Watch Dogs official thread (PC and Console)

[Wyzak]

Thanks for that to0kenZA, I think you've just made my mind up.

Yep, those two posts are very close to how I would review the game myself. If you expect the game to be perfect on launch, you won't be happy. If you are willing to accept a few issues, then chances are you will be happy. But because you've missed the pre-order incentives and pricing I would suggest that you wait until the first special and then pick it up. Autumn steam sales aren't that far away and you'll probably be able to score 33-40% off.

I'm also enjoying the story in spite of all of the reviewers saying how terribad it is. The driving takes some getting use to, but it no longer bothers me. The multi-player mode is immensely fun.

I dropped my resolution from 1920x1080 to 1650x1050 and it eliminated 99% of my micro-stutters. I now only still get the occasional micro-stutter when I drive quite far and enter a new area.

 

[XbatousaiX]

I also found overclocking my i5 2500k to 4ghz made a big difference,but ja ubisoft and AMD fix your shit lol.

 

[Venom]

All the words that made sense

Thanks bud I appreciate it , guess I will do the same get it on sale when they eventually have fixed everything

 

[Wyzak]

Holy cow, tried going back to older drivers which work way better in World of tanks, but they don't work in Watch Dogs at all.

331.82 does not work well with Watch Dogs, but works awesomely for everything else.
337.88 designed for Watch Dogs, but makes World of Tanks almost unplayable.

Nvidia, fix your shit

 

[Lycanthrope]

Meh none of them of great IMO, just steam is the lessor evil.

Steam leases property?

Or are they just evil to lessors?

 

[Fivel]

Steam leases property?

Or are they just evil to lessors?

Back into your box now!

 

[Lycanthrope]

Back into your box now!

 

[to0kenZA]

Thanks for that to0kenZA, I think you've just made my mind up.

Thanks bud I appreciate it , guess I will do the same get it on sale when they eventually have fixed everything

No probs guys, just giving my honest opinion .

I also found overclocking my i5 2500k to 4ghz made a big difference,but ja ubisoft and AMD fix your shit lol.

For sure, dude. Recently got a water cooler and overclocked my i7 to 4.2 GHz and that makes a massive difference in general, except of course in the case of consolitis.

 

[XbatousaiX]

Warning lost all my weapon's and all my hacking skills.This happened in a Online trailing mission beware, do not go online people you will be sorry.

 

[Wyzak]

Warning lost all my weapon's and all my hacking skills.This happened in a Online trailing mission beware, do not go online people you will be sorry.

LOL, seams like you came off second best. Can you give us more info? I've been in a ton of those missions and that certainly hasn't happened to me.

 

[The Joker]

Warning lost all my weapon's and all my hacking skills.This happened in a Online trailing mission beware, do not go online people you will be sorry.

Yip its a known bug.

LOL, seams like you came off second best. Can you give us more info? I've been in a ton of those missions and that certainly hasn't happened to me.

Yeah he played the game lol
http://gearnuke.com/watch-dogs-game-breaking-bug-results-complete-loss-progress-game/

 

[Wyzak]

http://www.lazygamer.net/general-news/watch-dogs-breaks-more-records/

Last week, I told you about Watch Dogs smashing the record for fastest selling Ubisoft game. Now, it has broken a bunch of new sales records, proving just how profitable the new IP is. I guess it’s a sure thing – Ubisoft will have to make a bunch more games in the franchise.

Ubisoft announced that in the first week that the game has been available, it has already sold over four million copies. This makes it the best-selling game during week one for Ubisoft. Okay, sure, we figured that might be the case considering it broke records in the first day and was the UK’s biggest new IP launch. However, even more interestingly, the game is now the best-selling new IP at launch in the video game industry. For a new IP, Watch Dogs is doing ridiculously well, and we can only assume that the momentum will continue. Tony Key, Ubisoft’s senior VP of sales and marketing stated the importance of Watch Dogs right now:

With such strong sales momentum and positive feedback from gamers, Watch Dogs has positioned itself as the must-have game of the moment. We’re really proud of this achievement, and are confident that the Watch Dogs brand has a promising future.

