What is a Panopticon?

Freedom Wars taught me something!

Ahead of Freedom Wars‘ October 28 release in North America, PlayStation Blog has listed which Panopticons will appear in the Western version of the PS Vita game. A what now?

Think of a building designed in such a way that a person can watch inmates without them knowing when they’re being monitored, and you’ve got the basic concept. Freedom Wars is a third-person action game with many Panopticons — in Japan, there were 47, one for each prefecture.

Players, who are criminals with million-year sentences, can compete with each other in a giant leaderboard-driven turf war. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? There’s going to be 50 Panopticons based on worldwide cities for the Western release. In the US, we’ve got New York City, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Anchorage, Chicago, and Houston. There’s a full list viewable below.

Sony also announced that Freedom Wars will have player-versus-player modes at launch.

Freedom Wars Out Tuesday, Characters & Panopticons Detailed [PlayStation Blog]

New York City, NY, USA
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Honolulu, HI, USA
Anchorage, AK, USA
Chicago, IL, USA
Houston, TX, USA
Mexico City, Mexico
Edmonton, Canada
Lima, Peru
Toronto, Canada
Helsinki, Finland
Reykjavik, Iceland
London, United Kingdom
Yekaterinburg, Russia
Moscow, Russia
Athens, Greece
Bucharest, Romania
Lisbon, Portugal
Berlin, Germany
Paris, France
Rome, Italy
Oslo, Norway
Stockholm, Sweden
Copenhagen, Denmark
Amsterdam, Netherlands Madrid, Spain
Vienna, Austria
Manaus, Brazil
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Santiago, Chile
Galapagos, Ecuador
Caracas, Venezuela
Dakar, Senegal
Nairobi, Kenya
Cape Town, South Africa
Sydney, Australia
Perth, Australia
Wellington, New Zealand
Mumbai, India
Bangkok, Thailand
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Jakarta, Indonesia
Manila, Philippines
Hanoi, Vietnam
Taipei, Taiwan
Hong Kong, China
Seoul, South Korea
Singapore, Singapore
Tokyo, Japan

I wanna rep Galapagos.