As We See It

Call of Duty: Ghosts’ isn’t the first video game to feature Las Vegas

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The Las Vegas cityscape is featured in the new video game Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Ammo rips into a slot machine, spilling coins onto an average-looking dude with a not-so-average-looking gun. It’s the apocalypse, y’all, and the average dudes and their badass German Shepherd are defending what’s left of Las Vegas against dark forces. They take cover behind green gaming felt, flirt with Megan Fox and rappel down the side of a ruined casino before popping up in space, careening through the desert and then back to the Strip to blow the hell out of a helicopter. Also, Frank Sinatra belts out “I’m Gonna Live Till I Die” the entire time.

This just-dropped trailer for video game Call of Duty: Ghosts is titled “Epic Night Out,” making the Vegas connection painfully clear. And we love it! Our city doesn’t get nearly enough love as a bombed-out backdrop to end-of-the-world films, but video games seem to recognize the value of the atmosphere as a set piece for lots of mayhem.

There’s a Wikipedia page on the topic, with a few recognizable titles (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) and many obscure ones (Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller). Sifting through the latter, there’s a gem called Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. Could this be the origin of the city’s nickname, “Lost Wages,” as the game was originally released in 1987 for PC DOS? (Holla if you’re old enough to know what that is!) Wikipedia says that “the story follows Larry Laffer, a middle-aged male virgin, as he tries to ‘get lucky.’” The goods on Google Images make it clear why Las Vegas is the best place ever to set a video game, and why this particular one was remade in 1991 ... and 2013.

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