It seems that the delay and gamble on the new IP from Ubisoft has paid off. Gamers are enjoying the more adult open-world approach. I wonder if Activision is hoping that they’ll have the same success with Destiny considering the investment that they’ve made in that franchise. I’m excited by new IP – it’s always great to see studios going for new ideas instead of rehashing the old. However, it can be a big gamble for them; if it fails, it’s years of development and money down the drain. Considering Watch Dogs’ success, it seems a sure thing that Ubi will put it on the Assassin’s Creed track, releasing new iterations every year. Well, unless everything is delayed into 2015 like all the other big games for this year.

 

[Graal]

That's all well and good, but it doesn't change the fact that I get unplayable microstutter while driving even on 1600x900. On the following specs, I'll add:

i5 4440 3.1ghz
8GB RAM
HD7850 2GB

So like, Wyzak, my man. Care to tell me why it is completely acceptable that this game I paid $45 for runs so poorly? I mean, it's not like we should expect developers to properly test their games for issues before launch or anything. This is 2014. We shouldn't expect better than poorly optimized, buggy games in 2014.

 

[Wyzak]

That's all well and good, but it doesn't change the fact that I get unplayable microstutter while driving even on 1600x900. On the following specs, I'll add:

i5 4440 3.1ghz
8GB RAM
HD7850 2GB

So like, Wyzak, my man. Care to tell me why it is completely acceptable that this game I paid $45 for runs so poorly? I mean, it's not like we should expect developers to properly test their games for issues before launch or anything. This is 2014. We shouldn't expect better than poorly optimized, buggy games in 2014.

What was the last game that launched without any issues? If you aren't willing to deal with some issues on launch you really shouldn't buy games on launch. I differentiate between design decisions (always-online, tiny maps etc) and bugs.

Have you tried contacting them or your credit card company for a refund?

I have an i7 with 16GB ram and a GTX 570 and I also experience the micro-stutters unless I drop my resolution to 1680x1050 and use the latest Nvidia drivers. Unfortunately for the AMD crowd that game was developed in close partnership with Nvidia so the AMD guys will probably have more issues.

 

[Graal]

What was the last game that launched without any issues?

See, that right there is the problem. Let's just accept the status quo. That's why we'll continue to get buggy games. Because some gamers don't really care about getting an acceptable product at launch.

Please, oh mighty Wyzak He-who-knows-when-it-is-acceptable-to-complain-about-issues-in-the-gaming-industry-and-when-it-isn't, in what other entertainment industry is it acceptable to release products that don't function as they should? Would people accept it if they bought a DVD that skips certain scenes and has audio distortions in some parts? Would people accept it if they bought a book that has some pages that are illegible or make absolutely no sense? Would people accept it if they bought an audio CD where certain tracks don't play?

We wouldn't bitch at anyone for complaining about any of the above-mentioned issues, so why has such a large part of the gaming community decided that the standard response to people having issues should be "if you didn't want to deal with launch issues, you shouldn't have bought the game at launch"? Launch issues being something we shouldn't have to put up with in the first place, mind you. Since when is it acceptable for games to have such severe launch issues and why did gamers stop caring about proper QA? You keep asking 'what other games launched without issues'; why? Do you think it's any less acceptable for those games to launch like that?

Or is it simply because it's a minority having severe issues? Ya man! Those guys should shut up! They only paid, like, just as much as everyone else! What a bunch of whiners, complaining because the product that they paid for doesn't work properly. Fuck those losers!

NO.

It does not work that way. We need to stop sitting back and just accepting that 'this is just the way things are.' Game developers and publishers trample all over their customers by releasing games in this state and we should not accept it, much less make excuses for it.

Heed my words- the next Battlefield game will be a buggy mess at launch, just like the previous two, and it's going to be because of people like you. People who stopped caring about getting their money's worth and not being shafted with inferior, broken products.

