An auto show experience remained in the minds of visitors surveyed for about eight months, a new survey found.
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The bang from auto shows is back.
A new study found auto shows are serving as more than a market thermometer for the latest splashy coupe or concept crossover by automakers.
The Auto Show Immersion Report, conducted by Foresight Research and released this month , found that 84 percent of 1,185 auto show attendees in 2013 and 2014 intended to shop for a new light vehicle. And more than half said their purchase decision was influenced by an auto show.
Auto show influence increased from 2009 to 2010 -- despite the auto industry bailouts and sales downturn -- but declined in the following two years, according to past Foresight data.
Auto shows regained influence in 2013 with 72 percent of attendees intending to shop for a new vehicle, and has continued to rise.
The study identified six advantages of auto shows that make them a powerful marketing and sales tool. Auto show visitors are more educated and affluent. And auto shows have a greater effect on potential customers, attract influencers, engage buyers, maintain influence after the event, and move buyers through the purchasing tunnel.
"There are more and more marketing things that knock your socks off," Nancy Walter, vice president of business development for Foresight, said of today's auto shows. "That's why people go."
The auto show study was part of a larger survey of new-vehicle buyers conducted in March and April. Respondents weren't polled at auto shows but were asked if they had attended an auto show in the past 12 months.
The impact of auto shows was not limited to a bump in dealership sales in the weeks following a show. Results of the survey indicate an auto show experience remained in the minds of visitors surveyed for about eight months.
Scott LaRiche, chairman of the 2015 North American International Auto Show in Detroit and vice president of Lou LaRiche Chevrolet in Plymouth, Mich., said auto show bonuses like cash incentives ensure increased sales in January -- the month the show takes place. He added that increased showroom traffic continues into February.
Engagement is a key motivator for buyers at auto shows -- purchase influence increased 25 percent for visitors who participated in a ride and drive at a show and 70 percent reported that they talked to specialists at brand displays they are considering.
The entertainment at auto shows makes them a more attractive shopping environment for buyers, Walter noted.
"It's a way to shop without going to the dealership," she said.
LaRiche said auto shows provide a relaxed environment to shop a variety of brands and learn from product specialists, rather than go straight to a specific dealership.
"Some people may be apprehensive about going to a dealership if they're not armed with the right information," he said. "You go to a Chevrolet dealer to look at Chevrolets, you go to an auto show and look at everything."
LaRiche said holding the Detroit auto show in the winter helps maintain consumer interest when showroom traffic slows.
"It's a great way to showcase what you have," he said. "It really truly does equate to sales at a dealership."
Nissan Motor Corp., which returned to the major auto show circuit after opting out of the 2009 Detroit, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles shows, has seen an increase on its return on investment in recent shows.
"We recognize the value of auto shows, that's why we're back," Nissan spokesman Dan Bedore said.
He added that the company has seen a correlation between showroom traffic and dealership sales one to two months after a show.
Mercedes-Benz, which sat out of the Tokyo Motor Show in 2009, has recently been experiencing record sales.
However, Mercedes spokeswoman Donna Boland said in an e-mail that auto shows are just one of many factors that have been driving the brand's sales.
"Auto shows continue to be a top event for us in terms of ROI, but events themselves can be directly correlated to only a very tiny fraction of annual sales," Boland said.
Amy Brewer claims a Southeast Portland auto-repair shop, which calls itself "Home of the Honest Mechanics," is anything but that.
Brewer filed a lawsuit this week against Honest-1 Auto Care, saying that she brought her car in for a quick oil change, but a mechanic claimed she had a big coolant leak that needed fixing. The next day, Brewer took her car to another mechanic, who said someone purposefully moved a hose clamp so coolant would leak, her suit states.
Brewer is seeking about $200 in out-of-pocket costs, plus an unspecified amount of punitive damages and attorneys fees in her lawsuit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
When reached by phone Friday, a representative for Honest-1 said Brewer's claims are false. He said he was the business' area representative for Washington and Oregon, but would give only his first name, Gary.
"Our tag is 'Honest-1 Auto Care: Home of Honest Mechanics.' We stand by that," he said. "Our techs stand behind that. ... Something like this makes me furious."
