Unlike the norm where the map gets progressively more open as you continue along the story missions, Watch Dogs will have the entire open world map available from the beginning of the game. Creative Director Jonathan Morin spoke with The Average Gamer on the matter. He said, “You can go anywhere you want. We are not restricting the player.”
Now, while you can go wherever you want on the map, you won’t necessarily know what there is to do. You’ll need to hack and expand what is available for Aiden to do on the map. “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.”
You can see a video where this happens here.
Watch Dogs is coming out for every contemporary platforms and will be a launch title for the new consoles in November.