Here's Your Friendly Reminder That Watch Dogs Launches Next Week

Here's the primary issue that I have with Watch Dogs.

When the game was first revealed in that snazzy game demo, the game seemed to have this fresh take on the open world concept by introducing the hacking element. But as it turns out, that hacking element is incredibly hackneyed (no pun intended) to the point of being absurd. Aiden is less a super-hacker vigilant and more a guy with a chip on his shoulder and a magical smart phone that can do just about anything.

What it comes down to is that the central conceit that the game was originally billed around is an empty shell. More and more, with every trailer, Watch Dogs just seems like a fairly standard open-world action game, but you have an extra button that let's you hack with such ease that you might as well be smashing pots in a Zelda game. Aiden also doesn't seem to be a particularly interesting or notable character (despite Ubsoft's ludicrous marketing assertion that his baseball cap is somehow "iconic").

Too much about the game feels far too rote for me to become excited for.

@hailinel: I dunno why, but that baseball cap comment gave me a good laugh. The sheer disdain in some of your comments is always great.

I wanna meet that dude.

Agreed. People are using the large marketing campaign to imply something about the game's quality which makes no sense. What I've seen from it looks interesting, and I'm considering buying it but am gonna wait for reviews, something I pretty much always do for new series anyway. People are saying the game is terrible before they've played it or it's out and that's dumb as hell. Who cares about the marketing budget or direction of the game as long as it's good?

Could be fun. Seems to be a bit more focused than GTA V and less up its own ass.

People like to portray themselves as apathetic/cynical/above it all on the internet.

Watch Dogs trailer season is almost over. I'm looking forward to six months of Far Cry 4 and Assassin's Creed trailer monsoons.

I'm ready to get my hack on. Pre-ordered on Steam today. Come on, Tuesday!

WATCHY DAWGS

@dystopiax: I'm not judging the entire quality of the game, I'm saying their trailers are obnoxious and generic, and releasing a Season Pass trailer before the game has even been released is ridiculous.

Besides, the whole point of marketing is to tell and show you what the thing they're trying to sell you is. And with seemingly ever new trailer Watch Dogs has slipped further and further away from what the initial reveal implied, in favour of just another open-world shooting/driving game. Only you can also hack roadblocks. Maybe the game will actually be pretty cool, but so far all they've accomplished is pushing me away and making me all the more apathetic.

Also, seriously, cut that shit out. It always annoys me when people make these sweeping generalisations.

i'm still hyped for this game. fuck tha haters

All these trendy publications telling me the game is 'awesome'. Must be true then

Couldn't agree more! This site has become laughably cynical. It's so predictable. It's a new video game ya'll! Because, like, VIDEO GAMES!

It's one of the first major new IPs to come out from a major studio for so-called "next-gen" consoles. Shame on Ubisoft for promoting a game that the company spent tens of millions on -- the harr-ah!

I'll be excited to hear some feedback from people that actually played the game.

Couldn't agree more! This site has become laughably cynical. It's so predictable. It's a new video game ya'll! Because, like, VIDEO GAMES!

It's one of the first major new IPs to come out from a major studio for so-called "next-gen" consoles. Shame on Ubisoft for promoting a game that the company spent tens of millions on -- the harr-ah!

I'll be excited to hear some feedback from people that actually played the game.

I have no problem, i think its a good trailer, i even preordered the game. I just think its funny how the trailer is cut like a GTA game.

I usually don't go against the gb grain but here is a difference. I spent a small 100 USD on the pre-order a few weeks ago and am super excited to play this on Tuesday night. I don't get hyped for just any games these day. I've been a developer for about 5 years and people get up in arms about how the hacking in this game is unrealistic. I am excited for quadrilateral cowboy and I've played the hacker series but there is enough places to get real hacking and have fun. Even Hack this box is a fun game that deals with ACTUAL (legal) hacking. It's nice to see an over the top hacking shooter that is very matrix like. Finally something that can probably live up to the matrix in the way of video games. Only took like 15 years.

Cool another GTA clone. This gold rush mentality of bleeding a genre dry is starting to look like it's going to fuck these publishers over, as more and more of them fall or get out of the games business.

Tempted to just wait and see the WiiU version.

@magicwalnuts: Watchdogs is a GTA clone? Dont think so...

Paid up for the PC deluxe edition and the season pass. Don't care about the hate - People trashed the same things (graphics, story, whatever) about Wolfenstein: The New Order and I'm loving that too.

Let's see where this franchise goes.

@magicwalnuts: Yeah got to agree with JHebbel. Watch_dogs is as much of a GTA clone as Just Cause is. Just because GTA pioneered the genre doesn't make everything else a clone.