10 Video Games With The Biggest Downgrade From Reveal To Launch

Often the poster-child for graphical downgrades; Watch Dogs was actually the first game we ever seen for PS4 and Xbox One and we knew something was a little fishy. The game suffered a substantial graphical downgrade from reveal to release, but it's far from the worst offender - even from Ubisoft!

The 2012 reveal trailer showed Aiden Pearce walking down a beautiful Chicago street with mesmerising clothing, wind, and lighting effects. While the released version had virtually no wind, overtly downgraded lighting, and less impressive clothing; ; sure Aiden's coat still sways while he runs, but it lacked the same oomph.

We also saw Pearce in a firefight between cars and use a focus-mode slowdown that evoked The Matrix. While the final product had the focus mode slowdown, its visual effects were entirely altered.

There are several more examples like this in Watch Dogs, with overall lighting being a big issue, and NPC's looking much less life-like. The resulting product was one that obviously had been downgraded, but probably less so than you remember.

Watch Dogs was a good game that was rightfully criticised for its bland protagonist and unexciting world, but in 2013 it still looked pretty damn good.