The future of travel may be the gaming industry. With each new version of PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and other consoles, gamers are ever more able to immerse themselves in far-off lands like never before. Traditionally, this armchair travel lived in novels, guidebooks, magazines, films, shows and podcasts, but gaming takes it far deeper, letting players walk the actual streets, speed down highways, climb the buildings, meet and romance locals and even stop to smell the flowers. These aren’t just in fantasy worlds like Zelda’s Hyrule, but real-world locations rendered in high definition.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, released December 9, 2024, to enthusiastic reviews — including Newsweek calling it “better than the movies” — offers a case in point. The action-adventure games transports players to 17 sites around the globe, including the Vatican, Gizeh, Sukhothai and the Himalayas. “Open world” games enhance the immersion and exploration even more, placing entire cities like New York, Honolulu, Hong Kong and London at gamers’ command. Still others add a time machine, immersing players in French Revolution-era Paris, 1940s Los Angeles, 14th-century Bohemia and post-apocalyptic Boston.
So, the next time the travel itch tickles the skin, consider scratching it with these top games for armchair travel.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – New York City
Ever since Spider-Man first swung into the hearts of comic book fans in August 1962, he’s claimed New York City as home. And no wonder: its towering skyscrapers are ideal for swinging hither and thither while fighting crime. Each game iteration has turned up the New York City landscape, and that’s culminated in the astounding open-world map in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, released in 2023.
Building on the already impressive map of Manhattan in 2018’s Marvel’s Spider-Man and 2020’s Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the latest version breaks out into the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn, taking in the neighborhoods of Astoria, Brooklyn Heights and Coney Island, among others. In addition, Manhattan is enhanced by sharper details, denser traffic and larger crowds, adding to the realism. Particularly striking is the meticulous re-creation of major New York landmarks, including Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden, Times Square, Central Park, Grand Army Plaza and Silvercup Studios. Best of all, as Spider-Man, you rise above it all.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth – Honolulu
Since 2005, the Yakuza series of games has followed the adventures of Kazuma Kiryu and Ichiban Kasuga as they navigate the underworld, fight an endless string of enemies and try to escape the Yakuza life — only to be pulled back in à la Godfather 3. Most of the nine games take place in lovingly recreated, albeit modified and renamed, areas of Japan, including Tokyo’s Kabukicho and Osaka’s Dotonbori entertainment districts, and sections of Fukuoka, Sapporo and Kyoto.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, released in 2024 and nominated for best narrative and best RPG at the Game Awards, breaks out of Japan and lands in Honolulu, Hawaii. Here, the open-world map encompasses the downtown area, Waikiki Beach, and the Arts District — renamed Aloha Beach and the Cultural District. Honolulu residents will recognize a lot of the shops, restaurants and sights populating the map, including International Market Place, Ala Moana Mall, Waikiki Beach Iolani Palace, ABC Stores, Dean & DeLuca and more. The immersion is enhanced by the ability to shop, eat and surf your way throughout, be it sipping on an Iced Kona Coffee or slipping on Hang Loose t-shirts.
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Perhaps the closest you can get to traveling the world from the armchair is Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. The detailed recreation of planet Earth is astounding, including more than 500 cities, nearly 40,000 square miles of countryside, 40,000 airports, three trillion trees, 1.5 billion buildings and so much more. A large number of these are specifically hand-crafted to recreate the real-world experience, bringing locations like New York City, Paris, the Pyramids of Giza, Mount Everest, the Grand Canyon and Golden Gate Bridge into your gaming den. This includes Mother Nature, too, with the world divided into 27 biomes filled with detailed vegetation and flora that change with the seasons, geology and wildlife.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 adds purpose to the travel — and an impetus to explore — with a variety of missions, including medevacs, cargo and passenger transports, aerial firefighting, agriculture spraying, search and rescue and more. World Photographer mode even lets you step out of the craft onto terra firma to snap shots of your favorite sights. This realism translates to the flying experience, too, requiring training, flight hours and performance success to rise through the ranks and unlock new opportunities.
Forza Horizon 5 – Mexico
The latest version of this open-world racing game sets the gameplay in a recreated Mexico in the largest map yet of the series, totaling about 41 square miles — 50% larger than the United Kingdom map in Forza Horizon 4. Peppered throughout are a number of real-world sights and communities, including the Gran Caldera volcano, the city of Guanajuato, the Baja town of Mulegé and Playa Azul on the Gulf coast. This also includes Mayan settlements of Tulum and Ek Balam, and the ancient Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. Mexico fans can also pick out dozens of other real-world highlights, such as Puente Baluarte, Faro di Santa Clara, Castillo Santa Cecilia, hotel Mirador and The Grand Velas Los Cabos.
As it’s a racing game, most are experienced through the windshield of hundreds — nearly 1,000 vehicles — going back 100 years to the 1926 Bugatti Type 35 C. But it’s not all about speed, as the game throws dozens of missions and challenges to inspire further exploration of the full map, including seeking out barns holding rare vehicles, treasure hunts, photo challenges, stunt doubling and more. Weather events, such as dust storms or tropical downpours, further immerse the Mexico experience.
Watch Dogs 2 – San Francisco
In this action-adventure game, the “City by the Bay” takes center stage in one of the most detailed and evocative recreations ever put on a console. Gamers immerse themselves fully in it in the avatar of Marcus Holloway, a “hacktivist” trying to take down Big Brother, or rather big data, often in the form of cyber espionage, car chases, data heists and old-fashioned shootouts.
As compelling as the story and characters are, the real highlight may be the setting. Taking in all of San Francisco and sections of Oakland, Marin, Silicon Valley and a couple islands, the game impressively brings the city to vivid life. The meticulous detail shines through in locations like Rincon Park, Castro Theater, Fisherman’s Wharf, Japantown, Coit Tower, Pier 39, Haight-Ashbury and, of course, the Golden Gate Bridge. And although the traffic is toned down for the game, Watch Dogs 2’s version of San Francisco is still very active and lived in, with oodles of NPCs in the street, parks, and sights — all boosted by bright colors, lush greenery and immersive soundscape.
Worlds of Yore and Yonder
Those seeking to add time travel to the mix have ample opportunities to switch on the flux capacitor and press the pedal to 88 miles per hour. Indeed, this is essentially the purpose of the entire Assassin’s Creed series, which sets its games everywhere from Victorian London and Revolutionary France to Ancient Egypt and Greece. Kingdom Come Deliverance moves the action to 14th-century Bohemia, while Rise of the Ronin transports gamers to the Japan of the 1800s. Then there’s Red Dead Redemption II — considered by many as the best game ever made — which stunningly creates the last years of the old West.
Visions of the future — often in post-apocalyptic ruins — come to life in games like the Fallout series, set in Boston, Washington D.C. and Las Vegas. The nation’s capital also crumbles to life in Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, a 2019 game eerily set after a pandemic. The two Last of Us games take us across the entire country, from Boston to Pittsburgh to Seattle and beyond. Days Gone sets a zombie-infested landscape in Oregon. But top marks may go yet another game series vying for the best of all time, Horizon Zero Dawn, set 10 centuries in the future in a ruined Utah, Nevada and California.
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