Watch Dogs

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Alefroth
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by Alefroth »

Daehawk wrote:Wonder what a 360 controller runs with play and charge kit? Just need a used one. Get so tired of not having mine to use cause wife is watching tv with it.
I don't think a play and charge controller will work.
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Daehawk
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by Daehawk »

Ya mine is a play and charge one...have to use a special wireless dongle on PC for it though. Got it back a good ways for like $10 I think.
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by jztemple2 »

Watch_Dogs has been patched through Steam. New version number is V1.03.471. I'm not sure if the graphics are better since I'm running at Ultra already.

By the way, does anyone know what the setting in Graphics "GPU Max Buffered Frames" does or should be set at? I have a GTX 780 and I've tried it at "1" and up at "5" and I can't tell a difference. Is it only for lesser video cards or something like that?
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Daehawk
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by Daehawk »

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jztemple2
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by jztemple2 »

So, I've reached 50 hours of gameplay on Watch_Dogs. Just completed Act III with nine campaign missions to go. 64% completion. I'm still really enjoying the game.
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by jztemple2 »

Finished the main campaign, 75% completion overall. The main story was pretty lame, and I finally got to the point that I reach in some games that I was just getting through the last few missions just to get it over with. Not that the missions weren't well put together, but the story line just lost my interest and there are only so many times I can do car chases and hacking jobs. I'll go back and do some more of the side missions sometime. I've put in 57 hours on the game, so I've come close to my one dollar per one hour of gameplay ratio I like to achieve.
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gbasden
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by gbasden »

I finished the game today with about 75 hours invested. I'd say I got my money's worth. In general I enjoyed the entire game. I thought the later gameplay elements were pretty cool, especially when
Spoiler:
Defalt and Damien start using CTOS against you.
The story was OK, but nothing amazing. I did really like T-Bone and his portion of the story arc. The enemies were brain dead for a huge organization that can see and hear everything, but such is gameplay limitations. Overall, I'm glad I got it.
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by Sectoid »

Has anyone tried the Mobile app for Watch Dogs? It is called ctOS.

Also, can you guys add me on Uplay? We don't seem to have a sticky for Uplay names on here. Not sure why.
I'm Adventurene on there. I suck at the online stuff. Can't seem to win any of them.
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Daehawk
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by Daehawk »

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Daehawk
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by Daehawk »

Theres a mod that fixes the graphics if anyone is still interested in this game. I'm going to restart it with the mod installed and see how it goes.

The Worse MOD 1.0

Mod info

More mod info
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naednek
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by naednek »

did you forget that already? You kinda posted about in the post prior to your last one :P
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Daehawk
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by Daehawk »

I only saw where I posted about next gen graphics and the before and after stuff of the demo they showed. This is the mod to improve them.
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Paingod
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by Paingod »

\ARISE!

I picked this up on a whim and have been enjoying it overall. The controls in just about everything are soggy (driving, combat, aiming, etc) and I'm dying for some way to make them match my expectations for using a keyboard & mouse over a controller. Is there anything at all to improve this?

Last night I think I had my first real-player interaction. I was called in to tag & infect a large bounty - and when I arrived, there was a mess in the road and a "person" running around semi-intelligently. A tense time was had dodging and hiding, but I won out and earned a massive 1000+ bounty for him.
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jztemple2
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by jztemple2 »

I played the entire campaign in Watch_Dogs on the PC, just over sixty hours. I used an X360 controller so I can't comment on the keyboard+mouse issues. It worked fine with the controller.

I also really liked the 1 vs 1 online encounters, Hacking and Tailing IIRC. It was really fun to be on the receiving end too; you'd be traveling along, getting ready for the next mission and then suddenly you'd be notified that someone is tailing/hacking you. It was a lot more fun than sitting in an online lobby waiting and waiting and waiting...
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Paingod
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by Paingod »

I think the game gets a bad rap due mostly to Ubisoft's marketing plans. It's not as bad as it gets in some reviews, and it's not next-gen or astounding - but it is a lot of fun if you're not looking to nitpick loopholes and missing visuals.

