Watch Dogs 2 aims to skillfully satirise San Francisco tech culture

Whether that makes a good game or not is, of course, a whole different question, but it's just refreshing to see a major publisher watching what's happening in the world and reacting – as great movies and television do almost instinctively. While HBO's Silicon Valley has certainly skewered the sociopathic personal failings of San Francisco's geek glitterati, video games can put players right into the middle of the scene as active agents. And of course, we all are active agents in the San Francisco tech story because we're buying and using the products, and it's our data they're fighting over. Watch Dogs 2 may well fall short of what Ubisoft is promising but it's an exciting prospect, and as with Assassin's Creed 2, there are hints it will get closer to what its predecessor aimed for. Whatever, seeing memes, drones, robots and VR headsets being used in a big game, not just as "hey aren't we cool and up-to-date signifiers" but as symbols of a troubling culture, is refreshing.