Ubisoft explains Watch Dogs’ tablet features

Ubisoft explains Watch Dogs’ tablet features
Neon Kelly Updated on by

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Ubisoft has shed some light on the mysterious tablet features in Watch Dogs, the game that has swiftly become one of E3’s major talking points.

The behind closed doors demo for Watch Dogs repeated the mission from Ubi’s conference. Once again we followed cyberpunk protagonist Aidan Pierce as he infiltrated a futuristic exhibition at a theatre, met with his contact, and then hunted down his target – a man by the name of Joseph DeMarco.

This time, however, the demo concluded with a demonstration of a real-time iPad app that supports a kind of meta-game – much in the manner of Microsoft’s Xbox SmartGlass.

Here players were presented with a wireframe map of futuristic Chicago, drawn in a similar style to the one that used in the press conference demo. The map can be scrolled and zoomed, with pop-up boxes and icons providing real-time information about the game in progress.

“As we said, everything is connected – and we’ve extended that to mobile devices,” said the Ubisoft demonstrator. “We have Chicago in the palm of your hand. Everything that you’ve seen in the game will be accessible, so different shops – pharmacies, gun shops – will also be available here. You can see everything.

“Remember the theatre that we saw? You can go and check the details, what the layout is, so that you can plan your mission. You can also get information about the organisers – facts about DeMarco.”

But it’s not just NPCs who fall under the app’s scrutiny. Other human players will also find that their details have been uploaded to the CTOS – the American information network in Watch Dogs’ cyberpunk future.

“You can monitor bad guys, and you can also monitor your friends. That way you can see your friends in real time – what they are doing, and how they did it. You can access their mission log and prepare yourself in the same way.”

During the course of the main demo, Pierce took the time to ‘profile’ a female NPC – scanning her and then adding her details to the CTOS. This meant that new data was added to the tablet app – information that wouldn’t have been there otherwise.

And according the Ubisoft demonstrator, this kind of action will have a significant impact on the overall game.

“The more you know about CTOS, the more power you going to unlock. And the more power you unlock in different districts, the more competitive you will be. That way your friends will never be the same thing, and sometimes you’re going to be able to help them, or sometimes you’re going to be able to challenge them.”

Naturally this all leaves us with a tonne of questions, and unfortunately the Ubisoft demo team were very hesitant to provide answers.

Ubi has confirmed that Watch Dogs will be coming to Xbox 360 and PS3 as well as PC, but CEO Yves Guillemot wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a next-gen appearance.