Resistance: Fall of Man – Game vs Real Life

One of the games that I purchased with my PS3 back in April was Resistance – Fall of Man. After playing a fair bit of the game I thought I’d compare one of the locations in the game to real life. That location is York. The main reason for picking York is that I used to go to school there for 13 years, so you could say I know the place pretty well.

So what I’ve done is compared various locations from the game to their real life (or close as I can find) counterparts. And despite all Sony’s PR waffle about the power of the cell processor, I think you can work out which of the pictures are real life York and which are taken from the game….

Bile Beans Advert:

The first recognisable York landmark in the game is the Bile Beans advert, painted on the side of a building. Whilst they have got the look and feel of the advert right, the actual wording is wrong (game sign says “Bile Beans – For Biliousness & Good Humour”). In addition, the adverts location is incorrect with a notable absence of the bar walls and grass to the left of the road (not shown in the pics below, so you’ll have to trust me on this).

Gillygate and Bootham Bar:

In the game, Gillygate (the road which is blocked off and therefore cannot be accessed) has a Bar plonked at the end of it. It is difficult to see in the screenshot I’ve taken, but it is there. In real life there is no Bar, instead Bootham Bar lies out of direct sight at the end of Gillygate and to the left. Also what’s with the fountain? There has never been a fountain in this location, ever.

Fetter Lane Bar:

Now this location is just total rubbish! There is no Fetter Lane Bar, it’s as simple as that. In reality, Fetter Lane is just a boring run of the mill street. The housing in the picture is a recent development, but prior to this there was a kebab shop and some more boring houses.

York Streets:

A lovely, picturesque York street called the Shambles. You can see a passing resemblance to the street in the game which at least tries to convince you that you’re in York. But it’s not a great likeness..

A Bin:

At last, something they actually got right in the game! Eh voilà, a super nice, York bin. The picture from the game was taken at a slight angle so as to avoid parking the cross-hair on top of the bin. Although it seems that the invading aliens have nicked all the bin lids. Pesky things.

These bins also react quite nicely to grenades by flying all over the place. So there’s literally seconds of fun to be had blowing them up after you’ve killed all the aliens.

York – Aerial shot:

Finally, I present to you an aerial shot of York taken from a hot air balloon by my Dad. I’ve pasted the Bile Beans sign, Bootham Bar and Fetter Lane so you can see their locations relative to each other. The yellow line is the route you take in the game, sort of, given that York in the game is nothing like real life York.

One interesting point is the notable absence of the Minster from all the York levels. As you can see from the above aerial shot, it is rather big and does rather dominate the York skyline. I would have thought that it would have made a great level, just like Manchester Cathedral. Or maybe not.

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