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[Leatra]

I liked the way how he pulled a mask. Instant win.

My hate for Ubisoft might stop me from buying though.

[Xotes]

If you pay attention to the part where he starts the pileup, it looks like a bunch of cars just blink into existence for the crash, so pressing the traffic lights hacking thing seems pretty scripted. Whether this translates to it being an instant pileup button whenever you do it or not, it's still an interesting note.

[Scelly9]

I might buy this even if it is scripted just for the atmosphere. Dat rain.

[fenrif]

On Hollywood Hacking:  Smartphones are basically tiny computers with networking now, and any command a computer was programmed to execute (Make light go green now, for example) can just as easily be executed by a hacker, remotely if the computer's networked.  A lot of the stuff here isn't that farfetched.

As for scripting, it shouldn't be that hard to simulate realistic behavior with enough processing power.  Give each NPC a couple stats (It looked like NPCs had randomized occupations and trivia, which could influence or hint at their stats).  A basic one would only need two:

Tension - The danger the NPC believes itself to be in
Morale - How the NPC gauges its ability to survive or overcome the situation, ranging from "Guy in the car in the demo" helpless panic to "I got concealed carry, let's give these turr'ists what fer" impetuousness.

Add in a random element to determine how an individual NPC reacts, based on his stats, and you've got a bunch of NPCs behaving in a semi-realistic fashion, and since most people don't pay much attention to NPCs the simplicity of it probably won't show through a lot.  You could probably add more sliders too to help determine just how the NPC will react.

EDIT:  Did he ever switch characters?  It was always the same guy, though right before he hacked the lights he pulled a mask over his face.

EDITEDIT:  Is there any indication at all about anything regarding custom content?  There's some hints that there might be multiplayer, but they never actually said anything about it.

I'm not a programer, but I assume there's a huge difference between having NPCs pull up a 1 line text description from a database and having a hundred or so AI processes all running simultaniously and reacting to various stimuli. Especially in an open world game like this which I imagine would use a lot of the RAM for things like loading areas and vehicles and such?

I don't see why scripting has suddenly become some evil word that we must avoid. Something being scripted isn't inherently bad, it's just often misused. It's a symptom of the idea that games should be as close to movies as possible in terms of presentation, narrative, etc.

[ZebioLizard2]

I'm not a programer, but I assume there's a huge difference between having NPCs pull up a 1 line text description from a database and having a hundred or so AI processes all running simultaniously and reacting to various stimuli.

As a partial programmer, I can tell you now that programmers are often lazy, and will develop a system that could easily be hacked by the bored cracker on his day to day basis.

You can hack power lines you know right now, if you really wanted to, not to mention some of the more advanced wireless things are easy to brick from a distance if you can get in.

The major problem is getting in, once that's done your pretty much a kid in the candystore all alone.

[fenrif]

I'm not a programer, but I assume there's a huge difference between having NPCs pull up a 1 line text description from a database and having a hundred or so AI processes all running simultaniously and reacting to various stimuli.

As a partial programmer, I can tell you now that programmers are often lazy, and will develop a system that could easily be hacked by the bored cracker on his day to day basis.

You can hack power lines you know right now, if you really wanted to, not to mention some of the more advanced wireless things are easy to brick from a distance if you can get in.

The major problem is getting in, once that's done your pretty much a kid in the candystore all alone.

... Did you respond to the wrong comment there? Nothing you said had anything to do with what I said.

[nenjin]

The game assumes that the interface between systems like the ones governing traffic lights and a smart phone are 1:1. They're not. Traffic signals aren't run from a wireless hub with wireless access points built into them. I'm not poo-pooing the idea, just pointing out that we're not exactly there yet as a wireless society. Infrastructure like that takes slightly more effort to access than something you grab off the AppStore. (Read as: Chinese hacker levels of effort.)

[timferius]

It's the future, is it not?

[Putnam]

I'm not a programer, but I assume there's a huge difference between having NPCs pull up a 1 line text description from a database and having a hundred or so AI processes all running simultaniously and reacting to various stimuli.

As a partial programmer, I can tell you now that programmers are often lazy, and will develop a system that could easily be hacked by the bored cracker on his day to day basis.

You can hack power lines you know right now, if you really wanted to, not to mention some of the more advanced wireless things are easy to brick from a distance if you can get in.

The major problem is getting in, once that's done your pretty much a kid in the candystore all alone.

I'm pretty sure that Zebio was referring to the in-game AI, not the hackerness of the main character.

[nenjin]

It's the future, is it not?

Sure. Although I'd question, from a security standpoint, who in the future would think it wise to run traffic lights off a publicly accessible hub. There are large security benefits to operating from a hardline.

[Drakale]

As long as its a centralized system, it's thinkable that it was infiltrated and a backdoor was added to it by the protagonist or some organization. My guess is that they will keep it believable yet on the fringe of what is actually doable with technology today.

[Scelly9]

I'm just gonna leave this here. It may be cracked, but its relevant.

Read number 3
If street lights and and other tech ends up controlled wirelessly, (probably not that big of a stretch) then someone could easily do something like this.

[jocan2003]

Why do you have to think you are hacking the light by itself, maybe he is just using the network to access the master control operating system thingy wich in turn goes into the traffic light computer central somewhere, then pull a command saying the light next to that guy goes off. THINK BIG!

[Cthulhu]

Apparently it's in a time when pretty much every civic function is run by a centralized supercomputer.  So it's obviously  near future, maybe at the point where smartphones are as powerful as desktop computers.  They're probably handwaving some of it which is fine, I play a game with dwarf fortresses, I can suspend disbelief.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

To be fair, smartphones are as powerful as desktop computers from 1995 or so. (I'm guessing there, don't shoot me.) By definition, a smaller computer will always be less powerful than a larger one, so phones and desktops from the same point in time will never change in relative processing power.