The business, he said, has video cameras in the bay where technicians work. He said Brewer's oil was changed, and Honest-1 employees didn't tamper with her hose clamp.
According to her suit, on May 6, Brewer took her 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS to Honest-1 Auto Care at 2002 S.E. Stark Street and "waited an unusually long time for her oil to be changed." After a while, an employee approached "and informed her that she had a major coolant leak," the suit reads.
Brewer's Hyundai was still under warranty, and she'd never seen the tell-tale signs of a fluid leak in her driveway, according to the suit. She didn't think the employee was being honest with her, so she told him to finish up the oil change. She paid and then left, according to the suit.
The next morning, Brewer noticed a small spot of liquid on her driveway, the suit states. So she took her car to Cooke's Brake Service in Southeast Portland, about 1 ½ miles from Honest-1.
Cooke's owner Dan Tracy "pressure tested for a leak and found that the hose clamp had been loosened and relocated slightly to cause a slow coolant leak," the suit states. Tracy also checked the oil and said it had not been recently changed, the suit states.
On Friday, Tracy told The Oregonian that while he couldn't say who tampered with Brewer's car, clearly someone had moved the hose clamp about an inch, causing the coolant leak.
"These clamps do not move on their own," Tracy said.
Fixing genuine coolant leaks can be costly, as much as $750, he said. But Tracy said it took him about "two seconds" to move the clamp back to its original location, thereby fixing the problem.
Tracy said from time to time, he's been tested by TV news reporters who -- without identifying themselves -- bring cars in for fixing, when there are no real problems. He said he recently had that happen. His shop diagnosed the car as fine, although a mechanic at another shop found a list of costly problems, Tracy said.
"It's an unfortunate thing because ...there's enough cars out there for all of us to work on," Tracy said. "Word-of-mouth is humongous for us."
When Brewer brought her car in, Tracy said he also told her it looked as if her oil hadn't been changed for quite some time. But Tracy said it's possible that Brewer's oil could have blackened in just one day -- if Brewer had previously driven 20,000 miles or so without changing it.
The lawsuit was filed by Portland attorney Daniel Russell. He couldn't immediately be reached Friday for comment.
Honest-1 Auto Care is owned by Milwaukie Auto Care LLC, according to the suit.
Halfway between paydays, your car breaks down or your child needs emergency medical care.
You need cash, quickly, to bridge the gap. But the bank slams the door in your face.
The credit union does the same. So does the credit-card company.
How much would you be willing to pay to open a fourth door?
Throughout the Southeast Valley, residents in precarious financial situations are agreeing to triple-digit interest rates — up to the state maximum of 204 percent — to borrow against the value of their vehicles. So-called auto-title loans have been billed by lenders as a short-term, convenient fix for borrowers with credit trouble, minimal savings and no family safety net.
The lenders, licensed by the state and subject to complaint-based investigations, say they're filling a critical gap for would-be borrowers who have nowhere else to turn, and they're doing it legally.
But some municipal leaders and consumer advocates have questioned whether "legal" and "right" are synonymous. At best, they say lenders offer little to the community. At worst, they equate the practice with predatory lending, saying borrowers end up trapped in a cycle of high-interest debt.
They point to voters' 2008 rejection of payday lending as a turning point for the auto-title lending industry, and wonder if the practice offers a real improvement over payday loans, which came with interest rates as high as 460 percent.
Indeed, it appears the 2008 decision contributed to, if not downright caused, a statewide proliferation of auto-title lending locations. From 2000 to 2008, about 160 title-lending branches were licensed with the state. Now, there are 720.
An up-to-date breakdown of locations by city was not immediately available, but a 2013 Arizona Republic analysis of Arizona Department of Financial Institutions data found more than 100 auto-title lending locations in Mesa, Chandler, Tempe and Gilbert early last year. Nearly 70 of those were in Mesa.
Staffers or officials from all four Southeast Valley municipalities reported that additional locations have popped up since then.
An endless cycle
The North Carolina-based Center for Responsible Lending estimates from 8 to 10 percent of borrowers end up losing their vehicles when they can't pay back their auto-title loans and the corresponding interest.
A more-common scenario is ending up ensnared in an interminable cycle of refinancing.
Take the case of Susan Fronczak, a 60-year-old Florence woman who secured a $2,000 title loan using her 2007 Nissan.
