I've never started a thread before, but I'm driving the hype train here so it has to be done.
Definitely excited for this one. Watch Dogs 2 felt incredibly cathartic to play through post 2016 election and the burgeoning explanation of how social media played a big part in helping elect Trump.
This game could not come at a better time for more catharsis... though I do wonder if the story itself might suffer with no central protagonist/cast like Watch Dogs 2 had. A big part of what made WD2 so good was Marcus, Josh, Wrench, Sitara, Horatio, and later T-Bone... with Dušan as an interesting villain/foil to them.
And... I also think one of my first tasks is also going to be...
And, speculative spoiler, having watched nothing storywise except for some random sidemissions and the above recruitment missions in that video... but in case I'm too correct, though I've been thinking it since the first trailers mentioned it...
10 quid says that the AI that acts as the central controller/handler of all of Dedsec in London either ends up being an escaped creation of either Blume or the new large digital company... or we're going Matrix 2 and he/it is actually a built in system of control to try to neutralize and weaken Dedsec from the start. Given how many of the side missions seem to end up involving groups of organized crime in the city... they could be doing what most smart authoritarian dictators do and subvert them to use them against common enemies, like the Kelley gang.
I've been looking forward to seeing what they did with the play-as-anyone narrative tech.
I've been looking forward to seeing what they did with the play-as-anyone narrative tech.
I definitely am too, but I still can't help but worry about it messing with the overall narrative as well.
Don't get me wrong, Suikoden I and II are two of my favorite RPGs of all time, but the whole "every single possible party character has to have a reaction to every story event after they can be recruited" thing was... less than ideal too. Hopefully they do that part at least well, and the rest of the narrative is well crafted (given 2, I don't have much in the way of doubts there, just can't help but worry none the less).
Yeah, totally agree with you all. I'm hyped that WD3 is trying to tread some new ground, but there's a definite risk of falling flat.
The big danger in my mind is the standard "thousand bowls of oatmeal" dilemma of procedural content - e.g. the NPCs in watch dogs 2 are all "unique", but the ways they're unique don't affect gameplay, so they're effectively all interchangeable. I don't know how WD3 gets around that story-wise - if you can play as anyone, naturally the person you're controlling at any given time can't be *that* deeply entwined with the story. I'm guessing it'll be some kind of archetype thing - like for this bit of the story you have to be playing an ex-spy, and the narrative arc is built around that assumption, but the smaller details get adjusted based on the age/gender/etc of the ex-spy that you chose.
I'm also really curious how DedSec exists in the world in this one. The trailers make it look like an amorphous collective with no leader (the AI facilitator looks like more of a narrative device than a participant in the story). But that seems like it would make for a weird story, if you're only playing sort of at the fringe of the organization, with no idea who "runs" things?
Anyway, trying to avoid spoilers, and preparing for the disappointment of realizing how old my CPU and GPU are. (Actually, I think my current CPU is the one I bought in order to run WD1 faster. That's not a good sign, is it?)
I've watched a few hours of streaming in the past few days and I'm under the impression that the main protagonist is the A.I. Bagley. You just don't play as it. You follow it's orders.
Also, for anyone about to play on One X, there seems to be a game-breaking bug about 6 hrs in. This was reported by Eurogamer, with Ubisoft confirming both that it exists and that a Hotfix will be pushed out on Friday.
What I'm most worried about with the multiple playable characters is no sense of progression. Hopefully the game is designed around that. To use another Ubisoft game as an example; Assassin's Creed Odyssey didn't feel great to play until I leveled my character up to about level 30. There were things I wanted to do, but was hampered by the skill tree until then. Now that I typed that, maybe no progression is a good thing.
Anyway, trying to avoid spoilers, and preparing for the disappointment of realizing how old my CPU and GPU are. (Actually, I think my current CPU is the one I bought in order to run WD1 faster. That's not a good sign, is it?)
The IGN review stated that there was framerate chugging on their RTX 2080, so you might not have the smoothest gameplay. I ran Watch Dogs 2 seemlessly on a pc that I built last year and I think mine might not be enough for this game.
I wonder how it will perform on Stadia (tomorrow). I wish Google would hurry up with their 2nd gen hardware. If the console target is 1080p60, I'd hope it'll do that on Stadia.
(Obvs. not an option for everyone, especially outside NA.)
Oh snap. According to t'internet, the game launches at 12:01am local region time. If that's true I guess I'll playing* in a couple of hours. I'll share my first impressions with you common riff-raff who are still waiting for access.
