because this game has the worst character control of all time. you arent even controlling your character, you are steering him. very half assed job with the moving mechanics rockstar. watch dogs wins by far in this catagory. hell even gta sa wins.
That is not true.
Aside from some really annoying input lag (TVs and all), the control on foot does FEEL good. It is often very unpredictable when you are in the combat stance, indoors especially. But regular movement and sprinting around is just fine. The best it has been in the HD era. There's also way more subtle touches, animation-wise. Like the player models interacting with doors, climbable surfaces and other contextual environments. Instead of just shoving doors out of the way like an obstacle (IV), lol.
Watch_Dogs does have a pretty neat "strolling" mechanic. Especially with the profiler out. It looks quite cool. But the movement itself is constricted at its core. It's either free-running across obstacles or walking/sprinting around. There's no dedicated jump button. Or even a faceplant button 
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no that is true for the most part. you are steering your character rather than controlling him. i dont get what you mean by its constricted. gta 5 is either walking, climbing things, or running. a jump button is pretty much useless in gta 5 because you have to be moving for it to work. watch dogs feels much more fluid and smooth. similar to gta sa where if you try to turn around, your character will turn on the spot, unlike in gta 5 where they almost walk in a circle to turn around. and gta is the only game i know of that makes you steer the character rather than control him.
past gtas werent like that, mgs 5 isnt like that, watch dogs isnt like that, saints row isnt like that. all of these games have very responsive character movement while gta 5 just feels delayed and weird.
Watch_Dogs feels fluid and smooth because it has an emphasis on heavily contextual free-running and occasional parkour. This is both good and bad.
GTA V has contextual climbing mechanics and animations, but the movement system does not rely on them entirely. It is not at the core of the on foot navigation system. Unlike Watch_Dogs.
In WD, most of every movement you make is heavily contextual based on your surroundings. Now again, this isn't bad. Animations and movements that "adapt" to what your character is interacting with are great, but they shouldn't be at the very core of the movement system, because it makes the whole thing feel very automated and disconnected.
I feel Assassin's Creed has run into the same type of problems as of late, with the even further simplifying of the parkour system. The calculated jumps that were in the tombs of AC II, AC:B and AC:R are pretty much gone. Now it's all just one button + forward. Assassin's Creed Unity seems to have overhauled the system, replacing the challenge of earlier AC games with more options, while still keeping the simplified AC III/AC IV parkour systems somewhat intact for ease of use. In example, there is a thing called "controlled descent" that lets you easily get down from higher buildings and points on the map without having to do a leap of faith.
As for GTA V, the jumping button being rendered completely useless JUST because you can't jump in place is utter bull. Jumping in place is NOT as relevant as it is made out to be.
I have recently played through IV and EFLC out of sheer boredom waiting for the PC version, and not once did I feel the need or actual demand to jump in place. Whether it be f*cking around in the open world or general, traversal-based missions.
Jumping in V does have it's uses, as with IV. Like jumping down some stairs (think of Michael's encounter with Mary-Ann). But what has even more uses is that neat little "faceplant" mechanic that everyone loves so much. Jumping + punching. I have actually managed to gain some insane air by combining this with Trevor's rage mode (invincibility). It is both hilarious and effective, and doesn't get you hurt when you use it with the right character (T).
It's unrealistic and funny as f*ck, sure. But it gets the job done. Nothing like this is to be found in WD. You're either being edgy mc-motherf*ckin'-ledgy strolling around with your phone out, or you're climbing fences (terrible example, it was the first thing to come to mind, just go with it) and playing AC Lite in terms of navigation.
Movement in the HD universe feeling like steering was ALWAYS a thing. In Red Dead Redemption, as well. In my personal experience, I actually found this to be remedied easily by a keyboard, something that i'm sure will also be the case with V on PC. But there is definitely a delay on my 360, and it can happen because of multiple reasons, not just the game itself.
Input delay on consoles is a very real thing. I find it to be very prominent with V in particular, feeling insanely disjointed and unnatural. In my opinion, Max Payne 3 had the best on foot controls in the history of the RAGE engine's existence. But this is probably because it was designed as a linear, on foot-only shooter and many of the decisions that went into making the movement feel the way it does were mostly based on the shooting and not much of anything else. Since there were no vehicles to consider, no various types of vehicle/object exclusive animations (even though MP3 has AMAZING animations in all departments), and so on...
