-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Has Your City Been "Open Worlded?"
- Thread starter Imbarkus
- Start date
AaronWatermelon
Member
I don't think Northland NZ will be in a game any time soon, but walking around LA after playing a ton of GTA V was a trip.
To be fair with the crazy one way system in the centre it'd be a nightmare.
Plus it'd need subtitles for most other English speaking countriespecially if local dialect was kept
Rodney McKay
Member
Seattle just this generation (to my knowledge) with Infamous Second Son.
Looks amazing based on the videos I've seen, but I sadly don't have a PS4 (yet) so I haven't gotten to play around in it myself (plus I heard the game was kinda meh, but I still want to try it out).
I'm traveling to Italy in a few months and I kinda want to play through the Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood before I go.
Looks amazing based on the videos I've seen, but I sadly don't have a PS4 (yet) so I haven't gotten to play around in it myself (plus I heard the game was kinda meh, but I still want to try it out).
I'm traveling to Italy in a few months and I kinda want to play through the Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood before I go.
Another Seattleite here. Like, I can understand why they 'd want to add more neon, jazz up Chinatown (to a ridiculous degree), and I think it's totally reasonable to islandify the south side so you don't have to have two impassible land borders. Those I get.
What drove me nuts was how they'd name-drop all these things that were in completely the wrong place. From the get-go they say you're coming in on the 520 bridge (which leaves the east side of Seattle to head to Bellevue: this is the bridge that most of SP's employees who live in Seattle would take on their way to work), and you show up on the west side of the city. They use the same neighborhood names (Belltown, Queen Anne, etc.) but put them in completely different places. Like, wtf?
What drove me nuts was how they'd name-drop all these things that were in completely the wrong place. From the get-go they say you're coming in on the 520 bridge (which leaves the east side of Seattle to head to Bellevue: this is the bridge that most of SP's employees who live in Seattle would take on their way to work), and you show up on the west side of the city. They use the same neighborhood names (Belltown, Queen Anne, etc.) but put them in completely different places. Like, wtf?
KyanMehwulfe
Member
You could argue that Seattle was open worlded as far back as the Sega Genesis version of Shadowrun.
At least on consoles (it's no Terminator or Daggerfall), it's probably one of the earliest open world games in the sense that, the world has just one version (so, not an overworld like many RPGs at the time), it's open and fully explorable from the beginning, and is full of inhabitants, random events, police, gang attacks, repeatable jobs, bars, shops, and hospitals, and otherwise a lot of the same 'content' as modern open world games.
At least on consoles (it's no Terminator or Daggerfall), it's probably one of the earliest open world games in the sense that, the world has just one version (so, not an overworld like many RPGs at the time), it's open and fully explorable from the beginning, and is full of inhabitants, random events, police, gang attacks, repeatable jobs, bars, shops, and hospitals, and otherwise a lot of the same 'content' as modern open world games.
MrLuvvaLuvva
Member
Just watch Man of Steel, or Superman Returns, or the Matrix, Pacific Rim, the power rangers movie
Doesn't Winnipeg freeze over every winter?
paradise_circus
Member
I lived in Istanbul for a short period of time and game like Assassin's Creed and Driv3r were set in Istanbul.
Berlin, where I currently live, is just a set piece in world war 2 games.
Berlin, where I currently live, is just a set piece in world war 2 games.
lol dude, it's set in a desert, yeah it's technically located in Australia but don't try and act like it's Sydney or Melbourne.
Same. Infamous 3 was a very fun game, and it was nice seeing it try to represent Seattle, with the neighborhood names and a few other things, but it was very inaccurate. And I'd also love to see a Fallout set here. I feel like Fallout would work really well.
Seattle was in Call of Duty Advanced Warfare for a bit, which was cool, but not open world.
Darkstorne
Member
I was really happy to see Cleopatra's Needle in AC Syndicate, even though it technically wasn't erected in London until a decade after the game's date. It's my favourite thing to see in London - a 3000 year old monument that even pre-dates its namesake by 1000 years.