Fronczak had six months to pay off the loan, longer than the one-month average, at an annual interest rate of 182 percent. The loan was structured to allow for 11 interest-only payments followed by a balloon payment of $2,100, for a total payback amount of $3,860.
When monthly payments proved unaffordable, Fronczak's car was repossessed. Getting it back cost $1,100.
"None of that money went to pay down the principal," said Diane Standaert, legislative counsel at the center. "By month five, she had paid back $1,920 and the car-title lender said she still owed a full $2,000."
Fronczak continued to struggle after refinancing the loan.
"By the time she got help, we think she had paid close to $5,000 on a $2,000 loan, and yet the car-title lender was still keeping her trapped in the loan," Standaert said. "She was still facing threats of repossession."
The company returned Fronczak's car title and released her from the debt only after she filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Standaert said Fronczak's story is not uncommon, and she is sure similar cases exist in the Southeast Valley. Research shows a typical borrower will refinance a loan eight times, paying fees again and again on the same line of credit.
The state Department of Financial Institutions, which licenses auto-title lenders, most often looks into those lenders' actions only after a complaint has been filed. Of the 800 complaints the department said it receives each year, about 15 percent relate to sales-finance companies, the classification that includes auto-title lenders.
Department Superintendent Lauren Kingry said standard examinations are done "when time permits." He said he was not aware of any plans to impose additional regulations on auto-title lenders.
Legal, but good?
The way Southeast Valley municipalities handle auto-title lending locations varies.
Neither Mesa nor Chandler, where auto-title lending is more prevalent, imposes restrictions on auto-title lenders beyond general zoning requirements.
In Mesa, the use is allowed in all commercial districts, in light-and general-industrial districts and in planned employment parks. At one intersection — Alma School Road and University Drive — auto-title lenders have made their homes on three out of four corners.
In Chandler, auto-title lenders can locate in any commercial district.
"I'm not real excited about them, because it seems like they're multiplying," Chandler Vice Mayor Rick Heumann said. "Right now, their buildings are fine, they're being maintained and they're a legit business, so it's not a matter of us saying we're going to close them down. But if you start having proliferation of them, is it preying on people who really are challenged?"
In Gilbert, which appears to have the fewest auto-title lenders, a branch can't locate within 1,000 feet of another title-lending spot. In Tempe, the separation requirement is 1,320 feet.
"I think there's a group of types of things that every city struggles with, because we know they can clump together, and they tend to have multiplier effects," Tempe Councilman Kolby Granville said. "An adult store next to a hookah lounge next to an auto-lending place next to a pawnshop ... It doesn't just create a business anymore, it creates a culture."
Despite varying ordinances, the four municipalities have one thing in common: Areas with more title lenders have, on average, a higher percentage of people on public assistance and a much larger percentage of minority residents.
The divides can be stark.
In Mesa, the city's older, heavily Hispanic west side has seen a swarm of auto-title lenders. Moving east toward traditionally higher-income areas, the number of title-lending locations drops off sharply.
"They look for cheap real estate or cheap rental space," Mesa Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh said. "From a development perspective, I am unaware of any beneficial impact in any location they operate in. ... They suck money out of a community and rarely, if ever, give back to the community in any way."
Another option
Scott Allen, president of the Arizona Title Loan Association and Cash Time Auto Title Loans, begs to differ.
"Of course, if you ask people if they want a lower interest rate, they're going to say 'yes,' " he said. "But if you ask them, 'Would you rather have a choice or no choice at all?' They're going to want the choice. Critics of our industry should think about whether these people deserve a chance, because we're providing that."
Allen said interest rates on auto-title loans have to be high for three reasons: They involve a small dollar amount, the relationship between borrower and lender is short-term, and borrowers typically have credit-history challenges.
"I have to have advertising. I have to have employees, I have to have health insurance for those employees," he said. "How can I provide all those things, and provide you a $1,000 loan and charge you $30? If businesses can offer this product or service profitably at a lower interest rate, you will see that happen as time goes along."
Allen said eliminating legal access to high-interest, short-term loans wouldn't eliminate the practice.
