudgingly take Killzone. I would be fine with Assassin's Creed 4. Anything else would be a bit of an imposition.

[toblix]

Have they said anything about why they're delaying? I wonder if they saw GTA V 5 and decided they needed to make their city more interesting.

[melmer]

Polish and fine tuning is all they say in the press release. Maybe they're scared of average - low review scores in the wake of GTA V

[Justin Leego]

It would have launched super close to AC4: Flag Harder and their marketing campaigns would have stomped all over each other.

Even the other day Ubi's Facebook page had a "Which are you looking forward to most?" community face-off between the two.

[Frenetic Pony]

So this is finally coming out, and here's a great bit as to why it was delayed: http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/6/5477236/watch-dogs-hands-on-video-interview-release-date

 

I'm looking forward to it, a good game in summer is still rare enough. I also want to find a way to tweet the lead game designer, or someone. Imagine being able to take control of a self driving car in like a sequel, switching between internal cameras and watching the passenger(s) panic and freak out as the car drives erratically. You could even drive the cars into a bay or a lake to drown people.

 

Could be crossposted to "Threat of Big Dog". Just imagine when the robot revolution hits watching your car purposefully kill you with no control over it.

[NotDorner]

So this is finally coming out, and here's a great bit as to why it was delayed: http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/6/5477236/watch-dogs-hands-on-video-interview-release-date

 

I'm looking forward to it, a good game in summer is still rare enough. I also want to find a way to tweet the lead game designer, or someone. Imagine being able to take control of a self driving car in like a sequel, switching between internal cameras and watching the passenger(s) panic and freak out as the car drives erratically. You could even drive the cars into a bay or a lake to drown people.

 

Could be crossposted to "Threat of Big Dog". Just imagine when the robot revolution hits watching your car purposefully kill you with no control over it.

You mean like michael hastings?

 

I keed, I keed...please dont suicide me...

[NotDorner]

oh, this just popped up, 8 player free-roam confirmed:

 

https://twitter.com/design_cave/status/441740652460519425

[kaputt]

There's a lot of people on the internet complaining of the downgraded visuals, and they surely seems worse than the reveal and the trailers from 2013. However, the creative director stated that the 2013 trailers reflect the final visuals of the game. I hope that's actually true, the game was a real looker, it would be disappointing if the downgrade is huge.

I really disliked the story, though. I mean, "he killed my wife and child", again? Except that this time there wasn't any child, but, it's still a tale of revenge. This is getting pretty tiring.

[TychoCelchuuu]

I really disliked the story, though. I mean, "he killed my wife and child", again? Except that this time there wasn't any child, but, it's still a tale of revenge. This is getting pretty tiring.

Agreed 100%. I wish games had less lazy writing.

[Architecture]

Between the development troubles and the overbearing shittiness Uplay, I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to play this game.

[Frenetic Pony]

Between the development troubles and the overbearing shittiness Uplay, I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to play this game.

 

Uplay sucks, but delaying it to make it better doesn't seem like "Development troubles". It's "Well we hyped it too early but we're going to take the hit and wait to make sure it's good enough." That's awesome, and it makes me sad they're getting punished for it. It's not just you either, people seem skeptical all of a sudden when they saw this on every site I've seen while they were ready to go for it months ago. Delaying it can only possibly be a good thing.

[Architecture]

Honestly, I've never been on the hype train for this game. If you asked me a decade ago which publisher consistently put out the best games, I'd have said Ubisoft, hands down. The Clancy games were still worth a damn, Splinter Cell was putting Metal Gear Solid to shame and the Prince of Persia franchise was being revitalized in a glorious manner. At this point, they're lucky if I buy one of their games a year. I wouldn't have even bothered with Assassin's Creed 4 had it not been a freebie with my GPU.

 

And I think that any sudden delay (the game was something like five weeks from release when it was pushed back) during development hints at trouble. From the sounds of it, they've had to redesign most of the core gameplay mechanics because the game wasn't any fun to play.

[Thrik]

There's a lot of people on the internet complaining of the downgraded visuals, and they surely seems worse than the reveal and the trailers from 2013. However, the creative director stated that the 2013 trailers reflect the final visuals of the game. I hope that's actually true, the game was a real looker, it would be disappointing if the downgrade is huge.

I really disliked the story, though. I mean, "he killed my wife and child", again? Except that this time there wasn't any child, but, it's still a tale of revenge. This is getting pretty tiring.

Wasn't the reveal footage in 2012? If I remember correctly, the complaints about the game's visuals began in 2013 when a proper demo build didn't come close to the original footage — and the 2014 build seems no better.

Of course, it is possible they're still using an old build right now. In fact, certain things (i.e. identical footage) would imply as such. Still, if the creative director is saying that the 2013 build is their target then that doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

All that said, Deus Ex: HR didn't set many people's world alight when its in-game looks were unveiled. Yet it was a highlight of not just the last generation but gaming history itself — mostly because of its wonderful atmosphere, story, world, and gameplay.

So we'll see. I think too much is being made of the graphics, but then the footage isn't really evoking anything like the promise off the aforementioned Deus Ex game's trailers in any other way either. Even the open world seems dry after GTA5 and its unparalleled environmental lighting.

[Dosed]

This came up on a game blog interview I read on Tumblr about Watch Dogs 

 

"Q. How many difference hacks are available in the game?

A. Over 100 hacks."

 

It made me giggle and instantly think of the Thumbs as it just seems like they'd pick up on as being ridiculous.