E3 '12: Watch Dogs

 

presentation started off with a long and weak video, basically plotdumping on us that everything is connection in the digital world. Phones, computers, everything. It can all be hacked. An entire country can be put down with a single laptop. And that one entity has all this controlling power at its fingertips. All that jazz. You're not the victim. You actually HAVE all that power at YOUR fingertips. Color me intrigued. 

Imagine that one GTA IV trailer where Niko simply walks through the city, to show off the design and the engine. Well, that's how it starts. And it's basically GTA IV but ten times better looking. Okay, I can dig it.

Our Player Character (PC from now on) arrives at a club. He can't get in. What does he do? He cripples all communications, distracting everyone so that he can get inside. Whilst inside, we also see he is capable of hacking people on the fly, as we see a prompt appear when we are near people having tech on them like a phone. He even has to tap in to woman's phone and listen in on her conversation.

After this, we get a quick action demonstration that looks a lot like Max Payne, with its white dot crosshair and cover system, do it is a lot more fluent and well programmed. One explosion was huge, and it sounded and felt quite bombastic.

Here's an accurate description of the game: It's GTA IV meets Deus Ex: Human Revolution meets Hitman only with Skynet at your fingertips.

With The Last of Us already known to the world, this is definitely the best new IP I've seen so far.