For the super abbreviated moments I have ever watched my beau represent a video game , I pepper him with questions . " What are you doing ? " " Why did you do that ? " " Hey , is that Santa Monica ? " Even though I rapidly get blase watching him play , he patiently answer all of my questions , and I do learn that it is sort ofSanta Monicathat I ’m seeing him hijack trucks in . He ’s play one of theGrand Theft Autogames that boast a deal of locations found on Santa Monica .

GTAis jolly realistically set in well - known locations , even though these recognizable destination are give name like Anywhere City , Liberty City , and Vice City in the plot . Liberty City is pretty immediately from New York , while other spots in the plot are amalgamations of multiple urban center . However , GTAis far from the only game that brings real - life locations into the virtual world . Dozens of popular games are set inreal - biography cities , and all those time of day log take on in these metropolis give gamers an sharpness when they chew the fat them in real life .

In a video recording look at about five million time on TikTok , one charwoman share how her boyfriend was able to seamlessly navigate around Santa Monica because of all the times he ’d " already chatter " the metropolis when he playedGTA . Her boyfriend is not the only one using the noesis gained from their video recording games to better traverse a city they are visiting .

An 18 year old boy plays the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City at his home in 2003.

John Ewing/Portland Press Herald/Getty Images

Over onReddit , there are multiple thread dedicated to the real cities featured in picture games , with Redditors sharing that they started to recognise roads in real life fromGran Turismoor being able to voyage their elbow room around Philadelphia ’s urban center Charles Martin Hall because ofTony Hawk 2 .

For those of us who are not gamers , this might not be so exciting , but if you ’ve got a gamer in your life sentence , you might have a secret artillery in your slip - planning toolbox . take them what their preferred video game is — it might be the foundation for your next holiday .

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