Watch Dogs was accused of graphical “downgradeation” up to and following its release, due to its showing at E3 2012 and 2013 boasting better visuals than the final product. While many naturally assumed that the gameplay footage shown in previous years was displayed on a high-end PC, seeing as how the game’s PC port featured noticeably poorer visuals, too, we were all left scratching our heads and wondering what had happened since the game’s announcement and its eventual release.
Related: Why Did So Many Gamers Want Watch Dogs to Fail?
Now, thanks to modder The Worse, it’s been revealed that the original graphics effects have been found in the files of the PC version, which begs the question: why did Ubisoft not implement them in the final game?
According to a post on NeoGAF, The Worse made “massive discoveries/improvements,” including discovering that “all of the shaders and improvements seen in 2012 and 2013 are still in the game files, such as the E3 2012 explosions.” Though he has thus far only managed to activate certain graphics effects, NeoGAF notes that “when he manages to unpack certain files, he will be able to activate everything, such as POMs, etc.”
Many are now accusing developer Ubisoft of scaling back the PC port of Watch Dogs in order to make its graphics more in line with that of the console versions of the game, though it’s also possible that these enhancements were removed for time purposes. Ubisoft has yet to comment on The Worse’s findings, though we’ll update this post if/when they do.
