Watch Dogs trailer is all about the hackers

Remember when hackers were fun? You know, in fictional and completely unrealistic films like Hackers. It was all neon clothes, industrial clubs, 3D operating systems, and people unironically calling themselves The Plague. Good, wholesome '90s fun. Watch Dogs isn't like that. Their hackers are angry, as you'll see from this latest trailer. They issue proclamations, and fight the corrupt abuse of national surveillance. They've probably never worn spandex in their lives.

Ubisoft must be loving the recent NSA and GCHQ surveillance revelations. Here they're basically saying "see, we told you so!" Just remember that Watch Dogs is a game about a man who plays with traffic lights through his magic phone. It's just as silly as Hackers. Hopefully it'll also be just as much fun.

If we're really lucky, the tie-in film, which was announced last night at the Sony Gamescom press conference, will also be fun. Details are thin on that project, although according to Ubisoft Motion Pictures CEO Jean-Julien Baronnet, the deal, "creates exceptional opportunities for us to merge the realms of the story-based cinematic experience with the interaction of the video game." Answers on a postcard if you can translate that into English.

Watch Dogs, the game version, is due out November 22nd.

No hacking skills are required to get at our complete Gamescom coverage. Just this link .

TOPICS
Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.

Latest in Action
Assassin's Creed Shadows allies - A close-up of Yaya smiling after joining the League.
All Assassin's Creed Shadows allies and how to unlock them
The First Berserker: Khazan review - Maluca
The First Berserker: Khazan review
An image of Hornet from Silksong engulfed with rage.
Hollow Knight: Silksong gets SteamDB updates, and at this point I can't tell if the end is nigh or if I'm just hope-poisoned
A man with purple hair and face tattoos poses for a mugshot in the GTA 6 trailer.
Playable GTA 6 map nuked without warning by Take-Two lawyers: 'My guess is that the map was probably a little too accurate'
assassin's creed shadows protector's armor
Assassin's Creed Shadows hits 2 million players, putting it on track to be the series' most successful game yet
Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer still - woman in the front seat of a car, looking out the back window while holding a wad of cash
The specter of a GTA 6 delay haunts the games industry: 'Some companies are going to tank' if they guess wrong, says analyst
Latest in News
Gabe Newell looks into the camera, behind him is a prop of a turret from Team Fortress 2.
Gabe Newell's cult of personality is intense, but a Valve exec who worked with him says his superpower is how he 'delighted in people on the team just being really good at what they did'
Image for
'No real human would go four links deep into a maze of AI-generated nonsense': Cloudflare's AI Labyrinth uses decoy pages to trap web-crawling bots and feed them slop 'as a defensive weapon'
The Spy from Team Fortress 2 holds up a folder with an accusatory expression.
One of Valve's original executives shares a very simple secret to its success: 'You can't use up your credibility' by trying to make bad games work
The Razer Huntsman Mini 60% gaming keyboard floats in the teal PC Gamer deal void. The per-key RGB lights are on.
The most adorable Razer keyboard features not only an almost half-size form factor, but an almost half-size price at only $70
Inzoi
Ultra-realistic life sim Inzoi has officially shoved Hollow Knight: Silksong and Deadlock out of the way to become Steam's most hotly-anticipated game
New shaders in Minecraft following Minecraft Live 2025
In the year of our lord 2025, Mojang is finally adding shaders to Minecraft, making reflective lighting and water effects more accessible for all