Watch Dogs Comparison - Latest Build versus E3 2012 & June 2013 Builds

DSOGaming writes: "After releasing its latest trailer for Watch Dogs, Ubisoft was 'criticized' for dumbing down the visuals of its open-world title. Well, time to see how this latest build stands compared to the initial E3 2012 and the June 2013 builds. For what is worth, the latest 'story' trailer was based on the next-gen version of the game, meaning that this is what you'll be getting on PS4, Xbox One and PC."

[GraveLord]

Still hyped for this game. It's all about fun in the end right? I can't help but think PS3/360 held it back this time. Maybe Watch Dogs 2 will push PS4 to its limits.

[Nitrowolf2]

Looks like Ubisoft really dumbed down the GFX big time if this is PS4/X1, I thought this trailer was for the ps3/360?

[vishmarx]

i dunno ,someone needs to confirm the platforms.
ps4 version looks worse than gta v on last gen

[SharnOfTheDEAD]

Who is disagreeing with the fact it looks worse? Look at the E3 reveal, all those months and it looks like this? Something seems rotten. If the trailer is from next gen/PC footage then just what the hell has been going on all these months?

[PSN-JeRzYzFyNeSt]

this has to be PS3/360 footage..

havent ppl Played the game last year and it looked beautiful? wtf would ubisoft downgrade the graphic, dont they like money???? lol

no forreall this better be last Gen footage from today..

hopefully they are gearing up to annouce the same date with Next gen footage (PS4)

[ivan510]

Indeed, when i first saw the trailer i though it was 360/ps3. Theyve really scaled down the graphics.

[FamilyGuy]

:/

..So why did they claim to have delayed it for the better if the end result is worse?

[AliTheSnake1]

IDK nor care what BS people are talking about cz of some bullshots. But we've seen what The PS4 and X1 can do, (Magic). And this game is gonna F shit up.

PS4/X1 Watch dogs trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watc...
Gameplay : http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Looks sick,Can't wait.

[Patrick_pk44]

Do you expect the E3 reveals to be the final product when released? Clearly you haven't been around, or have been hiding underneath a rock. Every studio at E3 shows bullshots (a screenshot fabricated by a company to misrepresent the graphics of a game) to attract casuals to believe in their products. Never trust anything you see until the game is released.

[NewMonday]

http://i.minus.com/iboqqHgy...

holy downgrade Batman!

so inFAMOUS:SS will be unchallenged as the best looking open world game

[Nitrowolf2]

@Patrick_pk44

I wasn't expecting it to look exactly like it, but if this is indeed ps4/x1 i expected it to look better. The reveal looked great, and in comparison, Infamous second son looks better than it IMO, so it's not otu of the question really to expect it to look decently close, with minor downgrades, now huge noticiable off the bat ones.

[DaGR8JIBRALTAR]

if this is what we're getting on next-gen systems then it's a no go for me. I don't wanna hear "it's about fun in the end" either. Waiting all this time for this BULLSHEET! Somebody confirm that this is current-gen and fast!

[yewles1]

@DaGR8JIBRALTAR

https://twitter.com/PlaySta...

[juggulator]

It looks fine on PS4. If u have AC4 on PS4 you can see a trailer in the games content menu at the top. That trailer look like a last gen version. I think the site is doing some hardcore flaming. Just look at AC4 on PS4, there's no way the next gen version will look like the trailer seen on that website.

[webeblazing]

maybe we was seeing the pc version. well im not effected gonna get the pc version, that if i get it. the game do seem interesting but never really got the point of being hyped.

[ProjectVulcan]

Big downgrades since the first showings and earlier showings, although the first ones were clearly on a PC. E3 2012 had to be on a PC, because new consoles weren't remotely ready at that point.

This would explain a lot.

I hope the PC version is not as affected as much as the console versions. I don't mind if it is demanding as long as it matches the earlier versions, because eventually I'll have the hardware to max it even if I wouldn't right now.

