Arizona, with its striking landmarks and incredible scenery, is the perfect location for any number of video games. It has been featured in video games for years, with exciting bonus racing levels down a canyon in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater to levels in well-known first-person shooters such as Call of Duty, its rolling deserts and rocky landscapes make it a unique and exciting place to explore in a virtual world.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
The first-person shooter game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is partially set in Arizona and was published by major developer Activision. It was made available to play on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Microsoft Windows in November of 2011, and is the third installment of the Modern Warfare series.
The campaign is set directly after the events of Modern Warfare 2, immediately after the conclusion of the title’s previous mission. It focuses on the team Task Force 141, with characters including Soap MacTavish, Captain Price and Yuri. Much of the game is set throughout Europe, with the team hunting the recurring antagonist of the Modern Warfare series, Vladimir Makarov, a Russian terrorist.
This title also includes a multiplayer mode with a variety of levels and killstreak choices brought in for this game. The Call of Duty Modern Warfare series has since expanded, with the games becoming widely known as one of the most popular MMORPGs available today. MMORPGs – Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games – are becoming increasingly popular, with one of the most popular titles in this genre, World of Warcraft, making over $82 million every year.
FOnline ashes of Phoenix
FOnline: Ashes of Phoenix is an MMORPG which is based on the FOnline engine and set in Phoenix, Arizona, around 2220. It is an extension of the Fallout series, which are post-apocalypse Role-Playing Games (RPGs) made by Interplay Entertainment. The games are set throughout the 21st, 22nd and 23rd centuries and feature an art style influenced by the United States post-war culture of 1950. There is an emphasis on advancing technology as well as the looming threat of nuclear annihilation.
Tony Hawk’s pro skater
Tony Hawk’s pro skater is a game by Neversoft and Activision released in 1999 for the PlayStation. It has recently been remastered for the Nintendo Switch along with the second title in the series. The game focuses on completing missions and objectives through skateboarding tricks and collecting objects. There are several different gameplay modes, including a career or ‘story mode’ where players work through a series of objectives and level up characters, a free-play mode where you can build skills and skate with no given objective, as well as a multiplayer mode with several competitive games.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater features a level set on a damming project in Arizona where players must race downhill and collect objects through the level.
MMORPGs are increasingly finding landscapes such as those found in the state of Arizona appealing to include in video games, and some of the world’s most popular video games to date have featured parts of this beautiful state. The landscape lends itself so well to a variety of different game styles and genres, and stepping into these beautiful worlds feels just like stepping into the state of Arizona.
