New York City in The Division vs. Real Life

Here's an interesting post by imgur user hyjal that shows the difference between real life New York City and what we will see in-game while playing the Division. You have to give it to Ubi, they certainly did a fantastic job of rendering NYC in-game. They did say that it won't be an exact replica as you want to edit it a bit to make it tighter and fun to play, but these pictures are blowing me away.

These forums won't let me link anything in a post, but here's the pictures on imgur: imgur[dot]com/a/1UaU9 (replace [dot] with a ".")

 

Wow, I'm glad the developers are actually taking the time to recreate actual places in New York. I'm sure It's not going to be a complete recreation, but I'll be satisfied if when I visit the city, to be able to recognize the places where I've had epic battles. I'll allow the designers to take a bit of artistic license though.

Are there any native New Yorkers in here that can give their insight on how accurate the places look in the released game play footage?

Do we know yet if they will eventually plan to re-create most of if not all of the city?

 

Okay so I just did a quick search on YouTube and found this video of a side by side comparison some fans made during their visit to NYC. It's great that they took the time to do this. You will probably notice that the buildings in the back ground look closer in the game footage than they do in the real footage. In my opinion, this doesn't detract from the game at all and probably will end up giving the player a much better sense of being in the city among its familiar skyline. Other than slight differences in the arcutecture of the surrounding buildings, I'm not really seeing any major differences in scale of the immediate area of game play itself.

Good job Ubisoft!

 

They added their own touch to NYC but they actually kept really close to the real deal. It's amazing to see how much they've done in terms of level design and graphics!

 

@MrShotgun that video is awesome. I'm really looking forward to "visiting" New York City by playing this game! I'm glad they didn't go 100% accurate, but still enough to really get that NYC vibe. Like @FuZyOn said, it looks amazing, and the level of detail is intense.

 

The lines between real and virtual are continually being blurred ever more. With the increase of processing power we can expect more and more games where real-life environments are re-created with incredible accuracy. Another indication that The Division is going to be next-gen in terms of graphics.

 

I love that, when a game is inspired by real places? Because guess what: the real world is actually really cool to go around in. So that's why they replicate it in videogames.

 

That's a really good point; why create a whole new city when you already have a few amazing ones in real life. Sure, you take artistic liberties (supposedly Manhattan was edited in The Division do remove some buildings that were too similar and to tighten up the area) but ultimate you have a good base to create your virtual city.

 

While this is amazing, I can just see myself losing lives because I'll be busy sightseeing. I've never been to NYC and I love looking around in games like I'm a tourist.

 

Also Ubisoft is really good at putting real places in videogames. Assassin's Creed is a prime example. I love Firenze and Monteriggioni from Assassin's Creed 2 for example. And I actually went there in real life and it looks pretty similar, at least the monuments because it has to feel good for a videogame to play around in so they make some changes sometimes.

 

I've been to New York a couple of times and it is a beautiful place to roam around. Of course it's obvious that they won't be able to replicate every nook and cranny of NY in the game but it's nice to see the main features of the city realized inside the game.

 

Love real world renders of NJ. Always look great

 

Isn't this the first time we see a next gen New York in a videogame? The last time I saw it in an open world was in GTAIV but that was years ago on older consoles.

 

My, that's bloody amazing! You can even see Madison Square Garden! I *LIVE* for the details, so this is probably going to kill me.. even though I've never actually been to New York City. But I've seen the city a few times through vlogger videos on Youtube, so it's going to be awesome to be able to recognize at least a few buildings.

 

Wow they did a really good job. It's nice to see things like this, so people can get a better feel for what it'll be like.

 

I love the fact that they are basing it off of actual locations in NYC. Having been to NYC myself, I can definitely say it's a one-of-a-kind place, and I think it's the little extra details like this that make a game great. Now if only they would fund a virtual reality where you are actually in the game....

 

I really like how they got a lot of the details right. It really opens up the possibilities of other locations for other games... There are so many great cities, it reminds me of the beautiful cities in the Assassin's Creed games, but with even greater detail. I can just imagine where we will go from here...

 

Right? Plus it gives nice dynamic. I played The Secret World at one point in time(another MMO, if you've heard about it. You start off in New York City) and although they had it set in the city initially, they actually didn't go into much detail with the buildings. It made it look just like another generic city, with the exception of the Brooklyn Bridge. I think that was the only specific landmark I can remember being in the city.
But the details to this extent only open up plenty of possibilities for the game, and not only that, but it can be pretty cultural, too. I've been to New York City, and been through Manhattan, Brooklyn, Chinatown, Little Italy, and Broadway, and they are all so different from each other culture wise, I'd love to see aspects like that in the game.

 

That's the beauty of using New York City as a game's setting... It's so diverse, it's so huge, and it so different from area to area that you can really appeal to the variety side of things without making it ridiculous or over-the-top (since it's based on real life).

 

This is so freaking cool! Shame that it's not a full scale New York, but I assume that would way too massive and probably a lot more than the game actually needs. One of the main draws for this game, for me at least, is the possibility to explore New York. There haven't been too many games (or at least I haven't played them) when the setting is New York and having it in a near post-apocalyptic stage furthers up the awesome even more.