IDGAF (Watch_Dogs 2)

Soooooo...I started playing Watch_Dogs 2 today. Not because I was champing at the bit to do so, but because, well, I spend $12.49 on the game so I should play it, right?

As I stated about the first game in this franchise, I never got to care fully about Aiden because I didn't understand his motivations for the crime that precipitated his downfall--the death of his niece. However, since a cute little girl died at the hands of really awful criminals who engaged in really awful activities such as human trafficking and drug dealing, it was easy to see Aiden's cause through to the end.

I give even fewer f@#ks about Retr0 and his cohorts. First of all let me point out the most aggregious of effronts: Sitara is chunky enough to have a little belly and a bit of a muffin top, but she has a thigh gap? GTFOOH.

But female body shaming aside, these are more realistic hackers than the first game. Hacking for some made up cause because all the really good hacking protests were made in the 80s and 90s of last millenium and all we really have to bitch about online these days are data mining. I've never cared about data mining and probably never will. But because they are more realistic hackers they are (say it with me) boooooring.

The first ten hours of play have been a snooze fest. I'm so bored I'mma stop to check on my Warframe foundry and build a little on Minecraft. I should NEVER want to leave a game I just started playing. I'm a junkie looking for my dopamine and adrenaline fix. Hellooooo, McFly?!

And yes, I'm aware that taking issue with this part of the game being too realistic makes me a hypocrite because I bitched about the hacking in the last game being too UNrealistic. My answer to that is it's my gaming editorial and I'll be a hypocrite if I want to. In my experience most gamers play to get that perfect blend of reality and bull$h*t. That coarsely ground basis of fact with a soupçon of freshly laid crap, steam still coming off it and all. Then our imagination and sympathetic nervous system can run wild and in those moments...

We.

Are.

Free.

It takes a skilled and talented dev team to make that happen and the Watch_Dogs franchise just doesn't seems to have found that balance yet.

We'll see what happens tomorrow or even later today. Like I said about the first game, I'm no quitter. We'll see if that assertion holds true.