* (of course "playing" here probably means "looking at error messages and waiting for servers to stop crashing")
ACG has himself a lengthy review, one which I think anyone on the fence should definitely check out. Legion comes with a LOT of caveats for folks who aren't as excited for the recruitment stuff as I am, and it seems most of yall in here. (Also, worth watching the review as he cracks up halfway through at how ugly folks are.)
It's clear to me that this has more in common with the Far Cry spinoffs than it does with a proper numbered title. The budget was likely a bit lower, which is reflected in the less than stellar look of, say, beards. Instead they put more time and effort into getting that emergent gameplay system in place and that's the right choice by me. Or so I say without having played it. Christmas can't come soon enough for me so I can get to fool around in the game.
I'm excited for this! It definitely has potential to be a big mess, but I'm hopeful that any of its messiness will be a result of it being too over the top and too weird, which would be the opposite of the problem of the original Watch Dogs which felt completely lacking in personality. WD2 was definitely an improvement on the personality front, but at times felt like a bit of a slog mechanically, a little too tied to the usual Ubi open world formula. I'm hopeful the innovations here will make it more wacky and fun.
As I posted in the Xbox thread, this is the first game for which I took advantage of the new Xbox app to pre-load a game I don't own yet: I bought a disc copy from Amazon when they had it for $50 a while back, but with the new Xbox app, I now have the game installed on my Xbox and will be able to just hit play when I get the disc and pop it in the drive. Pretty cool! It'll be interesting to see how this plays on my Xbox One X now vs. what it will look like on my Series X in 2 weeks...
Just as a heads up, it seems that Watch Dogs: Legion has a bug that can potentially brick your console. There is mention of a hotfix that is supposed to solve the issue, but just be aware of it and make sure you're downloading any updates that come up.
Thanks for the heads up. Reading through the article and following through to the Keza MacDonald tweet where she said it "bricked" her console, it becomes clear she just means "caused her console to shut down for a few hours" which is less alarming than the meaning of "bricked" that I understand to be the more common usage--made permanently unusable, at least without some significant repair effort. Big difference to me if the risk is "console might overheat and you'll have to wait a bit before you can play it again" vs. "console might be broken and potentially unfixable." In any case, I hope they patch it!
Interested in this, but waiting for next-gen to drop before I consider picking it up. I am kind of disheartened that it only runs at 30fps on console, but I can live with it.
I am hoping for something decent from the next-gen upgrades, but since we're not there yet, it's completely wait-and-see.
Also, looks like both IGN and GameSpot gave it an 8.
Hmm, it seems that the PC version unlocks much later if you bought it via Epic than if you bought it directly from uplay. I (a very smart person) had them open side by side earlier today, and went with epic because the store app was easier to use. No head start for me!
fenomas wrote:Anyway, trying to avoid spoilers, and preparing for the disappointment of realizing how old my CPU and GPU are. (Actually, I think my current CPU is the one I bought in order to run WD1 faster. That's not a good sign, is it?)
The IGN review stated that there was framerate chugging on their RTX 2080, so you might not have the smoothest gameplay. I ran Watch Dogs 2 seemlessly on a pc that I built last year and I think mine might not be enough for this game.
Now I'm even more annoyed that I haven't been able to get ahold of a current-gen GPU.
BTW, remember that on PC you can check out this game (and Valhalla in a couple of weeks) for $15 if you sub to Uplay+ or whatever their subscription service is called. 
The game is preloaded on UPlay and opens at midnight, can't wait. Don't forget to download the HD Texture pack as well.
BTW, remember that on PC you can check out this game (and Valhalla in a couple of weeks) for $15 if you sub to Uplay+ or whatever their subscription service is called.
The game is preloaded on UPlay and opens at midnight, can't wait. Don't forget to download the HD Texture pack as well.
Good call on the HD Texture Pack! Didn't even see that.
If you want to play it early, the old Ubisoft VPN tricks. Just load your favourite VPN, switch it to London or Hong Kong, load up UPlay, launch the game. Voila!
This is easily the best looking Ubisoft game I've played. Absolutely stunning.
Hedinn wrote:BTW, remember that on PC you can check out this game (and Valhalla in a couple of weeks) for $15 if you sub to Uplay+ or whatever their subscription service is called.
The game is preloaded on UPlay and opens at midnight, can't wait. Don't forget to download the HD Texture pack as well.
Good call on the HD Texture Pack! Didn't even see that.