"In places where people don't have access to these options, they're still borrowing money. They're just doing it online, and maybe doing it with people who may not be licensed with the state," he said. "Would you rather have a place with a storefront that's licensed and regulated, or an Internet company where you don't know how to get a hold of them?"
No elected official who spoke to The Republic disputed the notion that residents should have options and the power to control their own financial futures. But most said they would be watching closely to determine whether the practice demonstrably crossed any lines.
"I like to see consumers be in control of what the market does," Gilbert Councilman Victor Petersen said. "As far as land use, though, I look to see what the impacts of a new use will be upon existing uses, and if somebody's ability to use and enjoy their property is going to be damaged by a new use, then I think that's the time to step back."
Granville, the Tempe councilman, said, "The goal is always the same."
"We want to provide an economic environment where anyone can provide any sort of service and you can let the market decide what they want, because ultimately no one's a better chooser of winners and losers than the market," he said. "But you want to minimize the secondary effects."
Republic reporter Rob O'Dell contributed to this article.
State officials announced Wednesday that Advance Auto Parts will relocate its CEO and other executives to Raleigh, generating an expected 600 jobs by 2017.
The North Carolina Economic Investment Committee unanimously voted to award $17.4 million in Job Development Investment Grants to Advance Auto Parts to bring 600 jobs to Wake County. Company CEO Darren Jackson, President George Sherman and Chief Financial Officer Mike Norona will all relocate to the office on Millbrook Road.
"We're proud to partner with Advance Auto Parts to bring more high-paying management jobs to our state," Gov. Pat McCrory said Wednesday. "This announcement is further evidence that North Carolina's economy is growing and that we are serious about investing in our workforce."
The company, which is headquartered in Roanoke, Va., plans to create an expected 600 new jobs by 2017 and invest more than $5 million when it establishes its Corporate Support Center in Raleigh. The positions that will be based in Raleigh include corporate functions related to merchandising, marketing, supply chain and commercial sales.
The compensation for the new positions will vary by job function, but the average total compensation will be approximately $110,000 plus benefits.
Virginia also bid for the Corporate Support Center. Advance Auto Parts spokeswoman Shelly Whitaker told WSLS-TV in Roanoke, Va., that the company's headquarters is not moving to Raleigh and five departments currently based in Roanoke will be moved to the new location.
"We are pleased to partner with North Carolina and we are delighted that Raleigh, along with Roanoke, Va., will be part of our effort to organize our corporate operations around two Store Support Centers in the Southeastern United States," said company CEO Darren Jackson. "These locations will play an important role in our efforts to serve our customers, drive profitable growth and support the needs of the communities in which we operate."
The company also would not say how many of those 600 jobs were new jobs, as opposed to existing employees who planned to relocate to Raleigh. Whitaker said Roanoke will still have about 1,600 jobs, the same number currently employed there.
In January 2014, Advance Auto Parts acquired Raleigh-based General Parts International, Inc. The acquisition created the largest automotive aftermarket parts provider in North America, with annual sales of more than $9.3 billion.
General Parts is the parent company for Carquest.
Critics say jobs trend remains bleak
Critics on the left say the announcement does not stop a trend toward lower-paying jobs since the recession technically ended in 2009.
"Anything that brings family wage jobs to North Carolina is terrific, but we shouldn't lose sight of the big picture," said Jeff Shaw, with the N.C. Justice Center.
The N.C. Justice Center did its own analysis that showed more than 80 percent of new jobs created in North Carolina since 2009 pay less than $33,700 a year.
"I would say it's an anomaly," Shaw said of the Advance Auto Parts announcement. "Any good job, any high paying job that gets created in North Carolina is good news, but it certainly cuts against the larger trend of low wage jobs that are being created."
Commerce Department spokeswoman Kim Genardo fired back saying, "Any job is a good job for anyone wanting to work."
She said the announcement showed North Carolina leaders were working hard to turn around a slow economy.
Austin-area new car and truck dealers saw sales rise in May, but the sales pace slowed a bit compared with the previous three months.
May sales of new vehicles were up 6.2 percent over the same month a year ago, according to Dallas-based Freeman Auto Report, which tracks new auto registrations.
Austin-area dealers sold 10,402 new vehicles for the month, compared to 9,791 during May 2013, according to the report, which tracks sales in Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, Burnet, Blanco and Caldwell counties.
