You might argue that you can get the same thing from movies that take place in major cities. Much like Ubisoft Montreal’s Assassin’s Creed games, which strive for cultural and architectural accuracy in each of the eras that they depict – but without being a slave to history – playing Watch Dogs taught me some very useful things about Chicago, enough that I didn’t get lost or even feel like a stranger in a city I’d never before visited. The lesson I learned from my trip to Chicago isn’t that you don’t need to go there if you’ve played Watch Dogs, but rather that the game acts as a terrific primer for anyone intending a visit. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. There’s something immediate and unsettling about visiting the street where John Dillinger was shot and bled out onto the sidewalk that I just don’t see games being able to emulate any time soon. That said, I have to admit seeing the actual sites of some of the gangster murders mentioned in Watch Dogs was considerably more affecting than stumbling across them in a virtual world. I didn’t learn much more about these places and events on the tour than I had in the game. But even then it seems as though Ubisoft wasn’t able to simply copy most buildings outright.įor example, the versions of the John Hancock Tower, Wrigley Building, and Willis Tower in the game aren’t exact replicas of any real-world buildings, but rather done in the style of the towers that inspired them – kind of like a “Weird Al” song that clearly evokes an artist without copying a particular track.Īnd again, I felt like Watch Dogs had done a pretty good job of acting as a kind of virtual tourist’s guide, thanks largely to the game’s 100 City Hotspots challenge, which provides information on dozens of Chicago’s most famous historical locations and events.Īs the tour guide talked about the Battle of Fort Dearborn (which I remembered from the game as the Fort Dearborn Massacre) and pointed out the site of the St Valentine’s Day Massacre, I had a smug feeling of having already been there and done that. The developers were forced to cherry pick the city’s most recognizable pieces of architecture (many of which I saw and learned the histories of during a fascinating riverboat tour). Keep in mind that Watch Dogs ‘ version of the Windy City is a lot smaller than the real thing.
She was clearly wondering what she’d gotten herself into by agreeing to vacation in Chicago. But I was right on all counts. I think there’s also good shopping if we head north a few blocks on Michigan.”
0 kommentar(er)
