We wrap up our coverage of PAX East with a game that I’m almost assuredly looking forward to the most. Watch Dogs has been on my radar since its announcement and has only wowed me with each new video shown thus far.
My excitement quickly waned after coming out of the closed theater presentation, however, as I realized the footage shown was almost shot by shot the same as the latest gameplay video that was revealed. Nevertheless, there were a few notes I was able to take from my viewing.
While waiting in line, the television screens would transition to small bios of real life people like the game developers and certain Frag Dolls as well as characters in the game. This included one for the main protagonist Aiden Pearce where we learn he’s from Northern Ireland and at the ripe age of 39.
He’s no spring chicken!
More details are revealed during the presentation such as Pearce’s motivations. We learn that some tragedy occurred involving his family. He therefore uses his hacking abilities on the CtOS, Chicago’s central operating system, in order to keep a watch over them without their knowledge.
It’s still a little vague but we can try to fill in the holes. It’s probably safe to say that Pearce’s family still resides in Belfast. There is likely some bad connection or deal that was made which either cost someone their life or ruined the family name. Aiden then decides to take the vigilante approach by moving to Chicago to seek out information and justice. In a way, he’s like the cyberpunk Batman of this world.
“WHERE IS HE!?”
There was also an emphasis during the presentation on the fact that “everything and everyone is connected” in the world of Watch Dogs. This point was specifically brought up during the scene where we see Aiden get tracked by a CtOS camera that was being controlled by PixxelFD AKA Edelita Valdez of the Frag Dolls.
Hints have been dropped before about a passive multiplayer element being added. Is it possible for us to hack into another player’s game using the camera system and for others to do the same to us? What kind of effect will this have?
Considering that everything in the city can be hacked into, it’s safe to say this includes the security cameras. There must be some gameplay element that allows us to infiltrate a console which controls these cameras and gets broadcast to another player’s game (as long as they’re online). Your gamertag would then be shown as the “hacker” monitoring the player of that specific game. If that person is able to disable these cameras, you will need to hack into that console game which will start the process again in another player’s game.
Take a picture. It’ll last longer!
What is the point in this? My guess is that there must be some kind of points or money system that gets put into play here. As long as you’re plugged in to another player’s game, you earn a bonus of… something.
I may be reading too much into it but there’s a subtle hint that this “connection with other players” element will work across platforms as well. In other words, someone on PS3 can hack into the cameras of an Xbox Live player, PC to PS4, and so on. Until we get more details from Ubisoft themselves, this is all just speculation. Here’s hoping it’s something that makes sense and proves to be worthwhile.
Keep watching the skis! Uh, skies.
GIVEAWAY: We were able to grab some sweet swag from PAX East including this Watch Dogs shirt which we will be giving away! Just go to our Facebook page and share our post of this article. A winner will be announced next week and receive the following below. Thanks and good luck!
- Watch Dogs shirt
- Watch Dogs lanyard
- Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag inflatable cutlass
- Splinter Cell: Blacklist sticker
Share our post to win!
