The Gamers Arms

https://www.thenerdmag.com/rumor-watch- ... gs-legion/

Watch_Dogs Legion is set in a near-future, dystopian version of London. It’s a post-Brexit world in which society, politics and technology have changed and altered London’s fortunes. London is one of the most iconic cities in the world and has had a massive influence on all of Western Culture for centuries… London makes total sense for WD, as the city has one of the highest surveillance levels in the world making this the perfect playground.

Play as anyone, Every individual you meet in the open world, has a full set of animations, voice over, character traits and visuals that are generated & guided by gameplay systems

Why set in the near future as London today is full of homeless, stabbings, over-priced everything, crowded, crazy people, people who think they are God's gift and its dirty and grimy almost everywhere.

The gall of Ubisoft to use the "They came for..." speech in the promo for their totally non-political game.

When I first saw this game last year I thought the premise was really neat but the stuff they showed last night put me right off. The gameplay doesn't look that fun and all the characters they used looked terrible.

I don't think Watch Dogs has ever been fun. I bounced right off the first game despite the concept being so interesting at the time.

The only reason I'd be even slightly tempted to pick this up is for the novelty of exploring a modern day recreation of London. The fact that all the NPCs seem to be cockneys is a bit off putting though.

The second game is meant to be a lot of fun, at least when it came out it was it might have aged poorly due to the general issue with open world games. Just a shame its such a pain to get running on PC.

I really liked the first, the story was real garbage but the hacking stealth was fun. Never finished it because I got sidetracked and never went back but thought it was given more of a hard time than it deserved. Never got on with 2 much, the trial was long enough for me to get bored.

I liked both 1 and 2, they scratched my GTA itch while having enough differences to keep things interesting. 2 was more fun although the intro sequence definitely outstayed its welcome, plus the cast of I Robot hipster nerds did nothing for me.

This one... I don't know, on the one hand toodling around a recreation of my local city could be fun, but fun fact Ubisoft, not all of us come from a Guy Ritchie film. Also why the future setting? That all looked a bit balls to be honest. Finally the characters were indeed all a bit meh from what I saw.

Will probably buy it though, I do like me some open world fun and Ubi's virtual cities are second only to Rockstar's.

London Town

I have been training my 6 year old to say "alrigh' geezer" to prepare him for the Ubisoft Essex run future.

Achtung Englander wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 14, 2020 8:14 am

Lahndon Taaaahhhhn

I have been training my 6 year old to say "alrigh' geezer" to prepare him for the Ubisoft Essex run future.

Fixed it for you

Thanks

Techno nerds and hackers never have been nor ever will be cool.

I'm guessing the future slant is due to certain "events" having happened in London in recent years. Having your player run around shooting cops might be considered a bit tasteless in a contemporary setting.

So this is out today. And despite my misgivings I have canaried it with a nice CD Keys discount.

Thoughts to follow - won't be for a while as I need to work, then some exercise, then a crack at it.

51Gb including high def texture pack (19Gb iirc).

The PCGamer review made it sound like it could be good fun, if you can get over the incongruity of the voices that are matched to the faces, some of the outcomes are very dumb and the ott VO work doesn't help.

Initial thoughts then.

It is very much a Watch Dogs game - if you enjoyed the last two you will enjoy this one. London is well realised, I have spent enough time there that I can navigate for the most part without looking at the map, which I think says a lot. It is fair to say that some liberties have been taken but they are very odd.

For example, at one point very early on I found myself near Parliament. I quickly nipped east along the Thames until I found Embankment station and popped through, wanting to see if Villiers Street and Gordon's Wine Bar were there. Embankment station was spot on, even to the point of the flower stall on the side opposite the Thames. Gordon's was not there, but so far as I can tell there are no businesses depicted. I then visited the financial district and found the Gherkin, but my employer's massive office was missing completely and the Leadenhall building (the big door wedge skyscraper) has inexplicably moved. On to Camden, and the World's End pub (meeting point for soooo many gigs) building is there, but slightly out of place where the geography has been subtly shifted.

Graphically it looks very nice, although frame rates can be inconsistent for no obvious reason (benchmark runs fine). The character models are a bit crap, not the best quality in comparison to other titles (even other Ubi titles) but the bit that takes the cake is the voices. They are hilariously bad. The first character I chose to play after the introductory sequence was a guy who was a bouncer, and I chose him because he came with a 9mm pistol. I suspected that stumbling through the first missions I was likely to make a cock of it until I found my feet, so a tooled up shitkicker was probably a good choice. He then appears on screen and gargles out the most mangled Northern Irish accent I have ever heard. Honestly I barely understand a word he says. I have since recruited 4 or 5 others to the cause and almost all of them have a weird accent. People on the street tend to be extras from Guy Ritchie films too. Honestly though, I find it quite endearing and it never fails to make me laugh.

Having different characters with different skills is definitely a good thing. I have already found myself utilising different characters for different elements of missions, from a hacker who often skims money on successful hacks to bolster the finances on sneaky missions to the gibbering Irish shitkicker for when brutality is the necessary option.

So far so good, more to follow.