I was one of the lucky few to get my hands on a Playstation 5 before launch. I’ve done a video about the console which you can see by clicking here. I immediately jumped on to play Spider-Man: Miles Morales. I had not played the first Spider-Man game so this was a new one for me. I’d heard all the rave reviews about the original and I’ve not been disappointed. Miles Morales is gorgeous, it is fun and it has become my every evening go to (Sorry Siege, I’ll be back soon I promise). One of the things I started realising as I played through was how much fun the photo mode could be. Snapping pictures was my absolute favourite thing to do. The first picture I took in game was the one used in this header, of Spidey showing some love to Spider-Man the cat.
New York is one of my favourite cities of all time. I’ve been lucky enough to visit twice and have written about the place so many times even I think I may have gone overboard:
The detail of the city in Miles Morales is something else. So of course, one evening, when I realised I’d spent an hour just swinging through the city trying to spot landmarks, I came up with the brilliant idea to try recreate some of my favourite snaps when I last visited.
Decided I’m going to recreate all my favourite photos from my trips to New York in Spider Man Miles Morales. So I chose my 6 favourite snaps, getting a map on my phone to plot the spots and I’m so damn excited to do this on Sunday. 🤓🤓🤓 pic.twitter.com/AjiWdixdrz
— Sam “Tech Girl” Wright (@TechGirlZA) November 19, 2020
My last trip to New York City was with my brother. It was at the end of 2016. We saved for an entire year so we could do the bucket list activity and watch the ball drop in Time Square on New Years Eve, seeing in 2017. It was honestly one of the most memorable holidays I’ve had. Ironically, in 2017 my brother and I began dating our current significant others. I see this holiday we had as our last time completely together, two siblings ready to take on the world, before we got into the relationship thing and added a few new faces to the mix. Because this trip was so special to me, I decided to pick 6 photos that made me smile and recreate them in the game. Here are the results:
Selfies in Time Square
My brother and I were in New York City just after Christmas, so the lights were still up and it was magical… however it was also freezing. It snowed. We were constantly bundled up. I do remember this selfie we took in Time Square though. Proper tourists, we climbed the stairs that exist in the middle of the Square to snap our picture. We were so excited. The lights and bustle had has hyped and ready to explore, despite the rain and snow. It was pretty easy to recreate this one – I just swung into Time Square and climbed the stairs. Conveniently for me, the game is set around the same time we visited (end of the year towards the holidays), so the weather is the same!
The Empire State Building
My memory is a bit hazy but I’m 99% sure I snapped this picture of my brother the day we arrived when we went out to explore and had the Empire State Building behind him. He hates photos so immediately pulled a face. When it came to recreating this one I spent a lot of time on it. I was bleak I couldn’t find the No Turns sign, even though I was pretty sure I was in the right spot. Though with New York you never know. I tilted the photo as well to try give it the same look. You can also select what suit you want Spider-Man in, so I tried to bundle him up to look as much like my brother as possible.
The High Line
We spent an afternoon in New York City walking The High Line. It’s part of a gentrification area in the city. I snapped this picture from there. I’m not even sure why. As far as photos go it is pretty average. But in game, when I found the High Line, it suddenly became a challenge to try recreate it. Truth is, after running up and down the High Line I could just never find the same view again (it is so hard to get street names in game). So eventually, based on where I roughly think it was memory wise, I stopped and snapped it. Then I used some of the filters in game to get the same sun peeking out from behind the buildings.
Brooklyn Bridge
This was me walking across Brooklyn Bridge. Insisting my brother snap the shot for “Instagram”. I don’t think I used it to be honest. Anyway, I got a similar shot with Spider-Man minus the people. Notice the American Flag at the top on both mine and the Miles Morales replication? Don’t even ask how long it took me to get him to look back so I could grab this screen grab!
Rockefeller Centre
I don’t know if you can tell in tis picture but it is COLD at the top of Rockefeller Centre. I was told to go up there on my first visit to New York City because the view of the Empire State Building is so damn epic. So I obviously took my brother up there when we visited. I got a very similar snap in game with Spidey. I even got those viewing things in the shot. So I’m pretty proud of this one.
The Statue of Liberty
We thought it was a genius idea to go on a speed boat for a trip around the Statue of Liberty. Let me tell you, it was a dumb idea. In minus weather conditions we froze. My nose felt like it was going to fall off after this. Recreating this picture in game was impossible because you can’t actually get near the Statue as it falls out of the playable area. So instead I did the next best thing and tried to get Miles Morales with the Statue and a boat in the background.
Success! While the screenshots are by no means incredible images or exact replicas – the two to three hours I spent doing this was so special. I re-lived one of my favourite memories with my brother and had so much fun reminiscing while enjoying the sheer joy and beauty of this game. I’m in love with Spider-Man: Miles Morales, more so because it allowed me to spend time doing something special to me, in game.
