May 27 will be a pretty quiet day at some workplaces in a few places thanks to people coming down with crippling cases of Watch_Dogs flu and staying home to get some finger and wrist exercises in to keep healthy. Ubisoft Montreal is certainly doing its part to move next-gen consoles and maybe a new 3D card or two, but I think even on the older consoles the game will be a winner to those players that don’t give a hoot about their games looking about as realistic as it gets. Anyway, we’ll see what’s what next week (or later for Wii U owners still hoping for an actual release date).
Hey, I may not have a decent gaming PC (yeah, I’m not all that willing to blow food and bill money on 3D card upgrades, a new monitor and all sorts of stuff just to say I can play a game for graphics first), but my PS3 still gets the job done just fine. Anyway, Watch_Dogs may have been delayed for a bit, but I don’t mind (or care) at all if it means the end results will be even more finely tuned. Now, I’m not at all interested in this as an online experience because I’m a story first kind of guy. So, I’m most likely going in with no intentions of spending a second playing with or against others when this finally hits stores.
Granted, given that Verizon is forcing everyone in this area to update their service to whatever higher speed connection they’re going to replace all the land lines with (and you should read their lame-ass excuse for doing this), I’ll be finally able to get on PSN with my old fat model PS3 (I’ve been using my Vita at a few wi-fi hotspots to get games and updates for that system). I can’t even imagine all the game patches and updates waiting for my poor hard drive, so I’m probably going to need an external drive before that big communication change occurs. Oh well, enforced evolution… do your stuff, I guess…
The problem with five minutes of one game (or two and a half minutes give or take of two games) is it’s IMPOSSIBLE to grasp what the hell some games are about. That said, in the case of Ubisoft’s stellar-looking upcoming action/adventure game Watch_Dogs, five minutes on a crazy and funny talk/variety show with a giddy host is excellent yet somewhat less than perfect for a game so huge. Don’t get me wrong, kids – I’d invite Jimmy Fallon over to the home office and show off some wacky games he’s most likely never heard of at the drop of a hat, BOOM, I’m there… er, he’s here (oh, you know what I mean). Thankfully, Aisha Tyler (also a HUGE gamer and comic as well as Ubisoft’s go-to celebrity as she also happens to be a character in the game) did a great job of explaining the concept and some of the open world gameplay before Jimmy took over and failed a mission (*sigh*). Well, he got further than I thought, but still. I’d actually love to see the guy host an ALL gaming show one day, not just one with funny segments and a few stars popping up to plug their assorted projects.
Of course, that would be a different show entirely, but a NEEDED one for gamers and G4 is no more (although, like a zombie with a steel-plated skull, the damn channel is STILL on the air pumping out movies and reruns of old shows including X-Play and Spike TV is too damn dumb to watch unless GTTV is on, as it’s just macho crap and blood beat-fests all day and then some. Yuk). I suppose internet “TV” shows are a good source, but not if one has a crap connection or hell, prefers gaming news from eight feet away and doesn’t own a damn Smart TV or whatever it is that basically means you’re online watching Honey Boo Boo when you COULD be learning a new language or something else more interesting…
Yeah, yeah – it actually leaked last night on Vimeo and a few other places (and I was up when I noticed it, but decided not to post because it wasn’t the best quality AND hell, it’s not like waiting for an official trailer would kill anyone), but here you go in case you haven’t seen it yet. Of course, this is some mind-blowing CG work mixed in with actual gameplay (at least until we find out otherwise), so as amazing as this looks, grain of salt and watch out it doesn’t end up in your eye – just aim for that mouth saying “Oooooh!” Back in a bit…
By now you know that Ubisoft has a definite system seller and absolutely killer app with its upcoming multiplatform release Watch_Dogs (set for a November 19, 2013 launch), although I’m predicting a little “problem” of sorts coming when the game does ship out. I can see a segment of potential players of the eye candy diabetic variety NOT buying the PS3 or Xbox 360 versions at all because they’re getting a newer console and want to show off that new game on the best system possible. Of course, PC owners will be pooh-poohing THOSE gamers as losers because they’ll be upgrading THEIR gaming rigs with new cards that can run the game at 200 frames per second with all the latest shaders and effects up full blast. Me, I don’t care how I play this other than I’d prefer not to patch anything and get up and running no less than five or ten minutes after installing the game to my (flips coin) PS3’s hard drive. As I have the feeling that this is a game that requires a few play-throughs in order to experience everything, I don’t mind at all playing it one one console and then another.
I’m one of those people dying to play this upcoming soon to be classic… but I’m smartly also NOT following every single thing written about it all around the Internet because that’s the fast road to mental hell. A million “what if” posts and too much over-speculation ALWAYS leads to disappointment or over/underblown expectations and other dopiness that can derail an otherwise excellent game experience. I’ve just been ignoring everything until I hear the game is PLAYABLE and coming to NYC on a press tour where I can wrap my grubby paws around a controller to see what’s what and let YOU know about it. Of course, that all revolves around someone at Ubisoft’s PR team actually contacting me (which hasn’t happened for a while, ha ha – maybe they’re watching ME to see what I do?), but as always, we shall see. Hey, I’m a nice enough guy and don’t bite unless you ask politely (*Woof!*)…
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