My control issues were largely solved by editing a config file in the Users directory to eliminate mouse smoothing and increase mouse sensitivity, and downshifting the GPU pre-loading from 3 to 1 frames. The game looks good enough (I'm not going to try and push it on my 5 year old AMD graphics card) and runs smoothly. I'm guessing that with these fixes, a majority of what people complained about (control issues, graphic lagging) has been eliminated through patching or manual editing.

While the game isn't a 10/10 - it is worth the price of admission, IMO (I give it a 8/10). I'm having a blast with it. I don't know why it got in my head that I wanted to buy it so badly that I couldn't wait for a Steam sale, but I don't regret it. I did buy the Digital Collector's Edition for $50, just 'cause.

I'm barely past "Open your world" and am actively trying to unlock/crack all the ctOS stations before I do anything else. It seems a good first move. It's also highly gratifying to enter a guarded complex and complete it - in and out - without tripping a single alarm or even taking down a guard. I've only done this once, but it felt good.

I love the 1v1 Instancing. It's simply an awesome feature and each time it provides a fun experience. It can be really tense, avoiding detection by another player - and car chases can be pretty epic when you catch them. That last 10% where they KNOW you've got to be *right there* is the hardest.

Cunning player moves have included:
  • Hacking me and sitting in a boat, so if he was spotted he could escape down the coast. I gave chase and he was shot down in a boat vs. boat combat. It was a good idea, but a dead giveaway since there was really nowhere else for him to be.
  • Hacking me and driving around a tight area in a fast car, so I was always a step behind and couldn't spot them. This was the winner against me - I got his car down, but he fled and hid on a roof, behind an AC unit. I didn't think to climb up and look with so many backyards to check.
  • Hiding in tall grass behind a post and playing possum in a densely populated area. It took forever to find this guy, simply because of the number of NPC's around me. He was in a remote corner of that area and hard to spot until I was almost on top of him.
  • I invaded someone's game and they triggered a massive police response. I was so overwhelmed by the flashing lights, sirens, and police movement that I had a really hard time tracking him and eventually he came up behind me. Thankfully, the cops weren't after me and I was able to hide behind them, but it wasn't enough.
  • I had a player tag me and then retreat back to a bridge - where he hijacked a boat and then sat under the bridge in the water. I only found him accidentally as I fell down to look around the rocks for him there. He proceeded to run circles around me while I swam to try and board his boat (no other boats were in visible range) and I only barely managed to pull myself up for half a second to ID him and make him run. He escaped with 85% of my data.
  • I jumped into one game where the player already had a police chase on him - it made tagging him simple as there was no need for stealth and I could speed up behind police cars. It got real weird after I started the hack, though - he circled around and drove directly to the area where I was hiding (police in tow). I scampered and re-positioned to hide better, and he drove directly at that area. I ran to the end of a shipping container and hid behind a door - and he drove through that shipping container. I swear the guy knew exactly where I was but couldn't stop to ID me. Ultimately the police killed him 40m away from me and I had to wait out the hack to win. Just strange.
Griefing moves by other players (when I invade them):
  • There's a healthy culture of ass-hattery and a fair number of players I invaded were more than prepared for my arrival - they were camping and waiting to kill me. I don't understand how this is any kind of fun for them - to sit in one spot and wait minutes without moving.
  • Camped at the end of a pier and sitting there watching the NPC's walk around. I spawned 50m in front of him and tried to be as cool as possible to walk away, but was assassinated. Hard to be inconspicuous when you pop into existence in their visual range.
  • Camped under a bridge, inside cover, behind a fence, protected by IED's. There was absolutely no way to get to this guy and he detonated the IED's while I was sitting just around a corner trying to puzzle out a way.
  • From now on, when I enter a game and the player appears to be camping (in a safe spot, not moving, on foot) I'm just going to exit. Quitting gives no reward or penalty and wastes the camper's time.
Things that cue me into other players:
  • Being the only other soul moving on top of a parking garage. This poor bugger came after me while I was puzzling out a ctOS entry, and being on the roof of a garage meant there was no possible way to see me except to come up and wave at me. Gunned down before they could even begin to hack.
