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Ubisoft on Watch_Dogs - Map density, hacking, customization and Wii U being in-between current/next gen
Coming from a Eurogamer interview with Watch Dogs creative director Jonathan Morin...
On map density
"One thing I wanted to promote with Watch Dogs was density, a lot more than scale. We have a big city but one thing a lot of games aren't exploring is the shared density of it. [In Watch Dogs] you can stand still and profile people for ten minutes - you're playing without moving, almost. I think that's even more important to me than just adding size to it. I don't want size just becoming a space between A and B. We have a huge world but it's more about the density.
GTA5 has a huge world but it has flying, it has jets so it serves that purpose. You don't have a jet unless you have the space to fly into. Us, we have huge density, so if we double or triple the scale then you're going to start hitting repetition because we wanted to aim for the density first. We wanted the game to be the right size for that density, so it's a matter of balancing what you want to achieve."
On the importance of hacking
"It's especially important to us as we're selling the idea of hacking a city. It would have been lame if we'd done that and you'd never have to go anywhere to connect your sh** together. That would have been bizarre. But there's plenty of know-how at Ubisoft Montreal that has been useful."
On customizing Aiden
"You're going to be able to change Aiden's look a bit but the biggest element of customisation is his skill tree - deciding on which way you want to progress, which skills you want to progress. And then there's tons of guns and cars to choose from as well, so it's more about your loadout. We're not pushing for the micro-customisation of cars or guns."
On Wii U version being between current and next-gen
"I think it's even going to be a bit better. If you pump the PC to its maximum there are things in the filtering and rendering that I think are possible on high-end PCs that are pretty amazing. Wii U is pretty much in-between - it's neither of them, not current-gen, maybe closer to current-gen than next-gen."
Link
On map density
"One thing I wanted to promote with Watch Dogs was density, a lot more than scale. We have a big city but one thing a lot of games aren't exploring is the shared density of it. [In Watch Dogs] you can stand still and profile people for ten minutes - you're playing without moving, almost. I think that's even more important to me than just adding size to it. I don't want size just becoming a space between A and B. We have a huge world but it's more about the density.
GTA5 has a huge world but it has flying, it has jets so it serves that purpose. You don't have a jet unless you have the space to fly into. Us, we have huge density, so if we double or triple the scale then you're going to start hitting repetition because we wanted to aim for the density first. We wanted the game to be the right size for that density, so it's a matter of balancing what you want to achieve."
On the importance of hacking
"It's especially important to us as we're selling the idea of hacking a city. It would have been lame if we'd done that and you'd never have to go anywhere to connect your sh** together. That would have been bizarre. But there's plenty of know-how at Ubisoft Montreal that has been useful."
On customizing Aiden
"You're going to be able to change Aiden's look a bit but the biggest element of customisation is his skill tree - deciding on which way you want to progress, which skills you want to progress. And then there's tons of guns and cars to choose from as well, so it's more about your loadout. We're not pushing for the micro-customisation of cars or guns."
On Wii U version being between current and next-gen
"I think it's even going to be a bit better. If you pump the PC to its maximum there are things in the filtering and rendering that I think are possible on high-end PCs that are pretty amazing. Wii U is pretty much in-between - it's neither of them, not current-gen, maybe closer to current-gen than next-gen."
Link