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Watch Dogs Released, DRM Troubles
Today marked the launch of Watch Dogs, a highly-anticipated action-adventure game from Ubisoft. Early reviews for the game are fairly good, but not without complaints. Eurogamer said, 'Combat encounters also draw inspiration from existing games, with slightly stiff but workable sneaking and cover mechanics and decent if unremarkable gunplay. ... There's a sense of sterility beneath the surface, though. As dazzling as the game can look, this Chicago feels like a place you travel through rather than a world you inhabit. Pedestrians gasp and gawp at car crashes, but exhibit no real life.' Polygon's review complimented the bits of structure within the open-world game: "More than any stealth game I can think of, Watch Dogs does a remarkable job in allowing for proper preparation. It creates a universal environment of constant puzzle solving, which sits cozily next to all the action on display." Rock, Paper, Shotgun added, "It feels churlish to complain about something which is only magical 90% of the time, but in some things, ten percent can seep out and render the rest infuriating and useless." It's worth noting that some users are running into problems even playing game, thanks to authentication issues with Ubisoft's UPlay digital distribution service.
...the entire article about "authentication issues" is a guy who failed to install UPlay correctly, and a link to "uplay down" on Twitter.
Super, super informative.
Those 'in the know' generally don't buy Ubisoft games for the PC anymore - even though they have been trying to turn over a new leaf in terms of how they view PC gamers. Many at Ubisoft apparently still see PC gamers as pirates - even those who pay for products. Not the way to garner new customers.
Sadly, these days - the only way to buy new release Ubisoft products (if you want to at all, that is) is to buy the console versions of the products.
What AAA game release HASN'T started out in the shitter in recent years?
;p
It would be news if it went smoothly.....
Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
Looks like just another boilerplate third person action game to me.
Am I missing something?
People really shouldn't buy Ubisoft titles.
I don't have Watch Dogs but I was playing Far Cry 3, which uses it, and it seemed to work fine.
The game is dull. Ok, the hacking mechanics is not bad, but that's about it. As far as sandbox games in the same league go it's a step backwards even. The realism can't compete with Saints Row, and it sure as hell doesn't come even close to what GTA V delivered.
It just isn't a next-gen game, period. I understand how hard it is making a good game, hence how rarely it happens, but the whole experience of it feels like it could've come out a couple of years ago, and then maybe it'd be just right, yet another another 5 out of 10 title.
>> This Chicago feels like a place you travel through rather than a world you inhabit. Pedestrians gasp and gawp at car crashes, but exhibit no real life.'
>> "It feels churlish to complain about something which is only magical 90% of the time,
This sounds very much like they've hit the Uncanny Valley problem.
Tropico 5's campaign mode is a better sci-fi story than Watch_Dogs, it's $20 less, has far less DRM, is getting a Linux port once SteamOS is at 1.0, and is actually fun.
I battled with it on Far Cry 3. I still do not understand why I needed to login to UPLAY *after* I logged into Steam (where I played it from). Wasn't Steam enough of a DRM check for UbiSoft? 2 levels of login really?
AFAIK the original article was about someone who did not even install it correctly.. but still having to require it on top of Steam is just ridiculous.
- I stole your sig.
As dazzling as the game can look, this Chicago feels like a place you travel through rather than a world you inhabit. Pedestrians gasp and gawp at car crashes, but exhibit no real life.
That's because they only give us AI devs 1% or 2% of the budget. If you stopped harping on about how amazing the graphics are and realized that games are interactive art and that it's the "rules and logic" (AI) that make a game happen, then we can sacrifice just a tiny bit of those graphics and physics to give you a vastly better gaming experience.
Until folks start talking about the "Immersive Environment" and including the AI, your games will feel as wooden and false as ever. Give AI More Resources!
Netflix never required PlayStation Plus and, as of next month, will no longer require Xbox LIVE Gold. And multiplayer? In my experience, console games from a major publisher are more likely to support two gamepads than PC games from a major publisher are.
Seriously, these things push a worse resolution than my phone.
Is that true only of output resolution or also of texture resolution and shader complexity? And how many people are going to buy a MOGA clip-on gamepad to control a game on a phone?
It feels churlish to complain about something which is only magical 90% of the time, but in some things, ten percent can seep out and render the rest infuriating and useless.
It really annoys me when I read comments like that, not because I think the game is any good, but this non linear scale they apply to anything to do with rating a game. Case in point, the 7/10, which has become meaningless because mediocre games always get a 7/10. So the sentence quoted really grates because if 10% feels like as if it's more important, it's clearly bigger than 10%!
Yet another UBIsoft game that has so much shitty DRM it makes the game itself practically unplayable. Seriously, Did anybody honestly expect Watch Dogs to be any different, given UBIsoft have been doing this since 2006? I think the most newsworthy thing here is that anyone still buys their products at all.
I'll straighten out the details on this clickbait.
First, while uPlay is indeed a complete flaming piece of shit, it doesn't prevent you from playing the game once installed. When you launch it and press 'play', even if it wont sync with ubisoft's servers, it will still launch. It takes a good while (couple of minutes) for uplay and the sync to time out, but it works.
An actual gripe on uplay: what kind of game publisher doesn't institute predownloads for people who've already bought the game? It didn't show up in my games list until today so I couldn't even get the DL started. Their servers being crippled is partly due to not distributing downloads for pre-purchasers properly, forgivable 5 years ago but not in today's distribution systems.
Console port gripe: mouse acceleration is on by default and you must turn it off by actually going in and editing the xml settings file. If that doesn't scream lazy, I don't know what does. The menus and mouse control aren't bad overall, but that mouse acceleration makes the gameplay infuriating, felt like I had a joystick deadzone on my mouse. After googling and changing this setting, the game felt much better.
Overall though, I'm happy with the game, though I've not gotten far into it. I wouldn't have bought it straight up, partly due to bitterness about destroying the Thief franchise and partly due to their shitty company policies, but I've enjoyed it as a bundle purchase. Ubisoft is a frustrating company. Their policies and DRM money-grubbing aspects make them almost as unlikeable as EA, but they make the type of games I tend to enjoy. I prefer to stay away on principle but its hard.
Hm. DRM on a game where you play as a cracker. I'm not sure if that's irony, or should be interpreted as a challenge.
Do not touch UPlay and Origin. They're Steam clones done on the lowest budget possible and basically do not work. Personally I prefer GoG style distribution, but Steam is at least functional most of the time.
And for whoever said you should buy Ubisoft games on console, there are comments on the related Eurogamer article mentioning UPlay problems on the PS4. Sounds like you need that piece of shit even on a console now, which basically rules out ever touching their games.
I apologize for the lack of a signature.
I suppose it depends on the game. There are a few multiplayer games (I think Dungeon Defenders) that will straight up end your game if the steam servers go offline, and they seem to go offline at least once a week and usually at evening hours in the U.S.
There are a few multiplayer games (I think Dungeon Defenders) that will straight up end your game if the steam servers go offline, and they seem to go offline at least once a week and usually at evening hours in the U.S.
Are you sure the servers that are "offline" are really the "Steam servers", or are they servers/software that the game developer runs and controls, possibly in the steampowered.com domain, but otherwise completely independent of "Steam"?