  • Skidding and engine revving. Players have given themselves away too easily by driving hard instead of easy. I see their car, parked on the side of the road and start looking for what's out of place... or better yet, I see them driving their car and open fire, causing them to flee before they can start. When I invade, if I can I look for a frumpy blocky car to use as my hiding spot and drive it slowly to a good spot where I create a traffic snarl.
  • Being a disturbance in the force. NPC's don't run without provocation. Cars are always parked neatly. I certainly didn't knock down that telephone pole. Why is there an abandoned motorcycle blocking traffic?
Notes on Invading:
  • The ctOS scan circle always starts dead-center on you when you initiate the scan.
  • This is your starting point for finding a hacker. Find the middle and look for clues to where they went. A lift that's been raised, a car that's parked wrong, skid marks, distressed citizens, knocked over trash cans, etc.
  • If you're the invader, try and find parking garages or railway entrances to give yourself vertical options as the ctOS scan area closes in.
  • At 25%, 50% and 75% the circle shrinks, but always includes the hacker. If the edge of it stays put, they are probably on that edge somewhere. If it shrinks uniformly, they're probably in the middle somewhere.
  • Be patient and try to avoid running like a chicken with your head cut off. You've got 2m 40s to find the other player, or 3m if you Jam them.
  • Save your Jam Comms for when the circle is over 75%, to give the most narrowed down search area a longer time to search.
  • Use cameras to scan wide areas at angles you normally can't see.
  • Always keep your phone out while looking to get an accidental profile if you happen to sweep over the invader.
  • Always look for high ground. This is a favorite hiding technique and affords a wide range of sight.
  • Get close and use cameras to initiate to ensure you're not spotted.
  • Don't install the backdoor immediately, but drive off and hide somewhere good before starting. This delays the start of their hunt by several seconds.
  • Hiding at the very edge of the hacking boundary can make you difficult to find, but also tells alert victims where you are as the circle shrinks.
  • Use Blackouts to create a little havok and make yourself hard to see.
  • Use traffic lights to create traffic jams and chaos to distract from your true position.
  • Make better use of the Stroll button (default is ALT) to walk like an NPC if in the open.
  • Don't hide inside cars. They're large targets and obvious hiding spots.
  • Get better with the semi-auto grenade launcher. It takes a couple shots to kill a player, but it knocks them down and stops their forward momentum.
  • The Focus and Pause options don't work when an invader is around - and can be used as an early warning system.
  • If someone seems to run from you, they likely know you're there because Focus and/or Pause alerted them and they're off to set up an ambush. Try and outfox them if this is the case.
  • Remember: To your target you look like a regular NPC. Act accordingly.
  • Drive NPC-ish within 150m of the target. They'll hear a ruckus, engines, crashing, etc.
  • Try and walk like an NPC within 75m of them if you're in the open and they might see you.
  • Invaders seem to be sent to people with bounties first - if you've picked up a bounty from Blume, you're a high priority target and may get hit any moment.
One moment where I actually laughed -hard- was a player that entered my game and tried to play it cool in his sports car - but was driving slightly erratically. I spotted this and shot his car a couple times. He pulled away and tried to park down the road - but didn't know I was onto him and was very shocked when a Lamborghini came out of nowhere and rammed him at full speed before he could get out. I transferred my momentum to him and pieces of his car flew everywhere - and he took off like a bullet. I couldn't follow him, given how hard I was laughing, but set up an ambush spot for him and never saw him come back. I guess he figured he was blown and cut his losses.

Another intense chase was with a skilled driver that kept detonating pipes as I chased him. We raced around the city for minutes and I was able to run him off the road a few times, but never could get out and shoot him before he took off. Ultimately he was able to escape as I had to keep getting in and out of my car and he never did. This guy never got to start hacking me because he drove hard when he entered my instance and sent up huge red flags.

If anything, the 1v1 happens too often. I could swear that at each ctOS station I visit, while I'm sitting still and checking for points of entry, I have to deal with 2-3 player invasions... each time. It means I have to keep starting over, and means I'm generally very off my guard and isolated. I have discovered that refusing to log into uPlay before launching the game makes for a quiet night of playing by myself - which was actually peaceful for a few missions before I shut it down and logged in to get some mayhem.

Digital Trips are single player diversions - you play in (1) a bouncing/floating target game, (2) space invaders, (3) hell-car mode (run down pedestrians in Hell Chicago), and (4) Spider Tank Rampage (the best one). I think there's a 5th one - a cyborg invasion, but it's a DLC pack I don't have. You'll probably try them all once, but do the Spider Tank over and over.