[mcarsehat]

@the people concerned

Who is saying that the e3 gameplay was what the game was GOING to look like? That's not why those demos are made, They are made to show what they WANT it to look like, the expectations that they want to meet to if they have a chance. It doesn't seem like Ubisoft had that chance. If this was a hands on preview, i would be worried but it isn't, the twonk even said the city looked lifeless as opposed to what every other preview said when they use words like frantic, bustling and full of life.

They didn't show the dynamic wind system, they last talked about near the end of last year, a few months after this 'new' build was shown so i'm still expecting that.

look at deep down for god sake or eight days, eight days looked better than some next gen games and that was a ps4 launch title, it's just hyperbole and bullshotted vertical sliced videos.

come on, it isn't exactly colonial marines, newsflash! console games have jaggies, they always will.

[MaXiM1984]

Do any of you really think this game was delayed in order to improve it?

Because all I see is a lesser game (GTAV with better lightning), and when I see something as fishy as this I think about this game running at E3 2012 in PS4-like hardware when xbox one wasn't even mentioned.

Watch Dogs simply was too much for the Xbox One and now we have a PS3/xbox360 version and a PS3/xbox360 "plus" version.

[starchild]

People are jumping the gun. This is one trailer and we're talking about a game with dynamic day/night and weather changes. I don't think we can say that the game has been downgraded until we see more.

It might have been upgraded in some areas and downgraded in others as development progressed and they sought to balance the game's design and the graphics and performance.

I don't think this was a very good comparison. None of the shots were comparing like-for-like.

For example, they show a small explosion (which looks great with some very nice particle effects and volumetric smoke) and compare it to a very large explosion, and the message is supposed to be "look how much better the old version looked". I'm sorry, but nope I'm not seeing it. They look like the same quality, only on a very different scale.

The rest of the comparison shots make little sense either. Most of them are of completely different areas under completely different lighting and atmospheric conditions (i.e. rainy, foggy night shot vs a clear day/dusk shot).

So far I'm not seeing the big downgrade people are claiming. And, at least as far as this comparison is concerned, there is actually more evidence for areas that have been upgraded (like the smoke during the car crash scene) than any solid evidence of a downgrade.

[AlphaJunk]

looks completely lifeless (no physics in surrounding world) compared to the original E3 trailer - probably can only be done a high powered PC.

[UltraNova]

Definitely a downgrade from E3 and those live demos no question!

Maybe someone forced ($$$)Ubisoft into multi-platform parity? And the recent rumors of a Wii U port could explain it

[DoctorXpro]

True, so much im not even buying anymore

[Dee_91]

Very dissappointed.. i dont even want to see the division and the crew.I was so pumped for these games.. well I still am, but if this is how they will look.I wouldve been better off waiting on buying a ps4 and just playing the ps3 version..
Hope it improves

[Maddness189]

The story trailer was made on Xbox 360

[Fluke_Skywalker]

Got to lol at the people defending this game, I'd be willing to bet those same people wouldn't have defended Guerilla over that KZ2 2005 reveal! This is exactly the same except Guerilla actually got the final product close too the trailer, this isn't even close!

And why on earth would they be showing PS3/360 footage in a trailer, they're trying to sell it to us not put us off! This is obviously the best looking footage they have!

[TitanUp]

http://i.imgur.com/dhRJe3O....

http://n4g.com/news/1468753...

[Yi-Long]

I liked the old face of the main character better. They 'mainstreamed' him too much.

Not sure what to think about the game. It looked promising, but the wait has been long, and it doesn't seem truly next-gen to me.

Also, like the first Assassin's Creed, I think this will be one of those games that tests the waters but doesn't really live up to it's potential, and probably in a 2nd or 3rd game, they'll get it all right. Hopefully.

The main issue I have is that it all seems a bit 'gimmicky' in nature: Oh, hack this and something cool happens. Hack that and a car will crash.

I'm sure that makes for some 'fun' events to happen, but I'm not sure that makes for fun GAMEPLAY.

In Assassin's Creed you had the cool free-running and combat and interesting locations and all that. It was colorful and a playground and you had awesome kills.

