The video game Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, previewed at a press conference today, has, for our money, some of the most detailed and faithful destruction scenes ever set in Los Angeles. An earlier trailer released in May hinted at widespread havoc on the Downtown skyline, but the footage shown at today's Microsoft press conference takes the carnage to a whole new level. The press conference features footage of gameplay set in Los Angeles 2025--characters approach Downtown via freeway (the 110?) to deliver the future president of the United States to a shelter under the Bonaventure Hotel (a terrorist group is hoping to take out the G20 in the hopes of crippling Capitalism, natch). Yes, that's a fairly accurate facsimile of the US Bank Tower taking missiles to its upper floors. Yes, that's the Figueroa Hotel and the JW Marriott/Ritz-Carlton surrounded by flames and crashing drones. And yes, that is Chick Hearn Court, where the post-Lakers championship riots look tame by comparison.
CoD: Black Ops 2 is just the latest video game to replicate LA in detail for seedy but imaginative purposes: LA Noire reproduced LA of the 1940s and Grand Theft Auto V is expected to reproduce wide swaths of Venice, WeHo, and Downtown when it is released sometime in the next year. The press conference today was held in anticipation of the E3 Conference, already a big deal because of the hordes of gamers who will descend on the LA Convention Center to check out the latest in video games and electronic entertainment. The conference starts tomorrow; Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will be released in November.
· Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 [Official Site]
· Forget It Jake, It's a Painstakingly Recreated 1940s Los Angeles [Curbed LA]
· Mapping the Real LA Buildings That Will Show Up in Grand Theft Auto V's Fake LA [Curbed LA]
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