The online Racing modes are fun - I clearly need more work there, as after 4 rounds the best I could pull off was 2nd place. 2nd place is worth 10 Notoriety. 1st is worth 100. 3rd takes away 65. 4th removes 140. Ultimately, it seems that racing is NOT worth engaging in because of the risk vs. rewards except to make the achievements. However, it is a fun time... just not productive if you want to be Notorious. I did get someone to rage-quit, though. I started the race with an early small lead and the guy who'd been winning every race slammed me to send me spinning. Since I was dead last and there's no margin for error (once you're last, you stay last), I decided to mess with him. I turned around and drove full speed at him down the straight-away ... which induced terror and sent him careening (he must have just hit the Nitro) like a pinball. His voice audio was on and he swore up a storm - and then quit the game.

The ctOS Mobile Challenge is a lot of fun. It pits you against someone using a mobile app to control the cops and barriers in the city. They can summon patrol cars, SUV's, and SWAT vehicles. They can explode steam vents, change lights, and raise barriers... while you have to run, and run FAST. It's all timed, and the timer only goes up if you hit a checkpoint or +15 second boost. Sadly, there's no challenge rewards for this.

For me, the pros and cons are...
Pros:
  • I love that you can slap the phone out of someone's hand before they report your hacking activity or finish calling 911. No police or bounty for me, thank you. Backing a car up and almost hitting them does the same thing.
  • The little blurbs about the NPC's are amusing. I can't help but feel bad when I steal money from someone who's recently been diagnosed with cancer, and I'm happy to take down someone with a history of spousal abuse.
  • The game is visually nice, even on my old system. I may not be seeing the full extent of it.
  • I was able to correct most of my problems with the control scheme.
  • Player invasions, races, and ctOS Mobile challenges are awesome fun. I haven't done the multiplayer 2-8 modes.
  • Invading other players can be a pulse-pounding exciting challenge - trying to find a good spot and stay hidden is harder than you'd think it could be.
  • I'm enjoying the ctOS puzzles (entry, guards, etc), but these only get done once per playthrough.
  • I love that the cops and robbers don't just give up on me because I'm too fast. They actively look for me, and I have to actively attempt to ditch them... I don't just drive into a spray booth to make it all better.
  • There's incentive to not be a dick to the public at large. The higher your standing, the less likely they'll call the cops. If you're notorious, civilians will spot you and report you, leading to police searches.
  • The world is open to you from the start, none of this "the bridges are closed" crap.
  • Lots of content to explore and play, but some can be repetitive or feel unrewarding at the end.
  • Main story + average side missions might tally 60 hours of play.
Cons:
  • The simple fact that I had to fiddle with config files to clean up the controls.
  • Ubisoft's useless uPlay launcher is a requirement, but I already had it from Anno 2070, so it wasn't a big deal.
  • Campers in 1v1 PvP modes. It's just being a dick and against the spirit of the mode. In all fairness, you can tell they're camping before you engage them, so they can be avoided.
  • No Steam achievements
  • Player invasions are a little too frequent and a lot of the time I'd rather just work on the mission I was trying to finish. This can be avoided by simply not logging into uPlay (or logging out) before launching the game.
  • Cars are not persistent. It can take a while to find a nice fast car, and that car only lasts a single mission. Once you park it and start the mission, it's gone.
  • There's nowhere to store cars to keep a few nice ones handy
  • There are a few invisible walls (like a gap between a mailbox and a sign) that you'd think you could walk through, but just can't clip past them.
  • There was some debacle at launch about missing PC graphics, but this is all moot to me now.
  • It's not as "Next Gen" as it was billed. The protagonist moves more fluidly around the world than the GTA4 character did, but lacks a lot of freedom of movement that other, newer games have (like not being able to 'knock out" unarmed civilians instead of shooting them).
  • Police can be avoided by going out onto open water, every time. I've yet to do this and don't plan to, but it's a damn foolish gap in game logic.
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Newcastle
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by Newcastle »

Thanks for the tips there Paingod. Bought this during the steam sale and have been giving it some time.

