Remember in the old days, WAAAY back in the land of 2008, when open world games walled off entire districts and/or sections of the city. Until it magically starts opening up, through the brilliantly clever use of narrative justification? Well, the developers behind Watch Dogs sure don't.

Watch Dogs' semi-fictional rendition of Chicago is "open right at the start. You can go anywhere you want," according to the game's Creative Director Jonathan Morin. Talking to The Average Gamer Morin brushed on exactly how Aiden will be able to explore the city:

"Within the free-roaming the player will have to progressively invade certain strategic points from the city OS system that's going to make it possible for him [Aiden] to get connected in a district. It's going to grow and we call this 'monitoring grid'. It's like its own network to listen to what's going on in the city. That unlocks tons of different side activities and events that the system can detect so we can actually go and intervene into them. We really wanted the player, through the free-roaming, to feel that he is building his own hacking system. It would have been a bit weird and magical to just have it."

We've known for a while that Aiden will have to hack into CtOS terminals, spread throughout the city. To remove the "fog of war", so to speak, and reveal all the bits of tech he can further hack in to, along with activities he can partake in. It sounds more than a bit like Assassin's Creed's "synchronization" mechanic, but given that the same element made an appearance on Ubisoft's own Far Cry 3 as well one starts to wonder if the studios working under the publisher all operate like some sort of hivemind; exchanging ideas, clothes, food, bodily flui—I've said enough.