Online play: Free Roaming. How does it work?

[rob72]

The demo keeps crashing on me and details are vague online but from my understanding, the game will be a persistent online world.
This leaves me with lots of questions.

1) Is the game set up so there is one island where everyone playing online will be present? Won't the roads be clogged?

2) How is the house situation handled? There isn't enough game real estate for everyone house to be represented. Or is there? Can we drive by and view a friends house?

3) Can you free roam with lots of people? Will race roadways be clear of people who are just free roaming? It could get chaotic.

Sorry if these questions have been asked before, I couldn't find a faq and previews have been vague.
Thanks!

[OOLuigiOo]

http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/driving/testdriveunlimited/media.html

[ControllerFreak]

http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/driving/testdriveunlimited/media.html

Which video Link are you refering to?

[davie18]

The demo keeps crashing on me and details are vague online but from my understanding, the game will be a persistent online world.
This leaves me with lots of questions.

1) Is the game set up so there is one island where everyone playing online will be present? Won't the roads be clogged?

2) How is the house situation handled? There isn't enough game real estate for everyone house to be represented. Or is there? Can we drive by and view a friends house?

3) Can you free roam with lots of people? Will race roadways be clear of people who are just free roaming? It could get chaotic.

Sorry if these questions have been asked before, I couldn't find a faq and previews have been vague.
Thanks!
1) No, there are filters so you can set who you see, and you can only see so many people at once.

2) In a recent interview, a dev actually said that everyone doesn't have an individual house online, what he didn't say is how it will work. We will just have to wait and see.

3) No, you can free roam with lots of people. I am not sure which one, but I think you can free roam with 8 or 16 people at once. I am not actually sure if this has been confiremd yet.

[rob72]

thanks for the info...
sounds ok..i hope it would be easy to arrange free roam sessions with friends.

[OOLuigiOo]

Which video Link are you refering to?

Presentation

[a67ssrs]

I just noticed tonight that I can now see other players on the GPS. I'm pretty sure that was not working yesterday. It has a red car icon, and when you highlight it, it says *gamertag*(off). Could this mean they are taking steps to fix online free roam :atari: , or was I just doing it wrong when I tried to see other players before? sour:

[davie18]

It was working yesterday, you must have been doing it wrong :)