It’s no grand secret that, as has become common practice nowadays, the build of Watch Dogs used for its reveal was a far cry above the final version of the game, if only in terms of visual quality. But thanks to a new mod, that lost quality can be partially restored for the PC version of the game.
Modder “TheWorse” from Guru3D has concocted an “E3 2012 Bloom” mod in an effort to restore the glory of Watch Dogs’s first public appearance. He specifically mentions changes to fog effects, stuttering improvements, headlight shadows, reflections, lens flare, civilian density and more in the pack, and promises more enhancements to come soon. TheWorse also specifies that he achieved the effect only by tweaking the game’s code, not by way of external software.
It’s a safe assumption that Watch Dogs saw a graphical downgrade for the sake of performance in its cross-platform market. That the game can be improved without outside aid is proof enough. Of course, while high-end gaming PCs are able to support extravagant mods like this, PS4 and Xbox One would likely start chugging (which is to say nothing of their last-gen brethren), so it comes as no surprise that Ubisoft put a ceiling on the project.
