Watch Dogs: Legion E3 reveal

The first Watch Dogs was dull and suffered the consequences of going back on its promises. The second Watch Dogs was a lot more fun and one of the underrated greats of this generation. There were a lot of rumours around the third title – a London setting, multiple player characters – but what would Ubisoft actually deliver?

E3 2019 gave us the answers, and while it would be easy to focus on the bad (the dodgy English accents, the abundance of gunplay in a game about hacking, the non-existent Trafalgar Square Tube station), the demo gameplay gripped me as much as a technology enthusiast as it did as a gamer. Some of the systems at play were simply spectacular.

At least the future Piccadilly Circus has fewer tourists

Watch Dogs: Legion, as it turned out to be called, has no main character. Your DedSec squad can be assembled from any of the inhabitants of near-future, cyberpunk London, all of whom have their own lives, their own opinions on the hacking group, and go about their day-to-day business in the city. If what was said is accurate, it’s a huge acievement.

The mind boggles when you think of all of the character generation systems, writing, voice acting, cut scene development, and background processes that went into this. And by coupling such an exciting feature with an neon-augmented open-world London, Ubisoft have guaranteed that they will have my attention until the game’s release next March.

Hitman

Can we talk for a moment about what a masterpiece Hitman (the 2016 reboot) is? I’d seen bits and pieces of it before when it was popular with streamers, but I finally picked up my own copy the other day in a Steam sale and have been hooked ever since.

I’ve always liked stealth games like Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid, but their detection systems generally work in a binary basis – either you’re hidden or you’re being shot at. The Hitman series has always tried to do more than this, with disguises and varying levels of suspicion on the part of targets, guards, and bystanders, but this is the game that finally pulls it off in the way I’m sure the developers have always dreamt of.

The larger, crowded environments are particular highlights

This plays out in various subtle ways during your missions, but none more so than when you do mess up. Rather than all going onto instant alert (think the Metal Gear exclamation mark), NPCs communicate your description to each other and word about Agent 47 slowly spreads around the map, giving you vital time to find a hiding place or another costume.

All of this takes place against some gorgeous, densely populated backdrops, each littered with genuinely funny dialogue and a variety of opportunities to take out your targets in your own way. Unfortunately, Hitman’s price tends to be a little on the high side, but if you get the chance I’d really recommend picking it up and giving it a go.