If you want to play it early, the old Ubisoft VPN tricks. Just load your favourite VPN, switch it to London or Hong Kong, load up UPlay, launch the game. Voila!
This is easily the best looking Ubisoft game I've played. Absolutely stunning.
Oh I completely forgot about VPN, thank you! I'll try it after dinner.
So I've downed the first boss, which was refunding the game to Epic (easy) and buying it from the Ubisoft "our store is complete ass" store (challenge rating: badly localized but you can't change languages).
Management would like to apologize that the hype train is running behind schedule. It will be pulling into the station in approximately twenty minutes, and should depart shortly thereafter.
I'm a few hours in now and I love this game.
If you can get past the "oh sh*t, this horrific tech company wetdream that is actually a hellscape is... really not that far away" part to get to the "let's smash this system to rubble"... it's decent fun.
Yeah, it’s a little heavy handed with the “oppressive technology big brother scenario” in the very beginning, but I’m down with it. I understand that when you reach for a broad audience you have to leave nuance behind.
That said, I’m having fun now that I’m starting to get used to the controls. I may have to change them up a little, since I’ve mostly been playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and not having crouch on the ‘B’ button is messing with me.
The driving feels good, the movement and aiming feels good, and I haven’t had any performance issues on the One X.
Complaint, though - why can’t you allow an audio pick-up to play when you close the menu? These podcast and radio clips are upwards of 3-5 minutes long. Who wants to just sit in the menu to listen to them?
I'm a few hours in now and I love this game.
If you can get past the "oh sh*t, this horrific tech company wetdream that is actually a hellscape is... really not that far away" part to get to the "let's smash this system to rubble"... it's decent fun.
Glad to hear.
Fan of the first game. Big fan of the second.
Not digging this one. It’s fine. It just feels like a step backward in every aspect except the recruitment stuff, and so far that feels more like a gimmick than anything else. But I’m only a couple hours in.
My biggest complaint is the driving- I have yet to find a car that isn’t a hassle to drive, but at least every vehicle except for the lifts have a self-driving option.
Many Musicians Appear To Not Have Yet Been Paid For Their Work In ‘Watch Dogs Legion’
Apparently that story has now been updated with this correction that they have now been paid:
"Update, October 29, 16:00 GMT: Ubisoft and Hitrecord have reached out to me to confirm that all musicians involved in Watch Dogs Legion have, in fact, been paid for their work.
Jared Geller, President and Co-founder of Hitrecord, states that the company "made all payments in August to all contributing artists whose music was included in the 10 WATCH DOGS: LEGION songs. In fact, as of today, all but four of those checks have been cashed". I have asked for further clarification on this, as Hitrecord’s own site states payments are sent out around June and December.
Ubisoft states that the amount paid figure on the main Watch Dogs Legion page is due to a "glitch" that is "now being fixed"."
Definitely curious to see how the GWJer word of mouth shapes up here. I'm a big fan of Clint Hocking's work, not such a big fan of the Watch Dogs franchise (I found Watch Dogs 2 to be a smarmy mess of a game, and rage quit forever after a little over 5 hours). I'm hoping that Mr Ludo Narrative Dissonance himself has helped guide this game into something I want to play
Wow, they used HitRecord for the music? That is awesome. HitRecord is an outstanding artistic cooperative for all kinds of media. It’s all about collaboration. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is another cofounder and owns the site. The whole thing is based on a thing he and his late brother put together when they were young creative punks.
trueheart78 wrote:Many Musicians Appear To Not Have Yet Been Paid For Their Work In ‘Watch Dogs Legion’
Apparently that story has now been updated with this correction that they have now been paid:
"Update, October 29, 16:00 GMT: Ubisoft and Hitrecord have reached out to me to confirm that all musicians involved in Watch Dogs Legion have, in fact, been paid for their work.
Jared Geller, President and Co-founder of Hitrecord, states that the company "made all payments in August to all contributing artists whose music was included in the 10 WATCH DOGS: LEGION songs. In fact, as of today, all but four of those checks have been cashed". I have asked for further clarification on this, as Hitrecord’s own site states payments are sent out around June and December.
Ubisoft states that the amount paid figure on the main Watch Dogs Legion page is due to a "glitch" that is "now being fixed"."
Many Musicians Appear To Not Have Yet Been Paid For Their Work In ‘Watch Dogs Legion’
What a crap article. Update after update to it to fix their assumptions. This "journalist" should be ashamed they hit publish before seeming to talk to anyone involved. (Quote marks there because it's basically an opinion piece.)
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