Boston in video games

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Arenacale

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Admittedly, I still haven't played Fallout 4 (and probably never will), but I wanted to showcase some different renditions of Boston I've encountered in games over the years. I'm primarily a racing game guy, so I'm curious what else is out there that's not just cars.

I'll start with one that isn't racing, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, which features a very condensed version of the city, shuffling a bunch of things around. It's how the classic Tony Hawk games are with cities in general, so I'm not too fussed by it, but I do object to the "Children's Museum" actually being the Josiah Quincy School. There's a lot of juvenile puns as well, because it's a Tony Hawk game.

CART Fury is an arcade racer based on the split-era (not-)Indy car series, and it has a Big Dig track that is mostly tunnels but also has a banked Central Artery through a really messed-up version of downtown, the Hancock moved to behind the Garden and then somehow appears again with the entire Back Bay in Charlestown.

Need For Speed Most Wanted features a fictional "Fairhaven City" that is very much inspired by Boston and has a ton of the landmarks, though usually not in the same geographic locations (though the Government Center/Quincy Market/Waterfront is remarkably accurate). I spent more time tooling around the city than actually racing in this game, it's fun but no PS2 NFS:HP2.

Never played this but here's a Boston level in a Godzilla game some 15 years before the movie destroyed the city.

I'm sure there's more out there if anyone knows of them...
 
Didn’t play it myself, but Assassin’s Creed III was partially set in the city iirc.
 
So here's a case of Boston where I least expect it. Destruction Derby Arenas is the last DD game, and the only one on PS2. It reviewed poorly but I love this game, it's good, brainless fun. Anyhow, playing it recently, on the Under Construction track I spotted both the Federal Reserve and 100 Federal chilling in the background as part of the sky box. None of rest of the scenery places it in Boston, but I do love that a track with that title has cameos from Boston skyscrapers so soon after the Big Dig (2003).

Destruction Derby Arenas_SLUS-20855_20251124182823.png
Destruction Derby Arenas_SLUS-20855_20251124182902.png


At some point I'll play through the similarly themed but very different Test Drive: Eve of Destruction again, if I remember correctly one of the tracks in that game also has a modified but obvious 100 Federal as part of the skybox.
 
Arenacale said:
None of rest of the scenery places it in Boston.....
Click to expand...

One Financial directly to the right of the Federal Reserve. In the second pic it looks like 1 Federal is peeking out to the far left. In the first pic I think that's 100 Summer to the lower right of 100 Federal. Also in the first pic I see 101 Federal just in front of 100 Federal, where it disappears from view on its right side.
 
From the same game as above...

1 Post Office Square

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1 Financial, 1 Federal, 1 International Place, 100 Federal

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That is some investigative work! I guess we can say that this one takes place in an alternate history Boston now. Would have been cool if they designed the set piece suspension bridge to be more like the Zakim, but oh well.

(I was going to say "I hope you enjoyed the game" but that is clearly a YouTube video!)
 
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