Sales of new vehicles are considered a key indicator of an area's consumer confidence, as purchases of big-ticket items such as a new car tend to indicate consumers aren't worried about their job status or economic stability.
For the year to date, are sales are up 6.7 percent to 48,241 vehicles, according to Freeman Auto Report.
Area dealers had seen sales rise 9.7 percent in April, 10.3 percent in March and 18.3 percent in February.
Although that pace slowed in May, area dealers say the key is that sales are continuing to grow year-over-year.
"Every single month is just fantastic," said Mike Wilson, general manager at Nyle Maxwell Supercenter in Northwest Austin, which sells Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles. "The economy is good, the housing starts and the low unemployment, it's just business is good right now."
The dealership's sales there were up more than 20 percent in May compared to the same month a year ago, Wilson said.
"Our sales were huge in May," he said. "My store sold well over 400 cars. We're aggressive, and we're trying to do everything we can to earn people's business. So no complaints right now."
This year's local sales gains have been fueled at least in part by a healthy local economy, strong population growth and incentives from manufacturers, experts say.
Last month, the Austin Automobile Dealers Association hosted its annual Austin auto show, which showcases new vehicle models that dealers hope would send waves of new customers shopping.
Austin lagged national auto sales figures for May, which saw the industry post its best month since mid 2005. Sales were up 11 percent in a month that is traditionally solid for auto dealers as consumers spend tax returns on new cars ahead of the summer driving season.
In Central Texas, Ford trucks were the hottest sellers in April with 890 sold, followed by Chevrolet cars at 857 vehicles. Those two brands were followed by Toyota cars with 830 sold and Honda cars at 743.
Nissan cars closed out the top five with 678 sold, followed by Ford cars at 632 and Chevrolet trucks at 629.
Year to date, the top seller in Central Texas is the Ford pickup with 4,318 sold, followed by Toyota cars at 3,737 and Chevrolet cars at 3,716.
Rockstar revealed earlier this week that Grand Theft Auto V is on its way to the PC and next-gen consoles this fall. You may now throw your money at it, and Rockstar has a handy site all ready to take that money.
Just nip over to rockstargames.com/V/order, select your platform and retailer of choice, and then get out your wallet. Links to retailers outside the U.S. don't appear to be working at the moment—it doesn't seem to matter which country you select, the only listed sellers are Rockstar, GameStop, Amazon.com and Best Buy. Oddly, GTA V isn't listed on Steam yet, although that situation will no doubt be resolved in short order.
No release date has been announced at this point, either. Amazon and GameStop both have it dated for December 31, but that's obviously just a placeholder; Rockstar says it will be out sometime in the fall.
Indianapolis Star A three-cylinder engine with some heart-warming spunk? That's the 2014 Ford Fiesta 1.0L EcoBoost, according to automotive journalist Casey Williams. Frank Espich/The Star. Casey Williams, Star correspondent 1:06 a.m. EDT June 10, 2014.
Rockstar revealed earlier this week that Grand Theft Auto V is on its way to the PC and next-gen consoles this fall. You may now throw your money at it, and Rockstar has a handy site all ready to take that money.
Just nip over to rockstargames.com/V/order, select your platform and retailer of choice, and then get out your wallet. Links to retailers outside the U.S. don't appear to be working at the moment—it doesn't seem to matter which country you select, the only listed sellers are Rockstar, GameStop, Amazon.com and Best Buy. Oddly, GTA V isn't listed on Steam yet, although that situation will no doubt be resolved in short order.
No release date has been announced at this point, either. Amazon and GameStop both have it dated for December 31, but that's obviously just a placeholder; Rockstar says it will be out sometime in the fall.
Ubisoft is gunning for Take Two and Rockstar, that much is clear from the recent release of Watch Dogs. While the game is meant to be focused on espionage, spying and hacking, it's without question also supposed to compete with Grand Theft Auto on an action sandbox shooter level, trying to get a piece of the pie that allows a game like GTA 5 to launch with $800M in day one sales.
For Watch Dogs' part, it's already been a huge success for Ubisoft with a five-platform launch making it their most successful first week release in history with four million copies sold to consumers, surpassing their previous record-holder, Assassin's Creed 3. Obviously those aren't GTA numbers yet, but for a new IP that endured its fair share of controversy ahead of/at launch, it's very impressive.