The timing of the invasions from other players was annoying. Been only invaded 3 times, but it seems whenever I am about to do something (is unlock a tower), bang get invaded and you have to waste time dealing with that. Not too fond when that happens to break up what I am doing. However, its been kind of fun to try to track down the culprit and find em. Once didnt care and was just trying to do my thing so i let it pass, second time they were playing possum. Third time I tracked em down, but they were getting away and I could figure out how to pull out the right weapon and so forth in time. Yeah, i dont play shooters too much.

So far really enjoying the puzzle elements to the game, love being able to hack aroudn the town, use cameras to bounce around various vantage points, and of course controlling various city infrastructure. Definitely keeping my entertained.
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Paingod
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by Paingod »

Newcastle wrote:The timing of the invasions from other players was annoying. Been only invaded 3 times, but it seems whenever I am about to do something (is unlock a tower), bang get invaded and you have to waste time dealing with that. Not too fond when that happens to break up what I am doing.
It's this one thing that drove me to leave uPlay "Disconnected" and not log in when I started Watch_Dogs. Every time I stopped to fiddle with a ctOS pole, I was invaded - sometimes two or three times before I could finish it. You can turn off PvP, which wipes your PvP scores and achievements, or you can simply not log into uPlay before running the game Offline.

I got to a point where I only logged into uPlay when I felt like doing PvP and left it off so I could actually progress through the game.
Newcastle wrote:Definitely keeping my entertained.
It got some bad press at release for not being the staggering next-gen title it was billed as, but it's not actually a bad game in it's current state. It's had over a year to mature and ripen, and I think it's as done as it'll ever get.
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by jztemple2 »

I haven't played this game since it came out (never got the DLC) but after seeing some of the WD2 announcements, I decided to reinstall and start another campaign, although I am loath to do this since I often burn out very quickly, getting the "been there, done that" feeling. However, after six hours I'm still having a lot of fun, and I think that this is partly due to having so much that can be done besides the campaign missions. And an hour ago I unlocked the 1v1 hacking and tailing online missions and I remember why I spent so much time on those, they are a lot of fun.

And speaking of Watch Dogs 2 (too soon to start a new thread I think) I saw this announcement today which is worth passing on... Watch Dogs 2 won't have you climbing towers to reveal the map
Climbing towers - it's been a thing in many Ubisoft games since Assassin's Creed popularised it. In the first Watch Dogs they were present in the form of CTOS towers, miniature climbing puzzles which unlocked points of interest on the map upon completion.

Far Cry 3 had towers, too. Hell, even open-world racer The Crew had the driving equivelant. Fortunately, this formulaic system won't be present in Watch Dogs 2.

"It's not a game where you open your map and everything's there," Watch Dogs creative director Jonathan Morin tells Eurogamer, presumably pointing at the iconic, icon-cluttered maps of previous Ubisoft games. "There are no towers. You just explore the world."

Instead of progression being tied to hoovering up icons, it's attached to your follower count, which acts like a Twitter-fueled experience guage. Reaching a certain point triggers the next big job.

"Players start with a few followers in [hacker group] DedSec but pretty soon you realise you're going to need more if you want to pull off big operations. So you start free-roaming," Morin continues.

"Every time you get followers, it's like you're unlocking the DedSec hivemind. You're also unlocking new knowledge, new operations, new co-op missions. And then organically you hit those end-game milestones."

Apparently you can even ignore the story if you want. "You can barely touch the story," Morin explains. "You have many different operations which give you followers, which guide your progression. Within the story there are three "milestones" to hit which finish the game's narrative, but mathematically you can unlock everything else through co-op or free-roam."
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by jztemple2 »

So I've got eleven hours in on my replay of the WD campaign and I'm still enjoying it. I'm taking my time with the campaign missions and just doing the odd side mission and doing online hacking and tailing. And I've got a couple more observations...

First, I've seen mentions in the previews for Watch Dogs 2 that people didn't like the car handling in the original, so they are making it more arcade-like. I think this is a mistake. I've been driving all around the city (I love open world game with vehicles you can drive) and I don't find the cars and trucks and motorcycles hard to drive, they just require skill and some practice. There's nothing like driving their version of a Camaro with slicks in the back and massive amounts of power. Or doing J-turns with a little import. The driving reminds me of Grand Theft Auto IV, not easy at first, but rewarding when you get the hang of it.