I genuinely felt guilty climbing up this piece of history in the game.
I genuinely felt guilty climbing up this piece of history in the game.
I was born in New York City, the colonial version of which was brought to life in Assassin's Creed 3 and Rogue. But that was only the very southern tip of Manhattan, and now the city is much bigger. They also condensed most of New England and New Jersey into one giant "frontier" like they did with "the Kingdom" in the Holy Land in AC1.
NYC was a mixed bag in the original Deus Ex. Liberty Island was OK, but in depicting the slums of Manhattan, they somehow put Hell's Kitchen (a historically bad neighborhood that is gentrifying now, but has a great name for a slum so you can't really argue with its "reversion") at West 19th Street, which is actually in Chelsea. Dunno why they didn't just use the real neighborhood, which is about 30 blocks north.
I imagine Detroiters must have gotten a kick out of how our two cities seem to have completely reversed positions just a few decades into the future.
I've also lived in Kyoto and Tokyo, which have each appeared (Meiji era for the former and 1980s for the latter) in Yakuza / Ryu ga Gotoku games, but haven't played any of them yet.
Seattleites, isn't your city in Deus Ex: Invisible War? Is its representation in there any good?
NYC was a mixed bag in the original Deus Ex. Liberty Island was OK, but in depicting the slums of Manhattan, they somehow put Hell's Kitchen (a historically bad neighborhood that is gentrifying now, but has a great name for a slum so you can't really argue with its "reversion") at West 19th Street, which is actually in Chelsea. Dunno why they didn't just use the real neighborhood, which is about 30 blocks north.
I imagine Detroiters must have gotten a kick out of how our two cities seem to have completely reversed positions just a few decades into the future.
I've also lived in Kyoto and Tokyo, which have each appeared (Meiji era for the former and 1980s for the latter) in Yakuza / Ryu ga Gotoku games, but haven't played any of them yet.
Seattleites, isn't your city in Deus Ex: Invisible War? Is its representation in there any good?
The Last of Us version of Pittsburgh does truly look exactly the way I remember Pittsburgh.
I really wish they had changed it in some way for the game, like they did in the other cities. It was kind of jarring to have the other ones all apocalypsed up and Pittsburgh just be the way it always is.
I really wish they had changed it in some way for the game, like they did in the other cities. It was kind of jarring to have the other ones all apocalypsed up and Pittsburgh just be the way it always is.
PastorOfMuppets
Banned
Toronto would make for a great open world setting IMO. Very recognizable and distinct landmarks and the metropolitan region is called the Greater Toronto Area - GTA. GTA: GTA. come on Rockstar.
Not from Seattle but DX: Invisible War portrayal of Seattle is basically a bar and a hallway that leads to another building. That game was so disappointing on multiple levels.
Not from Seattle but DX: Invisible War portrayal of Seattle is basically a bar and a hallway that leads to another building. That game was so disappointing on multiple levels.
Still waiting for my Ice Road Trucker sim!
It and GTA2 are my favourite GTA games.
A few times when I've had time to kill in London I've just gone and sat by Cleopatra's Needle, I love it for the same reason you mention.I was really happy to see Cleopatra's Needle in AC Syndicate, even though it technically wasn't erected in London until a decade after the game's date. It's my favourite thing to see in London - a 3000 year old monument that even pre-dates its namesake by 1000 years.
I genuinely felt guilty climbing up this piece of history in the game.
AC Syndicate is definitely the best treatment London has had from a game.
Many times, with the latest (and one of the more accurate) being The Division. It's mostly good but there are a couple issues that crop up in almost every NYC-based game:
The interiors are way too fucking big. Seriously, everything here is small - apartments, restaurants, banks, subway stations. No one gets the scale right.
There's more to New York than midtown. We've seen Bryant Park / Grand Central / Madison Square Garden enough times.... Take it to Harlem or something like that. There's a lot of good scenery all over the place.
