Watch Dogs

+Ubisoft the studio that brought us the highly acclaimed +Assassin's Creed franchise.  Has another title due to arrive later this year called "Watch Dogs".  This game has a lot of the things that made Assassins Creed work so well, with the free-run system, multiple side missions, and a light dusting of GTA style carjacking.  What makes this game really stand out and already a fan favorite amongst most of my geek friends, is the ability to hack any device connected to the M.A.N (Metropolitan Area Network) or the city wide electrical power grid.  Players can cause power outages, use the police departments own city wide defenses, traffic cams, vehicles, just to name a few items.  The game also allows for players to seamlessly jump into another players game and hack them for intel.  +Ubisoft released a 14 minute game demo displaying a lot of the features we'll find once the game has been released.   The video can be found at a number of different sites however, I'm a fan of +GameTrailers and they have it as well.  The nice people at +GameTrailers were even kind enough to supply a link to the video for streaming.  

Watch Dogs

     It's a 14-minute gameplay demo showing you what you're able to do in the game.  In the video you learn that the game takes place in Chicago.  A new computer system ctOS, has been put in place to assist the city in well, just about everything.  From surveillance to traffic cams this new technology has access to everything and that means you as the player do as well.  Watch Dogs will be available on Playstation 3, XBOX 360 as well as the next-gen systems, XBOX One, Playstation 4,  and possibly the Wii-U.  This is one of the games on my personal wish-list and I'm gearing up to get this on one of the next-gen systems.  The release date has been set for November 19, 2013.  You can pre-order the game at either GameStop, BestBuy, or Amazon.  There are a few other places to pre-order however, I only trust one of the three I named.  There is also a limited edition version of the game that include exclusives such as a statue of the main character, soundtrack, art-book, and other game related elite swag. 

You can venture over to the official site for the game here Watch Dogs Official Site.  Thus far from everything I've seen, this is going to be a fairly good game.  I just hope it lives up to the hype and as this could be the next big thing in video games.

Batman: Arkham Origins

"Riddle me this, Riddle me that, Who's afraid of the big black bat?" - Riddler

     In my last blog I touched on the "Affleck Riots" or the uproar of people being really, really mad that Ben "Daredevil" Affleck was chosen to be Batman.  While I don't share the same maddening anger and involuntary urges to throw darts at the closest Affleck poster. As I think there are quite enough people doing that already.  I am however going to write about something that I think all Batman and superhero fans alike can rejoice in.  The upcoming release of the new +Batman: Arkham Origins video game.  I'm a big Batman fan and I've played all of the +Batman:Arkham Games.  The last game released was +Batman: Arkham City, which had a lot of the DLC updates that provided tons of extra content.  The new +Batman: Arkham Origins video game, according to recent news is coming with a ton of DLC content on the release date.

Deathstroke The Terminator

     I go to +GameTrailers for most of my video game news and updates.  For the most part the news is the same on +Giant Bomb and +IGN.  With a new "uneven multiplayer" feature, pitting two heroes against a group of four or five thugs.  This looks to be the most ambitious Batman game in the Arkham video game franchise.  What's known so far about this new game is that it's a prequel to the first two games.  One of the main points is that Batman is being introduced to the villains that he'll be fighting, repeatedly, over his crime fighting career.

     One of the highlighted villians is "+Deathstroke  the Terminator".  Not many people outside of the comic book kingdom, are aware that Deathstroke at one point and time was called "The Terminator", and I don't mean the one govenator +Arnold Schwarzenegger played back in his youth.  He is only one of ten assassins gunning for The Batman during a one night fight for his life.  I don't want to give away too many details of the storyline just in case you've been trying to avoid any big spoilers.  What I expect is a good look at the early renditions of classic Batman characters.  I will say that I expect the Christopher Nolan movies to have an influence in the design of the characters.  Actually to be perfectly honest I expect it, with the release of the Bane character design for the game.  You can see the influence of the Bane design from The Dark Knight Rises movie.  However, there are some elements like the Batplane that are influenced by real world design.  I'm sure we'll get to see more as the official release date gets closer.  Recently the collectors edition of the game has been announced and comes with a lot of the usual goodies that you'd expect.  A statue, art book, and soundtrack amongst additional skins and playable characters such as Deathstroke.  While it's a different division of the same company that's working on this title.  Which many have speculated is only due to the actual original division of Rocksteady Studios that worked on the other Arkham titles is currently working on the next sequel to Arkham City.  Either way I'm sure it'll be a good edition to the already impressive line of games released for such an awesome superhero.

Hopefully, this will help people adjust to the idea that Ben Affleck will be the next Batman.  Many argue that he won't do a good job, but Ben tends to differ...

Batman: Arkham Origins Official Page