"The next generation," Ubisoft's press crew began, "is all about new game mechanics." 

Well, I'm sold. The current generation feels like it's been going on far too long, and mechanics and genres that once felt fresh and unique are now stale and vastly over-represented. Yes, Watch_Dogs has cover-based shooting, but it's not a cover-based shooter. Yes, it has racing, but it's not a racing game. Watch_Dogs is, or at least seems to be, in essence a high-tech sandbox for players to mess around in. Hacking environments is a clever mechanic that has the potential for some really interesting expansion in the inevitable sequels, and that's perhaps what's most interesting about it at this point.

I received an eyes-on demo of Watch_Dogs from Ubisoft reps this evening, and enjoyed the various ways in which players could manipulate the game's open world. Caught by a group of guards? Simply blow out all of the lights to create a distraction, and then initiate slow-mo to kill them all while their attention is elsewhere. Need a quick out of a tough jam? Call in help from a mobile player, who might be on a tablet or smartphone but who can still jump into your game and impact the world.

The interactivity between mobile and home players was a large focus of my presentation. I watched intrigued as an in-game player fled from the police while a tablet player across the room hacked the environment around him. With a simple touch on the tablet, the second player disabled a helicopter, and with another touch he activated a road block and destroyed a few police cars. Mobile players can even hack electronic billboards to leave in-game messages for their buddies. The message in this case was "That was close," but I can think of a few... less savory uses for it. Of course, home players will have to give their friends permission to jump into their games by putting out a distress beacon, so this should hopefully block griefing to an extent. 

Watch_Dogs continues to impress me with its technical savvy, both in and out of game. If it keeps up this interesting and innovative trajectory, it should be one of the biggest games of this holiday. Look for it on current and next-gen consoles, as well as PC.