Watch Dogs: Legion PC performance patch due Friday

Today is the big launch day of Watch Dogs: Legion, inviting us into a wee open-world London to punch faces and hack the planet, though if you to see the game up at its best you might want to wait a touch before starting. Ubisoft have announced they plan to release a Legion launch hotfix patch for PC on Friday, focused on performance improvements. It doesn't seem a huge mess now, but it will seem better tomorrow. Those lucky dogs on console got their launch hotfixes today, though I'd take our problems over theirs: apparently Legion can make Xbones overheat and shut down.

The launch hotfix patch notes list these PC-relevant changes:

• Made several improvements to PC performance
• Optimized performance to improve framerates for RTX GPUs
• Fixed an issue that caused framerate drops to occur when characters walk through checkpoints
• Improved the framerate performance when driving
• Fixed a freeze when switching input controllers on PC

The patch is on consoles today, then PC Friday. Ubisoft do also warn that the game might crash if you're not updated to a new version of Windows. "We recommend updating your OS to updates 1903 or 1909 at the minimum, and strongly suggest having the latest OS system version installed when running the game," they say.

Our Nate's played Legion and quite enjoyed romping around London causing mayhem with a bunch of wacky hackers with daft abilities, though the serious story about fighting oppression didn't click with him.

"I would have enjoyed Watch Dogs Legion so much more, if it had just leaned into full Guy Ritchie nonsense with its tone," his Watch Dogs: Legion review said. "I really do appreciate what it's trying to do with its story, but the end result is like Jason Statham beating you to death with a book of Nietzsche's aphorisms. It's still Jason fucking Statham, and you're still getting battered."

Watch Dogs: Legion is out today for £50 on the Epic Games Store and the Ubistore. Yep, no Steam. Pay £34 extra for the Season Pass and this very day you could be recruiting Aiden Pearce from the first Watch Dogs, still wearing his iconic cap, with more new missions to follow.

Ubisoft have a stream of post-launch content planned, starting December 3rd with a free update adding four-player co-op. That sounds like it'd be a fun playground. Competitive multiplayer is also coming with eight-player Spiderbot Arena deathmatch (it is what it sounds like), and other PvP modes including ye olde Dark Souls-style Invasions. Moving into 2021, they plan to add new characters with new abilities, new missions, and a New Game Plus mode.