Watch_Dogs releases for the WiiU in just two months.
Ubisoft’s official blog unveiled today that Watch_Dogs will soon be available on Nintendo’s WiiU as it releases November 18 — just about one year from its initial release on the other major consoles.
With specifics of the game changed specifically for the WiiU’s gamepad to enhance the gameplay experience. Players will be able to play the title entirely on the gamepad with Off-TV Play, but when it is connected the controller’s screen will function as the interactive Chicago mini-map.
The Bad Blood DLC for Watch_Dogs will be coming later this month for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, Playstation 4, Playstation 3, and PC renditions of the game.
Watch_Dogs may have created a unique world to explore in Chicago, but a modder is bringing all the hacking and system manipulation to Liberty City.
The creative additions modders have implemented never seems to slow down for GTA IV. Now players can experience Rockstar’s open-world with many of Aiden Pearce’s signature capabilities.
Starting as just a small mod for camera hacks created by Yeardley Diamond, another modder took it a step further by adding the Aiden Pearce player model, the Watch_Dogs interface assets, traffic light and car alarm manipulation, and other new animations to bring the world alive in a new way.
While almost all the new features seem to be identical to the Watch_Dogs, the modder maintains that the game does not intend to copy Watch_Dogs, and that it was merely the inspiration behind the mod.
A few other changes need to be made to get the standard GTA to look as pretty as the video above — most notably the iCEnhancer 3.0.
Watch_Dogs’ official twitter feed gives a not-so-subtle hint regarding the next city for the franchise.
While it hasn’t officially been announced, Watch_Dogs’ official twitter feed heavily hinted that Camden, New Jersey will be the latest playable city in the Watch_Dogs universe. It can be assumed the tweet is referring to an upcoming DLC, though it could even be a hint of a Watch_Dogs 2 (highly unlikely).
The tweeted graphic notes “a 24/7 surveillance program” is in effect for the city with “the highest crime rates in the US in 2012.”
The statistic is certainly fictionalized, but it will be exciting to see how Ubisoft approaches the new setting and if any changes to the gameplay itself will occur as well. Beyond just the gameplay, their scale of the city will be interesting to note as well.
Camden is just 10.34 sq miles and when compared to the massive 234 sq miles of Chicago, it is likely that Ubisoft’s iteration of the city will be much smaller than that of their Chicago.
With that said, no official details have been released, but more information is sure to arise soon.
Watch_Dogs comes so close to being amazing, but falls short in too many ways.
With the release of the first Watch_Dogs long done and the reports that the game will be the first of a whole franchise of games, what can players expect from Watch_Dogs 2? A similar game from Ubisoft, Assassins Creed, showed an impeccable capability to learn from their mistakes and make vast improvements.
Like Watch_Dogs, the original Assassins Creed was a great game, but not an incredible one. It had all the mechanics to be great, but fell short in one-too-many ways — and many of the problems both games face are similar.
After the main story has finished the draw to the game dies rather quickly. With a very limited amount of side-missions and random events, Watch_Dogs struggles to find a variety of daily activities. The original Assassins Creed showed a similar lack of depth in its daily actions, but Assassins Creed 2 showed ample variety by changing the missions available to you during the night among many improvements.
So if we use Assassins Creed 2 as a guideline, how can Watch_Dogs enhance their gameplay experience?
More elaborate mission depth. After a while, running down criminals shows to have an unfortunate similarity to each encounter. With each culprit being slightly slower than your character, Aiden, and their wildly inaccurate shooting, it makes it far too easy to shoot down or stop a criminal. It’s fair to expect a greater variety in their reactions to you.
Incorporate additional hacking abilities. While there was a decent mix of abilities, it felt as though much more could have been done. Hacking individual lights of streetlamps and cars could be a great addition.
Improve car physics. Right now, cars are hardly slowed down by what’s in a players’ path. You can absolutely demolish CPU vehicles and roll through any impeding objects. While the physics can’t be overly realistic, they need to find a reasonable middle ground.
A world with mystery. While Watch_Dogs has a decently sized world to explore, almost everything about the game is revealed to you from the start. This killed any motivation to explore the outliers of the game. Give players reason to explore the game world by rather than locating everything on the players’ map from the start.
A bigger world. Watch_Dogs put themselves up to a direct comparison to Grand Theft Auto V’s Los Santos, but Watch_Dogs’ city of Chicago is nowhere on the same scale. Designing solely for the new generation of consoles should warrant a world even bigger than that of Los Santos. (And the end of the game heavily suggest that the next game will take place in a new city.)
Besides the graphical improvements and new setting, Ubisoft has the potential to make Watch_Dogs 2 one of the best games of this generation. There just needs to be greater substance to the gameplay.
Watch_Dogs comes so close to being amazing, but falls short in too many ways.
Watch_Dogs was originally presented as a very dark and mysterious future world. Instead the 3rd-person shooter is present-day, more action-oriented, and has nearly every aspect of the world revealed to you from the beginning. It is incredibly fun, but not exactly what you may expect when compared to their E3 2012 and 2013 trailers.
This advertisement opened the door for direct comparisons to GTA V. A game that Watch_Dogs struggles to live up to.
And because of that ad, it does help a comparison to GTA V feel more valid. Because this is evidently a game they were trying to compete with. Two open-world games that have deep stories with an intricate setting. The main difference between the two games though, is their presentation. GTA V tries to be funny but often comes off as serious because of how in depth the world and characters are. But Watch_Dogs attempts to be overly dark and serious and the story doesn’t have the depth to complement that.
In GTA V it seems that, even if you aren’t there, the world keeps going on. Watch_Dogs reveals nearly everything to you right from the beginning, and even though the map is a decent size, there is little motivation for you to ever explore much at all. You know where everything is in the city so why explore the parts of the game without a former objective? This makes the world very straight-forward for an open world.
Outside of their initial presentation, the game is not necessarily bad in anyway.
The graphics are great (though not as amazing as originally represented) -especially at night or when it’s raining. The lighting reflecting off of the surface of puddles as you slowly walk through the city is incredibly immersive. It’s clear they focused a lot on making the backdrop look fantastic as you travel through urban Chicago.
The missions are enjoyable and include a reasonable amount of diversity ranging from car chases and fire-fights to hacking and stealthily tailing various criminals. The game’s approach to combat and stealth help players find unique ways to approach each mission. These unique approaches prevent things from ever getting too repetitive.
The online missions and gamemodes are easy to quickly divert to when the main story grows a bit too dull. A simple “app” on your in-game phone can bring you straight to an online multiplayer match or an open-world to explore with friends.
The story was at times exciting, but all too often underwhelming. Aiden’s battle with his own thoughts were far too exaggerated and his actions compared to how his character emotionally reacts is sometimes laughable. The abandonment of some of the story’s most unique characters, mainly Jordie, your first in-game ally, is also disappointing. Jordie is initially presented as a major character, but is often cast aside in favor of following Aiden’s narrative over everyone else. There are moments where it seems as though it would steer the game in a more exciting direction, but it just never seems to come.
Watch_Dogs is decent, but it still feels slightly disappointing when you compare the game that was shipped to the one that was originally showcased at E3 2012/2013. Though the expectations for Watch_Dogs 2 should still remain very high.