And secondly, speaking of Grand Theft Auto, I've played the campaign in GTAV through once and part way again and I have to say when you compare the GTAV world with the one in Watch Dogs, WD comes out ahead. There might be more physical size to the GTAV map, but the WD map has much more playable areas where you can do something. And a good part of the WD map is in the vertical dimension, with underground walkways, tunnels, the river walk, not to mention all the buildings that are multiple stories that have accessible roofs. You really get to see more of this if you participate in the online hacking and tailing.

And the people in the Watch Dog world are much more in-depth with their own stories, not to mention all the things they are doing as you walk by, like playing ball, strumming guitars, posing for selfies, the list goes on. A good part of the GTAV map is outside of San Andreas and consequently pretty boring at times. The Chicago of Watch Dogs is pretty well packed with stuff everywhere.

More observations as I play.
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
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Paingod
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by Paingod »

jztemple2 wrote:The Chicago of Watch Dogs is pretty well packed with stuff everywhere.
When I was playing, I did always feel like the city was more alive than other games, and I liked that. A little light on traffic sometimes, but not to the point of frustration. I also really liked the way the game cycled day and night and how pedestrians aren't really abundant at night.
jztemple2 wrote:First, I've seen mentions in the previews for Watch Dogs 2 that people didn't like the car handling in the original, so they are making it more arcade-like. I think this is a mistake. I've been driving all around the city (I love open world game with vehicles you can drive) and I don't find the cars and trucks and motorcycles hard to drive, they just require skill and some practice. There's nothing like driving their version of a Camaro with slicks in the back and massive amounts of power. Or doing J-turns with a little import. The driving reminds me of Grand Theft Auto IV, not easy at first, but rewarding when you get the hang of it.
I completely agree. Once I got the hang of it, I had no issues with the driving and did fairly well with even my keyboard and mouse, to the point of being able to keep up with people in Online Racing competitions, sometimes placing 1st or 2nd. If anything, the vehicles are maybe "too" durable - but I can forgive that since there's no garage to store anything in and if you like a car, you can use it longer before it breaks down.
jztemple2 wrote:a good part of the WD map is in the vertical dimension, with underground walkways, tunnels, the river walk, not to mention all the buildings that are multiple stories that have accessible roofs. You really get to see more of this if you participate in the online hacking and tailing.
That verticality is essential for being a good online hacker and getting wins. Last time I played, one of the "campers" who was just looking to kill anyone who invaded his game was just sitting in the middle of an urban area where there were no good approaches, no cameras to see him, no way to get above or below to hide, and no way to get close without trying to sneak and slink down alleyways and hope he didn't spot you as you darted between cover objects. I entered his world twice, and even knowing he was camping and being extremely careful to appear 'normal' he still sniped me at extreme range before I could tag him.
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by jztemple2 »

Paingod wrote:I had no issues with the driving and did fairly well with even my keyboard and mouse, to the point of being able to keep up with people in Online Racing competitions, sometimes placing 1st or 2nd.
:shock:

Wow, that's pretty old school :D. I started using an X360 controller years ago just because of racing on the PC. I'm glad to see that someone else thinks the driving is just fine in Watch Dogs.
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Re: Watch Dogs

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Twenty-four hours into my second campaign runthrough in Watch_Dogs. Driving in Chicago can be a little dangerous!

Image
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Re: Watch Dogs

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This game is tons of fun. I think I'm still on chapter one of the campaign, all I've been doing is unlocking towers and then doing all the subsequent side missions.

Flying up and down Lake Shore Drive on a motorcycle is just as satisfying in-game as in real life. Plus you're much less likely to die.

I seem to suck at the gang missions. I try to knock everybody out but inevitably there's a guy I didn't see who calls his friends and I get my ass killed.

Police are insanely good at chasing you. I've been on 10 minute chases before I finally managed to ditch them. Don't fuck with CPD. Also, don't carjack people.

I like the banter from the people. "That's the vigilante!" "We have roads for a reason!"