This just seems a lot more 'muted', missing the fun and freedom you might wish for in a sandbox game.

[mewhy32]

Well it's immedtiately obvious what is happening here. Ubi is dumbing down the game because they are trying to achieve parity for the xbone. This is a big budget game and they want to make as much money as possbile so they are dumbing down the effects, bloom, physics, etc, to make the PS4 and xbone games are close as possible. They don't want the media pointing out that the xbone release is inferior to the PS4 release, like we're seeing over and over and over on multiconsole games currently hitting the market. I was hoping that we wouldn't see this culling back of games for the sake of parity on lesser consoles but it appears that the PS4 community is getting gypped this time around. I say push BOTH consoles to their max and let the devs take full advantage of what's available to them on a given hardware, including PC. Then when lesser machines cant keep up it will push the slacking companies to make better hardware in the future and drive the industry forward. To heck with parity. If you want the better version then get the better machine. PERIOD

[Braid]

They might as well call it the Downgrade Dogs, because that's just what it is.

[purpleblau]

LOL, well said. It looks like Need for Speed 3.

[vigilante_man]

Some developers have pride in their art and cannot be bought by the mighty M$. Ubisoft are not one of those.

Way to downgrade what was looking like a great game. Makes you wonder what resolution and graphic features the PS4 version had in November!

[Maddness189]

The story trailer was made on XBOX 360.

[iplay1up2]

Wow, it really does not look as good as it did before. I thought if they were "polishing it" it was going to look and run even better.

I don't know I am kind of getting sick of the hype about this game. It is going to be very hard to live up to all of it.

Hell I think there is more hype about this than GTA5, online at least.

Super Smash Bros is another one that may have some trouble living up to the hype, although Nintendo will more than likely pull it off.

[WickedLester]

Can't use that excuse. Games like Destiny and and Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes are also multi-generational titles and they look amazing.

[mcarsehat]

people are saying the same thing about ground zeroes lol

[theXtReMe1]

I just watched the new trailer extensively, pausing it when I saw shots of the city both day and night. While I'm not so sure that the polygon count was downgraded, what I did notice is that there are no shadows been cast by pretty much anything. It looks like the sun and moon are the only light sources that create shadows and I'm not even sure that isn't prebaked. It looks like they took self shadowing out, which gives everything that flat low resolution look. I also noticed that lit objects arent casting their light either. Look at the stoplights or street lamps and you can notice that their lights arent casting out to the metal surrounding it.

So, I think they took out self shadowing and light casting, which is why everything looks flatter than it did in the original videos.

[neogeo]

Don't tell me it's prebaked. I hate that word

[geddesmond]

Well my interest for the game came because of the graphics. I'll still get the game but it's a real dam shame the game got dumbed down. I've played the Dead Nation PS4 version today after playing the PS3 version for weeks and the improved graphics really make a better difference to your overall experience when playing a game.

[purpleblau]

Not anymore. I'm more hyped for Divison. not this one.

[Maddness189]

Ask Ubisoft.

[solar]

It is pretty simple to understand. Next gen consoles are not powerful enough to run what Uni has shown in 2012 and the game had to be altered

[Eddie20101]

Most of the E3 footage was said to be on PS4 and it looked great, they never showed any Xbox One footage that I Know of. It gets delayed to make the game better, yet the graphics get downgraded. Anyone ever think that it may be because of Xbox One and Microsoft parity clause? Maybe they thought if the PS4 version looks significantly better than the Xbox One version that it would hurt the sales of the game on Xbox One. We all know they want to sell as many copies as possible.

Maybe it's not the case but seems very plausible to me.

[NYC_Gamer]

Watch Dogs took a huge hit on the technical side compared to its first E3 preview

[Meltic]

i Think it was their problem. The technical side. It looked to good to run at 30-60 fps. Laggy and buggy game. So they scaled it down MUCh and made it better in the AI and humans meaby ..

[esemce]

Yes It was running on a high spec PC at e3 for sure and it did look quite 'next gen', we can only hope that this trailer is of ps3/360 version.

