Friday, January 2, 2015

WATCH_DOGS Cosplay "Tracking Down"


Pre-Post 

Hey everybody , how have you been? Its been forever since I've been on Blogger, almost a whole year actually, but now I'm back to make another post. I don't miss all this typing. My fingers are going to fall off by the end of this post because there's a lot that I want to say. It has to do with my latest YouTube video of course, which is most likely how you found this blog post in the first place. If not, then from Facebook or Twitter. Oh yeah, just in case you didn't know, those are my main social media's which you can follow me at and say "Hi". (links at end of post) Anyway, lets officially begin this blog post!



Actual Post

So as you should know, I make a cosplay video every year for Halloween, and this year I decided to go as Aiden Pearce from the video game WATCH_DOGS! The reason that I chose to do this cosplay is because I am a gaming nerd which really shouldn't be a surprise, and if it is . . . Surprise! But another good reason is because Watch Dogs is one of the most popular games that came out this year that I personally love! I thought this game was bad-ass before it came out on shelves and I knew I had to play it. So as soon as I got the chance, I bought it! The gameplay was addictive and very entertaining. I couldn't stop playing, I just wanted to continue without stopping. The only times I did stop were when I raged quit. Even at that, I would go back on and play again in an hour.

Everything is Connected

WATCH_DOGS is an open world, action-adventure game created by Ubisoft, released on May 27 2014. (I got it June 17 2014) It's about a man, Aiden Pearce, who wants to go after the people who killed his 6 year old niece. Set in the city of Chicago, Aiden goes around the city, able to hack any Wi-Fi enabled or computer connected device. From computers to traffic lights, draw bridges and steam pipes that explode, Aiden can hack almost anything in sight. You will be surprised how much you can hack in the game. And it's all connect to the ctOS. The ctOS is a supposedly safe Wi-Fi city control system, in which everything and everyone is connected to. Aiden is able to hack into the ctOS network which is how he can take control anything in the city, actually, he is controlling the city.

Ubisoft is also the creator of the classic Assassin's Creed series franchise. I personally love Assassin's Creed, even before I actually knew what is was. It is even known that both of these games take place in the same universe, which shows the technology in Assassin's Creed is not limited to only Abstergo Industries or Abstergo Entertainment. Don't really know what the difference is. But if you look around at peoples profiles, you might be able to find the easter egg where it says that they were a former Abstergo employee. And to add on, the first Assassin's Creed game that I played was Black Flag. But don't worry, I was able to follow it by watching the "movies" on YouTube.

There is actually a point where the story of Assassins Creed 4 and Watch_Dogs do connect. (*SPOILERS*)
In Assassin's Creed 4, there is a part where the CCO of Abstergo Entertainment, Olivier Garneau, must go to Chicago for a conference of some sort. Before he gets to the conference, he is tracked down by Aiden and the phone shows that Olivier is a genetic memory manipulator. His profile even says "Targeted by the Brotherhood". So of course you have to go after him and kill him. Back in Assassin's Creed 4, Melanie Lemay, tells you that he mysteriously disappeared and never arrived to the meeting. Also in Assassin's Creed 4 there is an email chain of files regarding Blume and the CTos. Even some of your co-workers at Abstergo are talking about moving to Chicago and working for Blume. It's more connected than you thought.

Personal view

I over-all enjoyed playing Watch Dogs. Having it made where hacking is the main tool as the game was very unique in my opinion and I haven't seen games like that before. It has the same feel as Assassins Creed where the actions are semi-automatic and there is plenty of parkour which is really fun. I love the overall concept of trying to remain anonymous, going against the authorities, taking matters into your own hands, becoming the vigilante and doing what is supposedly for the greater good. I say supposedly because I believe that Aiden is actually quite selfish. He started hacking for his own gain which is what got him into trouble causing the accidental death of his niece, angry at the people responsible, he then used his hacking skills to go off the grid and track them down, all whilst stealing bank information and cars. Not to mention all the guards he killed who weren't even involved with his nieces death and basically just pawns in a chess game, to get to the people he was actually after. Although, he did intervene with criminals when threatening somebody and rescued women in human trafficking. But hey, that's what makes it have such a strong story and so controversial.

On the other hand, some negative feedback that has been said about the game that I also agree on is that it can get quite repetitive in most of the missions, there were a lot of graphical/texture glitches, the colors were somewhat dull, but I feel like it just makes it look more realistic and the character voices were very low. Not to mention how impossible it was to drive. These were all things that I have experienced when I was playing the game,

Tracking Down - Watch_Dogs Cosplay (re-uploaded)
Story

The story is quite simple if you pay close attention to it. It starts out as me role playing as Aiden Pearce on the computer trying to hack into the ctOS server when a notification pops up saying "You Are Being Hacked". I then immediately begin to back track the source of the hacker and when I have located the source it says "Target Found". I then go out to track him down, hence the name of the video, and go about my normal day hacking everything anything I can, until I come to the location where the hacker is, and I kill him. And then I get my information back. All in a days work vigilante justice.

The making of  "Tracking Down"

Making this video wasn't easy. There were a lot of things I had to figure out how to incorporate into the video. A  major part of that was figuring out how to do the hacking. I basically thought of all the hacks that were in the game and thought, how can I fake this in real life. The hacks and function featured in the video were, traffic lights hack, bank account hack, train stop hack, electrical box exploding hack, criminal activity detector, and of course GPS. All of these hacks were made by doing nothing at all. All that was done was that I timed it precisely and text pops up in the video to show which hack has been activated. Although, there was one hack with a little more than good timing. When you see the ctOS server explode it was real. Well sort of, it was a camera trick. The server was just an old non-working modem with a sticker that I hand made to have the ctOS logo on it. The explosion itself was just a modified lighter held closely (but not to close) to the camera and igniting it.

I also had help by Nick Molinari, and couple of my friends to make this video. My friends allowed me to abuse them for a while (lol jk). They were the awesome actors that help bring this video to life. And Nick also coached me during this video being the Co-Director and the Cinematographer for a good majority of it. (Using big fancy words like that)

***On January 7, 2015, I was given the notification that this video had a copyright claim. I then had to remove the copyrighted music temporarily. I then re-edited the video with copyright-free music and scheduled the re-uploaded video on January 9, 2015.***

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So thank you for watching, feel free to click on any of the links in the blog post and especially the links below.
Special thanks to everyone who help out in this video, You are the best!
If you have any questions on the video (or in general), please contact me on my social media for I never check Blogger unless I'm writing a post, and I'll add the question with my response to the blog. Thanks.

          Extra Links Just For You
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