Watch Dogs (Nov 21st)

...and thus the battle continues. *Yawn.

And Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2 are amazing, just because you're not skilled enough to enjoy them and can only button mash or play games that play themselves says more about you than it does about the game!

Do you realise how ignorant you come across when you say that? When you instantly assume that I am an 'unskilled gamer' because I don't like this game? Do you also realise how childish this makes you come across? Even though I have corrected you before by stating the difficult games I enjoy playing (and beating), you again opt to provide an insulting reason for why I don't like the game.

Man, what the hell is wrong with you? You're such a spiteful and petty person!

Do you realise how ignorant you come across when you say that? When you instantly assume that I am an 'unskilled gamer' because I don't like this game? Do you also realise how childish this makes you come across? Even though I have corrected you before by stating the difficult games I enjoy playing (and beating), you again opt to provide an insulting reason for why I don't like the game.

 

Man, what the hell is wrong with you? You're such a spiteful and petty person!

Hmmm this coming from the individual who is clearly so happy with his PS4 he spends all his time on Wii U boards trying to convince others that they shouldn't be happy with their purchase.

I really don't give two shits what you play or whether you enjoy it or not. However I do find it odd, that if anyone praises Nintendo or enjoys a Nintendo game you see it as your duty to 'correct them'.

Most people would see that as petty and spiteful. How sad.

Oh hang on, I spend ALL MY TIME on the Wii U boards? Woah, why didn't someone tell me? Because when I think back, it looks to me like I spend most of my time these days in the Destiny topic, or Mafia, and a small amount of time in other topics. I spend some time in Nintendo topics, but guess what; I own a Wii U! So yeah, no reason why I shouldn't be there sometimes. And sod the anti-negativity police.

The fact you can't address how petty and spiteful you just were directly shows that there is a deep-rooted issue with the way you think it's ok to talk to people. Such a nasty way to respond to someone saying they dislike a game. "You don't like it because you're a cretin who can't play games of skill", rather than attempting to understand why they didn't like it. Did I call kav a moron for not appreciating TLOU even though it was also critically acclaimed? No, I did not. Because that's a vile way to conduct yourself, and people can dislike games for a host of reasons.

Going back onto topic a bit. Does anyone know if this had the online features the PS3/4 Xbox 360/One has?. That was a beauty playing it on PS4, as Flinky said you could have been invaded/hacked at any given moment. Except if you were in a mission already. That made the game a lot better in my opinion, and if this version lacks it then dear me.

The game everybody has been dying to play even more than Smash has another review.

Conclusion

 

Watch Dogs is a bold, ambitious game that delivers well in some areas, though nevertheless feels like an iteration away from reaching its potential; the inevitable Watch Dogs 2 could be one to keep an eye on. It's a sizeable, enjoyable game, but one that is let down on the Wii U by poor optimisation and disappointing performance; the frame-rate is inconsistent but tolerable while on foot, but often struggles badly when driving. It's possible to play Watch Dogs and work through these bottlenecks, but that shouldn't be expected of the gamer in a big-budget, pricey retail experience.

 

If the Wii U is your only console, then Watch Dogs is certainly worth consideration to fill that sizeable open-world gap in your current gaming library. If you have other options, however, it's far tougher to recommend.

 

6 / 10

http://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/wiiu/watch_dogs

Watch_Dogs 2 will 'continue taking risks', says Ubisoft

 

Coming from GamesTM interview with Watch Dogs’ creative director Jonathan Morin...

 

“When you start a new project [and new IP], it’s a blank page and everything you do is what you want to do. With a sequel, there is more pressure to push a brand forward and we now have to appeal to fans in a new way. You have to carry on taking risks. I will not do this job if there is no risk in it, that would just be boring. You shouldn’t prevent yourself from trying something just because it’s hard and the solution is not apparent.”

http://www.gonintendo.com/s/245353-watch-dogs-2-will-continue-taking-risks-says-ubisoft

Will they risk putting it on Wii U? Never!

http://www.gonintendo.com/s/245353-watch-dogs-2-will-continue-taking-risks-says-ubisoft

 

Will they risk putting it on Wii U? Never!