If even the PC version has been scaled back then there will be a sh1tstorm.

The poor textures and lack of dynamic lighting in this trailer is worrying.

[DeadIIIRed]

Or it was just the same prerendered crap developers have been trying to sell as their upcoming game for the past six years.

It's like dating online. You show up thinking you're going out with a tall blonde and it ends up being a short, fat, divorced 40 year old man.

[Shakengandulf]

I'd wager that these are previous gen clips that have been mistaken for this new gen.
I dont think we have anything to be worried about.
I will however eat my words if they double confirm these shots to be ps4/one.

[Meltic]

wtf ?

[MisterFantastic]

I don't get it

[Gardenia]

Well no shit. They build on experience of AC, and let's be honest that has never been the best looking game out there. I never understood the hype for Watchdogs anyway. Could be a nice game but definitely nothing new or special

[DaGR8JIBRALTAR]

Ummm...AC 4 on PS4 is beautiful.

[justicefanboyX]

god av iv was so last gen on graphics even on ps4 i bought it and the next day i returned it.it looked awefull

[starchild]

AC4 is one of the best looking games on the PS4 (in the top 3 for sure), so I have no idea what you are talking about.

Watch Dogs still looks promising to me.

[DOMination-]

All The AC games have looked beautiful at their release

[RedCloud88]

@ starchild

you're crazy if you believe that. Killzone, nba 2k, and battlefield are the 3 best looking ps4 games. AC4 is a good game, but even on my pc(3.4ghz i7, 16gb ram, and a 4gb GeForce 770) it doesn't compare to those ps4 titles.

[curtis92]

It's not uncommon when you're building a game on hypothetical hardware specs.... Also, they're wanting to have some parity between versions (ARRRGH)

[porkChop]

Hypothetical hardware? We'd seen the game literally running on next gen systems last year and it looked much better than this new trailer. If the consoles could run it then, then wth happened?

[cyguration]

You've seen it running on PCs.

Don't forget that's how Microsoft fooled you all into buying games like Forza 5 and Dead Rising 3, when they turned out to not look anything near as good as their E3 trailers.

[porkChop]

@cyguration

Yeah, we all know about Microsoft's E3 demos. But the PS4 demo from last September was actually running on a PS4.

[logan_izer10]

We all watched Jimmy Fallon play it on PS4!

[ITPython]

I think the devs misunderstood a bit. MS told them to have parity with the Xbox One, but perhaps they misheard and thought MS meant the Xbox 360.

Whoops!

[DarkLord1003]

WTF indeed!

[Atariz]

I still have hope.. but yea wtf

[ritsuka666]

I think we all can agree this game has tremendous potential but I'm just NOT impressed with what they have shown so far.

[PrinceOfAllSaiyans]

That makes no since for a game to be delayed this long and then look worse. That's really really disappointing. I was hoping the trailer was the 360 version or something. I know graphics arent everything but in a open world realistic game like this having amazing graphics is a huge benefit. Oh well.

[bobacdigital]

Makes complete sense when you realize that watch dogs and starwars 1313 werent running on the actual consoles themselves... It was pretty much proven that many of msfts games at e3 were running on PCs .. Not sure about sony but this would make complete sense.

The delayed this game cause of GTA and running behind production schedules...

[MaxwellBuddha]

ALL GAMES you see at E3 are running on PCs. That's why the gameplay is always so fluid without any of the st-st-stutter you see in the final retail release.

WHY, GOD, WHY did the PC version have to dumbed down, too?!

[bienio]

I think if Pc can run up to 4k resolution its easy to understNad this version it will be look amazing!!!:) btw sory for my English..

[Kayant]

If this is current gen footage --> http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

Then watchdogs has received a massive downgrade. In that lighting, road textures, shadows, car model, buildings also? have all been downgraded.

Edit -

I wonder how close the PC version with get to the reveal.

[DeadIIIRed]

Jeeze, what's they're brightness and contrast set to? Those are terrible blacks in that gif.