Yes they can get too frequent in terms of how many times you'll get a prompt telling you a potential crime is about to unfold, but as your Minority-Report-style preventions are completely optional they're not something that gets in the way of the main story, instead serving to populate the world around you and get across that idea that you're just one man. One who - although he has access to an omnipotent God-phone - cannot be everywhere at once, and has his own problems to deal with. Unlocking towers is a great excuse to drive around and breathe in the world, and the many gang hideouts that can be tackled in a variety of ways only help to serve that idea the 'city's protector' vibe Ubisoft were striving for. Okay the likes of the mini-games are mostly distractions, but that's entirely the point - they add a sense of dynamism and role-playing to your time in the game world, punctuating the louder moments whereby you're detonating all manner of IEDs underneath criminals' behinds with a spot of chess or a game of poker in some random bloke's basement. Are you going to be spending hours playing these games? Most probably not (although many forums have mentioned getting lost in just sitting on the waterfront playing chess against a smattering of random opponents), but when the game encourages you to dabble in these side activities for the sake of advancing your character (increased chess proficiency gives you longer slow-motion gunplay), they're never forced on you in any way that actually takes you away from pursuing the core story if that's all you want to do.