Money has no value in-game, eventually. That seems relevant given the setting of the game. I've robbed so many ATMs I have over a million dollars and basically nothing to spend it on. I love when I hack an ATM and I take out over $100K. That's a lot of hundreds!

As mentioned above the side games are mostly blah, but the spider tank one is fun as is the cyborg one (but it's hard IMO.)
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Re: Watch Dogs

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killbot737 wrote:I seem to suck at the gang missions. I try to knock everybody out but inevitably there's a guy I didn't see who calls his friends and I get my ass killed.
Gang missions are tough, but like so many other missions in the game, it's the terrain/buildings around that really dictate my approach. I've been able to complete some of them without alerting any other gang members, while others end up in a big gun fight followed by me chasing the boss across town. Lots of fun :wub:
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Re: Watch Dogs

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Just as an aside, there's a song in the game that is not the same song, but reminds me of a mellower version of the song "25 or 6 to 4" by the band Chicago! - "Wake up Sunshine"

It reminds me of a lot of songs. "Mr. Blue Sky" of course. And a bunch I can't think of.

Imagine being chased by the police while that's playing! It's a weird zen experience. La la left turn la la trigger bridge activation la la la. :D

ed -- ok apparently my Chicago band knowledge fails me. They did that song! Durrrrrrr.
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Re: Watch Dogs

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Just finally getting back into this and I have about 4 hours of time in so far. I am surprised at how detailed and "alive" the city feels - the fact that it's not one dimensional (tunnels, subways, garages underground, etc...) really adds to the experience. I'm not 100% sold on the game play elements yet, mainly because they're so different than other games. For example, I was asked to break into a server and traditionally that would mean having your character physically get inside a building. Instead, now I hack a camera and use it to jump around to different cameras, ultimately putting myself closer and closer to the server where I can remotely access it. It's just a very different way of thinking and I'm stuck on a story mission ow because they want me to use that type of technique and also sneak around to eliminate targets. Jumping between camera hacks, setting off alarms and distractions and creeping into position to kill dudes is really frying my brain.

Runs like a champ in 2016 and looks great. Would recommend if it's on sale this weekend or for Xmas - particularly if you're into open world games.
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Re: Watch Dogs

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The puzzle aspects of the game were always fun. I enjoyed the sneaking into a compound, past guards, and getting the right angle to take over a camera and then bounce around to others until I was in. I thought it was a nice change of pace over simply doing one or the other.

I'd ditto how alive the city feels - there's always something to see, something going on. It's really well flavored.

The 3rd dimension of the city - vertical and subterranean - really gets involved when you're hacking another player online. Being able to hide above or below them is just awesome and makes the hunt for hackers so much more intense. Get into the tunnels below, or a multi-tiered parking lot and you could be golden... or completely trapped if they turn the right corner at the right time.

I think in all my hours of play, my only real gripe was with people who camped out and waited for you to invade them. They would set up somewhere that you couldn't possibly get to without being spotted and smear you the second you came into view, before they ever ID'd you. It was beyond lame. I managed to get one of them - once - by remembering his name as a camper and then approaching him completely sideways and round-about. You only need to see them for a few seconds to tag them, and they don't need to see you. Then you run like hell to go find a better place to hide and trigger the hack.
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Re: Watch Dogs

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The puzzle-y aspects are definitely interesting but after getting me used to bouncing around cameras to hack a server, now I'm apparently supposed to bounce and kill people in real time as well. It's a lot to manage. There's also a ton to do completely unrelated to the game story, and that part is overwhelming. All the stuff to see, random people to hack, crimes to stop...it's insane what you can get into just walking around a city block or neighborhood for a 10 minutes. I definitely need to spend some more time with the game to progress the story. For the Far Cry / Assassin's Creed games, I'm quite used to climbing structures to get information. I haven't quite re-worked my brain yet to process what I need to do now. :D
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Re: Watch Dogs

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The game does seem to work to overload you. In order to continue with the story in a reasonable fashion, I ended up disabling online content (by shutting off the Ubisoft launcher or disconnecting my Ethernet cable) after the game launched. If you try and disable it in-game, your entire scoring to date is reset. Pull a plug or lose my progress... hmmmm...
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Re: Watch Dogs

