Watch Dogs has taken an interesting path from its announcement at E3 2012 to release this week.

The initial demonstration showed a game trying to do provocative and original things with the popular open-world genre. For months, fans speculated about how the game would play and whether or not it would dig deep into the nation's anxieties about surveillance. In 2013, Ubisoft partnered with Sony on a Watch Dogs and PlayStation 4 bundle, positioning Watch Dogs as the first major next-gen game. But a delay, one month before scheduled release, bumped Watch Dogs into 2014. Our own Brian Crecente recently found out why the game went into hiding.

With Watch Dogs available on May 27th — in so many pre-order forms — we thought it'd be worth while recapping this story of an expensive new franchise's quest for existence. Here's everything you need to know. (Watch on YouTube)

Also, here's a quick car chase pulled from our time with Watch Dogs. Give it a watch!