Watch Dogs gets an update

Watch Dogs Legion Rated M for Mature (Xbox One, Series S,X, PS4,PS5)

SASCHA

Watch Dogs Legion is getting a major update, with bug fixes and multi-player capabilities coming next week.

Set in London in 2030, the developer balances a futuristic look for the city without taking out what makes London, London.

In the game, an attack on London has been blamed on DedSec. The city is now locked down and under the control of a security force of Albion. You are tasked with proving DedSec didn’t commit the attack and to find out what really happened.

The game will be familiar for people who played the previous two editions. Players at the start are given a random list of characters with you choosing one to start the game with. Different characters have a different set of skills, weapons or abilities.

London is divided into different districts with players completing different missions to liberate that district. Liberated districts will bring more people on your side.

Future London is full of construction, packages, news and police drones. There’s projection propaganda all around the city. Even with all the futurist elements, players will still notice buildings and districts of London you’d expect.

One of the biggest draws of the game is the ability to recruit anyone you see. If you come across an artist, construction worker, security person, they can join your team. If that person doesn’t have a red thumb down, they can join your team. The developer did an amazing job creating backstories for all the characters.

As mentioned, different characters have different abilities and assets. Some characters will have crowbars or wrenches as weapons. There’s a bee lady who attacks enemies with a swarm of bees and more. There are different areas on the map in red that are guarded and secure zones. Different characters can be used to gain entry to those areas. If you have a mansion under guard, a security guard or a groundskeeper are just a few examples on who can gain entry without alerting drones etc.

The game play is classic Watch Dogs. You are given a mission and how you complete that mission is up to you. Players can use stealth to sneak, or use different drones to hack and attack enemies from a safe distance. Players have a choice whether to use non-lethal attacks or more deadly arsenal.

You can also use special characters to just walk into locations without alerting enemies. There are computers to hack, puzzles to solve, phones to hack and more.

Ubisoft keeps missions fresh and different. Even the missions for recruiting different characters have a nice variety.

Watch Dogs Legion gets a 9/10.

Canada added a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine to its pandemic-fighting arsenal on Friday, approving Johnson & Johnson’s product a week after it was authorized in the United States.

That gives Canada four distinct vaccines — along with Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca — and it adds flexibility to the country’s plan to immunize the majority of its residents by September. Health Canada includes a fifth vaccine, Covishield, which is a separate brand name for doses of the AstraZeneca product made at the Serum Institute of India.

The U.S.-based Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for emergency use on Feb. 27.

Canada has already secured up to 38 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine through previous negotiations with the company, however it’s not expected that any will flow to Canada until at least April.

Here’s what we know about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine:

HOW EFFECTIVE IS IT?

Johnson & Johnson announced promising results from its Phase 3 clinical trials at the end of January, suggesting its vaccine reduced severe COVID-19 disease by 85%, and prevented 100% of COVID-related hospitalization or death.

The vaccine had a 72% efficacy in preventing COVID infections after 28 days in the company’s U.S. trials. The efficacy dropped to 66% when averaging in results from other global trials, including a South African study that factored in more transmissible variants of the COVID virus.

An FDA report last month said the vaccine was 64% effective in preventing infection in South Africa about a month after the vaccines were administered.

Pfizer and Moderna showed 95% efficacy in their respective trials, but those were both tested against previous dominant strains of the virus and didn’t account for the variants that have popped up since.

Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca also had zero hospitalizations and deaths in their trials.

The FDA report said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was similarly effective across age, race and people with comorbidities. The agency added that effectiveness appeared to be lower (42.3% after one month) in people over 60 with comorbidities such as diabetes or heart disease.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS

OF THIS VACCINE?

The potential ease of distribution offered by a one-and-done shot, and its ability to be stored in a regular fridge are among its biggest strengths.

Vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca all require two doses.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine can be stored in a regular fridge for up to three months, the company says.

Pfizer’s vaccine initially required ultracold storage temperatures between -60 C and -80 C, though Health Canada said this week it could be stored in a regular freezer for up to 14 days.

Moderna’s vaccine can also be stored at regular freezer temperatures while AstraZeneca can be stored in a fridge.

WHAT KIND OF VACCINE TECHNOLOGY

IS USED?

Unlike the mRNA technology used in Pfizer and Moderna’s products, Johnson & Johnson is a non-replicating viral vector vaccine similar to AstraZeneca’s.

That means it uses a different harmless virus, which can’t copy itself, as a vector to give our cells the instructions they need to make the coronavirus’s spike protein.

The immune system recognizes the protein and makes antibodies, which then allow us to fend off attack from the same virus if exposed in the future.

WERE THERE ANY SIDE EFFECTS

NOTED?

The FDA document said no specific safety concerns were identified in participants regardless of age, race and comorbidities.

The FDA added the most common reported side effects were headache and fatigue, followed by muscle aches, nausea and fever.