Lies, lies, and more fucking lies. I can't recall the last game that looked anything like what we were shown on the tin. Nintendo has done this with LoZ for years, but at least they didn't have to gall to claim those were anything more than tech demos. We can't even expect devs these days to deliver on promises of the most superfluous part of gaming (graphics) and I'm supposed to believe we're in the "Golden Age of Gaming?"A modder has uncovered many of the original graphics files for the game Watch Dogs in the video game’s code, allowing him to modify the game to use many of its original effects.
Ubisoft came under fire for downgrading the graphics of the game after showing off better looking builds at E3 for the past two years prior to release.
Now it appears that those effects can be restored via this mod. Here’s what the modder, who goes by “TheWorse”, has unlocked so far:
-Changes to the default fog values
-Enabled bokeh DOF for the main cameras
-Stuttering Improvements
-E3 2012 Bloom
-Performance Improvements
-Enabled Headlight Shadows
-LoD Changes
-Reflection changes
-Added 3 new cameras to the game (closer, normal, further)
-Rain changes (High quality rain drops, properly reacting to light, etc)
-LensFlares (WIP)
-Lighting changes (TESTING AND WIP)
-Civilians density changes
He promises much more to come.
Here are some screenshots showing off the (rather impressive) results:
::SNIP PICS:::
Ubisoft apparently downgraded the graphics across the board in order to make the PC version line up better with new-gen consoles, all of which were held back by last-gen hardware. Why these files remained in the PC version is another question, and why Ubisoft didn’t just allow the PC version to keep all these features—which appear to work for the most part—is just as baffling.
Update: According to Rock, Paper, Shotgun the actual mod has some problematic performance issues and doesn’t look as good throughout the city as some of these screenshots might suggest. This may be a matter of more tinkering needed, or it may be a good explanation for why the game was whittled down in the first place. [End Update]
It reminds me of the Dark Souls II downgrade. Wouldn’t it be neat if modders could find the original files for that game as well? I’d love to try it out with the better textures and darker environments, where torches would actually be useful.
Whatever the case, seeing PC titles crippled for no good reason just to line up better with consoles is getting old fast. It’s also frustrating to see game after game demoed with much better graphics than the final release. It might be better to show less early on until a more realistic portrait of the final product is in hand. That way you don’t build up so much hype for something you can’t ultimately deliver.
Update 2: I feel like I should clarify. It seems like the downgrade was either made to achieve console/PC parity of some sort or it was made due to performance issues. While some people are reporting performance issues with the modified settings, others are not. It’s hard to know what the issues were from the developer’s perspective.
I think the bigger issue, the more important issue, is that the earlier previews showed a very different looking game. If performance issues were the problem and reason for the final downgrade, then it’s safe to say that the earlier version shouldn’t have been demoed to begin with. If parity was the ultimate goal, same thing applies. So either way, the fundamental problem here is that games are being advertised one way and delivered another. Even with perfectly legitimate reasons for a downgrade, this smacks of false advertising even if that wasn’t the intention. (Same applies to Dark Souls II.) This breaks trust between game makers and their customer base. I’ve written lots of positive opinions on Ubisoft and their willingness to delay games to make them more polished, but they’re not helping themselves by releasing games that simply don’t match what people expected. Hopefully The Division and Assassin’s Creed Unity look as good as their demos, but it’s perfectly understandable at this point for gamers to be worried.
This may simply boil down to a disconnect between the marketing and creative arms at video game companies, the former doing its best to show off the best material they have, while the latter may ultimately not be able to deliver. But if that’s the case, it may be time for these companies to start coordinating better so that customers don’t feel misled and backlash is diminished. [End Update]
For those who missed it, here’s a video comparing various demonstrations of the games and the final product:
It just continues to amaze me how not mind-blowing these graphics really are. Even the shit shown at E3 and we're already to the "not enough power on current consoles" to even bother with it. And this is pushing 30FPS with motion blur and sub-1080p resolutions. Holy shit, this generation of cross-platforms is going to be bleak.