If you do not have an issue with being sold a buggy game at release, then you are anti-consumerist.

 

[Wyzak]

It's impossible to launch any project of this size without bugs. If you can't accept that you will be better off not pre-ordering. I hardly ever pre-order anything because I have come to expect this.

I paid R225 for Watch Dogs, if I didn't find such an awesome deal I would have waited 6 months for the game to be on special anyway.

I have explained my position. A DVD can't be patched, please try and find a better example. Nor can a book or a audio CD. Most books will have re-prints with minor changes. DVDs and audio cds are tiny projects when compared to the scope of a game and therefore can be launched without issues or without issues that the user detects.

I'm asking if you can name other games that have launched without issues, because I know that you can't. No project of this scope can be entirely bug free. Yes it sucks when the issues are more severe, but you have to accept them to some degree or you will be bitter with every launch which brings me back to my first paragraph. If you can't handle some issues, don't buy games on launch.

It's better that a minority is having issues, than the majority. It still sucks for them, but it's better than the inverse.

I'm a realist.

 

[Lycanthrope]

This nonsense still carrying on? Talk about dedication to a lost cause.

/unsubscribe

 

[Graal]

Yes, nobody should expect a game to launch bug-free, but severe crippling bugs that affect large parts or even the entire playerbase are not acceptable. That's what quality control is for. Don't come tell me the microstutter would have gone undetected if 20 game testers with different PC setups playtested the game rigorously.

Because, you know, that's what should have been done before the game launched. Customers are not playtesters.

But let's leave it at that. I see that arguing this with you is a lost cause. You've decided you like Watchdogs and therefore you will go to any lengths to defend the game as well as Ubisoft's poor project management. It just sticks sideways in my craw that developers see people like you and think that they can keep getting away with not hiring people to playtest their games properly.

 

[James]

I think everyone has good points in this debate. I certainly echo Graal's outrage at being served slop by a big company that has the time and resources to do be able to do better. So-called AAA development is meant to stand out for its technical excellence as well as delivering entertaining games. This isn't Goat Simulator.

Yes, games are big projects and might very well have problems at launch, but that doesn't excuse those problems. I still firmly believe that is a failing of the company to adequately test their products.

I agree with Wyzak on the issue of pre-purchasing or purchasing at launch - we shouldn't do it because this has become the the state of the industry (i.e. acceptable to ship now, patch later). The only way the developers and publishers are going to raise their standards for shipment is if gamers collectively refuse to buy in to products before they been proven in the market. I approach pretty much every other aspect of my consumerism in this way, so I think it's time to treat games the same way. The added advantage to this is that game prices come down relatively quickly.

It used to be that pre-orders were done on the very special editions of games, so you could secure your copy, not to pad the publishers sell-through numbers at launch so the shareholders are left grinning.

The tacit pre-order promise is that you'll get to have an awesome gaming experience as soon as it's available, and be able to share that with others who are enjoying the same thing. When that dynamic is broken by receiving a bug-riddled game that needs to be patched into a reasonable level of playability, then you wonder why you bothered to fork out for the expensive launch price when waiting for the patch and Steam special would have been a better option.

I can especially see why big multiplayer games ride on this pre-order promise - players want to be involved with the rest of the community as soon as the game drops and enjoy it while it's at the height of popularity. If the game is shipped to a good standard then this is immensely rewarding, but if not, it's just an infuriating experince. BF4 is a good case in point - launched with numerous problems that wreck the core experience. Despite its various shortcomings, at least the yearly CoD game seems to launch mostly free of issues (sure, some balancing tweaks will be done) and gamers are enjoying that game as soon as its available. That alone nearly justifies the yearly iteration.

 

[Wyzak]

I'll let you in on a little secret: if you want to effect change, stop buying their products.

But if you keep on buying products and then rage at them and vow never to buy anything from them ever again due to bugs at launch time then you will shortly run out of options.

Why would you want to pay more to play a buggy game at launch when you can get a considerably better game a few months later with the first round of specials?