9 Video Game Demos That Totally Lied To You

6. Watch Dogs (E3 2012)

Ubisoft has an unfortunate history of downgrading their games visually from their original gameplay demos, and by far the most controversial of the bunch was Watch Dogs, which was unveiled to rapturous acclaim at E3 2012.

Watch Dogs was one of the first obviously next-gen games to be revealed ahead of the PS4 and Xbox One being announced, so players were naturally incredibly disappointed when the final game, released in May 2014, fell far short of that jaw-dropping first demo.

Where to begin? Lighting effects generally look flatter and less "realistic" than in the demo - especially the luminosity of street lights and rain reflections on the street - ambient effects like nightclub smoke are gone entirely, explosions and car crashes have far less detail, clothing physics are toned down, NPCs are fewer and more obviously programmed, and depth-of-field effects are nowhere to be seen.

The end result is that while Watch Dogs was a decent enough open-world actioner, it was nowhere near as visually impressive as originally advertised, and ended up looking pretty unremarkable all things considered.

Ubisoft's never lived it down, even though they still continue to present over-stylised gameplay demos that don't aptly reflect the final retail product.