Watch Dogs: the Digital Foundry verdict

Watch Dogs on PC should be the best version of the game, and yet somehow we find ourselves on shaky ground. Watch Dogs' graphics technical director Sebastien Viard points to the lack of unified RAM as the main reason behind the difficulties, and that Ubisoft Montreal is working to resolve the PC issues, but as of this writing, you may find that hitting a consistent 1080p60 even on a high-power games computer just isn't possible.

Bearing in mind the high demands for CPU power (the game recognises eight cores but makes use of six extensively) combined with the currently dodgy GPU situation, re-adjusting your expectations for 1080p30 gameplay and ramping up the graphics quality presets instead may be the better strategy. Just stay well away from the ultra quality textures for the time being.

On the console front, it's all too easy to recommend Watch Dogs on PS4 over its Xbox One equivalent: performance is more consistent and there's obviously the resolution boost to factor in as well. However, for the vast majority of the run of play, the two versions play in exactly the same way, and in motion the worrying notion of a significantly sub-native 792p rendering resolution looks nowhere near as bad as the raw numbers suggest.

The filmic approach to effects work in combination with an aesthetic that eschews jagged edges and intricate texture detail produces a game that presents itself in a mostly similar manner whether you're gaming at 792p, 900p or indeed 1080p. Console-wise, we feel confident in recommending both Xbox One and PS4 versions, but go for the latter if you have your choice of consoles: it's effectively an additional sheen of polish at no extra cost.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-watch-dogs-face-off

Watch Dogs on last-gen: is it finally time to say goodbye?

The gulf in quality between PS3 and PS4 versions of Watch Dogs is vast, especially compared to the much smaller gap between current and last-gen Assassin's Creed 4. The PS3 version of Watch Dogs isn't an out-and-out disappointment, but it's clear that the Disrupt engine is designed to meet the spec of the PS4 and Xbox One platforms first and foremost - and in many ways, this leaves the older hardware sitting high and dry.

The core game mechanics are hammered in soundly and there's no doubt you can squeeze plenty of good hours of entertainment from this last-gen version - but only if you can accept its many, many rough edges. Chief among them is the inevitable resolution drop to sub-720p, and worse still, an incessant tear-line that runs up and down the screen. If you can't stomach the absence of v-sync in your games, this version is not for you.

An upgrade to the PS4 edition affords a cleaner 900p30 presentation with v-sync engaged most of the time, but the difference from PS3 can be weighed in other more crucial ways. It can't be overstated how radical the changes in lighting are on older hardware - with interior areas appearing much gloomier and sunlit areas far too bright. Most of the world detail on PS3 is consistent, but it feels much less bustling. Coupled with variable 20-30fps performance, Watch Dogs on PS3 is another sign that we're past the point of diminishing returns when it comes to developing for last-gen hardware.

But arguably it's about more than just lamenting the removal of detail or simplification of rendering. This is recognisably the same game as the PS4 version, but it's been nipped and tucked to such an extent that key elements that make Watch Dogs the game it is have been compromised extensively. It's especially evident in the environment - whittle away the detail, reduce the NPC and vehicle count and you're left with a somewhat-barren cityscape. This is a next-gen game stripped down to its basics with some crude side effects, and this is only the difference between a launch period game and its last-gen port. On this evidence, the technical ambitions of AAA game-makers will exceed the failing reach of the PS3 and 360 sooner rather than later.

Certainly, based on the Watch Dogs experience, it's perhaps fortunate that Ubisoft won't be bringing Assassin's Creed: Unity to last-gen consoles this year. We're not averse to these cross-gen releases, mind you, but the people making them will need to be careful. Watch Dogs just about gets away with it, despite significant alterations, but if you take much more away from games that rely on so much bustle and detail, the soul of the game itself may ultimately be compromised, and for us - for anyone - surely that will be a step too far.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-watch-dogs-ps3-vs-ps4

I'll be interested to see where the wii u version falls after digital foundry critiques it. Unless of course it's being stealth cancelled.

Jesus. DF sure likes to milk these things, this is like the 5th analysis on this dam game.

Wow. That's a very poorly optimized PC port. :/

I'm more interested in seeing where the Wii U version will eventually fall.

DF will write a whole article about that single frame drop in the Wii U version.

Having Mario Kart 8 right now, I don't notice a thing after really trying to see what they meant with ''Can't unsee''. It really shows their potential bias against Nintendo games, really.

Hmmmm, game runs fine on my PC with Ultra Quality settings, the trick is to run Temporal SMAA and you are fine since it's IMO the best IQ vs performance. I run the game on i7-3770 OCed' to 4.2 and a minor OCed' 770 4GB BTW.

I think it is more that you simply don't understand what digital foundry means, or even perhaps what they do.

Next gen vs last gen face-off.......

So where is the current gen. Digital foundry didnt label the generations like that for obvious reasons. I think it sounds really weird seeing people still refer to the current gen as "next-gen".

I also make this mistake quite often. It will probably take a year, but I'm not used to calling the new gen the "Current gen" of consoles.