The interiors are way too fucking big. Seriously, everything here is small - apartments, restaurants, banks, subway stations. No one gets the scale right.
There's more to New York than midtown. We've seen Bryant Park / Grand Central / Madison Square Garden enough times.... Take it to Harlem or something like that. There's a lot of good scenery all over the place.
Here For The Free Feed
Member
melbourne should get an open world graffiti game
Rolodzeo
Member
Man, at least you have Test Drive Unlimited 2 set in Ibiza. Here in Galicia we can only dream :'(
As far as Chicago in Watchdogs, they included a decent amount of famous Chicago buildings, but they are all tweaked slightly, like they were afraid the owners of that property would sue them or something. It's weird.
Also outside of Chicago is massive urban sprawl followed by prairie and farms. There are no forests and mountains.
Also outside of Chicago is massive urban sprawl followed by prairie and farms. There are no forests and mountains.
AnimatorBaron
Neo Member
...Never in a million years.
No love for Buffalo
No love for Buffalo
VeryGooster
Banned
Yep. Alderney in GTA IV. Pretty cool.
Goose_Se7en
Banned
It's good being from NYC. My city has been "open worlded" many many times but I have to point out GTA IV's rendition of NYC.
Although not perfect it managed to capture some of the grittiness the city has to offer. The pedestrians were stereotyped to be rude which isn't the case all the time.
Brooklyn (Broker in-game) in particular was a sight to see and I remember my dad being excited about certain sections because he could recognize them off the bat.
Although not perfect it managed to capture some of the grittiness the city has to offer. The pedestrians were stereotyped to be rude which isn't the case all the time.
Brooklyn (Broker in-game) in particular was a sight to see and I remember my dad being excited about certain sections because he could recognize them off the bat.
GamerMax73
Member
I lived in London's East End for about 5 years. Just a few miles down the road from Syndicate's Whitechapel. Syndicate didn't really grab the feel of London for me. I never got the feeling that the street layout or buildings where even close to reality away from the obvious monuments.
Personally I think the first Project Gotham Racing on the OG XBox did a far better job of capturing the spirit of our nations capital.
I now live closest to Norwich, Norfolk, England. No this hasn't been gamified at all to my knowledge. If any enterprising devs are reading this and want a great setting for a future open world game may I suggest Norwich and the surrounding Norfolk Broads.
Not sure what kind of action packed game could be set there other than 'An Open World Holiday Simulator' for boating and fly-fishing enthusiasts, but the scenery is picturesque
The best open world I've played was True Crimes: NYC. Never been there but given the OG XBox era limitations - it did a beautiful job of making me feel I'd actually visited the Big Apple.
Personally I think the first Project Gotham Racing on the OG XBox did a far better job of capturing the spirit of our nations capital.
I now live closest to Norwich, Norfolk, England. No this hasn't been gamified at all to my knowledge. If any enterprising devs are reading this and want a great setting for a future open world game may I suggest Norwich and the surrounding Norfolk Broads.
Not sure what kind of action packed game could be set there other than 'An Open World Holiday Simulator' for boating and fly-fishing enthusiasts, but the scenery is picturesque
The best open world I've played was True Crimes: NYC. Never been there but given the OG XBox era limitations - it did a beautiful job of making me feel I'd actually visited the Big Apple.
DrunkShogun
Member
I doubt Manchester is a target for any game developer. London is the only uk city that gets attention and that has been open world.
IceDoesntHelp
Banned
When I lived in Toronto, no.
I live in St. John's and I really don't think so.
I live in St. John's and I really don't think so.
Regginator
Member
new york, a little too much if you ask me. seems like the center point of fiction
I don't think there's a game set in the Netherlands in the first place, much less an open world setting, even much less the city I'm from (the real capital of the country).
More hub-based than anything really, like Detroit was in HR, but I've never been to Prague so that's a treat either way.
More hub-based than anything really, like Detroit was in HR, but I've never been to Prague so that's a treat either way.