If performance issues were the problem and reason for the final downgrade, then it's safe to say that the earlier version shouldn't have been demoed to begin with. I think the bigger issue, the more important issue, is that the earlier previews showed a very different looking game. The Fight For The Future Of Video Games is a warts-and-all look at the clashes between the video game business and its passionate fans.
It's hard to know what the issues were from the developer's perspective.įanboy Wars: The Newest eBook From Forbes While some people are reporting performance issues with the modified settings, others are not. It seems like the downgrade was either made to achieve console/PC parity of some sort or it was made due to performance issues. That way you don't build up so much hype for something you can't ultimately deliver. It might be better to show less early on until a more realistic portrait of the final product is in hand. It's also frustrating to see game after game demoed with much better graphics than the final release.
Whatever the case, seeing PC titles crippled for no good reason just to line up better with consoles is getting old fast. Wouldn't it be neat if modders could find the original files for that game as well? I'd love to try it out with the better textures and darker environments, where torches would actually be useful. It reminds me of the Dark Souls II downgrade. This may be a matter of more tinkering needed, or it may be a good explanation for why the game was whittled down in the first place.
Update: According to Rock, Paper, Shotgun the actual mod has some problematic performance issues and doesn't look as good throughout the city as some of these screenshots might suggest. Why these files remained in the PC version is another question, and why Ubisoft didn't just allow the PC version to keep all these features-which appear to work for the most part-is just as baffling. Ubisoft apparently downgraded the graphics across the board in order to make the PC version line up better with new-gen consoles, all of which were held back by last-gen hardware. Here are some screenshots showing off the (rather impressive) results: Rain changes (High quality rain drops, properly reacting to light, etc) Added 3 new cameras to the game (closer, normal, further)