Conservative political commentator Glenn Beck spoke out against Ubisoft's latest release Watch Dogs via the independent Libertarian news network The Blaze earlier this week, claiming the game teaches players how to hack in real life.
"The idea here is they are teaching you to hack and then become the ultimate voyeur in other people's lives, including their bedrooms, by hacking into their phones and everything," Beck said during a segment on violence in video games. Beck noted earlier on in the show that game series' Call of Duty had been said to teach the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks how to shoot to kill.
"This game is teaching you to hack into whatever is docked in your bedroom. What the heck is wrong with us? What are we thinking? We are inviting this into our home and our lives. We are teaching our kids for entertainment purposes," Beck continued.
Watch Dogs plays with the notion of information warfare and civil liberties by dropping a gamer into the shoes of a modern-day hacker vigilante; However, users are not taught to hack in the real world. Instead players can "hack" in-game objects and citizens for information or special access. You can watch Beck's segment in full above.
Watch Dogs received an 8 out of 10 from Polygon this week, with a review that reads: "As an open world game, Watch Dogs provides 'enough' - enough sidequests, enough space, enough of a playground - to qualify, but it doesn't quite place. Other games have nailed a better balance in optional activities and large-scale ambiance, including other games from Ubisoft Montreal itself."
