I love a good video game field trip. There’s something satisfying about booting up a game and saying, “Hey, I’ve been there!” Only to immediately follow that up with, “Wait, no I haven’t, what the hell is this?”
Some games nail the assignment. Others feel like they Googled it once and called it a day. This list is my report card on which games did these iconic real-world locations justice, and which ones deserve to be scolded like a Sims player who just removed all the toilets from the house.
I live in Chicago. I’ve seen the Bean with my own eyes more times than I could probably count. So, please tell me what in the Picasso fever dream this was supposed to be. Why is it matte? Why does it… have a hole?
Also, side tangent, the Chicago map in Watch Dogs is a crime against cartography. Streets go places they shouldn’t and neighborhoods are smushed together. Someone at Ubisoft clearly visited Chicago once in a dream and said, “Yep, got it.”
I’m begging: give us a game where Chicago actually looks like Chicago and not a suburban theme park with delusions of grandeur. Chicago deserves better than a bootleg Bean.
After the real Notre-Dame fire in 2019, Unity’s cathedral sparked rumors that Ubisoft might’ve preserved it better than real life did. Was that true? Not really. Though the fact that rumor was even sparked goes to show how detailed and incredible this iteration is.
It’s not 100 percent historically accurate, but it feels like Notre-Dame. If you’ve never been to Paris but want to pretend you have while parkouring across a centuries-old rooftop, this’ll do it. Just don’t use it for a history final or a blueprint. You will fail.
Props to Bethesda for not messing this one up. The Gateway Arch in Starfield looks like the real thing: tall, shiny, mysteriously hollow-feeling, exactly like it does when you’re on a road trip, driving past St. Louis while arguing over gas station snacks.
The surrounding ‘Earth has been abandoned’ aesthetic is a work of fiction. St. Louis isn’t exactly post-apocalyptic IRL, but in a game where you’re able to mine space rocks andflirt with astronauts, we’ll let it slide. Gold star for Bethesda for at least not turning it into a space portal or something. (Though, actually… wait, that might’ve ruled.)
When I visited LA, I stood at the Griffith Observatory and immediately remembered how I’ve died here at least 37 times in GTA Online. That’s when I knew Rockstar actually did a damn good job.
Is it a perfect replica? No, the coloring is a bit off, but I half expected to see a player jump off the roof mid-fight and immediately get blown up. This is how I know they got it right. Bonus points for the incredible view and the sudden urge to do the La La Land dance. Still no Gosling, though. Tragic.
In MW3, the Eiffel Tower doesn’t just appear; it collapses. Paris becomes ground zero for a fake WW3, and the result is both horrifying and weirdly respectful in that Call of Duty kind of way.
As tumultuous as the scene is, the details on the tower itself are impressively solid. It looks authentic enough to hurt a little when it falls. The whole ‘four-day battle in Paris’ is fictional, but if you ever wanted to see the Eiffel Tower rendered with precision just so it can topple in slow motion, this is the game for you.
Ubisoft again. In The Division 2, the White House is your HQ, and it’s ridiculously accurate. From the presidential portraits to the chandeliers, even the secret H Street tunnel is there.
It’s the kind of detail that makes you feel like you’re really in DC. Except with more mayhem, and fewer tourists asking where the bathrooms are.Major props to the devsfor making a political landmark feel so real, or at least like a place where I’d loot gear and shoot drones. And the apocalypse, of course.
You can technically get to the Statue of Liberty in Spider-Man, but you have to glitch your way there like a parkour goblin. And once you arrive… she’s a bit underwhelming. Low poly, shorter than expected, and probably allergic to being viewed up close. She’s like a background extra who knows her lighting and doesn’t want to be mic’d up.
To be fair, it’s not meant to be visited. It’s meant to be seen, from a distance, while you’re web-slinging through NYC. In that context, it works. Just don’t zoom in too far, or you’ll feel like you’re in a PS2 cutscene.
Yes, I’m cheating by putting Assassin’s Creed on here again. Sue me. They deserve it. Syndicate brought us Victorian London in all its soot-covered, top-hat-wearing glory, and Buckingham Palace looks pretty damn good.
Ubisoft hired historians to walk the city and take 4,000+ photos, and you can feel that effort in the details. It’s not perfect (some rooflines and windows are a bit different), but it nails the essence of the place. If only we could have tea with Queen Victoria while syncing a viewpoint.