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Smoove_B wrote:Just finally getting back into this and I have about 4 hours of time in so far. I am surprised at how detailed and "alive" the city feels - the fact that it's not one dimensional (tunnels, subways, garages underground, etc...) really adds to the experience. I'm not 100% sold on the game play elements yet, mainly because they're so different than other games. For example, I was asked to break into a server and traditionally that would mean having your character physically get inside a building. Instead, now I hack a camera and use it to jump around to different cameras, ultimately putting myself closer and closer to the server where I can remotely access it. It's just a very different way of thinking and I'm stuck on a story mission ow because they want me to use that type of technique and also sneak around to eliminate targets. Jumping between camera hacks, setting off alarms and distractions and creeping into position to kill dudes is really frying my brain.

Runs like a champ in 2016 and looks great. Would recommend if it's on sale this weekend or for Xmas - particularly if you're into open world games.
$9 on Steam right now. Tempting, but I have plenty else to keep me busy. I might look into getting during the Xmas sale.
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Re: Watch Dogs

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Still really enjoying the game - once I started focusing more on the story and not so much on being able to hack pretty much everything around me, I did much better. Also, I finally figured out that the game really doesn't always expect you to 100% hack your way into an area. Instead, now I use the hacking to soften the targets or create distractions. With upgraded guns, fighting hasn't been a a problem. Also, being able to hack into enemy explosives or get them to drop grenades after they pull the pin is a nice touch.

I'm updating the post mostly because after 2+ years, there's still a game-breaking bug in the Second Act. The mission is called "Not a Job For Tyrone" and without giving away spoilers, apparently the game world mesh is such that if you are unlucky (like me) when you start the mission, you auto-fail it about 5 seconds in because an NPC falls to his death through the game mesh. I'm amazed this hasn't been fixed almost 3 years later, but the solution I found works perfectly w/ a shotgun:
Spoiler:
I got it working though. When you just shoot a few times on the house with any weapon untill people start shouting, then hack it. Tyrone didn't fall anymore. Hope this helps for other people as well.
The game world continues to amaze me - the different neighborhoods and city areas are impressively detailed. They all have a very distinct feel.
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Re: Watch Dogs

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I'm on the last mission and on the last leg of finishing the game...and I'm ready to just uninstall it. Apparently the designers just figured, fuck it, let's make the game insane hard for the final thing that needs to be done and it will feel more rewarding that way. Thematically, it makes sense. But from a game play standpoint? It's absurd. I might try it one more time and then just delete it. But it was fun for 24+ hours.
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Re: Watch Dogs

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It's been a long time, remind me what that last mission is?
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Re: Watch Dogs

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Sometimes you still lose
Spoiler:
You need to zip around town and upload a virus into three different servers. The entire time Damien is messing with your UI, hacking the city elements and pointing the police right at you.
Again, thematically it makes sense, but after getting pinned or shot or snipered 37 times in 20 minutes...I've had enough. I checked online for some tiPs and I'm going to give it another go.
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Re: Watch Dogs

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Yeah, that was pretty daunting. I don't remember anything specific to help, just that it was hard.
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Re: Watch Dogs

Post by Smoove_B »

...and finished. What I didn't realize (and what is pretty cheesy) is that if you die, you don't lose progress. So it's just race to each area, do your think and try not to die. If you do, no big deal...spawn back and keep moving forward. Not surprisingly the big secret to avoiding the police that works in the game normally works the same in this last mission. Once I went back to that strategy, it became much easier.
Spoiler:
Get to a boat, race out to the water. Cops can't follow you and if the helicopter is near, you just disable it and race away. Works 100% of the time.
I'm looking forward to giving the second one a try, that's for sure. It was fun and I enjoyed it more than I thought. I still think the city and suburbs are some of the best I've ever seen in a game.
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Re: Watch Dogs

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Now you're ready for Watch_Dogs 2! :D
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Re: Watch Dogs

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I wonder can the police following in the water in Watch Dogs 2?
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Re: Watch Dogs

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Scoop20906 wrote:I wonder can the police following in the water in Watch Dogs 2?
If there are police boats nearby, yes.
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Re: Watch Dogs

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I suppose the question should be: Is getting out on a boat an easy way to break any police chase, no matter how massive, or did they shore up that exploit?
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