Greatness Awaits

In 2013, Playstation began a new advertising campaign in anticipation for the release of the PS4 in the upcoming fall.  With the new slogan "Greatness Awaits," Sony ushered in the next generation of Playstation to rival Microsoft's Xbox One, using the slogan in the majority of all PS related ads since.  The campaign was initiated with this commercial, in which, according to IGN, Sony promises are references to 35 titles to be featured on the new console.       

Of course, the question that looms is, "What is the significance of this?  Why show this of all things?"  Well, to be clear, it is certainly not to in any way endorse one major brand over the other. As far as I'm concerned, choosing between the two is more of a question of preference than anything else.  Nonetheless, an excellent commercial is an excellent commercial regardless of who it is from, and in this case I believe the principle of it to be rather profound, even if it is just on a fundamental level.  The meticulous detail is obviously quite impressive, one could probably watch the same 90 second clip multiple times and continue to find things they previously overlooked.  Corporate advertisement aside, however, I find that the mentioned profundity comes in the form of a testament to the imagination.  The imagination is clearly not something to be underestimated, for the vision it inspires has allowed for the invention of this fantastical virtual universe in the hope that it will continuously entertain and even inspire those of particularly eager and ambitious minds time and again.  The greatness that awaits, therefore, is not necessarily found within gaming itself, but rather within ourselves.                        

The Power of Connection

   Ah, the internet, the last voluminous strand of authenticity left on the balding head of western civilization.  As bleak as this metaphor might appear, the internet truly is one of the few places of refuge that, for now, remains mostly free from government regulation and censorship.  In case you're curious, this is actually all thanks to a certain policy known as Net Neutrality, but that's another story.           

This story instead depicts a near future heavily influenced by technological advancement.  Watch Dogs, the original game, was released in May of 2014, and was set within postmodern Chicago.  This Chicago has pioneered the use of a corporate run, universal network to control most, if not all, technological functions of the city's infrastructure.  Everything from security cameras, to traffic lights, to bridges, are all regulated through a single network called ctOS.  What could possibly go wrong?         

 Watch Dogs 2 continues the technological revolution of the hacker group Dedsec, which has spread throughout other cities in the U.S.  These include a San Francisco that has been subjected to a revitalized version of the original program.  Given Dedsec's original campaign against the network in Chicago, they have no intention of condoning a ctOS 2.0.  The story follows Dedsec member Marcus Holloway on a mission to harness the software that is being used to regulate and monitor the populace and use it against its perpetrators.