Ubisoft has recently said that they want to increase the rate at which they produce games in their series, presumably thinking they want to adopt the Assassin's Creed "yearly release" model for their other series, possibly Far Cry, and perhaps Watch Dogs too, eventually.
With that strategy, it's clear they can beat out Rockstar in at least one aspect, time to delivery. Rockstar has never been in a hurry, especially recently. Four years passed between GTA: San Andreas and the next-gen GTA 4. After that, it was another five years before GTA 5 made it to store shelves. The good thing about a delayed release schedule is that it builds up loads of anticipation for the next title, which is why you have $800M day one sales in the first place.
And yet, what if there was a series that could produce a fun sandbox experience nearly on par with GTA, but do it once every year or two instead of every four or five? What if that series was Watch Dogs?
It doesn't sound so far-fetched, especially now that we see how much the two games have in common, and how Watch Dogs may even have an edge in some ways. I recently recorded a video which you can see below that goes through a few of the areas where they compete, and who comes out on top. Give it a quick watch before I discuss the items more in depth below.
Those were my brief thoughts, but there's plenty more to say about each aspect.
Vehicular Manslaughter
Both Watch Dogs and Grand Theft Auto have plenty of chase sequences in their sandbox cities, but which does it better?
In my review of the game, I praised Watch Dogs for using its vehicle sequences to showcase how hacking really could change the game and differentiate it from a game like Grand Theft Auto. Unlike GTA, you can't just empty an SMG into pursuing cars until they catch fire, nor can you lob sticky bombs out your windows as you pass through police blockades.
Rather, the only way to effectively get away from cops or hunt down speedy targets is using your array of hacking skills, be it flipping lights, raising bridges, activating dividers or spike strips or blowing up gas mains. These segments can be a little frustrating until you get the hang of them, but they use Watch Dogs' central hacking concept better than anything else in the game.
That said, when competing with Grand Theft Auto, it's hard to say this style of vehicle play is inherently more fun. Far and away the best sections of GTA games are its wild and crazy car chases, including five and six star police runs. The sheer insanity of these sections combined with all the different ways to dispatch your enemies (guns, bombs, ramming, etc.) make them much more dynamic than similar segments in Watch Dogs. Yes, I can press a button to auto-kill a target car in slow-mo cutscene, but that's not nearly as fun as trying to run them off a cliff or into a wall, or shooting the driver of a car between the eyes with a perfect pistol shot as you're doing 120 on the freeway. Here, GTA's wild and crazy attitude makes these segments more fun, even if car chases in Watch Dogs are in keeping with the tone of the game, if that makes sense.
Street Warfare
When you're out of the car, however, I think Watch Dogs proved they have a better combat system than at least the latest iteration of Grand Theft Auto. I'm ignoring tone here, because even if giving Aiden Pearce, superhacker, a 75-round Light Machine Gun as a solution to most of his problems seemed silly in a game supposedly based around stealth and subterfuge, I can't argue that Watch Dogs' combat system, both stealth and guns blazing, is better than what we've seen from GTA recently.
First off, at least Watch Dogs gives you the option to complete many missions stealthily. Even if that's not GTA's style, it can be mundane if you're constantly tasked with the same type of mission that simply requires you to gun down enemies behind cover over and over. Watch Dogs has missions that can be completed in silence, with LMG bulletstorming an alternate route if the player chooses to go down that path (or screws up their stealth run by accident). It's nice to have options, at least.
But even mechanically, Watch Dogs has a better overall on-foot combat system than GTA. The limited use of freerunning makes diving over desks and car hoods more fluid than in GTA. The shooting itself uses auto-aim, as most any game does these days, but in relatively moderate amounts compared to the heaping helping of assist GTA dumps on players. GTA 5 used so much auto-aim it was almost comical, where you could literally hop in and out of cover and have your sight snap to an enemy's center mass even if you were looking ten feet to their right initially. It took nearly all the challenge out of the game's abundant shooting sections, while Watch Dog relies a bit more on the player to think on their feet during enemy encounters, rather than giving them the ability to kill any enemy instantaneously.
