Watch_Dogs

[Joose]

Looks like Watch_Dogs is a bit rubbish. Half expected but still a shame.

Admittedly, I only played a little last night, but a lot of those complaints on that review don't match my experiences. I found the cover system to be one of the best I've ever used; I didn't get stuck on things and liked the fact that it wasn't arbitrary about where you can go from and to (unlike DEHR for example). The complaint about firining his gun is just factually wrong: the aim and fire are two different buttons, hardly an unusual setup. If he is madly jabbing at the aim button and wondering why no bullets are coming out that's his error not the games.

Having said that, some of the criticisms he raises are definitely correct. The graphics are passable but not what you think of when people throw terms like "next gen" around. The story is generic blah and the main character is Stereotypical Gruff White Guy as seen in nearly all games ever. The hacking is an amusing aside rather than some groundbreaking awesomeness.

Basically, it's a solid GTA clone with a twist. If you go in expecting what the hype promised you are going to be disappointed, and I think that's where the majority of the problems lie.

[FatherJack]

Some of his review sounded like frustration most of us wouldn't encounter, as he as a reviewer felt obliged to play the missions to completion in a single weekend. Most would spend far more time just arsing around and probably only do the missions if they cared about the story, which from the sound of it, they wouldn't.

I can't think how making the hacking more complicated would have made it better - the character is supposed to be the master hacker, not the player - adding some minigame layer to represent the hacking would surely just make it a chore.

It sounds like they got the important part for most players right, the open-world bit, and it's the scripting in the missions that they got wrong, with contradictory messages and not enough freedom to complete them any way imaginable. It has to be said that GTA and all its clones have suffered from the exact same problem and still do now - you can dick around all you like, but missions have to be done in certain way or you fail them.

I think there are very few games that got that right, and usually do so by not having the "now on a mission" mechanic, but just introduce optional objectives like quests as you play, games like the first Deux Ex and Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines which sit on the edge of RPG territory within which such things are commonplace. At least it sounds like there is enough to do if you do get stuck on a mission, so you can hone your general skills rather than just retrying the same thing.

[Joose]

I played a bit more last night, so I can now give a slightly more considered opinion.

Lets take his complaints about the controls to start with:

Accidentally hacking the wrong thing because of the targeting system: Happened to me zero times. Didn't ever feel like I was narrowly avoiding that happening either.
Accidentally taking cover on the wrong side of something: Happened to me once but due to me being an idiot, not the controls. I crouched on the side I intended to, I just intended to crouch on the wrong side. I've actually found this to be easily the best stick to cover implementation of any game I have seen it in. In fact, I think its the first time I've seen it as an actual improvement over just letting me move towards cover and press a crouch key myself.
Accidentally selecting the wrong weapon and then not being able to fire it: There is no excuse for the reviewer on this one at all. "nothing happens. I don't know why" Then you didn't pay any attention to the tutorial at all, did you? Also, there's one button to aim and one to fire. This is not unusual even for games designed explicitly with k&m in mind.

I can't think how making the hacking more complicated would have made it better - the character is supposed to be the master hacker, not the player - adding some minigame layer to represent the hacking would surely just make it a chore.

This is exactly correct. You are "hacking" things all over the shop, all the fucking time, frequently in the middle of a fight. Making those hacking attempts anything more than "push button to hack thing" would be both boring and slow. Reloading a gun in real life is a series of actions, but games reduce it to "press R". Conversation in anything other than an RPG is normally reduced to "press use to conversation". Crafting items is often reduced to "press thing to receive thing". Complaining that they have similarly reduced the majority of the hacking to a single button press is absurd. This isn't a game about hacking, this is a game about a hacker.

Anyway, my conclusion remains much the same as it was initially: Its not the paradigm shifting, next gen awesomeness that some people were expecting but it is a solid and enjoyable free roaming GTA style game.

One caveat to that: a lot of people are having technical issues. I'm not (apart from the occasional "cant connect to uPlay" issue on loading), and not because I am super special, I think I'm just lucky. I imagine I would be less forgiving if I were.

[Roman Totale]

One caveat to that: a lot of people are having technical issues. I'm not (apart from the occasional "cant connect to uPlay" issue on loading), and not because I am super special, I think I'm just lucky. I imagine I would be less forgiving if I were.

Looks to have been a Steam thing for me. For some reason it always tries to reinstall Active X, and it must have fucked the files up - easy to fix but only after hours of looking for solutions. I now realise that this same issue has occurred with other games.

[tandino]

One caveat to that: a lot of people are having technical issues. I'm not (apart from the occasional "cant connect to uPlay" issue on loading), and not because I am super special, I think I'm just lucky. I imagine I would be less forgiving if I were.

Looks to have been a Steam thing for me. For some reason it always tries to reinstall Active X, and it must have fucked the files up - easy to fix but only after hours of looking for solutions. I now realise that this same issue has occurred with other games.

How did you fix this? I get the "initialising first time setup" bollocks almost every time I start a newer gamer through Steam. I did a couple of hours of Googling a couple of weeks ago but all solutions proffered were ineffective.

[Roman Totale]

Repairing DirectX didn't seem to work, so I had to save the dlls files down, restart in safe mode, replace the files in system32 with the ones I'd downloaded, then start it up again. Just trying to find the website that I found the fix on...

Edit: here it is

[tandino]

Repairing DirectX didn't seem to work, so I had to save the dlls files down, restart in safe mode, replace the files in system32 with the ones I'd downloaded, then start it up again. Just trying to find the website that I found the fix on...

Edit: here it is

Woo! Ta!

[Dog Pants]

I'll probably never play this game, but I'm glad it exists so that I could read the abridged plot:

http://www.richardcobbett.com/codex/the ... d-edition/

(warning, spoilers)

[TezzRexx]

In two minds whether to get this or not. Certainly don't want to spend 45 quid on a console game!

[buzzmong]

In two minds whether to get this or not. Certainly don't want to spend 45 quid on a console game!

Steam summer sale is only ~6 weeks away...

[Joose]

In two minds whether to get this or not. Certainly don't want to spend 45 quid on a console game!

Steam summer sale is only ~6 weeks away...

Get it on sale. Much as I am enjoying it I cant recommend it for full price really. Its not as broken and shit as a lot of people are making out but it is far from perfect.

[Dog Pants]

DLC already! Seems cynical, but it's there on Steam if anyone wants it.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Looks like you can make watchdogs look good, apparently.

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments ... e3_201213/