New video shows Watch Dogs looking pretty on PC, gives Nvidia a cuddle

Following something of a brouhaha about Watch Dogs' visuals, which certain quarters of the internet felt had taken a hit since the game re-emerged from its extended development cycle, Ubisoft has released a video designed to show how great the game still looks on PC. The video focuses on how Watch Dogs utilises several proprietary graphical techniques to create a greater sense of fidelity. In other words, it's real pretty.

"We have worked closely with Nvidia in order to create the most vivid and breathtaking Chicago possible for the PC version," says Paul Vlasie, lead PC engineer on Watch Dogs at Ubisoft Montreal, presumably while trying not to make eye contact with anyone from AMD. He goes on to explain that shadows now look more realistically shadowy, and how advanced anti-aliasing reduces flickering during motion.

And very pretty it all is, too. If you were worried about fences looking janky during chase sequences, then consider that fear now allayed. Watch Dogs will be released on 27 May,and Ubisoft recently confirmed the recommended system requirements for it. Feel free to draw a sharp intake of breath before reading.

Tim Clark

With over two decades covering videogames, Tim has been there from the beginning. In his case, that meant playing Elite in 'co-op' on a BBC Micro (one player uses the movement keys, the other shoots) until his parents finally caved and bought an Amstrad CPC 6128. These days, when not steering the good ship PC Gamer, Tim spends his time complaining that all Priest mains in Hearthstone are degenerates and raiding in Destiny 2. He's almost certainly doing one of these right now.