While Watch Dogs' use of hacking in ground combat may amount to little more than the player setting off premade traps, it still gives it a bit more dimension than GTA. Yes, you can blow up cars which kill enemies in that game, but that's really the extent to which you can use the environment in GTA's combat. Watch Dogs lets you overload fuse boxes, raise and lower cover, jam reinforcements and comms, or even remotely set off grenades. Not to mention all the fun little tool hacks you have available like total blackouts or radar scans. While I wish Watch Dogs had less run and gun combat and relied more on hacking and stealth, overall the system is more effective than GTA's, and more fun.
Losing the Plot
It's impossible to ignore the role of story, writing and characterization in this day and age of gaming, even in sandbox shooters. And here, both games struggle in different ways.
Grand Theft Auto 5 in particular did a great job of creating memorable characters in the form of its three leads, Michael, Franklin and Trevor. Franklin was essentially the straight man of the group, with Michael a halfway to being a sociopath, and Trevor past that line and then some. Each of these three had fantastic voice acting and great writing to go along with them, and were the comedic and dramatic highlights of the game.
The overarching plots of Grand Theft Auto games are pretty murky, however. While I can give you a pretty accurate summary of the story of most games I play, trying to recount everything that goes on in GTA games is nearly impossible. The missions and characters might be memorable, but the story they're telling usually isn't. In GTA 5, I remember the central trio being used by the FBI and CIA to…rob things? And then eventually they…turned on them? Even after fifty hours of gameplay, that's the most I can recall, other than select scenes of Trevor's debauchery or Michael's family drama.
Watch Dogs isn't any better, however, and may actually be quite a bit worse. It relies on not one, but two overused tropes, a young girl dying, and the lead white male seeking revenge, and a woman being kidnapped, and the lead white male trying to get her back (and seeking revenge). It also doesn't help that Aiden Pearce is as generic a hero as they come, so much so that the game even has to explain that away by saying he's "masking his personality" to stay incognito more effectively. But all we see as a player is a boring guy with relatively flat voice acting utilizing an uninteresting script.
Watch Dogs had a few good supporting characters, most of which are killed off by the end of the game unfortunately, but they really dropped the ball with protagonist Pearce, his Lisbeth Salander-lite hacker girlfriend and his former mentor/new archenemy. The most important characters are the least interesting and developed.
Outside of central pair of revenge plots, the rest of Watch Dogs isn't well-scripted or persistently dark enough to be an effective noir tale. The game has you going from attending a sex slavery auction (super dark) to blowing up a hacker DJ's car while he wears a goofy rodent helmet in a Saints Row-level parody of real life EDM star, Deadmau5. The tone of the game is all over the place, and the central mystery isn't interesting enough to redeem the game's boring leads.
In Conclusion
In terms of which game is better or more enjoyable, it's honestly pretty damn close, and that could spell trouble for Grand Theft Auto if Ubisoft manages to make Watch Dogs a frequently released series.
Despite all the build-up for GTA 5 and the fact that the game is physically larger and longer than Watch Dogs, I honestly can't say if it was all that much better than Ubisoft's debut. In this case, I'm not sure how much size matters. Ubisoft has managed to create a game to compete with Grand Theft Auto, even though it's not quite as expansive or ambitious. If they can in fact pull an Assassin's Creed and create compelling sandbox shooter experience once every year or two, and maintain the same level of quality, maybe next time around, GTA VI will debut in five years and not seem quite as impressive.
I wish Watch Dogs wasn't directly trying to compete with GTA, and did more with its own concept, but from Ubisoft's perspective it makes sense to try and pose a threat to a series that proves there's a lot of money on the table for a compelling sandbox experience. Now, GTA isn't the only AAA game in town that can craft an effective sandbox shooter, and in a few ways we've just examined, Watch Dogs actually surpasses them. And while the upstart series might be miles away from matching its rival's numbers, I expect we'll see a Watch Dogs 2 long before a Grand Theft Auto VI.
Those are my thoughts. How do you think the two compare? Is one a clear victor, when you compare them side by side? Can anything actually pose a threat to GTA, or is Ubisoft dreaming?
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A GM investigation revealed the company's failure to fix a deadly defect in its cars. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., about a law that would require more transparency.
