Popular Mechanic's Four Favorite Game Cities

[Logan Frederick]

Popular Mechanic's Four Favorite Game Cities

In preparation for its 2008 Breakthrough Awards starring Sim City creator Will Wright, Popular Mechanics is celebrating some of the finest architecture and city planning in videogame history.

Will Wright, whose Sim City franchise inspired the architect in all of us to build sprawling metropolises, has interested the Popular Mechanics [http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4287265.html] conference staff in the world of realistic, fictional game worlds. To complete its study, the site picked four original cities (no racing game-style remakes of popular locales) from history that became more memorable than the rest of the game.

[ul]
[li]Liberty City from Grand Theft Auto IV had a "satirical" combination of modern New York City and the Liberty City of games past, the liveliness of the remodeled Liberty City immersed players into the lifestyle of lead character Nico Bellic by giving his actions grounding in reality.[/li]
[li]BioShock's Rapture was an artistically beautiful underwater world where players submerged itself in the aging decor of the once bright and glorious city.[/li]
[li]The island of Myst from the game of the same name pushed the popularity of CDs to the masses as audiences were wowed by the exotic imagery of the slideshow-style mystery adventure.[/li]
[li]Final Fight was a Double Dragon wanna be set in Metro City, a place where crime was not only rampant, but supported. After fighting gangs and pedestrians on sidewalks, bonus stages saw the town's mayor blowing up cars for extra points.[/li]
[/ul]

Commenters on the original post overwhelming wished Half-Life 2's City 17 had placed for its dystopian future setting after the fall of Black Mesa. Games have traversed lands from Tron to Tarzan, allowing anyone to have a favorite setting.

Any other locales you think should've made the list?

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[Frybird]

Even if it was certainly Repetitive in a certain Way, the whole UAC Compound on Doom 3 felt to me like a really believable and "lived in" place. Same for the Black Mesa Research Base.

EDIT: And, although it was an absolute waste, True Crime: Streets of L.A. had a really massive and realistic depicton of Los Angeles (as far as i can tell from reviews and comments from people, i never were in L.A.)
But as i said, although you could drive for an hour or so from one point of the map to the other, there wasn't really anything to do outside of the surprisingly confined Downtown Area.

 

[Unknower]

The City from Thief.

 

[Baby Tea]

I agree that City 17 should have been there. While not fully mapped out, it was gloomy enough to show the brokenness of the people there...but was detailed enough to show that life once was good there.

 

[Rahnzan]

Who didn't love crawling around new york as Spiderman in the games of the same name? Assassin's Creed also had a few good cities, nothing as big and as expansive as I'd hoped but still pretty grand.

I'll put money down Mirror's Edge comes out with a great city environment as well.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Agreed that Spidey's Manhattan was fantastic, but as that was modeled after a real location, it doesn't count for this. Fictional locations only.

 

[Andy Chalk]

I'll always have a soft spot for The Cage, Sigil.

 

[domicius]

Paragon City in City of Heroes; that place is huge, busy, and full of great little spots to hang out, fight crime, or whatever. Whether flying through the buildings, jumping from roof to roof or running through the twisty back alleys there was always something to see.

Of course, having a fairly large roleplaying contingent meant that the city felt lived in too. I still miss it sometimes

 

[Joeshie]

How can they not put City 17 on there?

 

[Anton P. Nym]

I like the architectual style of New Mombasa, though I wonder if that'd still be eligible as it's an imagining of what a currently-extant city will look like in the future. Definitely looking forward to a closer look in the Recon supplement.

Can't argue with Rapture... that city was amazing to gawk at.

Maybe that first city in KotOR, whose name escapes me.

Oh, and the Citadel from Mass Effect rocks even if the designer "cheated" with its instant transport options.

-- Steve