![]() ![]() Perhaps most noticeable of all in gameplay terms is the way the final scene in the E3 demo plays out. ![]() ![]() And with this asset in hand, even factoring out the variations in weather conditions, the position of the sun and the fact that entire pieces of scenery have been completely replaced - in short giving Ubisoft the benefit of the doubt to every extent we can - it's clear that some visual effects have been redeployed, others noticeably pared back, while others only seem to appear in cut-scenes. It's the result of many different capture sessions - not a single playthrough, but a combination of several. "The final game realises the promise of the Watch Dogs concept, but it's clear that rendering elements from the initial reveal didn't make it into the final game."Ībove you'll see our best attempts to replicate the E3 2012 reveal in the final game with the PC version on ultra settings. Perhaps Ubisoft played around with light sources in the demo to get the best effect, in effect moving the sun. And we found it impossible to match the shadows cast by the trees in the first shot of the E3 reveal, not because of a downgrade but because in an entire 24-hour cycle the sun never appears to be in the right position to cast the same shadows. Trees bend in the wind in the reveal - an effect we could approximate but not fully replicate - but this may well be down to the randomised weather rather than a downgrade, because wind-sensitive vegetation and trees clearly are present. Other changes have been made that also conspire to make like-for-like shots difficult or impossible in the final game. Play through the same sequence when it's raining but not with a full storm in effect and it looks different again. Capture the all-important end-mission shoot-out in less rain-soaked conditions and the showpiece visual effect is gone. But we didn't address the big, specific question people had been asking, which would involve mining the specifics of the rendering technology, playing around with the game engine and scrutinising everything over time: was there a significant graphical downgrade between E3 2012 and the end of May 2014?įiguring this out has been complicated, not least because the process of recreating the demo involved getting a solid grip on Watch Dogs' time of day and changeable weather conditions, which was less about capturing footage and more about herding cats. Overall, blemishes aside, we thought Ubisoft had done a good job of bringing that original promise of next-gen into final software. Graphically, Watch Dogs' stunning depiction of Chicago sheltering from heavy rainstorms also made it to the final game, but it was also clear why Ubisoft chose this weather scenario for the initial reveal, because it's by far the most spectacular way to present the game, and in daylight Watch Dogs is rather plain in comparison. That limited but beautiful slice of gameplay did transform into a massive open-world sandbox where there is always something new to do. We've already taken a shot at holding the final game up to that E3 demo and our initial take was positive. This was Ubisoft's vision for the future of gaming. Watch Dogs' brilliant E3 2012 reveal demonstrated a new level of open-world gameplay - a stunning simulation of Chicago, where the ability to hack smartphones and infrastructure hinted at previously impossible levels of interactivity, rendered with visual fidelity that wasn't achievable on the hardware of the time. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |