Tag: Watch Dogs

2014: A Year Of Surprises. Erich’s Game Of The Year

Surprise, your game does not work. Surprise, this game is awesome. Surprise, you bought the rights to a game without faces.

Game Of The Year

Dragon Age: Inquisition

No one who knows me will be surprised by a Bioware game being my GOTY, but this is more than that.

Inquisition checked off almost all of the things I have wanted from the franchise, Epic fights check, Deep conversations with characters who feel like old friends check, Morale ambiguous character missions that leave you feeling cold inside, double check. I will say that the overall story is a little weak, (Aside from philysophical musings on the nature of Life, the Universe, and Everthing) but the character moments are the strongest of the franchise.

Runner-Up

Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition

Yes, this is the second time I beat Sleeping Dogs, and yes it remains the best example of a serious take on the open world GTA style game (The Saints Row franchise being a less than serious take) It is no small thing to say that I enjoy punching people in the face in this game more then I enjoy it in the Arkham franchise. On top of rock solid gameplay, this newer version is simply gorgeous.

Surprise Of The Year

South Park The Stick of Truth

I have a confession to make, I only started watching South Park last year. In that year however I watched the first 16 seasons in a mad dash, of laughter, queasiness, and a vague level of not being sure if I should be offended. All of those things continued to greatness in SoT. Confession number 2, up until SoT I had never really enjoyed turn based RPG’s. Holy $#!+ balls what a way to get into one. I only wish we could get another.

Surprise Runner-Up

Wolfenstein: The New Order

When I watched the first WtNO trailer I was not impressed, and almost immediately wrote it off as a game doomed to fail. Boy, was I wrong. Wolfenstein brought me back to a time when fighting Nazis was cool, and FPS’ were not cursed by short campaigns, and sequalities. Back to the days of Halo: Combat Evolved, and Half Life 2. In short Wolfenstein made me feel young again, and can you ask more from anything?

Biggest Disappointment

Watch Dogs

We all criticize Blizzard for the shiny lies that are their game trailers, but with Watch Dogs I feel that Ubisoft is equally guilty. For a game that promised me freedom, and the ability to hack anything, the number of things I could hack was surprisingly limited. For instance, some police departments are issued guns that can only be fired by the officer the gun is assigned to, why couldn’t I hack guns? I could hack cars to start them, why couldn’t I turn off cars that were chasing me? The year before Ubi gave me Jason Brody and Vas, before that Ezio Auditore De firenzi, and Altiar. For this game they give me Aiden, and boring mob boss number 3 (Irish Pallette). Now I will give them credit for creating the single best Johnny Gat knockoff ever (Jordi) but why was he not in more of the game? In a story that is supposed to make me question the security of my data the only real question I am left with is; was that maybe French chick hot? I am still not sure.

Disappointment Runner-Up

Destiny

The only reason these two are not switched is that Ubisoft lied to me about Watch Dogs, I lied to myself about Destiny. I knew that I had not seen enough content from the trailers, I knew that the beta had looked boring as hell. I knew (breaks into sobbing) I knew…

Honorable Mention

Minecraft (Xbox One)

There is too much. For someone who loved the infinite possibilities of Minecraft, the upgraded version scares me on the inside.

January 7, 2015
Review Roundup- Watch Dogs

Almost two years after its surprise reveal at E3 2012, Watch Dogs is finally ready for everyone to hack away to their hearts content. The game was originally planned for release in November 2013, but was delayed only a few weeks from release with no new release date given which, of course, made the internet throw around its theories of a broken game.

The delay was only six months and the impression of first reviews think it was a good thing. Let’s see if Ubisoft has a new franchise worth our time.

IGN– 8.4/10

“It can last a lot longer than 20 hours though, because Watch Dogs is extremely good at distracting attention away from the main story with a steady stream of side quests and minigames. I’m a big fan of the gang hideout missions, which really let you test your stealth skills as you take down well-guarded targets (though it’s kinda strange that they ask you to keep the gang leader alive but are cool with murdering everyone else).”

Game Informer– 8.5/10

“On the other hand, the on-foot action is entertaining from the get-go and only becomes more engaging as you unlock new abilities. Hacking items adds a meaningful dimension to combat, allowing you to effortlessly hop between camera feeds to get the layout of the environment, tag foes, and activate traps. The solid shooting mechanics make full-scale firefights enjoyable, but Watch Dogs’ combat really shines with a stealth-minded approach.”

Giant Bomb– 3/5

“The other thing that sets Watch Dogs apart from the typical open-world game is the way its online action is structured. While it still has the same boring online race mode that every open-world game seems to have these days (does anyone actually still want to engage in an open-world race in a game that wasn’t built for racing?), it also has a handful of cat-and-mouse-like modes where one player has to get close to another player to steal something from them. These online invasions pop up against your will, forcing you to deal with another player before you can proceed. The rewards for succeeding in this mode are minimal and they seem to always pop up when you’re trying to start another mission, making them feel like a hassle that’s preventing you from doing the thing you actually want to be doing.”

Polygon– 8/10

“In fact, despite its open-world trappings, Watch Dogs does the most with its inventive abilities and great mechanics when it has the most structure. Story missions frequently enable and even encourage a lengthy recon phase. Any new assignment always involved my search for a CCTV camera which would then spider outward like cracked glass as I went from camera to laptop to junction box and on and on, spying weakness, marking targets.”

Gamespot– 8/10

“Watch Dogs’ narrative may win no awards, but as an open-world playground, the game rightfully deserves to be mentioned with heavyweights like Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row. This playground isn’t just loaded with stuff to do, as most such games are; it’s loaded with lots of terrific stuff to do. I lost myself for an hour solving chess puzzles. Other times, I shot up aliens in several of Watch Dogs’ augmented reality games.”

Joystiq– 4/5

“To the game’s credit, the temptation to peek exists without formal judgement, and there are no good or evil points to earn in your approach. Your reputation as a terrorist determines how likely it is for someone to call the cops on you, especially if you’ve been driving on the sidewalk, but the game is happy to let you spy, stalk, or brutally intervene when criminal activity appears in a dank alley.”

May 27, 2014
This One Time, On The Internet- March 17, 2014

Here are the quick hits from the world of movies, TV, games, blacksmithing, hummus, whatever catches our fancy.

Movies

Pixar

The Incredibles and Ratatouille will be converted to 3D for future re-release in theaters. Never cared for Ratatouille that much, but I will gladly pay handsomely to see Frozone in 3D.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Marc Webb will not be returning to direct The Amazing Spider-Man 4 (yes, 4). Ease up there Sony, Spider-Man is not The Avengers. Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

Wolverine

James Mangold will begin work on the follow-up to The Wolverine after X-Men: Apocalypse releases in 2016. With Hugh Jackman recently saying his tenure as the adamantium man is winding down, I can see this being his final hoorah as Wolvie.

Maleficent

Here is a new banner for Maleficent starring Angelina Jolie. This time she has wings. She gained horns last poster. Slowly they are just revealing she is Satan incarnate before the movie opens.

TV

American Horror Story

Writer Douglas Petrie has revealed that the fourth season of the horror anthology show will have a carnival theme in the 1950’s. As fu**ed up as AHS is, this is the perfect setting. Plus, I miss Carnivale and this will fill a need.

The Walking Dead

Anyone get traumatized by last night’s episode “The Grove”? If you are a comic fan, you are used to this, I want to know the soccer mom reaction.

Games

Gauntlet

The classic dungeon-crawler is getting a reboot this summer by WB Games. Check out the trailer below and remember the times wasting too much money on the arcade machine in a Mexican restaurant. Maybe that is just me.

Watch Dogs

Ubisoft is saying that it will take average players between 35-40 hours to complete the story with some free-roaming while completing the entire game could be around 100 hours. That is worth $60 if true.

March 17, 2014
Watch Dogs Release Date Announced With New Trailer

Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs will release on May 27th worldwide after a six-month delay.

The game was delayed only weeks before its November 2013 release date to give the team more time to polish the game and, one would assume, work out any last minute technical issues.

This is sooner than I was expecting for Watch Dogs to hit shelves. When it was delayed so soon to release last year, I thought there may be some serious issues with the game. I wasn’t expecting a release until at least July. Looks like Mario Kart has some competition in May.

A new trailer has been released with the release news. Check it out.

For some reason it gives me a futuristic Sleeping Dogs more than Assassin’s Creed.

March 6, 2014
*UPDATED* Assassin’s Creed IV “Online” Pass

Update: Thanks to the hard work of nose-to-the-ground game journalists – and MASSIVE consumer outcry – Ubisoft is discontinuing the Uplay Passport system in its entirety. Assassin’s Creed IV will be the last title to utilize it, and the company is changing the price for the item to “free” on all applicable marketplaces. Enjoy this one, folks. Cheers, Ubisoft.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag launched yesterday to moderate reviews; this particular gamer won’t get to play it until I actually have an Xbox One and Beth has finished it and possibly all of the extra content. Once it does roll around to me, however, it turns out I’ll have to shell out a little more than expected.

As most of you are aware, online passes are a “thing” now, and Ubisoft’s particular version is the Uplay Passport, which was first introduced to this series with Assassin’s Creed 3. I’m not actually against passes in most situations; I tend to buy games new, and games that have a multiplayer component that my group is interested in require that we all have copies anyway. I’m also on board with “pre-order bonuses;” again, I tend to buy games new, on release day, and Amazon doesn’t charge you for having a game reserved until it actually ships.

Yesterday, however, it came to light that Ubisoft has crossed a line into new territory: Within Black Flag, there is a mechanic that involves you taking over enemy ships and adding them to your fleet. It’s essentially this game’s version of Ezio’s brotherhood and Conner’s homestead; your fleet earns you money and items, and can be sent on missions from a map in your cabin.

If you don’t have an active Uplay Passport, this mechanic is disabled. This single player mechanic.

Ubisoft’s excuse for this is that your can link your fleet with those of your friends, and even send each other assistance across missions. According to their logic, this constitutes a “multiplayer component” and falls under the guidelines for their online pass system. In my opinion, this is a pathetic attempt to spin the truth: They have decided to spearhead the push to block content for solo players who have bought the game used, or are borrowing it from a friend.

Why does bother me? Because, with wholly single-player experiences, Beth and I have begun only purchasing a single copy and splitting the cost. Dishonored, Sleeping Dogs, Remember Me, Assassin’s Creed 3; one copy between us in each instance. I’ve barely played AC 3, but what I have played was not hindered at all by my lack of the Uplay Passport, because I will never play that game online. There are also a few instances where only one of us could get the pre-order items, but again, those don’t tend to be big losses; whoever was more interested in the game took the bonus, and the other one just didn’t worry about it.

When I eventually get to play AC IV, however, I won’t be able to access the fleet meta-game at all unless I pay Ubisoft another $10. Oh, and I’ll probably get to do it again when Watchdogs eventually comes out, because unless we see definitive proof that its multiplayer component is worthwhile, only one copy of that will be purchased as well.

Congratulations, Ubisoft. I have been a die-hard fan of yours since Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. I genuinely liked the first Assassin’s Creed, repetitive missions and all. I know this trend won’t stop with you; hell, Capcom and EA have been charging people for access to content on the disc under the guise of “DLC” for years. I can’t it explain it, but this feels different, and I’m disappointed in you for it.

At what point did the $60+ we pay for games not become enough? I’m not a GameStop kind of guy; I don’t buy into their “Reserve / Trade-In / Used” system, and it bothered me so much when I worked there that they fired me over it. I pre-ordered the collector’s edition of Black Flag the day it went up on Amazon, along with the hardbound strategy guide. Doesn’t matter! $10 more or else!

I guess maybe Ubisoft is just reacting to a changing marketplace, same as the rest of the industry? I’ve got no problem railing against used games, either… But this isn’t a used game! I’m buying it new! It infuriates me that just because my girlfriend and I both want to play it…

I’m rambling now. I apologize. I’m angry, and by damn, I hope you are too.

October 30, 2013
Watch Dogs Delayed To 2014

Photo courtesy mrwallpaper.com

Surprising news today from Ubisoft that their big new IP, Watch Dogs, would be delayed into the first fiscal year of 2014. That means the earliest the game could be released would be April 1st of next year. That definitely is disappointing to a lot of gamers who have been waiting on the game since it was announced at E3 2012.

In a statement by the Watch Dogs development team, they chose to delay the game to assure the games quality. No one can blame them for the reasoning even if it does come very close to the game’s release date of November 19th. Ubisoft will certainly still have a big holiday season with [amazon_link id=”B00BMFIXKQ” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Assassin’s Creed IV[/amazon_link]

Ubisoft also announced that their next-gen racing game, The Crew, would also be delayed to 2014, possibly not being released until next September.

Read the statement from the Watch Dogs development team below:

“Our ambition from the start with Watch Dogs has been to deliver something that embodies what we wanted to see in the next-generation of gaming. It is with this in mind that we’ve made the tough decision to delay the release until spring 2014.

We know a lot of you are probably wondering: Why now? We struggled with whether we would delay the game. But from the beginning, we have adopted the attitude that we will not compromise on quality. As we got closer to release, as all the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place in our last push before completion, it became clear to us that we needed to take the extra time to polish and fine tune each detail so we can deliver a truly memorable and exceptional experience.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you. We thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the way you respond on the web, at events, press conferences and other opportunities we have to interact. Your passion keeps us motivated.

We can’t wait to see you in Chicago next spring. We are confident you’ll love this game as much as we love working on it.”

October 15, 2013
Wait…Did Watch Dogs Just Kill Aisha Tyler?

Photo courtesy IGN

LAAANNNNNAAAAA!!!

The newest Watch Dogs trailer features actress/author/talk show host/inventor of girlwood Aisha Tyler and if you have always dreamed of stalking the beauty then Watch Dogs lets you live out your fantasy…at least until she apparently gets hit by a giant ass truck.

Say it ain’t so Aisha.

[amazon_link id=”B00BGHUS58″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Watch Dogs[/amazon_link] releases on November 19th.

http://youtu.be/YZahmJIhE90

July 30, 2013
Here Is The Watch Dogs Limited Edition. Is Ubisoft Trying Anymore?

Photo courtesy IGN

Seems like only yesterday we were talking about the [amazon_link id=”B00BMFIXT2″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Assassin’s Creed 4[/amazon_link] Limited Edition and it’s list of goodies.

Well today we get our first look at the [amazon_link id=”B00BGHUS58″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Watch Dogs[/amazon_link] Limited Edition and while the game may be different, it looks mighty similar to Assassin’s Creed 4’s. Here is the rundown and how it matches the pirate booty from AC4.

-A big,black box (check)

-9″ statue of Aiden Pearce (it’s a new franchise so no 18″ statue…yet)

-Aiden Pearce vigilante mask (or a tiny pirate flag)

-80-page artbook (yep)

-Steelbook game case (of course)

-Game soundtrack

-The actual game (cause you kind of need that)

The set will cost $129.99 and release on November 19th.

July 18, 2013
Watch Dogs Gameplay Hacks Open The File Labeled Awesome

Photo courtesy evilavatar.com

Ever since its debut at last year’s E3, Watch Dogs has continued to astound and the new gameplay demo shown at the Sony press conference is no different. In it, our protagonist, Aiden Pearce has to help a friend in need as the cops are on the lookout for both of them. Personally, my favorite part of the demo is when Aiden notices a guy calling 911 and he walks up and busts his phone on the ground. If I am able to do that to anyone in the game I can already tell that way too much time will be spent being an utter dickhead. No phone will be safe!

Watch Dogs releases on November 19th for PS3, 360 and Wii U. No release date has been given for next-gen consoles.

June 11, 2013
Watch Dogs E3 Trailer

Photo courtesy pcgamer.com

E3 hasn’t even officially started yet and already we have an E3 trailer. Ubisoft’s newest look at [amazon_link id=”B00BGHUS58″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Watch Dogs[/amazon_link] has main man Aiden Pearce taking on a human trafficking ring with only his cell phone, baton, guns and a boat load of kick ass.

Just imagine that in this part of the game you are Liam Neeson in Taken and play his phone clip over and over again.

Watch Dogs releases this November for 360, PS3, Wii U, PC, Xbox One and PS4.

June 10, 2013