[2019] Thoughts from an E Street Loiterer

I'm sure I'm not a rarity - Washington D.C. is a city, after all, so more than a few of you have at least been to D.C. if not lived there. When I heard about The Division 2 I was excited, I love games like Fallout or Spider-Man where you can navigate by real landmarks and go "ahh! I've been there!!!" I didn't follow any of the development news after it was announced, though, so my expectations going into the beta were, "well, I hope my favorite bar is in there."

Oh, my God. Let's put it this way: I not only commute on foot through a large part of the game's map most days, but on Fridays I spend several hours shopping and meandering along E Street (if you're not familiar with D.C., it's a very long East-West road just off from where the Theater is.) When I'm bored after work or on a weekend I play connect-the-dots and walk on blocks I haven't seen yet... so holy sh*t.

I ended up doing a little stream with some friends that was just me going, "OHHH! THEY PUT MY SUSHI RESTAURA- OOOOOHHHH!! I SAT ON THAT BENCH! OHH f*ck THIS TREE IN PARTICULAR!! OH HERE'S THE SHAKE SHACK! I CAN SEE MY OLD OFFICE! Oh they forgot there's a little pedestal here explaining the garden BUT OHHHH. THE GARDEN IS SO ACCURATE. OH MY GOD THIS IS THE PEET'S. IT HAS IDENTICAL WINDOWS THAT'S INSANE. OH sh*t THEY CLOSED THIS STARBUCKS IRL BUT IT'S STILL HERE, NICE. HEY IF I STAND HERE I SHOULD BE ABLE TO SEE- I SEE IT!!! AHHH"

It got to a point where I was like, "Oh yeah, I forgot this game has guns in it."

f*cking kudos for all the hard work that went into modeling the city. Far above and beyond what I ever expected - a caricature of the city or an approximation, maybe, but not something I could navigate without the minimap. Certainly not something where I could go, "Oh, here's the wax museum, there's an alley on this street, I bet there's stuff in there." And then actually find the alley, perfectly modeled, containing stuff.

If any of you haven't been to D.C.... you've been there now.