They said that they wouldn't be taking risks. They didn't say that they would be committing financial suicide. :p

Bought this game yesterday.

Thus far it seems fine. I've noticed framerate stutter while driving, however I'd say it's no worse than GTAV on Xbox 360. I am however a bit disappointed in the vehicly physics.

Started this last night on PS4, never played a GTA-style openworld game and finding it all a bit overwhelming tbh, not sure it's the right game for me. Will press on and keep going though...

Played more and I must say it's too bad more Wii U owners decided not to buy it.

Shaping up to be one of the best games on the system IMO.

So I started this last night... My initial impressions aren't particularly great. The controls are fine, although the movements feels slightly floaty and without enough weight. The intro seemed good, but straight away you are thrust into an escape which involves sneaking around a building and creating disturbances to attract police officers away from doors so you can either knock them out or escape without being seen.

This is where things go a little downhill. Bear in mind none of this is terrible or broken. It just isn't great. You creep around locked to cover, but as soon as there is a bin, bench or something else on that cover you have to detach yourself and come out of cover to move around those objects. This is annoying and means you end up getting spotted.

Then you finally get out of the building and there are two police cars buzzing around. You hide from them and wait for them to pass and move in the opposite direction. But then they seem to know where you are going and magically seem to follow you, despite not having seen you at all.

You sneak down an alley way and go into a garage to get into your car and as you open the garage door - BAM, the police are magically outside. Somehow they have discovered your location, they knew just which garage to go to and wait outside. You restart the section.

You do it all again and get to your car. You now sneak out of the garage and start going in the opposite direction to the way the police cars were travelling. But now the two police cars seem to be following your car - which they never saw you get into or even knew was your car! How is this happening? It's annoying and feels forced. I can understand being chased if you are seen, but if you are not seen and hidden in an unmarked vehicle, it just seems silly.

Then you get away. The police give up and you are free to explore. You go to a red icon on the map and do some hacking. Hacking is not hacking. Hacking means taking control of a camera, which then allows you to see other cameras which you can then control when you have seen hem. This is a simple puzzle. You then solve the puzzle, achieve the objective and a load of smaller objectives fill that section of the map.

All of a sudden it's de ja vu, you've done this before. It's Assassin's Creed 3, you climbed the towers to see more of the map and open up new areas and new objectives. This is the same, just with 'hacking'.

None of this is terrible, and some of it is actually decent. The open world is busy and full of traffic and people. The graphics are fine and there's a nice RPG point system where you get XP to level up powers. But it all feels slightly paint by numbers, as if it is just another game that came off the Ubisoft production line.

I have now played Watchdogs, Assassin's Creed 3 and Splinter Cell Blacklist and all three have such striking similarities. None of them are bad, they all have their strengths, but they all feel like they have large amounts of content and mechanics that are just copied and pasted from one to the other.

Despite all this, it's not a bad game by a long margin and I'm looking forward to playing more tonight and advancing the story and seeing how the gun play is. I do like the world and I like the snippets of info on the passers by and I like the idea of hacking and taking control of cameras and objects, even though it doesn't actually feel like hacking.

All of a sudden it's de ja vu, you've done this before. It's Assassin's Creed 3, you climbed the towers to see more of the map and open up new areas and new objectives. This is the same, just with 'hacking'.

This is just standard Ubisoft open world practices now. The same applies to the Far Cry games and I wouldn't be surprised to see something similar in the new Ghost Recon.

After playing another few hours of this I have the following observations:

- The city may be an 'open world', but there aren't very many interesting people in it. Despite being full of life, you don't really get to interact with people. This isn't like Fall Out 3 where you meet tonnes of interesting people. You feel very cut off from the world around you, more of an observer.

