Welcome back and the city I’m focusing on now is The Crew’s Dallas. If you read my very recent article of New Orleans then you’ll have read my comparison of the real city vs New Orleans in the game. If you haven’t read it, check it out now. I talked about some of the similarities of the downtown areas such as the Superdome, skyscrapers, and the French Quarter. Well now I’m ready to move to the next city so lets check out how Dallas in the game is compared to the real life city.

Now I have been to Dallas quite a bit, almost as much as New Orleans because I generally have to go through that city to get to New Orleans. No, they are not always just driving through the city, I’ve made some stops there before and have explored some of the city.

One thing I can tell you is this city is HUGE! Combine it with the nearby city of Forth Worth and the suburban cities in between and there forms the metroplex which consists of around 6.6 million people! The city limits of Dallas itself contains over a million people. For a long time, Dallas was the largest city I had ever been to until the mid 90s.

In 1996 I went to Houston for the first time and was in complete awe at the sheer size of that city and was shocked that it was even bigger than Dallas! Then in 1997 I went to New York City and of course it doesn’t get bigger then that in the US. Until I go visit other countries and their cities, New York will hold the title of largest city I’ve ever been to for a long time. Enough of that though let’s get back to the comparisons of real life and in game Dallas.

One thing I like to talk about is the large freeway system of Dallas and the surrounding area. The highways in Dallas are quite large and the freeway interchanges connecting them to each other are just massive! We are talking about 4 and 5 level interchanges.

One such famous interchange is called the Dallas High Five and if you see how massive and impressive this interchange is from the air, you’ll be in complete awe. The approach ramps alone are a mile along and I think the highest the interchange reaches is around 120 feet or about equal to a 12 story building!

The actual interchange is in the very northern edge of the city at the conjunction of the loop interstate highway known as I-635 and US 75 known as the Central Expressway. You might be wondering if the game’s version of Dallas features a similar interchange and it actually does. Now as I mentioned in my comparison of New Orleans, Dallas in The Crew is not to scale. The actual city is over 300 square miles while the game’s version is MUCH smaller, but what is there does actually feel and look like Dallas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dallas has many office parks in and around the city, some of which contain office buildings and high rises that could be considered downtowns of smaller cities around the US, but you will notice the downtown skyline as it contains the highest skyscrapers in the city and region. I am glad to say that unlike New Orleans (minus the Superdome and Smoothie King Arena), Dallas’ skyline in The Crew looks nearly exactly like the actual skyline. The buildings themselves look like Dallas’ actual skyscrapers and you will not see them repeated anywhere else in the game.

The Bank of America Plaza, which is a 72 story skyscraper and tallest building in Dallas really looks like the real thing. The Reunion Tower is also there and looks impressive. In my honest opinion, they were able to get the skyscrapers right. Now most of the city of Dallas in the game is just generally around its downtown area though it is spread out a little bit and is surrounded by a freeway that contains a massive interchange at the edge of the city limits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the game developers got it right with The Crew’s version of Dallas. Even though I wish the city were bigger and more spread out like its real life counterpart, what is there just works. For those of you who actually live in and around the Dallas area, I think you will find it great to drive around the downtown area in the game without dealing with the massive traffic headaches that plague the city in real life. I do like driving in the city and one thing that is really cool is that the girders of the massive interchange ramps resemble the real thing by having the Texas art designs on them.

Dallas is unfortunately the only Texas city to make it into the game. It kind of stinks because as you know, Texas is full of other cities such as Austin, San Antonio, and the state’s single largest city, Houston.

It kind of surprised me that Houston is not in the game considering its sheer size, but I think Dallas has the slight edge as being more recognizable, after all the city did have a TV show named after it in the 1980’s. If you already have the game, you’ll know that the game map is missing quite a few major cities and some of them that I was surprised didn’t make it into the game such as Atlanta, Denver, San Diego, Philadelphia, and Boston.

As I’ve mentioned numerous times though, with the already sheer scope of the game I can understand why the developers couldn’t fit all those cities into the game. Maybe some day if they ever decide to make a sequel or major expansion they could add some of the other cities.

I created a video of myself driving around Dallas in the game. As always, feel free to comment especially if you already have the game and I’d like to know what you think of this version of Dallas. Does it represent the actual city well or could they have done a lot more? What do you think of the skyscrapers themselves? Don’t forget to come back as I will post another city from the game!