Virtual Cities
By Konstantinos Dimopoulos
A beautifully illustrated atlas exploring and mapping the spectacular imaginary cities of video games.
Tuesday, 4 December 2018
Virtual Cities: The Contents Revealed
Narrowing over forty years, dozens of platforms, a menagerie of genres, and a multitude of game city types (and styles) down to the 45 entries of the Virtual Cities atlas wasn't an easy task. I will not bore you with the details, but know that a few hundred hours were dedicated to researching, playing, re-playing, reading, and finally deciding on 41 of those cities. The remaining four were selected with the help of the four super generous 'Name A City'-level backers; well, three of them were, as one is still being discussed, though I will of course let you know as soon as this last entry has been picked.
For now, without further ado, and in random order here are 44 of the 45 cities Virtual Cities will be covering:
- The City, Thief: The Dark Project
- London, Fallen London
- Dunwall, Dishonored
- City 17, Half-Life 2
- New Vegas, Fallout: New Vegas
- Citadel, Mass Effect series
- Hong Kong, Shadowrun: Hong Kong
- Midgar, Final Fantasy VII
- Lizard Breath, It Came From The Desert
- New Orleans, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
- Silent Hill, Silent Hill
- Kamurocho, Yakuza 0
- Wan Chai, Shenmue II
- Steelport, Saints Row: The Third
- London, Assassin's Creed Syndicate
- Antescher, Ant Attack
- Rubacava, Grim Fandango
- Whiterun, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Sigil, Planescape: Torment
- Anytown, 0°N 0°W
- Anor Londo, Dark Souls
- Seaside Valley, Bus Simulator 18
- Dun Darach, Dun Darach
- Novigrad, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt
- Rockvil, A Mind Forever Voyaging
- Mega Primus, X-COM: Apocalypse
- Orgrimmar, World of Warcraft
- Terrapolis, B.A.T.
- Olympic City, Need For Speed Underground
- Pripyat, STALKER: Call of Pripyat
- Metro City, Final Fight
- Raccoon City, Resident Evil 2
- New Bretagne, Lamplight City
- New York City, Deus Ex
- Yharnam, Bloodborne
- Clock Town, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
- Fourside, Earthbound
- Woodtick, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
- New Donk City, Super Mario Odyssey
- Tarsonis City, Starcraft series
- Gotham City, Batman: Arkham Knight
- Neketaka, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
- Milton, The Long Dark
- Propast, Europolis, Dreamfall Chapters
- [edit] Union City, Beneath A Steel Sky
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Comments
This list is amazing! I was really hoping Shenmue would get into the book, and half backed it on the chance that it would be! Over the moon, and really excited to get the final product :)!! Was Wan Chai a city you had already planned on, or was it a backer tier pick :)? Thanks for the update!
posted 5th December 2018
Looks great!
posted 5th December 2018
Glad to see Fallout NV and Skyrim represented. Would liked to have seen the Imperial City from Oblivion but nevertheless, a quality list and really looking forward to receiving the finished product!
posted 5th December 2018
So glad to see Bloodborne and Dark Souls on this list, was definitely hoping they'd get some love. You've chosen a lot of really amazing cities, I'm very excited to read this! Best of luck with the writing!
posted 5th December 2018
What a treat to have LIzard Breath from It Came From the Desert. Such an obscure game i remember on the Amiga when i was a kid.
posted 5th December 2018
Thank you all for the wonderful, kind comments. Some answers:
@James: Glad you liked the choice! To be honest one of the Shenmue cities was bound to appear in the book, but I only settled on Wan Chai only a couple months ago. And no, it wasn't a backer pick.
@Thomas: Thanks!
@Jason: Thank you! I did consider Imperial City to be honest, but eventually decided on Whiterun due its very distinctly Nord character, and centrality to the Skyrim civil war.
@Shannon: Thank you so much for the kind words, and really glad you liked the list :)
@Luke: Thanks! I did try to really cover all eras and significant platforms.
posted 6th December 2018
Hello,
For the postcards, does the artist choose, or does the backer choose which cities are on them? I am a Shenmue collector, and would like to make sure that I get all of the related merchandise I can.
posted 10th December 2018
Hello Nathan! I and the artist will be choosing the art for both the postcards and the prints. Hope that helps :)
posted 11th December 2018
There's not a single city I wouldn't call a justified choice for Virtual Cities to be covered!
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posted 10th July 2019