- Hacking doesn't really influence the game at all. There is no real hacking other than 'Pipe Dreams' style mini games. Most 'hacking' is just a push of a button to take control of things. Despite the whole premise of the game being that you are a hacker, you spend more time battering people with an extendible cosh and acting like a vigilante Sam Fisher than you do hacking. In fact, the onus is on gun play, stealth take downs and stealing vehicles makes this feels more like a knock-off GTA than a game about hacking.

- Everything looks a little bland. I remember playing Deus Ex (a 10/10 must play game) and it not only looks beautiful but has an amazing and distinct art style and a world that begs to be explored. Everything about the game made you want to investigate the world and explore. This feeling isn't present in Watch Dogs, the world is just bland and there is no distinct art style or visual flair.

- Aiden Pierce is a dick. His story is based on revenge, but the whole thing is silly. He is involved in organised crime and rinses people's bank accounts with no blow back. Then when he and his family get some blow back from the fact he is involved in organised crime, he goes out looking for revenge and is hurt about it. It leaves you with the feeling that he should really look at the fact he caused the death of his niece through his own actions and criminality. The story so far seems muddled and certainly isn't compelling.

I can agree with some of your arguments. I finished the campaign and found it a bit bland and nonsensical.

However, this is a gorgeous game, considering the genre. It looks way better than GTA V for the 360. Personally, I think this game deserves way more credit than it has received, at least on the Wii U.

I can agree with some of your arguments. I finished the campaign and found it a bit bland and nonsensical.

However, this is a gorgeous game, considering the genre. It looks way better than GTA V for the 360. Personally, I think this game deserves way more credit than it has received, at least on the Wii U.

Oh, don't get me wrong, the visuals are great - just bland in the terms of design. In Deus Ex everything was bathed in a yellow hue and the architecture and design of the buildings and interiors was distinct and futuristic. Watch Dogs looks great, but just doesn't stand out or have any real flair to it.

Oh, don't get me wrong, the visuals are great - just bland in the terms of design. In Deus Ex everything was bathed in a yellow hue and the architecture and design of the buildings and interiors was distinct and futuristic. Watch Dogs looks great, but just doesn't stand out or have any real flair to it.

I think it's a lot easier for Deus Ex to have a more defined art style though, with a futuristic setting the developers could basically make anything look the way they wanted.

Watch Dogs would look a bit odd with futuristic architecture, etc, considering it's meant to be based in modern day Chicago.

I've got into this a little more now and am 9 hours in. Still mainly doing side quests and solving crimes. I've got used to the hacking now and accepted this is more of a GTA game where you can manipulate the environment. I'm enjoying it more and would definitely say it has its strengths.

Creeping around a roof top garden using objects like phones and sprinklers to create diversions and attract the attention of guards as you sneak up on them and dispatch them is satisfying and fun. The options are there for lethal and non-lethal force and exploding a junction box on a patrolling guard is great fun, as is using cameras to get a greater view of the vantage points and terrain.

There is also a wide variety of weapons. I like the fact that they all offer different approaches and can either be purchased or unlocked through disarming guards with those weapons. You can either take the route of buying things in advance to give yourself an advantage or knocking out guards and getting the weapons for free.

There is also a lot to do in the city. It's still a pretty soulless place in terms of human interaction, but there's mobile phone games, gang bases, car chases, races against the clock and puzzles to solve. I think there could be a lot of value in this game as after 9 hours I've only got around 11% progress.

Overall, I'm enjoying this a lot more now. I still think the game has its problems - most noticeably that the hacking isn't really realised and ultimately you do far more with guns and stealth take downs than you do with hacking skills. Also, the police chases are unfair and make Mario Kart rubber banding look reasonable! But on balance this has an awful lot to offer and on a system that doesn't have GTA it makes the game even more important.

I'm happy that Ubisoft brought us this game and think if you're a Wii U only gamer you should definitely consider the title, especially if you're a fan of open world titles. What's more, at the reduced price point, it's a real steal for the amount of content!